Dual role...a dilemma?

WHEN SMITA, who works in a prestigious bank in Chennai, went on maternity leave, she planned to return to work after five or six months. But when it came to the point of joining duty, Smita's guilt pangs added to her dilemma. Though Smita scouted for day care centres in Chennai, she did not find any that satisfied her.

"Neither of our parents could come and live with us. After a futile search, I decided to send my son to my mother's place in Bangalore. It was one of the most painful decisions I took. Yet, I had no other choice. At least, I had the peace of mind that my son was well looked after when I was away," says Smita.
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The anxiety bug

EVEN AS mid-May drags itself under the sweltering heat, thousands and thousands of parents with their wards who have written their Plus 2 exams and a battery of other entrance exams are in a state of flux and anxiety. The atmosphere at home is tight, and the family members can't stop talking about where the children are going to get admission.

With everything depending on marks, the atmosphere is charged with anxiety all around. Many of these youngsters have to gear themselves to a new lifestyle, sometimes at far away hostels and educational institutions. This is the testing time for doting parents, to allow their boys and girls to grow on their own. How are the parents and the youngsters poised to cope with this challenge? Since May 15, parents and students have scanned the TNPCEE results at Anna University campus boards.
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Bond of blessing

WHAT happens when one ventures to tell a real story straight out of life? The tale becomes a biography, and by default also becomes an autobiography. This is what Manohar Devadoss, who has moved between a number of worlds, treading the destinies of joy and sorrow, has achieved in these two books. As in his earlier book Greenwell Years, he establishes himself as a talented individual who has drawn directly from his life experience to tell a real-life story. Superbly edited and aesthetically brought out, these books invite the reader compulsively to share the author's experiences, hopes, patience and concerns, as he tries to capture the dramatic moments that overtook his family.

When the narrating voice becomes an active participant in the drama of events that are described, there is bound to be a certain legitimate subjective approach. Despite the enforced impressionistic stance, there emerges a strong strain of scrupulous honesty, which balances the strictly needed aesthetic distance between the narrator and the active character.
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Poetic expression of devotion
At Sundar Mahal, Padmavathy Road, Jeypore Colony, off Gopalapuram (ph. 8203582), a treat awaits the Chennaiites. Two eventful days for those who are interested in the simple, wholesome love and devotion of Andal to the Supreme. The festival wraps up discussions, paper presentations, performances and an exhibition on the Srivaishnavite saint-poetess, who had lived for a brief span sometime between the 7th and 9th Century. Varahakshetra (Srivilliputhur) Puranam authenticates that Andal had been found as a five-year old child in the garden by Periazhwar, who donned the role of a foster father. He brought her up in grand style showering her with love and affection. She had sent messengers to the Lord himself, and finally became one with the Lord at Srirangam. The sensuous, imaginative and imagistic excellence of her poetry (173 poems which include the 30 songs of Tiruppavai) is unique, for expressing the highest of philosophy in the simplest of Tamizh.

Says Ranvir Shah, founder, Prakriti Foundation, ``There is so much of contemporary relevance in tradition, especially in Andal's life and works. Marghazhi reverberates with Tiruppavai strains and learned discourses that may attract those who are steeped in tradition. This festival is a conscious drive to look at Andal both as a religious figure in the Srivaishnavite tradition, and as a motif of feminine youth and poetry, in the social/anthropological frame as perceived in popular contemporary imagination. Andal continues to live in various present-day contexts, in calendars, panchangams, kalyana mandapams, in the South Indian concept of brides who are adorned with the typical Andal kondai or hairdo during the muhurtham".
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Towards a world without borders
IN THE brief span of his stay in Chennai last weekend, the Dalai Lama, the spiritual head of the Tibetans, who was here to participate in the South Asia Peace Conference must have found himself coping with a tight schedule. Amidst all this, a gathering of special invitees, students, staff and management of the M.O.P. Vaishnav College for Women, had the privilege of a face-to-face with the Dalai Lama on the morning of August 5, at the college auditorium, Nungambakkam, for nearly an hour. His speech flowed with an informal yet purposeful tone and was topped off with an interactive spell that allowed his innate sense of humour to surface and infect the audience.
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Poetic perceptions
NOTHING could be more pertinent to the present times than the expatriate experience that once again forms the basic theme of The Unknown Errors of Our Lives, the latest creative venture of Chitra Bannerjee Divakaruni. Woven in exquisite colours and designs, these short stories evoke a sense of poetry, where emotions and complex human relationships fuse with images and textures to find an unerring connection in the readers. "This had always been her problem, the inability to explain to those back home the texture of an alien life...", is as much the unvoiced agony of the mother who comes to Calcutta (The Names of Stars in Bengali) and finds it difficult to explain the intricate lifestyle of America and the Indians living there as that of the author herself.
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Of coffee, cuisine and more
MEET SHOBA Narayan, winner of the M.F.K. Fisher Distinguished Writing Award for 2001, given by the James Beard Foundation. This is one of the most prestigious prizes for food writing in the U.S. A freelance journalist based in New York city, Shoba Narayan was shortlisted along with Jhumpa Lahiri and Alan Richman, reputed restaurant critic of GQ magazine. In an exclusive e-mail interview with PADMINI DEVARAJAN, Shoba speaks about the award, her career, family, life in the U.S. and her childhood in India.
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Dreams and disappointment
"ANITA HAS come back,"says her mother with disappointment and desperation. "I thought that a few more years in the U.S. would help improve our financial situation". Anita (changed name) adds, "Being a posthumous child, I am fully aware of all the odds my mom faced to educate me and send me to the U.S. for higher studies. I am now back to square one in Chennai in search of a job. When I first got my admit card with a research assistantship from a reputed American University, I almost hit the skies with joy. It was a dream fulfilled, and my mom invested all her hopes and money in my achievement. Then followed the long wait for the F1 student visa. Four years back, we had to wait in long queues and we used to be terrified about getting rejected. The visa hurdle also overcome, it was a joyous occasion to fly and settle for studies in a new place. Once on U.S. soil, all was not easy. My friends and I braved the cold, and the initial culture shock. Indian students had to work day and night for the degree and, later, I did land a job. I was working on a software project. But suddenly things started looking bleak. There were hints that the project may not last. The entire team that worked on the project had been asked to quit. I tried to hold on to some jobs like telemarketing. My H1B visa would be valid only if I got a job. Since I could not flit from job to job against uncertainty, I decided to return home and start afresh here. But I have not been able to find a reasonably good job. What hurts most is the trauma of the financial crunch my family faces, with the debts we had incurred when we had to find money to send me abroad".
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Lessons from drama
THE TREMENDOUS potential of the medium of drama came alive recently, when two presentations were made, one by the Madras Players and the other by students, as part of the three-day workshop on Literature, Culture and Translation, held by the Department of English, University of Madras. Both plays proved that theatre offers a challenging experience that helps to break down many barriers across centuries, countries and cultures. But more interestingly, it seemed to justify its presence in the curriculum as a practical art, giving students confidence, along with the ability to relate to life.
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New directions in English studies
AT A time when the leading management mantra is change or die, what did the delegates who converged at the symposium on New Directions in English Studies at the campus of the Central Institute of English and Foreign Languages, Hyderabad, deliberate for three days? Certainly, the academics found a valid forum to discuss the fuzzy area inhabited by the term ``English Studies'' that has never ceased to bother them with its semantic range, a spectrum coloured with historical, cultural, social, ethnic and such bands, in the changing Indian context.
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On a friendly mission
FROM MATHEMATICS teacher to Director of the British Council in Scotland and from Scotland to head the British Council in South India, Eunice C. Crook seems well poised to strengthen cultural ties and reach out to the educational changes in South India. Having landed in Chennai a few days back, she is trying to settle down in her yet to be done up office. Except for a brief visit to India last July, this place and environment will be a different experience for her. But she is well aware of the gamut of her professional demands because of her long tenure with the British Council.
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Knowledge knows no bounds
ENVISAGED AS a specialised club of excellence with an international character for education, professional training, and for advancement of research studies, the Friends of the English Department Club was founded last year under the auspices of the Director of Max Mueller Bhavan, Eleanor Rahimi. The attempt was to reach out to other countries, tie-up with various universities and throw open the field of education for more challenges.
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Word's worth
PATRICK GILLARD, Senior Commissioning Editor, ELT Dictionaries, Cambridge University Press, was recently in Hyderabad, to participate in the World Congress on World Languages in Multilingual contexts held at the Central Institute of English and Foreign Languages, from Jan 3 to 7. In an interview, he spoke about the newly developed Cambridge International Dictionary of English on CD-ROM that has also recently been made available online. Gillard was keen that people and learners understand the salient features of this dictionary. "On my laptop, I can search from a repertoire of 50 million words without much difficulty. In addition, much of the information that is inherent in the dictionary can be accessed easily by the user/learner in the CD- ROM form or online. The powerful and flexible searches offer many options to the user. For instance, if I want to search for a word, I can bypass the conventional A to Z order, and go ahead with the search by typing out the word. Or I can even search for a word from its suffix or ending. Suppose I want to know the meaning of foolproof, I can call up the search by typing merely the suffix. Thereby I not only get the meaning, but also a list of all the words ending in proof. Or there is the Thesaurus kind of search to access words with similar meanings, or words within a particular field of reference. The well-planned classifications and cross references - based on borrowed words, like those from Indian or Latin or French origin, or antonyms, homonyms, idiomatic expressions, verbal features, or words with associated meanings and many such - that are in-built in the structure and design of any learner's dictionary are easily accessible in the CD-ROM form".
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Free spirit of Aradhana
CLOSE ON the heels of the Music Season in Chennai, follows the Thayaraja Aradhana in the month of Thai (between Jan. 15 and Feb. 15). The tradition of celebrating this aradhana in a spirit of devotion and respect to the great master has to be applauded. Surprisingly and fortunately, neither the fast changing ethos nor the passage of time have robbed this tradition of its popularity. In fact the popularity has grown in direct proportion with the confluence of interests, brought forth by globalisation.
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December hues
CHENNAI THESE days is a vast and varied place, and has also become the home to many from other States and countries. Despite its harsh summers and the constant threat of water scarcity, Chennai is a city that invokes a love-hate relationship even among Chennaiites. They never fail to complain about the heat and the humidity. They claim in exasperation, "Ah! it is hot, hotter, hottest in Chennai.'' But they also wish to savour the December air in Chennai for many reasons. This is winter for us, chirped Mala, a senior executive in a software firm. Though most of her time is spent within the air- conditioned confines of the hi-tech office, she enjoys the coffee and lunch breaks that take her out into the canteen. The warmth of December is soothing and is devoid of the biting sting of the daytime heat in other months in Chennai.
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Spotlight on woman power
WHAT EMERGED from the three-day seminar on Academic Challenges For Women in the 21 century, has been a step towards promoting a positive partnership with women in all walks of life, cutting across social, cultural, academic and other differences. Jointly organised by the Anna University and Science City, Chennai, it brought together nearly 70 participants from all over the country and abroad, and nearly 50 papers were presented and discussed on several issues and challenges faced by women in various fields.
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Life into literature
Resurrecting events from history and the immediate past, from literatures across the ages to contemporary times, scholars interpret and reassess great events in the light of modern exigencies ... PADMINI DEVARAJAN reports on a seminar in Dhvanyaloka.
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Into the realm of creativity
IT WAS a very different meeting on November 29 for the Madras English Association, at the British Council, Chennai. It was a face to face with two creative writers. And it turned out to be an interesting detour into the unfathomable depths of creativity. Their work, a tangible outcome of their creativity was ready for analysis. And with the select audience (Some of whom had read the works), the writers themselves found it difficult to pinpoint it. At the end of the meeting the creative process still defied any unfolding. And perhaps this is what makes the creative process an exclusive and rare one.
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A system to assess English language skills
The National English Language Testing Service (NELTS) team, in an e-mail interview to PADMINI DEVARAJAN, detailed the salient features of the newly designed test and its likely washback in the current English language teaching-learning scenario.
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The Unknown Code
WILL the human genome project announcing the cracking of the human genome enable us to know ourselves better? "Know thyself," has been the cryptic jargon of philosophers, and religious exponents. The riddle of creation has itself been the spur behind man's quest in exploring the world of nature and other peripheral worlds and in trying to identify the purpose of human life. E. M. Forster, novelist and literary critic, in his famous book "Aspects of the Novel" had put the finger on the pie when he claimed that it is easier to befriend characters in a novel or fiction and court a closeness to them than with human beings, who profess to be close relatives and friends. Stranger is the truism that an individual's claim to self-knowledge and self-realisation is elusive and is easily out-weighed by evidences of self- deception. So what does this breakthrough in bioinformatics establish? On the one hand it establishes beyond doubt that many of the systems that drive humans, animals, plants and other organisms are identical, especially mechanisms of development and repair. On the other, it is hailed as holding tremendous potential in developing diagnostic tools for accurate medical research.
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Tapestry of thoughts
WE CAN share a sense of pride in the achievement of Mohan Narayanan, whose play "The birds have not come to Vedanthangal this year," had bagged the honour of being featured in a one-day workshop, conducted at the Interact Theatre, Hollywood, recently. Award-winning U.S. theatre director, Anita Khanzadian, chief of the Play Development Lab at Interact Theatre Company in North Hollywood, had selected this play for her workshop. She has this to say about it. When I read the play. I must admit that it just pulled me in. I was pulled into it and I kept going with it and the play had accumulative resonative effect on me by the time I finished it. "This play has a universal appeal. I love the setting - the bird sanctuary - and the characters, all of whom have a unique journey they must take because of their involvement with each other. It is a beautifully layered piece, simple and poetic. Very moving".
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Excitement all the way
VALUABLE COMMENTS sprang spontaneously from the panellists after an exciting theatrical experience for the small but select crowd that partook of the rehearsed reading of the two plays "Manuscript in the Mail" (Anushka Ravishankar) and "Endless Pathways" (K. R. Usha) on September 28 and 29 at the British Council auditorium. These two are the last of the batch of readings of plays written by the participants of a playwriting workshop, the result of the joint venture of The Culture Cafe of the British Council, Chennai, and The Madras Players, (Theatre Club). This year-long project has successfully nurtured and encouraged young talent in the area of theatre. Spearheaded by Mahesh Dattani, this workshop had selected around 13 participants from an overwhelming response to the call for entrants.
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Music of timeless quality
LOVE, REVERENCE, awe, nostalgia, devotion, - marked the mood of the 110 birth anniversary celebrations of Sri Papanasam Sivan in Chennai from September 23 to 26. Organised by the Papanasam Sivan Rasikar Sangam, it drew the music loving community in large numbers, to participate in the four-day celebrations. It was heartening to see a Carnatic musician being honoured in a manner that posterity will cherish and value.
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