Tuesday, October 9, 2012

Tamil Nadu -- On a voyage to Stone Age



Tamil Nadu is undeniably under a frustrating remix era,

Well, not in MUSIC... In the aspect of Power Supply...

10- 18 hours of Intermittent Power cuts & certain technical firms reasonable on earnings and several closing down & others pathetically ruined!! But people haven’t changed; they’re still aspiring to have an exotic & a classy state! How innocent?!

Too late That We've already traversed half way to STONE AGE. !!

Perhaps, this is what philosophers like Emerson call representing older ideas in newer methods!!
Older Idea – STONE AGE
Newer Method – POWER CUTS

Thus, philosophically achieved!!!

Wednesday, July 25, 2012

Anaikatty to Thenkara –A Delightful route to stunning landscapes


Definitely, as the name suggests, the route has it all. You can pass by the subtle differences in weather with a fine air of purity & nothing else, just the forests. Starting at Mankarai, the forest check post  chops the rest of the town from the scarcely populated, tribal colony, Anaikatty. It is exactly where the ghat road begins. Well, it isn’t a ghat road, but its presence parallel to two distinct hills makes it appear so. The hills on the east connect to the Attappady reef and to the west, it’s the Tholampalayam reef. There are numerous elephant corridors, which you will travel across once you drive through the ghat road. The route begins with the check post and then a lot of breathtaking views which you would undoubtedly enjoy if you are a route analyst. I did enjoy the views and started experimenting on them while on my tripping.

Once, when I had trekked, I remember the road that took to a small tribal hamlet, exactly behind the Salim Ali Center for Ornithology & Natural History, which shortly is called SACON. It’s an access restricted road, that tears through the dense forests, leading to a 2 km long rain forest area and finally to the hamlet. Everybody there has a promising sight of the wonderful vaidehi falls, because the colony is perched atop the hill. You descend 15 – 20 kms , there you are at Coimbatore’s Narasipuram. A really interesting data about the range is that, the forest road is well within the borders of Tamil Nadu, but the hamlet that ends the road falls in Kerala , so all we could take to reach there is a Kerala jeep,..

Now further heading straight thru the Anaikatty- kerala road, the stop that attracts you first is the Goolikadavu,, giving a town like feeling amidst the dry hills. Well before Goolikadavu, you will be able to find kottathara, pudhur and sholayoor; the last one being the thickly forested. Sholayoor is again a smaller place with not more than 500 houses,however there are lots of deviations invited by the eastern stretch of hills. Also in the routes to western side of the hill range, you find the hotspot, Mukkali, where the Silent Valley National park is housed. Areas like Thavalam, Kalkandi & ommala are located just in and around the forests. Far east from Attappady is Chittor , where the Singappara reserve or the forest station can be spotted. This is the adjoining reef to the Siruvani range. Especially where Siruvani, bhavani and smaller rivulets converge. The river that diverts itself right at the western side, at attappady is the Kunthipuzha flowing gracefully uphill to reach Ummathampady- mulli reef and finally Kinnakkorai,  a small village of magnificient beauty, where only tea estates and rain forests encircle it with nothing except forests and green vegetation grabbing vivid range of visibility . Many claim this the origin of the badaga community, nevertheless controversies exist . U will also have a divergence to reach Kundah dam. The Mother road from Goolikadavu heads straight to the hairpin bends, which passby the parts of the reserve, east of which a beautiful cascade can be spotted. With lush greenery and dangerous invertebrates, basically the Leech and russel’s viper, it’s a road that’s quite scary. 

There is a Malabar bus service and the ever existing Jeeps bearing  KL 10 registrations, tearing down to the greenish hillocks, you get to see the smaller hamlets here and there. You don’t really find sunlight in the hairpin bends until u are at the forest check post at Mukkali. The ghat roads terminate here and then you start feeling the hot weather of Thenkara – Mannarkad – either the Palakkad road ( goes east to Kanjirappuzha, MUndur )– or the Malappuram road ( goes west to perinthalmanna – Manjeri & Calicut). People from Kerala, whilst tripping to ooty, take the Malappuram – Chokkad – Vazhikkadavu road that stops at Munderi, within limits of Wayanad and then goes to Gudalur by crossing the Tamil nadu border. The road sweeps through the awe inspiring silent Valley National Park (main) being the Upper Bhavani area. It is just an excellently paved road , with just green vegetation & nested hills until clear visibility. You will find nothing else.

Try these routes, they aren’t so dangerous except for the elephant corridors, you will certainly enjoy tripping 

These are some of my Clicks 

Windmills at Sholayoor

Hut from a view point
 
Exotic flowers on the hill roads



 
Roads near Mukkali


 The house again
 
Attappady









Tuesday, July 10, 2012

English - The Multifaceted Lingo


English, the language of incessant beauty and sensible construction is a brilliant tool to represent diverse concepts from swift science & inspiring technology to Chaptered history & lovely literature. No wonder, why the obsessive need to understand the language is the confident breath of air to stage anybody, anything in excellence.

To couch the format of writing into the mould of the language, the logo to elucidation is no doubt learning how distinct styles and diction exist. Essentially, considering the level of difficulty in the language of a work will give a vivid determination of the depth of the concept revealed. Classic flavors of every field spread through phrases and specific words which we usually term the JARGONS. It cant be rightly called the SLANG but it does picture what the facet or area deals with.

Science deals with so many definitions; where phrasal alterations are thoroughly unacceptable. Similarly, the law describes amendments and theories, all of those being predefined, not holding any access to modifications. Concepts of technical advancements are geared by mathematical formulae which again deals with only a meager amount of lingua. Although, every subject is explained in distinct styles of English, concepts travel through the same language.

Heavy writing, nowadays is considered difficult to digest, directing the ideas to creative visualizations like flowcharts, algorithms and pie charts. These are automated, could be drawn in computers, thus reducing the amount of time to seconds.

These days, creative writing generated effectively through tools such as spinning, where a single article can be converted to 20 other unique ones, through the exact placement of synonyms holding the same meaning.  However, quality of the content depends solidly on the manually written article that is spun to numerous sub copies.

Authoring & literary scripting vividly present the original flavor and modes of a language. Working on a script can be time consuming, but it is undeniably the brainchild of a human mind. It can range from weaving story lines to penning real incidents.

Communication and writing are major bridges to staging any line of work. Utilizing a strong lingo that everybody understands is crucial. English,Thus  took the charge of torch bearing notions on a spectrum of comprehensiveness. 

An analysis by  Roopa & Sashank Franklin Sargunaraj

Thursday, June 28, 2012

The British & American Literature


Maybe, taking a look at what elementally is the difference between the American and British English can't be an easy job to further fathom the framework of two different styles of the same language. The demand to understand each of the above forms of English is certainly large. The use & nativity, history, metric framework, complexity of writing, theme & the spellings are predominant entities of the linguistic structure that any language will embrace.

A rise of thought that brought in a want of a new literature is indeed the brainchild of Ralph Waldo Emerson. He can be referred to as an essayist, preacher, philosopher.According to Americans, Any term that defines positive, philosophical & ethical education will definitely represent Emerson. His essays and poems incorporated a taste of new touch to the old language making it plain and simple with not much of mythical references, breaking the myth of being "a Typical European Muse". Novelists like Alice walker, Edward Albee & Eugene O’Neill portrayed the essence of abuse done to numerous cadres; physically, mentally and economically. Alice Walker reflected the slavery of black women In The Color Purple, where Albee & O’Neill depicted absurdity of American life & the harassment of blue collared workers in Who is Afraid of Virginia Woolf? & The Hairy Ape correspondingly.

The British launched their format of literature in the early 14th century. Geoffrey Chaucer was the man. With his Canterbury Tales, the wide stage to incorporate various poets & essayists was successfully set. His Language isn’t so clear, as it has that deep tinge of Northern Dialect with the interference of rustic idioms and expressions. The work is a pervasive image of the British society, people & their behavioral aspects,clothing,Class distinctions, food and happening stuff of the era. Until now, many novelists and poets praise him the direct father of British Literature, where the prospect of becoming his poetic son was an honor to Edmund Spenser, the guy behind the famous twin spousal verses, Epithalamion & Prothalamion. With profound commonsense, clarity in the verbal writing, employment of an ending refrain in a stanza which usually summed up the theme & enclosing inflated verbal modes into a shell of soothing rhyme & rhythm was a stunning accolade that Spenser received.

With Novelists, Thomas More penned Utopia, a concept that the author envisioned, essentially on fetching a civilized society and kind people like the Utopians; thus calling it a kind of reform. This is a direct hit on the socialist classes & the way in which those functioned. In Kyd’s Spanish Tragedy & Webster’s The duchess of Malfi, the idea behind is Revenge depicted in different styles. The Cruel nature of human mind is clearly portrayed in the above. In case of Middleton’s The changeling, a psychological imbalance of a coy woman, who uses murder as a tool to the fulfillment of sexual desire is pictured with a sub plot that sensibly attaches to the principal plot.

Sidney’s An Apology For Poetry is similar to that of Emerson’s The American Scholar. Both works throw light on similar ideas, however, the former is a mildly written response to Stephen Gosson’s School Of Abuse in which he caustically censures the art of poetry. A lot of similarities are what we see in these two forms of Literature, nevertheless, the diction & metric entities taking huge deviations.

Not always, a topic will need the usual description presented in a unique style of writing. Stepping further, deep down the notion of differentiation, in languages, a thoughtful analysis is definitely required. Without the interference of the conventional ideologies like spellings and accents, this post is a linguistic perspective of the two forms. 

-- Sashank Franklin Sargunaraj & Roopa   :)


Sunday, May 27, 2012

The Color Purple – Alice Walker

With a subtle sense of portrayal & neat bringing up of womanhood’s social respect, Alice Walker frames the storyline of “The Color Purple”. It is an epistolary novel , grounded by a set of letters that are written by  Celie’s sister Nettie about her life in Olinka where she takes up the toughest job of teaching uncivilized African Community that has every hint of disrespect towards women. The Women are enslaved by conventional foolishness and think that they are absolutely meaningless to themselves ;  without being married to men & bearing them children, their livelihood is just crap.

Celie, one main character is elevated to the weight of Shug Avery’s Great courage to face every little obstacle that comes her way even when she’s put down and deserted by the society, friends and relatives. Celie Meets Shug Avery when she gets married to Albert, a Widower, who demands her to be a servant and utilizes her for his animalistic pleasures at times; Yet again, its mere bondage to Celie, Albert is someone exactly similar to her step dad.

Celie, at the outset is said to be a 14 year old girl who is sexually harassed by her step dad, a result of which she becomes the mother of two children, Adam and Olivia. They are raised by Nettie, her sister. Nettie, marries Samuel, a Preacher when his wife dies. They strive so hard that they determined to see an immense surge of development in life of blacks. All they wanted is to bring blacks out of that dirty conventional world of absurdity. Nettie regularly pens letters to Celie, however, Albert’s wicked nature hides the bunch of them from eyes of his wife. Finally, Shug finds all of those out, through which the story of Nettie in Olinka progresses.

Coming to Shug Avery, She’s introduced like a big piece of cake, through a photograph to Celie, which in turn kindles the spirit of Homosexual love in her. However, We could argue that the theme of love is not completely lust, because it’s a part of feminism that takes her through paths of happiness thus leading to emancipation. Something sensible, that serves a pivotal point in the novel. In the end, Celie’s enchained submission to Albert, being all the time beaten up to excruciating pain, bursts to freedom, when Shug comforts her by saying “There’s no GOD but Love’s God and its deep down there at every single being’s heart”..  

Sophia, the wife of Harpo & daughter- in – law of Albert, is a symbol of retaliation and independent womanhood, where she’s portrayed by brutally attacking Harpo when he humiliates her physically. The cutting down on abuse in slavery begins just here as she joins hands with Shug as a characteristic to emancipation.

Shug’s determination and her strong feelings towards freedom to women, changes Celie, lifts her high up the society, annihilate’s her inferiority and establishes a firm trait in her to challenge men on a platform of self confidence and employment. The vitality of the title “The Color Purple” lies in the fact that Celie, once on seeing Shug’s Photograph, while she’s attracted by the color of her outfit, that’s undoubtedly PURPLE!, Replies To Kate(Albert’s Sister), that she’d like to get dresses of Purple color as gifts to her excellent Heeding of Home and Children.

A Storyline of Sensible events, carefully woven with the thought of effectively elevating Feminism with ingredients of  Freedom, Equality, Opportunity, Rights and this very tinge of Lust and love in the same gender, undoubtedly being the secret element to magnifying the thematic content of the novel.

Monday, May 14, 2012

The Hairy Ape – Eugene O’Neill

Eugene Gladstone O’Neill is undoubtedly one of the best playwrights in American Literature. He needs unquestionable appreciation for having handled the weapon of Realism skillfully to cut down on the fancy dramatic style. His works generally reflect a sense of distrust and tragic ending.

For years, his work, “Hairy Ape” has been termed as an expressionistic play bringing a great surge of popularity amongst suppressed working classes of the American Society. The play is dramatized by presenting an ocean liner in which stokers strive from dawn to dusk, stooping too low to scoop coal right into the furnace. Humiliated, with no solid identity & bent like an ancient man, the stokers are subject to excruciating physical pain while they are at work.

Yank, the protagonist is “ all Brawns No brains” kinda guy who strongly believes that he is one of the only great symbols of physical strength. However, slowly, his characteristic of being too hefty is diminished by the interference of the thought process induced by the pale and weak, Mildred Douglas, daughter of a steel tycoon. She calls Yank “ Filthy Beast” which hurts Yank in turn depressing him to the extent of avenging her brutally. O’Neill Depicts the transformation of Yank’s characteristics of Being an “Aggressive force “ to a “tHinker” – to which his crew tease him saying “think” when Yank pronounces “tink”.

Also the mental agony that Yank undergoes is heavy and triggers an alarm inside him to register himself in the IWW or the Industrial Workers of the World. The association is pictured as one big community uniting workers of the lower cadre to potentially rebel the capitalists of the society. Objectively, introducing a rule of the suppressed is the elemental thought of the IWW. Yank is arrested by the cops at the Fifth Avenue when he bashes a man at the bustop. Long, his colleague, sows seeds of anti-capitalist thoughts into Yank resulting in the scene at the Fifth Avenue.

The ending sequence gets to Yank, being thrown out of the IWW, for not being able to answer and abide by the rules of the community. Again, his status as a thinker descends, attributes to being stupid. Yank, over again, hurt, leaves to a zoo and encounters a gorilla to which he equates himself stating “the Hairy Ape”. His foolishness does not end just there! When he tries to make friends with the gorilla, Yank is crushed to death.

The Changeover that the hero of the play encounters is subtly explained with the influence of opposing characters. When Yank says he is trying to “tink”, everyone mocks at him saying “Don’t tink, just drink” which is a rhyme scheme yet a broken conversation within the stokers. In the Hairy Ape, O’Neill reveals the truth that change inside Yank sequentially weakens him, putting him to the clutches of death.

O’Neill stages reality and his thematic depiction of the idea is entirely dependent on the style of One-One conversation ( Playwright- audience) eliminating the tools like presentation of dramatic versions. A Cordial approach to audience elucidating the harsh reality of life,degradation of distinctiveness and the search for a new yet real one with the blue collared cader of the society taking the role of presenters, makes Hairy Ape a play that’s worth a million!!

Tuesday, March 13, 2012

AMERICAN LITERATURE AND RALPH WALDO EMERSON

New civilizations are always essential pathways to development of literature and art. However transforming yet another nation’s culture and ethics would necessarily not tend to innovations. To structure American society and literature, understanding political influences, tangential approach to the European Literature & poetic interferences are extremely vital. Taking a way that’s new in everything; especially in defining the literature of a developing nation was indeed a revolution. Conventional definitions were put out of place and the surge of a new meaning to the nation’s geography, ethics and culture encouraged many writers to become expert authors. A lot of others went on to shape and color the American literature with entirely new methods of writing. Cutting down on the European tinge, the thrill of articulating the theme became the trend of time.

Ralph Waldo Emerson, fondly called EMERSON was one of the chief inaugrators of literature in America. His brilliance reflected in bringing a 19th century reform called TRANSCENDENTALISM. Something that Emerson never failed was to kindle the spirits of a common man. Emerson emphasized the presentation of older thoughts in a completely novel sense of logic such that the content never fades away. Yes, influenced however, his writings incorporated a fair amount of Neo-Platonism and Scottish realism of Europe.

Inviting mystic entities to work, Emerson put forth the concept of natural and the Supernatural. He strongly believed that the OVER SOUL or the SPIRIT always connected to man thru intuition and behavior. The most striking feature of Emerson’s writing was seeking similarity in unlike entities. Through his poem “EACH AND ALL” he clearly states that every single item on earth has an undeniable dependence on things around in a loose connection of poetic parts. Many readers weren’t ready to take it as they expected a sense of strong poetic structure rather than prose. Criticism rose to open the notion that Emerson’s poems were feeble enough not to present a heavier sense of poetic method. With a series of essays in his journal “THE DIAL” Emerson shot to fame with his descriptive and modal writing. Thus termed as versatile, affluent and technically apt, Emerson’s prose ruled every reader.

It was Emerson who introduced the Hindu doctrine to explain the philosophical face of natural living. Moving deeper, Emerson also instituted the use of Vedanta philosophy and Indian culture. As always, Emerson truly believed that a poet needs a perfect relationship with his intuitive spirit to understand himself and only then he would be able to render it right to his target audience.

With stunning pack of logic,deep philosophical connections and spontaneous penning Emerson is a King instigator of American Literature.