Lessons i have learnt this summer....

Well this summer has been one of the most reflective i have ever had. I was certainly not reflecting on how good I did last year because I did not. When i look back there are so many things i could have done better. I could have done better in French, Chemistry, Biology, Economics, and definitely English. I could have been more concentrated in class, I could have shown more seriousness to my studies and I definitely could have cut down on my over-confidence. I don't know what drove me to be like what I was last year.

Maybe it was my ignorance, maybe it was my pride, maybe it was my reputation, or maybe it was just my immaturity. I made a lot of mistakes last year, like not studying French, not revising English, not studying well for my Chemistry test, not taking Economics seriously throughout the year and most of all being disrespectful to the teachers who have taught me so well. I would correct all of it if I could go back but all I can do now is move on and correct it in 12th grade.

Going back to India, has made me realize my mistakes more than anything. My ignorance last year made me feel like a complete jerk when I saw my old school and all that i had left behind here. I am so fortunate to have ended up in an IB school, which was never part of the plan when I came to study in Abu Dhabi in 10th grade. I was going to join a GCSE school like Yasmina. My luck turned around at the right time, I guess. Don't get me wrong, I did work in 10th grade but like always I lost my motivation to carry that on in 11th grade.

Why me? Why couldn't I just stay my 10th grade self: Studious, nice to everyone, and serious about my assignments. I think I know the answer to that. When i was in 10th grade, I wanted to get a medical degree because I thought that my caring attitude was a sign that i was passionate about being a doctor. That did motivate me to work hard, especially when i didn't have any experience with the IB. But towards the end of 10th grade i changed my decision to pursue hotel management because I wanted to work in the hospitality industry in which i found my passion. My caring attitude was just part of my character that stemmed from this passion.

This decision did change a lot of things for me. The main one being that if you want to get into any good university for medicine,the minimum IB score is 38 and even then the chances of getting in is very minimal. As for hotel management, I just have to pass the IB diploma and I'm set. All the universities which provide the degree want students with real passion for the hospitality industry, not to forget good interpersonal skills. So that brought my target IB score way down and that resulted in me working with no dedication at all. Now that seemed like a reasonable argument at the time, but now I realize the mistake which resulted in the 34 I got as my final grade in 11th grade. Its not a bad score by any means, but i know i can do way better and hence I have decided to raise the bars and strive to reach my full potential. The last thing i want is to look back on my IB diploma score after 12th grade and tell myself that I could have done better.

Redeeming is part of our lives and from what I remember OSHO said, without change, there is no life, I have decided to redeem myself, take control of the opportunity i have and erase the bad aspects of last year. I am hoping to do great this year and to my friends, hears to our school and our teachers who have set us up for great things and hears to our 2016 batch which I believe is going to yield Raha International School's highest IB diploma scores!

PEACE OUT

A strangely nostalgic return back to India

         For me, summer has so far been busy and i don't mean that in terms of my holiday homework but nonetheless, busy. I had to go to many temples around Thiruvananthapuram and my native place to complete rituals which had been promised to the gods. This is normal of a trip to India as it is a time to really be in sync with my culture and my religion because studying in an international school makes it hard to stay informed and educated about what is happening everyday back here in Kerala.

Although i came back here in 2014 as well, this time it feels different. I feel nostalgia and I don't know why. I had started to hate this place when i left here after 9th grade because i didn't like my experiences here but now i have started to love it again. I feel free when I'm here. I talk to everyone without any frustration and anger. Its like once you step out into the balcony at 5 am it is complete and utter bliss. I feel a rejuvenating energy running through me every time a cool breeze catches me. Everyday, I look at the mountains far away from me covered with a sheet of mist and memories flow back. I know, its deep.

The city has changed, rapidly. While i was gone for an year, hundreds of new developments
have been completed and the places where i once saw bare land, is now full of residential buildings and office towers. There are now air conditioned buses, better transport services, better roads and a lot more things to do.

I lived in the city for 4 years of my life from 6th grade to 9th grade. I really blended in well to the city culture and so it was hard to leave it after 9th grade. I think this is why i felt nostalgic but what i still don't understand is the fact that i did not feel the same way last year after my 10th grade. Maybe studying in an international school had made me become more distant from my culture over 2 years as I have made many more friends from different cultural backgrounds. This apartment has looked the same for the past 5 years and this certainly brought back many memories. I remembered the time when i stuck glow-in-the-night stickers on the walls of my study room and how it ended up being a bad idea. Don't judge me, I was in 6th grade!

One thing is for sure I will never ever forget those 4 years as it has shaped me into who I am.

How to write about India

Disclaimer: This response is inspired by the article authored by Binyavanga Wainaina, 'How to write about Africa'. The article I am writing is not meant to offend any culture, religion or ethnicity. Just so that I make it clear, I am an Indian  and this is my opinion about how she is represented in the popular media, through books and other tools of entertainment. If anyone finds this offensive, please bear with it and keep in mind the purpose and intent of writing a pastiche.

Remember: Overflowed sewages and Slums are vital to creating the perfect setting for your story and MAKE SURE that very important quote that “in India, even exceptions run into millions” is known to your readers, actually never mind, that should be your title. It is key to making let the world know what millions of people are doing with their miserable lives.

FIRST, list the values and ideals that define India, that basically are the essentials that make up their everyday life; the ideals upon which the 1.3 billion people of India have laid the very foundation of their lives:

 
1. Arranged Marriage/Child Marriage is okay.

2. Rape is normal.

3. Corruption is fine.

4. Curry is the staple of their diet.

5. Every Indian aspires to be an engineer, or a doctor.

 
Most of them are one of those call center lads who have a hard time talking because the only language they know how to fluently speak is 'Indian' or the more popular name 'Hindu'. Not to mention that it seems kind of odd that the followers of Hinduism and the language of India are both called the same. Such is the logical Indian approach. Overpopulated, dirty, jammed with stupid 1980's cars: without these things you might as well not write about India.

 
Your Indian characters could include rich people,  or no...... include call center lads, struggling teenagers, construction workers, clerks because it won't feel right to the audience to have a rich or successful guy because that takes the whole thrill out of it, which is the whole purpose about writing about India. Show in detail what you intend to do as you would only want to write about something that would benefit India, because you care. You care about the people below the poverty line, you care about the Indian economy, you care about what our government is and what it will do. Show this love to the people of India and they will love it. They are oppressed, they are misguided, they are lost in the enormity of the population,, they have no purpose to their lives, and therefore you should be the mentor and you should preach and they should follow.

 
Describe, in detail, the food in India and how they eat too much of those spicy curries. Tell the audience the plight of the poor lads and girls who have to everyday go through the pain of letting the smell out through their sweat pores. Indians don't eat anything else, they don't know how to make anything else. All the way from north to the south, from the east to the west, all they eat the thick red curry because that is the Indian cuisine. They also make 'roti' and 'naan' to go along with their rich spicy curries which will kill you if you try it. Make sure that your audience knows the facts: Indians are vegetarians, the small amount of people who are non-vegetarian don't eat beef because its religious. After all, Indians, all of them in fact, follow cultures that are no different to each other. 'Hindis', and the minorities: that's it.

 Talk about the very small amount of educated professionals in India and talk about how you called an Indian to help you out with your laptop. Such generalization is good as it makes other Indian people feel educated. ABSOLUTELY, NO DOUBTS, INCLUDE in your text that women are oppressed like never before, they are held within the four walls of the house. Chuck in some pictures of sad women into your text and make sure that it is colorful so that through that diversity, you can communicate the magnitude of the number of women who don't have basic human rights. Remember, this way, you are empowering them, you are teaching the simpletons of India how they should treat their women. Also, make sure that you include the traditional norms of the Indian life. They get married to people they have never seen before and both families of the husband and wife have fights all the time. Through that you can bring in that 'desi' mood you have been waiting for so long and this will allow you to add an extra layer of important information about the ‘common’ culture of India, which you really care about.

Through ‘BOUNCE’, the all-knowing Iggy Azalea has enlightened us with the interest of the Indian people. They love to ride elephants, all of them love to dance, and all of them worship idols which are taken care of by priests who smoke weed. Mention that India’s culture has benefited from the 400 years of British rule and it has made them more civilized. Also talk about the accents, about how everyone in India sounds like Russell Peters’ dad. You must talk about Bollywood: it is such an essential tool to your success because literally every single Indian loves it. Movies like ‘Singham’, ‘Dabaang’, ‘Phatta Poster Nikla Hero' are the building blocks of the Indian society…….

I have so much more to write about the media representations of India. I could go on talking about how to represent India in the manner that popular culture does, but for now I have other priorities than this. Mock exams after all decide what your life will be like afterwards. You might as well die if you fail for a subject in these tests.

Again I don’t intend to offend anyone, this is written solely for the purpose to mock the media for its popular descriptions of what India is like which creates stereotypes . Quite honestly, I find these funny because in Chinua Achebe’s words people don’t have that ‘balance of stories’ to make educated decisions.

How does Things Fall Apart conform to, or deviate from, the conventions of a particular genre, and for what purpose?

Things Fall Apart, authored by Chinua Achebe, is a book that is one of a kind. It shows characteristics of conforming to be part of the genre of realistic fiction but is also close to creating a whole new genre as well. The author’s use of non-linearity in his book makes it an interesting read which is away from the conventional norms of realistic fiction.

In realistic fiction, real conditions found in the real world are used along with fictional characters. This is evident in Things Fall Apart as the theme is set in the 1800’s and the book, in the first part, informs the reader about traditional African culture but to give it life and humaneness, Achebe uses fictional characters such as Okonkwo, Obierika and Ezinma. Achebe puts his fictional characters in the environment he created and presents them as following their everyday lives and through that he shows the great dynamics of his Ibo culture by adding events such as marriages, funerals,, sacrifice, exiles, crimes etc. Since most of the book is dedicated to inform the reader about the Ibo culture and the people in it, we can deduce that Achebe aims to bring the African people, specifically Nigerian culture to the forefront to give it meaning and significance. This is one of the main evidences of Achebe’s book conforming to the norms of realist fiction.

The non-linearity present in the first part of the story deviates from the conventional linear approach of most realistic fictional writers. This has a very significant implication as it is following the art of speaking which is highly prized in the Ibo culture. Achebe’s non-linear way of presenting the culture in the first part presents a direct parallel of how skilled Ibo speakers can speak for long periods of time and hit the point at last just like Achebe did for part 3 of the book where at last Okonkwo commits suicide. Achebe also uses a significant amount of proverbs to express the importance of them being the palm oil with which words are eaten. Therefore the art of speaking or conversation is held in high value in the production of this book and hence is deviating from the norm of a linear approach used within realistic fiction. It could also be that Achebe wanted to prove himself as a matured writer and wanted to add his own personal flair to the book.

The purpose of not following the conventions of European realist fiction could be the cause of one of many reasons. It is possible Achebe wanted to embrace his culture or show how complex its structure actually is and it’s actually just not a matter of “black and white” as Reverend James Smith says. Achebe intends to bring out the whole culture in front of the readers like an open book before the start of its rapid decline due to colonization to show the readers that the Ibo were once great people, who had unknowingly given into the cunning plots the white people like Mr. Brown had created...............................

Social status in 'Things fall apart'

Social status is one of the most important concepts discussed in Things fall apart. Ones worthiness and status in society was determined by his success: number of wives and titles, amount of land and yams. Chinua Achebe, is critical of how important status and power is to Okonkwo, the protagonist of the story, and this helps develop his character into a self-made, over-ambtious and warrior-like man.
 In part 1 of the story, Achebe presents the Igbo social hierarchy in a nutshell, starting with a man at the lowest end of the spectrum, Unoka and comparing him to his son, Okonkwo, who is presented to be at the opposite end of the spectrum. The author emphasises Unoka’s low status by staging him to be a man who had no titles and was heavily in debt. In addition to this, he was left to die in the Evil Forest which was a place only the osu, twins, or men who had committed sins were buried. Things fall apart depicts the internal struggle of Okonkwo to be the opposite of what his father was and this eventually leads to his downfall in Part 3 of the story.

Okonkwo resented his father, but he was fortunate that the Igbo didn't measure the worth of a man based on the worth of his father because the Igbo people believed that a man had to work hard and be skilled to climb the ladder to the top of the social spectrum. Okonkwo was made fun of by being called Unoka agbala which was a reference to a woman but also a man who had taken no titles. Because of this Okonkwo grew up to be a very ambitious man and started from the bottom by being a sharecropper then one by one bought his well deserved titles.

There were 4 titles that the Igbo man could earn in his lifetime. They had to be bought and hence it showed how much money a person had and this was fundamental to the concept of social status. A wealthy man would have a big compound, many wives and could provide his wives with huts which was an indication that the man had a high status in the society. In addition to his wealth, Okonkwo had beaten Amalinze, the Cat and 'earned' his wife Ekwefi and was also a very successful warrior.  

In part 2 of Achebe's story, we can see an Okonkwo who lost his titles and land due to a 'feminine crime' he committed, killing Ogbuefi Ezeudu son. The extent of man's personality being a masculine was an influential factor in where one was put on the spectrum. Unoka and Nwoye are seen as 'feminine' by Okonkwo who is a self-confident, self-made 'man' as he is recognized among the clan.  The influence of age on social status can't be understated and unless one was a man like Unoka, an elder was respected in the village. According to his novel Okonkwo had "washed his hands" and so he was held in high regard depute his short-tempered behaviour. 

Overall, the significance of social status is huge in the characterisation of key characters in the story and provides great insight into how the igbo life and clan is structured. It provides the readers with a template to view the characters at a particular level in the society to help understand their sorrows. It is also significant as the Osu's and the social outcasts are the first ones to join the church in Mbanta which further deepens our understanding of how these people were ignored within the society and ends up being the cause for the uprise of the missionaries in Umuofia.

A meaningful takeaway.....

Hey!

Its been a long time since i wrote anything on this blog , oh, it was a week back. Alright, alright, bad joke but today I'm writing about my most meaningful takeaway from the most productive discussion we had ever had in class on "An African Voice" an interview done with Chinua Achebe, the world famous author of Things fall Apart, which depicts the disruption that europeans, especially the british, as usual brought about to the culture and the lifestyle of the people living in Umuofia, present day, western Nigeria.

So talking about the takeaway, i think about Texas Chicken, but i also think about the time we discussed about what Chinua Achebe said about how the media represents a certain country in a certain way to the extent that when people talk about, in his case, Africa, an image of a "luxurious house in Lagos" doesn't come to mind but rather images of poverty, plague and famine come to mind. 

It made me think about India and how it was portrayed as a very poor place in the 1990's by BBC. I would watch it when i was young, and i would question it while using some swear words to why India was represented in such a derogatory way. So i know its not really a takeaway buit it is something that i could reflect on. So yeah....

PEACE

Tryst with Destiny- Jawaharlal Nehru

The given text is a speech which was orated by Jawaharlal Nehru “at the stroke of the midnight hour” when India attained her freedom in 1947. He effectively uses rhetorical devices such as metaphors, anaphora, hypophora, and distinctio to create one of the most appreciated speeches in the world and arguably the most iconic speech ever to be orated in front of the largest democracy in the world. The speech addressed many things that were to be done in order to raise India from the “ill fortunes” of the colonial period to a successful nation in “neutrality” and peace with other nations. Nehru also praised the “soldiers of freedom”, such as Mahatma Gandhi who “without praise or reward, have served India even unto death” and recognised that India was in the midst of an “unending quest” for glory and its well deserved success. 

The purpose of this speech was to inform, persuade and convince the audience that there was a lot of work that had to be done and that they should rise to “opening of opportunity” and “accept the challenge of the future.” The audience of this speech is clearly stated within it as Jawaharlal Nehru says that the responsibility that comes with freedom and power “rests upon this assembly, a sovereign body representing the sovereign people of India.” That being said, the audience of this speech was possibly, the new formed government body comprising of well educated men who understood English, which was the language in which this speech was delivered. An evidence of this is the time period when this speech was given. India attained freedom in 1947, and back then very little people knew the English language and so logically the audience should have been well-educated people who understood English.

Although full of mixed emotions, the “Tryst with Destiny” was still a well articulated political speech which effectively gathered ideas and presented them in a very patriotic and logical manner. In his speech, Nehru understands the limitations of the current generation at that time and gives the assembly inspiration and faith in order to fulfil the dream of building “the noble mansion of free India where all her children may dwell”. Nehru goes on to say that although the sorrows of the past may stick to Indians for some time, they should still rejoice in their freedom but also remember and praise the freedom fighters and “the architect of this freedom, the father of the our nation”, Mahatma Gandhi who lead India carrying “the torch of freedom” which “lighted up the darkness" that surrounded them. Nehru insists on redeeming the pledge in full, which was to “make all the people of India what destiny intended them to be”. Towards the end of the speech, Jawaharlal Nehru becomes the voice of the assembly and concludes by saying that the sovereign body will bind themselves afresh to India’s service.

The tone of this speech is very objective.  Despite this it includes happy and sad tones here and there when expressing the different thoughts of the past and present which gives great dynamics to this speech. He uses a happy tone in certain sentences within the speech by saying words like “celebrate”, “adventure”, “freedom” and uses a sad tone when talking about the past using words like “sorrow”, “pain, and “failures”. This sets a very patriotic and festive mood among the audience, which is the assembly and allows people to reflect on their past and present, hence appreciating the freedom fighters and giving into India’s service.   

In his speech, Jawaharlal Nehru has effectively used rhetorical devices and this helped in engaging the assembly. There are a lot of metaphors like “torch of freedom, “soul of a nation”, soldiers of freedom”, “star of freedom” and more which is a way of imagery in which someone imagines a real thing and relates it to an abstract noun. Jawaharlal Nehru then uses an anaphora to emphasize his point that there is “no time for for petty and destructive criticism, no time for ill will or blaming others”. He opens up the next part of the speech with a metabasis by saying “Our next thoughts…”. He uses this to transition well in his speech and brings the focus of the audience to a more patriotic and thankful mindset. Nehru then  uses a hypophora within the speech, “what shall be our endeavour?” and then answers it himself by informing the assembly a set of goals that were to be accomplished. He uses an anaphora within this sentence and says “to” four times at the starting of each of the goals that he spoke about.  Because India is the largest democracy int he world and because it has so many religions, Nehru is careful on the words he uses but instead he uses a distinctio when saying “All of us, to whatever religion we may belong, are equally the children of india with equal rights, privileges and obligations.” This creates a very nice atmosphere as he acknowledges all of India and not just a certain religion or caste at a time when Hinduism was extremely prominent. Towards the end of his speech he uses an antithesis by saying “the ancient, the eternal and the ever new”. This makes the audience imagine India as a new revived nation free in every regard in its ever lasting beauty of the ancient times. 

As said above the “Tryst with Destiny” was one of the most iconic speeches made in India’s history and it is for good reasons. The speech is very objective, it is to the point and it has a good flow throughout. It also embraces the whole community within it which was vital to the speech’s success in a country with so many people and religions. In essence, Jawaharlal Nehru talks about advancing forward and raising India to be a world superpower and in order to do that he asks for the cooperation of the common people, especially the audience the government assembly.