Know the rules before you try breaking them'





Last year's Booker winner Marlon James talks about his craft and his Facebook rants

Marlon James won the Man Booker Prize in 2015 for his third novel A Brief History of Seven Killings. Jamaican-born, US-based James teaches at Macalester College in Minnesota. On the sidelines of the Jaipur Literature Festival, he spoke to Mumbai Mirror about rejection, leaving Jamaica, breaking writing rules and that viral Facebook rant.How did you deal with the multiple rejections of your previous novel?
My first novel got rejected and the way I dealt with it was to not deal with it. I destroyed all the manuscripts. I threw it away. I forgot about writing. I went back to my old career [advertising]. I just erased all memory of being a novelist. And it was not until later that a friend somehow insisted I show her my novel and I had to find it in an old computer.
What was your reaction to being nominated for the Booker and also to the eventual win?
It was a mix of surprise and anticipation. I knew it was being entered. Of course I wanted to be nominated. I don't think you enter anything with the idea of not being recognised. But you're surprised. I'm still surprised. There were so many great books.
In a sprawling book like yours, with so many characters and voices, how did you keep track and make sure it was all distinct?
I do what my screen writer friends do. I put a chart up on the wall for characters. And what they have done, where they are, what do they want, how do they talk, where are they at 10 pm, 10: 30 pm, where are they at 11 pm? But I also worked on only one character per day.Because if I were working on more I'll be pressured by trying to move plot along as opposed to inhabiting that character's space. I liked what Atul Gawande was talking about when they are treating the dying. You think how can I make this person's life better today? It's very similar to how I write. What am I going to explore in that person's life today? What is she doing in this scene as opposed to how is this going to keep the machine of the plot moving?
You said you wanted to get out of Jamaica by coffin or by plane. Why did it come to that and do you miss it?
I miss Jamaica all the time. Why did it come to that? Because I'd run out of opportunities. There is a great saying that pastors use and I still believe it: you can reach the end of yourself. Meaning you run out of explanations, you run out of ways in which to cope with living ... and all those things applied to me. And I'd realised I wasn't going anywhere as a person, I wasn't going anywhere as an artist. I think I'd have died the slow death I see so many people living, when they've accepted a diminished life. They've accepted consistency and normalcy instead of happiness.
You've said you wouldn't teach your students to write a novel like you did.Why?
I'm a very mechanical teacher. I'm more interested in how you structure a sentence than what are your concerns as an artist.But I also teach very young students. I think you need to know the rules before you break them. And I think this idea that you can be this natural talent is actually quite ridiculous. Art doesn't work that way. So I teach a lot about the rules which I take great pleasure in breaking myself.But I know them.
Has there been more interest in Caribbean literature since your win?
I hope so. There is a lot of excitement for Kei Miller's upcoming nove. There is a change in the literature of the Caribbean. I think the last time the world paid attention the bulk was in response to Empire.In this new generation, not only do we look at it in a new way, but we have other things to talk about.
Your lasting impressions of India and your time here?
You know I've had a fantastic time in India [and Jaipur]. I love the city, the energy, I love the pulse, the food and the colours. I love how interested and curious the people are.
Did your Facebook post making such waves surprise you? [James put up a critical post after first landing in India complaining about difficulties he faced on landing.]
I was quite surprised because I was just making a joke. Anybody who knows me knows I rant on Facebook all the time.

Source: Mumbai Mirror, 25-01-2016





 Results of Actions

MAULANA WAHIDUDDIN KHAN





A man came before the Prophet Muhammad and asked him for some advice. The Prophet said to him, “When you decide on some action, think of its consequences. If they are good, go ahead with it, and if they are bad, refrain from it.“The Prophet's words show that a prospective action should be weighed up according to the outcome it is likely to have.One should think before one acts: what will be the consequences of my action? If the prospects appear good, one may carry on with what one is intending to do, otherwise one should rethink one's course of action.
Generally , people just take matters at their face value and rush into them without thinking. A Muslim should study matters carefully from every angle before deciding on a course of action. He should particularly take note of others' probable reaction. Are people likely to stand in his way? If so, does he have the capability to overcome the obstacles they pose?
Is he in a position to surmount all the hurdles that are likely to be strewn in his path, winning through to his final goal?
He should consider what the psychological, social and political repercussions of his actions will be. Only if he is confident that his work will have beneficial consequences should he embark on it.
The only initiative worth taking is one that will yield positive results. If one embarks on a destructive course of action, it will be oneself that suffers. Therefore, one should steer clear of such actions, as any sensible person steers clear of destroying his own life.

JCU to conduct Scholarship Tests in Mumbai, New Delhi and Chennai 

James Cook University (JCU), Singapore is conducting the assessment tests in Mumbai, New Delhi and Chennai in the month of January/February 2016. The scholarships will be covering up to 50 per cent of the course fee for the Master’s Degree and Bachelor’s Degree programmes. The University has been organising scholarship tests across India since the past six years, to support the educational journey of promising students.

The JCU scholarships are given to meritorious students based on the two-hour long test conducted by the university and assess the students on their English Language Skills and Aptitude. The assessment test will be essentially based on four topics, namely, Antonyms, Sentence completion, Mathematics based questions and General Knowledge Questions.

Candidates, who are planning to pursue their studies (either Bachelors or Masters) and wish to apply for the scholarships must do it before appearing for the test. Meanwhile, they must have a score of 60 per cent or above marks in their higher secondary examinations or Bachelor’s degree.

Established in 2003, the university offers a slew of scholarships. For the Indian students, the scholarships are worth S$16050 (approx INR 8 lakhs) for Masters’ Degree in the field of business, IT and tourism and S$23832 (approx INR 11 lakhs) for Bachelor’s’ Degree in subjects like business, IT and psychology.

Source: Elets News Network (ENN) Posted on January 19, 2016 

Ancient prejudice, modern inequality

If Ekalavya’s dismembered digit has haunted the Hindu schoolyard from time immemorial, Rohith Vemula’s tragic suicide lays bare the deep inequality undergirding the modern state and its institutions of higher learning

On Sunday, January 17, Rohith Vemula (25), a doctoral student at the University of Hyderabad, reportedly committed suicide by hanging himself from the ceiling fan in a friend’s hostel room. His death has brought to a head a long-simmering conflict between progressive student groups, and the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP), the students’ wing of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), present on campuses across the country and increasingly belligerent in the prevailing climate of Hindu right-wing dominance.

Rohith, a Dalit, had been involved in campus activism on diverse issues: Ambedkarite politics, protests against beef bans, the persistence of the death penalty in the Indian criminal justice system, and communal violence in Muzaffarnagar in August-September 2013, which left many dead and thousands displaced, mostly Muslims.

Ananya Vajpeyi

Along with four other Dalit students, Rohith had been evicted from his hostel accommodation about a month ago, his monthly research stipend suspended, allegedly for subversive activities. The university administration as well as the State and Central governments all appear to have been strong-armed by the reactionary ABVP into expelling these five individuals on dubious charges, characterising the victimised students as “casteist”, “extremist” and “anti-national”. All of them belonged to the Ambedkar Students Association, a body similar to the Ambedkar-Periyar Study Circle of the Indian Institute of Technology, Madras (IIT-M), a group that had also faced harassment and intimidation from campus authorities in the summer of 2015.

Caste and the Hindu Right

The conflicts in both the University of Hyderabad and the IIT-M illustrate a deep fracture between the Hindu Right and Dalit-Bahujan ideologies, particularly those of the Ambedkarite strain, a fault line that cannot be papered over by electoral alliances of convenience and occasional instances of power-sharing between the two sides. The Sangh Parivar at every level, from the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party down to the ABVP, stands against equality, whether between castes, religious communities, or the sexes.

Instead of egalitarianism, the Hindu Right believes in an archaic arithmetic of adhikaar and bahishkaar, entitlement and exclusion, based on caste, religion and gender. If the Indian Republic is built on a plinth of equal citizenship, the Hindu Rashtra would be founded on ritual hierarchy and patriarchy as laid out for centuries in the caste system. Onto this unequal social order of considerable vintage would be layered a deadly neo-Fascist majoritarian politics that arises out of the Hindutva imagination of the modern nation.

This is why, when the Ambedkar Students Association supported the screening of Nakul Singh Sawhney’s film Muzaffarnagar Baaqi Hai on the University of Hyderabad campus, the ABVP attacked the Dalit activist-students, driving them out of their classrooms and hostels, eventually to the limit where Rohith took the irreversible decision to end his life. Photographs he posted on his Facebook page in 2014 of his parents’ home in the small town of Guntur — a prized red refrigerator in which all the neighbours kept their water bottles, a gas burner, a fan he wryly described as “solar powered” — suggest the great distance from poverty and hardship travelled by this young man to become a doctoral student at one of the most prestigious universities in India. His journey ended violently and abruptly.

But the ostracising of the Sudra and Dalit student from the institutions of education and employment, knowledge and power, is a very old theme in Indian thought on social structure and moral order. The figure of the outcaste student appears in some of our oldest texts that reflect on the relationship between self, society and sovereignty.

In the Mahabharata, Ekalavya, a talented archer prince of the forest tribe of the Nishadas, goes to Dronacharya, the master who teaches young men of the Pandava and Kaurava clans how to wield their weapons. Drona will not admit Ekalavya on account of the tribal status that makes him an outsider to the caste system. Ekalavya goes away, makes an image of Drona, secretly watches him give lessons to Arjuna and the other royals, and teaches himself archery, treating the mud-and-clay Drona as a stand-in for the recalcitrant guru.

When Ekalavya turns out to be a better bowman than the Kshatriya prince Arjuna, Drona asks for his right thumb as tuition fee. Ekalavya agrees, but not without understanding that he is being discriminated against yet again. Ekalavya’s initial disobedience (which makes him a secret apprentice) as well as his later compliance (which costs him his thumb) shame both Drona and his favourite pupil, the supposed beneficiary of this blatant act of prejudice, Arjuna. The story of the Nishada prince shows Drona up as a caste bigot whose classroom reeks of nepotism, even if he knows how to teach his students well, at least the high-born ones he favours.

Ekalavya’s dismembered digit, a bloody and visceral embodiment of caste consciousness, has haunted the Hindu schoolyard from time immemorial. It can be read as quite literally a thumb in Drona’s eye, a jab at our conscience that is as painful for us to experience as it must have been for Ekalavya to lose the very source of his hard-earned skill. He is denied access at every stage: he cannot become Drona’s pupil, but neither is he allowed to become a great archer through his own efforts.

The story of Satyakama Jabali from the Chandogya Upanishad is more complex. Satyakama has no father, and takes his mother Jabala’s name. He goes to the hermitage of the sage Gautama, and wants to be admitted. When asked about his parentage, he acknowledges honestly that he does not know his father’s name or caste. Gautama admits him nevertheless, and performs the initiation ritual to pronounce him a twice-born Brahmin, after which his education begins in earnest.

In the ancient text of the Upanishad, Gautama is willing to entertain Satyakama as a potential pupil because of his honesty: he takes the boy’s love of truth (which is the literal meaning of his name, satya-kama) as proof of his essentially Brahmin nature. Once the teacher has assessed the applicant’s innate worth, he then translates his positive assessment into an upanayana (bestowal of the sacred thread on the boy’s body), naming Satyakama a proper Brahmin and proceeding to educate him accordingly.

Satyakama’s Brahmin identity is clearly attributed to him; it cannot be proven to be intrinsic, since his mother Jabala cannot identify his father. Gautama seems to suggest that ‘Brahmin is as Brahmin does’, i.e., Satyakama has the lakshana (characterising feature) of a Brahmin (because he speaks the truth), even though he does not have the gotra (lineage) of a Brahmin (because his mother was unmarried).

For a modern reader, this is a confusing account. Does Gautama make an exception and admit a non-Brahmin pupil into his hermitage, or does Gautama accept Satyakama because he thinks he recognises him, despite appearances, to be a genuine Brahmin? The exchange between Satyakama and Gautama at the threshold of the ashram, as it were, raising fundamental questions about identity (Who are you? Who am I?), about rights to entry into the portals of the academy, about rule and exception in the caste system, and about the entailments of caste in the strongholds of knowledge and seats of power, is again a moment that has not left our collective conscience for two millennia. Dr. Ambedkar himself reminds us of both these characters, Ekalavya and Satyakama, who for him are damning evidence of the stubborn longevity of caste in Indian history.

The more things change…

Ekalavya did not die and neither did Satyakama, but Rohith did. This sad fact could lead to various conclusions. It is a reflection on the unexpected cruelty and the adamantine ideologies undergirding the modern state and its institutions of higher learning. Drona and Ekalavya, Gautama and Satyakama could to some extent negotiate the terms of their relationship. Rohith ostensibly had the might of the Indian Constitution behind him — his fundamental rights as a citizen, reservations policy for students of his socioeconomic background, and the empowering discourses of the Ambedkarite student group which gave him a certain political awareness and the radical energy to fight for the equality he fully expected and deserved, but never got. And yet, when he was rusticated and ousted from his hostel, when he and his companions felt pushed to stage a “sleep-in” outside the university gates; when his stipend was withheld and he had to borrow money, and when he finally felt like he had hit a wall and had no options, Rohith was far worse off than his metaphorical brothers in the ancient literature.

His heartbreaking suicide note states the piercing truth, the skewer that caste ideology drives into every heart filled with hope: “My birth is my fatal accident.” Yes, this is the human condition: our birth, all birth, is an accident. We do not choose our father or mother, our group or community. But only in India, only in caste society, and only for Dalits does this accident of coming into an unequal life become the fatality of either living with relentless inequality and enduring its cruelties, or dying a terrible, unfair, premature and unredeemed death.

Anil Kumar Meena, a first-year Dalit student at All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), India’s premier medical college, had hung himself from the fan of his hostel room in March 2012. In Rohith’s poignant Facebook photos, his family’s meagre possessions now stand witness to a life whose promise was extinguished. He had posted that before he got a Junior Research Fellowship, his mother’s humble sewing machine had supported the family.

Like December 16, 2012, the day marked by the horrendous rape and murder of a young woman Nirbhaya, let January 17, 2016 too go down in this country’s history as the dark day of the death of a student, Rohith Vemula, who was promised a chance at dignity and prosperity by our founders, and whom we abandoned, to our eternal shame.

(Ananya Vajpeyi, author of Righteous Republic: The Political Foundations of Modern India (2012), is with the Centre for the Study of Developing Societies, Delhi.)

Source: The Hindu, 20-01-2016

Visually-challenged Jharkhand girl tops PG course sans Braille aid

A visually challenged Jharkhand girl has topped a postgraduate degree course in Ranchi university and even cleared the National Eligibility Test (NET), all without the aid Braille.

Currently pursuing an MPhil at the Jawaharlal Nehru University in New Delhi, 27-year-old Sweta Mandal secured a gold medal in her masters in human rights by using software that converts text to speech.

“I listened to the journals and textbooks. It helped me understand my subjects,” she said.

Side effects from a radiation treatment for a brain tumour robbed Sweta of her vision when in class 10. Despite the ailment, she managed to secure 72% in her board exams by listening to recordings her parents had made of her lessons. A scribe helped her write her answers.

“Since I wasn’t a born blind, I could not learn Braille that well. My parents were the greatest support for me. They gave me the courage to pursue higher studies,” said Sweta, who will be conferred the gold medal for 2011-13 by Jharkhand Governor Droupadi Murmu at the Ranchi university’s convocation ceremony this Wednesday in which toppers from 2013 to 2015 will be felicitated.

Mandal completed her schooling from DAV Chaibasa, graduated from the National Institute of Open School with 65% in higher secondary and scored 65% in sociology from IGNOU in her graduation.

In 2014, she cleared the NET in human rights, making her eligible to teach at any government college across India. Mandal hopes for a career in research in human rights.

Explaining Mandal’s learning technique, renowned ophthalmologist Dr. Sushma Sinha said, “Descriptive subjects can be learnt by listening. Besides, people who lose one of their sense organs can concentrate more and learn faster than ordinary people.”

Both of Mandal’s parents -- Arun Kumar and Om Kumari – are also doctors and practice in Ranchi. The proud parents have promised to support Mandal for as long as she requires.

Source: Hindustan Times, 20-01-2016

Answer key for CSIR UGC NET Dec 2015 released, check it here

The Council of Scientific & Industrial Research (CSIR) has released the Joint CSIR UGC NET exam December 2015 answer key. You can check it on the official website.

To check, click on ‘JOINT CSIR-UGC NET Exam Dec 2015 Question Papers & Answer Key’ on the website.

Go to the subject for which you want to see the answer key. The five subjects for which, the keys are available are: 1) Chemical Sciences; 2) Earth Sciences; 3) Life Sciences; 4) Mathematical Sciences; and 5) Physical Sciences.

CSIR is India’s premier research and development (R&D) organisation. Its pioneering contribution to Science and technology (S&T) human resource development is recognised nationally.

India home to 2.36L millionaires, but can't get rid of `poor' tag

NEW DELHI I AGENCIES





NEW DELHI India is home to the fourth largest population of millionaires in the Asia Pacific region, with 2.36 lakh such high net worth individuals (HNWI), while Japan topped the list with 12.60 lakh people, says a report.It defined HNWIs as those individuals with assets of $ 1 million (about Rs 6.5 crore).On the flipside, India is among bottom three as far as per capita income is concerned, At the end of 2015, China ranked second with 6,54,000 HNWIs and Australia, with a rich-people count of 2,90,000, sat at third spot, according to the Asia Pacific 2016 Wealth Report, by New World Wealth.
Asia Pacific HNWI numbers have increased by 115 per cent over the past 15 years, compared to the worldwide HNWI growth rate of 82 per cent. The numbers in the region are expected to rise by 50 per cent over next 10 years, reaching around 5.2 million by 2025, the report said.
Over this period (by 2025), India is expected to see a 105 per cent growth in HNWI population to 4,83,800 from 2,36,000, the report added. On the other side of India's impressive total private wealth ­ $4.3 trillion ­ is its per capita income, which is the average wealth per person. On this front, India was last among the bottom three with $3,500. Australia topped the ranking with a per capita income of $2,04,000. “People in Pakistan are the poorest with $1,600 per person,“ the report added.
POOR SHOW ON TALENT
Reflecting an acute shortage of skilled labour force and difficult business conditions, India has slipped 11 places to rank 89th on a global index of talent competitiveness, a list which has been topped by Switzerland.
The next top performers are Sin gapore, Luxembourg, the US and Denmark, as per the annual Global Talent Competitiveness index. India's ranking is worst among the five BRICS countries, with China leading the pack with a global rank of 48.
The index measures a nation's competitiveness based on the quality of talent it can produce, attract and retain. Stating that India and China remain a net exporter of talent, the study said many emerging countries that have invested in higher education have neglected vocational education.