Thinking Activity : Gun Island

Hello readers...

This blog is the part of my thinking activity in the Google classroom. This thinking activity is assigned by our professor Dilip Barad sir. 

In this blog i would like to talk about the one interesting and famous novel " Gun Island"  by Amitav Ghosh.

Firstly let's throw some light on the author:-

Amitav Ghosh (born 11 July 1956)is an Indian writer and the winner of the 54th Jnanpith award, India’s highest literary honor, best known for his work in English fiction. Ghosh's ambitious novels use complex narrative strategies to probe the nature of national and personal identity, particularly of the people of India and Southeast Asia.

About Novel:-

Gun Island describes the quest of Deen, a scholar and collector of rare books, who returns from New York, his city of domicile, to the Sunderbans in West Bengal to unravel the mystery and legend of a seventeenth-century merchant, Bonduki Sada-gar, translated “The Gun Merchant,” and his persecution by Manasa Devi, mythical goddess of snakes. In a talk held in New Delhi after the release of the novel, Ghosh stated that the merchant “was a trope for trade.” The merchant and the goddess dramatize “the conflict between profit and the world.” In the novel, the goddess pursues the merchant to make him aware of other realities like the animal world: “Humans—driven, as was the Merchant, by the quest of profit—would recognize no restraint in relation to other living things.”

Sir gave us some questions for our better thinking so I ponder that answers here:-

1. How does Amitav Ghosh use the myth of Gun Merchant 'Bonduki Sadagar' and Manasa Devi to initiate discussion on the issue of Climate Change and Migration/Refugee crisis / Human Trafficking?

Ghosh uses the myth of Manasa Devi and wants to tell us that Gun Merchant changes the places because of climate change and during that journey he realises the problem of migration. The whole story is about the pilgrimage of Gun merchant as well as of Dinanath. Both characters and the events are connected with each other. It is a kind of similar story.

Gun Island concentrates on an anthropocentric world of political tumult, social prejudices, economic inequality, utilitarian attitude towards Nature, pollution of water resources, climatic disasters, and increasing human displacement.The text serves as a small window that gives the readers a glimpse into how undocumented migrants moving through irregular channels to find work get trapped

in servitude and exploitation. The refugees of the Blue Boat come to know, while illegally

changing countries, how several influential countries are surreptitiously linked with

oppressive practices executed by various agents and traffickers in modern times.

The text depicts that during illegal migration many migrants get killed by border security forces or other government armed forces. However, despite all hazards, a huge number of illegal migrants arrive at their desired places, but sometimes a few of them are compelled to retreat when they are caught. It is a surreal tale that captures the apocalyptic visions of environmental degradation and a desperate human struggle for existence in the wake of climate disaster. The illegal border-crossing of people of the Sundarbans clarifies why “environmental migration is widely viewed as one of the most dramatic consequences of climate change” (Gemenne,2012, p. 238). 

Ghosh  blends ancient myths and legends with the tales of adventurous escapism of illegal migrants from various developing countries in the present to bring out the perennial saga of human migration ensuing from global climate breakdown. The self-willed yet socio-politically or environmentally enforced illegal migrations from diverse developing countries in the time of globalization also imply a kind of renunciation of the past domination of the authoritative colonizing countries in controlling the human movement across countries. The social conflicts in Italy centered on the Blue

Boat become symbolic of the world acknowledging the ever-present refugee crisis

which rapidly increases in the era of anthropogenic climate chang.

2. How does Amitav Ghosh make use of the 'etymology' of common words to sustain mystery and suspense in the narrative? 

Amitav Ghosh very significantly used this ‘etymology’ of common words to sustain mystery and Suspense in the narrative.

In the book, we came to know the name of some places like The Land of Palm Sugar Candy, Land of Kerchief Island of Chains, and Finally The Gun Island. 

So here The Land of Palm Sugar Candy means “Land of Palm Sugar Candy” was Taal-misrir-desh. Desh is “country” in Bengali, and taal is a kind of palm tree that produces a sugary syrup which is used to make all kinds of sweets including a crystallized candy. I translated the phrase as “palm sugar candy” because the Bengali word for “sugar candy” is misri.’ “Misr” is but the Arabic word for Egypt. So here ‘ The Land of Palm Sugar candy’ means Egypt. 

‘The Land of Kerchieves? In the legend it was called Rumaali-desh. In Bengali rumaal is a handkerchief . . .’‘On the outskirts of Istanbul, where the Turks built their first stronghold in Europe. Rumeli comes from “Rum”, “Rome” – which is how Constantinople, the Byzantine “Rome”, was known in Arabic and Persian. The Rumaali of Gun merchant’s story is probably just a corruption of some version of “Rum” – does it not make sense that the Gun Merchant and Captain Ilyas would have gone from Egypt to Turkey. 

The Land of Chains. In Bangla, it means ‘Shikol-dwip.’ ‘the Arabic name for Sicily is “Siqillia” – the resemblance to shikol. 

The Gun Island:- Banduki dwip, Getto in Venice where Gun factory was there. So in this way Amitav Ghose Unfolded the mystery of The Gun Island. Here Gun Island means Venice where our Banduki Sadagar was gone. 

3. What are your views on the use of myth and history in the novel Gun Island to draw the attention of the reader towards contemporary issues like climate change and migration?

Ghosh used the myth of Mansa devi for the issue of climate change. He used the myth of Manasa Devi and the way it was told it seems the story was not myth but history. But what is important is Ghosh wants to draw attention to these serious problems of climate change and migration. Amitav Ghose is Ecologist and with help of Mystery and history, he drew attention to this kind of issue. So many people migrated from #Sunderban because of floods and sinking. 

4. Is there any connection between 'The Great Derangement' and 'Gun Island'? 

Yes there is the connection between ‘The Great Derangement and ‘ The Gun Island. Gun Island is the answers of those queries which are remain in The Great Deregment’.

“Both these books deal with the significant issues of the current moment that are the unexpected changes in weather conditions in the environment and human migration. The extremity of temperature and flood had made people abandon their homeland and migrate to other places. Amitav Ghosh presents in both these books the incompetence of the present generation to grasp the scale of climate change in the spheres of Literature, History and Politics. He is really conscious of the environmental destruction that the world faces today, and the condition of impossibility to retain the ecological balance of the environment. “ ( Keerthy Gopinadh, Varsha K. ) 

This both books are connected very significantly enhanced with each other.

Thank you...

Learning outcome:- Reserch Methodology Workshop - 7 Jan 2022

Hello readers…

This is the blog about our third workshop on research methodology.It was the third workshop of this week. It was in three sessions. 

1)Importance of Research by Prof. Majmudar Jagdeep 

2)Avoid plagiarism: Qualitative Research in Digital Era by Prof. Dilip Barad 

 

3)Citation : Tools & Techniques by ms. Vaidehi Hariyani 

First session:-

In the first session Prof. Majmudar sir gave very interesting information about research and the importance of research. He was Chief guest of the session. He is a retired Prof. of the department of M.B.A. and he became the first coordinator of the Research Facilitation Centre of MKBU. This centre mainly focuses on Ph.D works. 

He talked about how to conduct a problem and how to be careful about it. He also talked about the Scientific inquiry and how we find our problems and clarity of problems. He also said that Research itself means adding something new to the existing literature. He emphasized one thing in the whole session was that when we research something that makes sure that conclusion will be yours. He said to make your own conclusion. He mentioned that this is not only academic exercise except its 99% scope in other fields. This was an amazing and helpful session by sir.

Second Session:-

The other session was by Dr.Dilip Sir on plagiarism. How to avoid plagiarism? and what is the importance of it in research? What is qualitative research and how can we make our research qualitative? We did a workshop in this session. There were 5 criteria for this research…

1. Authority

2. Educational Value

3. Intent

4. Originality

5. Quality

Sir gave one activity also in that he gave one worksheet. It was an evaluation rubric of source. In that we have to select one website and we have to try that it's how authentic it is. I took a gradesaver( website) and it's rubric score was 7.5 percent like 37.5. It is not more authentic, it's just information not cited.

So all over it was an amazing session. It's helpful to write our dissertation.

Click here For blog on plagiarism.

Third Session:-

The last session was about Citation by Vaidehi ma'am. In this session we all divided into 5 groups and she gave us group work on various tools of citation and learned about how to do citation. Mam gave a Citation generator to our group. It was good that this tool helps to cite any references very fast. But the main disadvantage of this tool is that we do not cite images. So it is quite a helpful tool. And it's also working on Mobiles and laptops also.

                             Group task

So all about that workshop and It was an amazing session. This session helps us to clear all confusions regarding dissertation writing and research papers. Now , We get a proper idea of how we will write our dissertation through this method. We are grateful to Dr. Dilip Barad sir and Vaidehi Ma'am for giving us very helpful knowledge about research and arranging such an informative session💐

                 Glimpses of workshop:-

Thank you....

The Ministry of Utmost Happiness

Hello readers...

This blog is the part of my thinking activity in the classroom.  We have paper on Contemporary Literatures in English. So in that we have 4 contemporary novels by contemporary writers. This task is assigned by Dr.Dilip Barad sir.

Click here for more details about task

In this blog i would like to talk about the one famous contemporary novel The Ministry of Utmost Happiness by Arundhati Roy.

So first of all let's throw some light on writer.

Arundhati Roy:-

Suzanna Arundhati Roy is an Indian author best known for her novel The God of Small Things, which won the Man Booker Prize for Fiction in 1997 and became the best-selling book by a non-expatriate Indian author. She is also a political activist involved in human rights and environmental causes. 

About novel:-

Spanning the 1950s to the 2010s, The Ministry of Utmost Happiness, a 2017 novel by Arundhati Roy, follows the interconnected lives of several characters against the backdrop of contemporary India. The novel skips backwards and forwards in time freely, often pauses for detours into the stories of minor characters and includes several texts within the main text (e.g., Bhartiya’s manifesto, or Tilo’s Kashmiri-English Alphabet). At heart, however, the novel consists of two main narrative threads, one of which is centered in Delhi, and the other in Kashmir.

The book has a remarkable narrative plot, with complex set of characters mostly drawn from the lower strata of the society. The terse prose style mingled with occasional aphorism and apt similes is used to dig deep into the Indian modern history to explore the socio-political themes. Roy, as a keen observer of the events -land reform that disowned poor farmers; Godhra train burning; and the insurgency in Kashmir, compels the reader to search facts in the debris of history. The book is replete with the themes of racism, gender in equality and religious fanatism. In fact, it is a compendium of alternatives – alternative structure of kinship, resistance and romance. It is a kind of novel, where we find, a perfect marriage of art and politics, history and fiction, reason and imagination. She, through her beautiful language, creativity and wide reading, exposes the grim and violent truths that would scare anybody of the prevailing socio-political condition of the nation. The hybrid language of the book with beautiful quotations from Urdu, and references to sacred scriptures expose myth with religion. This widens the critical horizons of the novel as a new innovation in the contemporary Indian English fiction. The book can be read from various theoretical approaches –feminist/ gender theories, cultural discourse, political per se and so on. 

Click here for summary

Now I will try to ponder some points which is given by sir as task:-

1) political issue in novel

2) Gender concerns in novel

3) Environmental concern in the novel/ Ecofeminist study

4) narrative patern in novel

1) political issue in novel:-

The novel also incorporates many social and political events occurred in India and other parts of the world against the backdrop of its story. Political discourse in The Ministry of Utmost Happiness can be seen deeply entwined with the nationalistic agenda. Kashmir conflict is in the center of the novel, discussing the attitude of the political power center in dealing with it. Instead of working for a solution for one of the biggest crises on humanitarian grounds, the politicians used and keep using Kashmir as repetitive rhetoric to keep them in power by gaining more votes. An example of the political slogan is given by the author, “‘doodh mangogey to kheer dengey! Kashmir mango gey to cheer dengey!’ Ask for milk, we’ll give you cream! Ask for Kashmir, we’ll rip you open seam to seam!” (103).India’s national and political agenda has developed its roots in the religious discourse. Despite maintaining a façade of democracy, the country is ruled by the people of RSS, which is a Hindu party essentially and believes in the superiority of only the Hindu people. The ruling party of India is the BJP, which is a branch of the extremist Hindu religious party of Hindutva. Religion, in the hands of these people, is used as a tool to keep their power positions maintained and keep the people of the other religions like Muslims, Sikhs, Parsis and lower-caste Hindus as well, at the periphery. Roy shows the plight of people who are slaughtered, raped and penalized because of their religion, caste or political differences. Thereaders see Anjum; the Hijra stuck in the massacre of Gujrat, Dayachand, the Dalit changing his identity to secure a lowest paying job, Tilo, the Syrian Christian woman travelling to Kashmir for Musa, the Muslimbound to be persecuted. All these threads tell storiesof plight under the fast-rising totalitarian system of India.

2)Gender concerns in novel:-

The transgender issue in this novel is portrayed mainly through the transgender protagonist Anjum, who is a Hijra. When Anjum decides that she wants to become a woman, she joins the community of Hijra called “the Khwabgah,” or “the House of Dreams,” where a group of transgender people live together and strengthen their community through a historical narrative. Although “the House of Dreams” seems to be an ideal place for them, Hijras suffer from their social position as outsiders and insiders at the same time. Moreover, Hijras have suffered from people’s negative view of them, the unethical treatment of the surgeon in sex reassignment surgery, and the power struggle and conflict between old and new generation Hijras in “the House of Dreams.” Later, Anjum leaves “the House of Dreams” to live in the graveyard where she sets up the Jannat Guest House, or Paradise. The Jannat Guest House becomes the place where Anjum welcomes other Hijras who leave the rigid structural power of the established Hijra Gharanas.8 With Anjum’s desire to be liberated from heteronormative society and the hierarchical system, she comes to live within the territory of the graveyard, where she forms connections with other Hijras.

One of the characters, Nimmo, another Hijra with whom Anjum lives, relates the experience of being a Hijra to the conflict between India and Pakistan, linking the gender binary to the violent partition of the two countries. Through presenting us with a character who defies the gender binary, Roy invites readers to see past not only the strict, artificial categories that separate masculine and feminine—but also, by extension, those that separate Hindu from Muslim, Indian from Pakistani. In a way, Anjum embodies the concept of coexistence, by allowing two genders considered to be fundamentally opposite to coexist within her. By characterizing this as a special, and even sacred, identity, Roy demonstrates the power that comes from embracing difference rather than seeking to destroy it.

3)Environmental concern in the novel/ Ecofeminist study:-

Women and environment share a close bond. They care and nurture each other. Both have

the inherent capacity to flourish in a conducive atmosphere. Literature which mirrors life

has a huge say in producing content which discusses topics related to environment.Several women writers like Margaret Atwood, Anita Desai, Kiran, Desai and Arundhati Roy have written extensively about environment in their novels. In India, Arundhati Royis among the prominent contemporary fiction writers who is also a staunch environmentalist.

The Ministry of Utmost Happiness (TMUH), Roy demonstratesa penchant to discuss issues related to the environment and the destruction caused to itthrough human greed. Seasons, rivers, dams, polluted environment in cities, factories thatdestroy natural resources are common themes. Both imaginary and real places in her novels are characterized by the vivid imagery of nature and the surrounding environment, thus making it a recurring theme in her fictional works providing a non-fictional angle to story-telling.

In The Ministry of Utmost Happiness, Roy has these lines as her opening:

"At magic hour, when the sun has gone but the light has not, armies of flying foxes unbinge

themselves from the Banyan trees in the old graveyard and drift across the city like smoke. When the bats leave, the crows come home. Not all the din of their homecoming fills the silence left by the sparrows that have gone missing, and the old white-backed vultures…that have been wiped out. The vultures died of diclofenac poisoning."

The harsh reality of how the behaviour of humans is affecting the environment and destroying the lives of birds and animals which are as much a part of the living community in this earth is elaborated by the author. This is the theme which runs through the entire novel. We find a description of the river in The Ministry of Utmost Happiness. As Tilowalks near the riverfront and stopped on a bridge, she ‘watched a man row a circular raft

built with old mineral-water bottles and plastic jerrycans across the thick, slow, filthy river. Buffaloes sank blissfully into the black water. On the pavement vendors sold lush melons and sleek green cucumbers grown in pure factory effluent’ (TMUH 234). Giving a true picture of the havoc caused by the river Jhelum, in Kashmir, during the floods, Roy

writes: ‘When the Jhelum rose and breached its banks, the city disappeared. Whole

housing colonies went underwater. Army camps, torture centres, hospitals, courthouses,

police stations – all went down. Houseboats floated over what had once been market

places’ (TMUH 264).

Hence Roy, an active participant of several social causes, places similar occurrences in

her novels too. The Bhopal gas tragedy is recounted in The Ministry of Utmost Happiness.The struggle of survivors “to demand compensation: clean water and medical care for themselves and the generations of deformed babies who were born after the gas leak” is presented along with related issues plaguing the country and its environment.

The pollution choking the capital city of Delhi and causing massive havoc is elaborated in

detail in the novel. The marked differences between the ‘haves’ and ‘have-nots’ is

discussed. ‘On the city’s industrial outskirts, in the miles of bright swamp tightly compacted with refuse and colourful plastic bags, where the evicted had been ‘re-settled’, the air was chemical and the water poisonous. Clouds of mosquitoes rose from thick green ponds’ (TMUH 100).

4) narrative patern in novel:-

The narrative pattern of ‘The Ministry of Utmost Happiness' is very hard and tough to understand. Because it is not easy to understand Roy’s technique of writing.A major criticism that has arisen about the narrative of the novel is about it‟s over expository nature.

The narratives are too explanatory and direct that it leaves no subtext for the readers to chew on. The whole narration in done in the form of a heap of information packets that the reader is often left confused and bored.

Instead of footnotes, each and every detail is over explained in the novel, leaving no space for the readers imagination or curiosity, for e.g. explanation is given for the festival dussehra and Bollywood legends, not to speak of the Mughal history, which leaves the novel close-ended. But thematically the novel is open-ended. Character development is lost to the convenience of listing out the litany of corruptions of the system, as Roy is keen to include characters from each sphere through various narrative technique to drive home her message eloquently. Thus the novel gives the quotient of influence more value over that of pleasure or entertainment.

Thus the main stream of the narrative builds up the dystopian society, giving the readers an

apocalyptical warning, whereas in the undercurrent Roy creates a utopia, build up by the rejects of the society under the guidance of Anjum. Miss Jebeen the second or Miss Udaya Jabeen is the ultimate diptych link in the narrative, connecting both halves of the dystopia, and is considered as a savior, who would help in the propagation of the maneuver of empathy, which in turn shows Roy‟s hope in the future generation, unlike her tone in The End of Imagination.

The first half of the story is said in the third person omnipresent narrator who details the life of Anjum and the people associated with her. The second part altogether starts without a clue with Biplab Das as the narrator, introduced as „The Landlord‟ by the title, and later as Hobart Garson (the name by which Tilo called him since he acted out that role in their skit). Thus this part of the narrative is subjective and biased as seen by the evidence, “Or at least that‟s the way I see it”  leading to an unreliable narration.

Conclusion:-

 In nutshell we can say that The Ministry Of Utmost Happiness is as much a heartbreaking tale of love, friendship and family; as it is an eye opener to the disastrous political situations in India, corruption, the prevailing caste and religious prejudices and terrorism and the never ending fight for Azadi (freedom) in Kashmir.

Because of the controversial subjects addressed in the book, many are sure to criticise the book. With the state that our country is in right now, we need more bold authors to come up with such books. This is a must read for every single Indian out there as many a youth are either blinded by the senseless political parties that they support or basking in the safety of their metropolitan environment.

References:-

Ann Theres Joy. " Seaming a Shattered Story: Roy‟s Narrative Patterns in the Ministry of Utmost Happiness‟."Quest Journals Journal of Research in Humanities and Social Science, vol. 06, no.12, 2018, pp. 20-23

Das, Shruti. “Trauma and Transgender Space in Arundhati Roy’s the Ministry of Utmost Happiness.” University of Bucharest Review. Literary and Cultural Studies Series, vol. 9, no. 2, 2020, pp. 44–53., doi:10.31178/ubr.9.2.5. 

Roy, Arundhati. The Ministry of Utmost Happiness. 2017.

Suleman, Danish. "Political and Gender Issues in Arundhati Roy’s "TheMinistry of Utmost Happiness"Masalah Politik dan Gender dalam Arundhati Roy "The Ministryof Utmost Happiness"." ReserchGate (2020): 8.

Thank you....

learning outcomes: Research and Dissertation writing Workshop

Hello readers....

We have a paper on the Dissertation writing and research writing.  So regarding for that our professor Dr. Dilip Sir arranged one workshop on that topic.

On 4 January we have a workshop and resources person was Prof. Dilip sir and Dr. Clement Ndoricimpa. It was an amazing session. We got the solution of our confusion regarding the dissertation writing. Personally  I have so many questions and I got that the answers in that workshop.

Learning outcomes:-

This session help us a lot to understand the actual meaning of the research and Dissertation writing. We think that there is no big deal to research something and make a  research paper. But I got a proper idea that what we shall do in our dissertation writing. How to create a problem related our topic and how to find a gap and how to reached at our own conclusion.When students are told to conduct a research and write a dissertation, they sometimes do not know where to begin, what is involved in research, what steps they must follow, what structure a dissertation must have, what argumentation style they may adopt, etc. Indeed, doing a research and writing may be daunting to students. This may be because of the complexity and the technicality involved in research and in writing a dissertation.

Objective of the this workshop:-

1)understand what is involved in research and the steps that are adopted in research;

2)identify an appropriate research topic;

3)select and define a research problem

4)select appropriate research design and methods

5)organize and write a dissertation

6)understand the style of argumentation

“Research” is an organized, scientific and systematic investigation of truths about a particular subject or about things that no-one else knew (Walliman, 2011).

Research is systematic because it follows certain steps that are logically connected.

In workshop reserch mention five steps about the how conduct the dissertation writing:-

1)understanding the nature of the problem to be studied and identifying the related areas of knowledge;

2)reviewing literature to understand how others have approached or dealt with the problem;

3)collecting data in an organized and controlled manner so as to arrive at valid decision;

4) analysing data appropriate to the problem; 

5)Drawing conclusions and making generalizations.

Above steps are really hopeful to write a dissertation.

I find one difficulty how to define and finding the research problem. It's little bit difficult to move ahead with that difficulties.Research problem refers to some difficulties which a researcher identifies in the context of either a theoretical or a practical situation and wants to find solution or explanation for the difficulties. A research problem is based on a question, curiosity, uncertainty, unresolved controversy in the mind of the research regarding some current issues. The simplest way to formulate a research problem is to ask a question. This might be quite abstract in nature, so will require to be broken down into sub-questions that can be practically investigated.

For better understanding see this example:-

1)Are novelists considered cultural historians?

This question can be broken down into:

1)What constitute cultural historiography? (Investigating the concept of cultural historiography?)

2)What methods of investigating cultural historiography are there? (Exploring different perspectives on cultural historiography- i.e. methods and results from other studies on cultural historiography)

3)What historical message do selected novels conveys? How is this message conveyed? (Investigating the structure and the historical message conveyed in selected novels)

4)How do the structure and the message in selected novels match up with the concepts and the methods of investigating cultural historiography? 

So this type researcher will break down thier questions.

The structure of a dissertation:-

Introduction

Literature review

Research methods/theoretical framework for literary studies.

Interpretation and discussion of the findings

Conclusion.

1)Introduction:-

The purpose of the introduction is to attract the attention of the reader. The introduction tends to follow a particular pattern of organization. 

It comprises three stages: 

1)Report of the object of the study/establish territory. In this stage, the writer describes the topic of the study as important and as requiring investigation.

2)Describing previous studies/establish niche. In this stage, the writer briefly reviews previous studies to identify gaps. In other words, the writer describes the problem to be investigated.

3)Introducing your own study/occupying the niche. In this stage, the writer states the objectives of the study and formulate research questions or hypotheses.

 Literature review:-

The review of previous studies is important. In this stage, the writer critically evaluates previous studies. An example of an evaluative literature review is provided above..

Research methods/theoretical framework for literary studies:-

Research methods state the methods employed in the collection and analysis of the data, while theoretical framework explains the theory within which a literary text is interpreted. 

Interpretation and discussion of the findings:-

Read what was discussed earlier

Conclusion:-

The conclusion discusses key findings, states the implications of the study and raises questions for further research.

So it was all over good session. And yes it's really helpful to us to write a dissertation.

We are grateful to Dr. Dilip Barad sir arranging such a informative session.

Thank you...

Learning Outcome : Translation Studies

Hello readers...

On 3rd January 2022 we have  workshop on practical translation by Dr.vishal Bhadani sir. 

We have a paper in our syllabus of : Comparative Literature and Translation Studies so this workshop is for that Beacuse it helps us in our better understanding on that paper.

It was the best session on translation studies. When I heard the first time about the translation at that time I was thinking that it's not a big deal.

એમાં શું મોટી વાત છે ? dictionary છે , google છે...it's help us but when i attend thay session than I realised that it's not an easy to translate anything.

Vishal Bhadani :-

He is the director at International_Center_for_Applied_Gandhian_Studies. He is a very good translator.He has translated many books from Gujarati to English such as અકૂપાર - The Blue Marble , તિમિરપંથી - The Pilgrims of Darkness.Apart from this he has translated many books.

Vishal sir said that "Translation is mental gymnastics."

It was an amazing session. He presented his translator journey as his love story.He is a very creative person. He gave a seven metaphor for better understanding. And also talk about the myths on the translation studies.

So let's see what kind of learning outcomes from that workshop:-

1) Has your understanding of translation improved?

Yes my understanding of translation is improved after this workshop. Before that workshop I think that translation of any text it's easy that if we have proper dictionary and proper sense that we can do it but I was wrong.  In the first session sir talk about the how his love story started with translation. And he very significantly explained all that approaches. 

Gayatri Spivak said,

"Translation is the closest reading of text".

 

And yes I have one believe that all we can  translate all the words but I was wrong. It's difficult to find a perfect meaning of some religious words and some ancient words. For that we have to go for another search in deeply.  

They gave one example like:

1) ડામ દેવો:-

There is no perfect meaning of this word ડામ on Google.

For that we have to go for sardar patel's biography because in thier childhood they faced that problem. So that's the thing. 

It's really amazing session which is totally changed my mindset towards the translation studies.

2) મા તે મા બીજા બધા વનવગડા ના વા:-

There is no change in the translation on Google.

Sir translated this sentence like...

Mother is Mother બાકી બધું other

2) Can you write about translation in terms of metaphors? 

Yes we can. Sir gave a seven metaphors and it's help us to understand translation in better way. Metaphors like nature, mythology, epic, culture, music.

1] The Moon :- 

The moon's calmness is the translation of the sun's light. And that's like translation of any text is the reflection of real text .

2] Ganesha's head :- 

This is the very significant metaphor it's reflecting that to put the similar thing instead of the original; it means we can use the similar words in place of the original words. That looks similar to the original. 

3] Kevat :- 

We know that famous scene of Rama and Kevat. So Rama is a text and that woman is a dictionary and kevat is a translator. It means while translating you need the help of a dictionary.

4] Western - Eastern Culture :- 

Exchange of one another's culture. It means that while translating any of text we accept that culture of anywhere.

5)Chess_Cat :-

 Be a cat who sit infront of chess like when you try  translated something than you have to decide the next step of your move.

6) Music Notation:-

There is rythem in music like સા રે ગા મા પા ધા ની સા. we have to translate some songs than we don't sing in that rythem it will change in translation.

7) Panghat:-

This is picture you see the both side evil and good side. So in the translation we have to careful about the words.

3) What according to you is the most difficult aspect of practical translation?

 I find most difficult aspect is to find a most significant word instead of real word in the text. It's happen that we not find a proper meaning of particular word in the dictionary and Google also. So that's thing I find difficult in the translation.

4) learning outcome from the workshop :- 

It was an amazing session. We really learnt a lot from this session.

Translation is an epistemological excercise.

(Science of Knowledge)

In practical translation you have to play with words. 

Sir said that "It's neck of translation."

You have to be poetic.

In the machine translation there is lack of playfulness. You can't play with words.

 first thing is that translation doesn't seem to work in the one single field.:

There is various fields like:

1)Humanities and fine Arts

2)Journalism and mass media 

3)Commerce

4)law

5)Education

6)Science

7)Social work

8)Engineering

9)Architecture

10)Management

Sir suggested some reading website :

1)scroll.com.in

2) The wire

3)The Washington Post

4)Big think

5)MIT

6) Service Space

In sir's translation he find some ancient words and it's difficult to find their meaning so he used the visuals for some words:-

1) ગણેશિયો

2) દંગો

3) ભારંડ

4) નેહડો

5) કરમણ

G.N.Devi in his article mention that..

In western metaphysics translation is an excile , a fall from the origin and the mythical excile.

We also aware about myths about translation:

1)Untranslatability 

2)Translation is a small industry

3)Most translators translate book

4)Machine translation is crushing the demand for human translation

5)Translation is either beautiful or faithful. 

So these are all myths, there is scope in the translation field, machines can not translate regional words. So my understanding of translation has improved. 

Sir also gave sentence for translation in study:-

1) મે મારી બેન ને પરણાવી.

2) જે આનંદ બધા સાથે વેહચતો નથી એ અપૂર્ણ છે.

                                            - Shree Aurobindo

3)ઝેર તો પીધા છે જાણી જાણી

4) મારા લોકભારતી ના શિક્ષણે મારી કેળવણી કરી.

So I would request you try to translate this sentences. 

So it was an amazing session. We really learnt a lot from that workshop.

Thank you to Vishal sir providing a unique perspective. And we can also grateful to Dilip sir for arranging such a wonderful workshop.

 Some glimpse:-

Thank you.....

Documenting Sources_Research_Methodology

Hello readers...

we have a paper on Research Methodology. In that we have a unit on the Documentation. Our medam gave a task on that we have to explore that documenting sources. So in this blog i would like to about the Documenting sources.

So let's see what is the MLA and its main context.

What is MLA?

MLA stands for the Modern Language Association, an organization that focuses on language and literature.

Depending on which subject area your class or research focuses on, your professor may ask you to cite your sources in MLA style. This is a specific way to cite, following the Modern Language Association's guidelines. There are other styles, such as APA format and Chicago citation style, but MLA format is often used for literature, language, liberal arts, and other humanities subjects. This guide extensively covers this format but is not associated with the organization.

What is MLA Citing?

The Modern Language Association Handbook is in its 9th edition and standardizes the way scholars document their sources and format their papers. When everyone documents their sources and papers in the same way, it is simple to recognize and understand the types of sources used for a project. Readers of your work will look at your citations not only to understand them but possibly to explore them as well.

When you're borrowing information from a source and placing it in your research or assignment, it’s important to give credit to the original author. This is done by creating an MLA citation. Depending on the type of information you're including in your work, you may place citations in the body of your project and in a works-cited list at the end of your project.

The handbook explains how to create MLA citations. This page summarizes the information in the handbook’s 9th edition.

There is also a section below on a recommended way to create an MLA header. These headers appear at the top of your assignment’s pages. Check with your instructor on whether they prefer a certain MLA format for the header.

What is MLA Format?

The 9th edition is the most recent and updated version for MLA citations. Released in April 2021, the citation format differs slightly from previous versions. This update follows the 2016 update for the 8th edition that contained many significant changes from previous editions.

For the 8th edition, the biggest difference and most exciting update was the use of one standard format for all source types. In previous versions, scholars were required to locate the citation format for the specific source that they used. There were different formats for books, websites, periodicals, and so on. After 2016, using one universal MLA citation format allowed scholars to spend less time trying to locate the proper format to document their sources and focus more on their research.

Other updates included the addition of “containers.” A container provides details on a work contained within a larger work. For example, books contain chapters, albums contain songs, and journals contain journal articles. The source is the larger work, such as a website, while the container is a smaller work within that source, such as a short story on the website.

MLA now encourages you to add DOIs or URLs to citations. Use a DOI instead of a URL when it’s available. According to the MLA 9th edition, you can usually leave out http:// or https:// from URLs unless you want to hyperlink them. For DOIs, use http:// or https:// before the DOI: https://doi.org/xx.xxxx/xxx.xxxx.xxxx).

Social media pseudonyms and usernames can replace the real name of the author. Volume and issue numbers are now abbreviated as “vol.” and “no.” Cities of publication and the source’s medium (such as print or web) are no longer included in citations. For academic presses/publishers, with the words “university” or “press,” shorten “university” to “U”, and “press” to “P” (Cambridge UP). Lowercase seasons when using them in the date field of a citation (spring 2021 not Spring 2021).

Bibliography vs. Works Cited - What's the Difference?

You may have heard the two terms, "Bibliography" and "Works Cited" thrown around interchangeably. The truth is that they are two different words with two completely different meanings.

A bibliography is a list of sources that the writer recommends for further reading. A works-cited list is a list of sources that were included in the author's writing.

Want to suggest some books and websites to your reader? Create an MLA format bibliography by creating a list of full citations and label the page as "Bibliography."

Did you use any quotes or place any paraphrases in your writing? Create in-text citations and place them in the body of your work. Then, create a list of full citations and place them at the end of the project. Label the page as "Works Cited."

The good news is that references in MLA bibliography format and regular works-cited lists are structured the exact same way.

Documenting Sources: MLA

Formatting the Works Cited Page (MLA):-

Whenever you incorporate outside sources into your own writing, you must provide both in-text citations (within the body of the paper) and full citations (in the works cited page). The in-text citations point your reader toward the full citations in the works cited page.

That’s why the first bit of information in your in-text citation (generally, the author’s name; if no name is provided, the title of the article/book/webpage) should directly match up with the beginning of your works cited entry for that source. For further information about in-text citations, please read “Formatting In-Text Citations.”

For example, let’s say I have a quote from Benedict Anderson’s Imagined Communities in my research paper. Within the body of the paper, following the quote, I include the following in-text citation: (Anderson 56). This information points to the book’s entry in my works cited page:

Anderson, Benedict. Imagined Communities: Reflections on the Origin and Spread of Nationalism. London: Verso, 2006. Print.

When your reader sees the in-text citation in your essay, she may decide that the source might be valuable for her own research. When she looks at the works cited page, she can easily locate the source (because the works cited page is alphabetized and because she has the in-text citation as her referent) and then can use the full citation to retrieve a copy of the source for her own research. But aside from providing the reader with resources for her own research, the works cited page serves another function: it establishes the writer’s credibility. If a writer fails to include in-text citations and/or a works cited page, that writer has plagiarized because he or she has neglected to provide the publication information of the source. In addition, when a reader locates undocumented information in an essay, she will likely think that the information was made up by the writer or that the information was stolen from a source, or plagiarized. And when a reader peruses a writer’s works cited page, she can see the types of sources used by the writer, assessing those sources in terms of their credibility. For instance, if a reader reads my works cited page and sees I cite sources from university presses such as Oxford UP and Cambridge UP, she will know that I’ve incorporated credible sources into my research paper. Thus, including both in-text citations and a works cited page in a research paper provides the writer with ethos, or credibility.

Now let’s take a look at how to properly format a works cited page according to MLA guidelines:

1)Placement:-

According to MLA style guidelines, the works cited page should appear after the body of your paper and any accompanying endnotes. It should begin on a new page, and the pagination should continue from the body of the paper. In the above example, the works cited page begins on page 38, which means that the essay concluded on page 37.

2)General format:-

The works cited page should be double-spaced throughout. The first line of each entry should be flush with the left margin; if the entry extends more than one line, ensuing lines should be indented 1/2 inch from the left margin. The first page of the works cited list should have the title “Works Cited,” not “Bibliography.” The works cited title should appear in the same manner as the paper’s title: capitalized and centered—not bolded, within quotation marks, italicized, underlined, or in a larger font.

3)Entries:-

The entries should be alphabetized based on the author’s last name. According to MLA guidelines, author names come first in an entry, then titles, then the publication information (city of publication, publisher, and date of publication), and then the type of media—the details for different types of sources vary, but this is the general structure followed. Note that if the city is not “well-known” and there is more than one city with that name, unlike New York and London, then the state or territory should be included after the city, e.g., “Roswell, GA: 2006.” If no name is provided for a given source, the title of the work/webpage will take the place of the author’s last name and should still be placed in its proper alphabetical location. Also note that “university” and “press” are always abbreviated “U” and “P” in works cited entries.

Here are some guidelines for commonly used sources:

Single-Authored Book

Last Name, First Name. Title of Book. Place of Publication: Publisher, Date of Publication. Type of media.

Example:

Bratlinger, Patrick. Rule of Darkness: British Literature and Imperialism, 1830–1914. Ithaca: Cornell UP,

1988. Print.

Book with Multiple Authors

Last Name, First Name (of first author listed), and First Name Last Name (of second author, etc.). Title

of Book. Place of Publication: Publisher, Date of Publication. Type of media.

Example:

Sabherhagen, Fred, and James V. Hart. Bram Stoker’s Dracula: A Francis Ford Coppola Film. New York:

Signet, 1992. Print.

Article or Chapter in an Edited Collection (or Textbook)

Last Name, First Name. “Article Title.” Title of Book. Ed. First Name Last Name (of Editor). Place of

Publication: Publisher, Date of Publication. Page Range of Article. Type of Media.

Example:

Vieregge, Quentin. “Writing as Process.” Negotiating Writing Spaces. Ed. Jennifer Yirinec and Lauren

Cutlip. Plymouth, MI: Hayden-McNeil, 2011. 57–59. Print.

Article in a Print Journal

Last Name, First Name. “Article Title.” Title of Journal. Volume #.Issue # (Date of publication): Page Range

of Article. Print.

Example:

Rogers, Pat. “Crusoe’s Home.” Essays in Criticism 24.4 (Oct. 1974): 375–90. Print.

Journal Article Accessed Using an Electronic Database

Last Name, First Name. “Article Title.” Journal Name Volume #.Issue # (Date of publication): Page Range

of Article. Database. Web. Date of Access.

Example:

Lamont, Rose C. “Coma versus Comma: John Donne’s Holy Sonnets in Edson’s WIT.” The Massachusetts

Review 40.4 (Winter 1999–2000): 569–75. JSTOR. Web. 30 April 2012.

Article Accessed from an Online Journal

Last Name, First Name. “Article Title.” Journal Name Volume #.Issue # (Date of publication): n.pag. Web.

Date of Access.

Example:

Haynsworth, Leslie. “All the Detective’s Men: Binary Coding of Masculine Identity in the Sherlock Holmes

Stories.” Victorians Institute Journal 38 (2010): n.pag. Web. 16 May 2012.

Article from a Webpage

Last Name, First Name (if given). “Title of Webpage.” Website Title. Publisher of website (often found at the bottom

of the page), date of last update. Web. Date of Access. See (URL is only necessary if you think your

reader won’t easily be able to locate the webpage).

Example:

“Opening Night: Wit Starring Cynthia Nixon.” Broadway.com. Broadway.com, Inc., 2012. Web. 12 Feb. 2012.

Entire Website

Website Title. Publisher of website, date of last update. Date of Access. See (URL is only necessary if you

think your reader won’t easily be able to locate the webpage).

Example:

Broadway.com. Broadway.com, Inc., 2012. Web. 12 Feb. 2012.

Click here for more details

Watch this video for better understanding:-

Work cited:-

MLA Handbook. 8th ed., Modern Language Association, 2016.

MLA Handbook. 9th ed., Modern Language Association of America, 2021.