Thinking activity : The Joys of Motherhood by Buchi Emecheta

Hello Readers...

This blog is the part of my thinking activity in Google classroom. We have paper on African literature. In this blog I would like to talk about one African novel The Joys of Motherhood by Buchi Emecheta. In this we have to ponder any one point in detail which was given by Yesha mam.

Let's throw some light on the author and Novel:-

Buchi Emecheta:-

Florence Onyebuchi "Buchi" Emecheta OBE (21 July 1944 – 25 January 2017) was a Nigerian-born novelist, based in the UK from 1962,[1] who also wrote plays and an autobiography, as well as works for children. She was the author of more than 20 books, including Second Class Citizen (1974), The Bride Price (1976), The Slave Girl (1977) and The Joys of Motherhood (1979). Most of her early novels were published by Allison and Busby, where her editor was Margaret Busby.

About Novel:-

The Joys of Motherhood is a novel written by Buchi Emecheta. It was first published in London, UK, by Allison & Busby in 1979 and was reprinted in Heinemann's African Writers Series in 2008. The basis of the novel is the "necessity for a woman to be fertile, and above all to give birth to sons".[1] It tells the tragic story of Nnu-Ego, daughter of Nwokocha Agbadi and Ona, who had a bad fate with childbearing. This novel explores the life of a Nigerian woman, Nnu Ego. Nnu's life centres on her children and through them, she gains the respect of her community. Traditional tribal values and customs begin to shift with increasing colonial presence and influence, pushing Ego to challenge accepted notions of "mother", "wife", and "woman". Through Nnu Ego's journey, Emecheta forces her readers to consider the dilemmas associated with adopting new ideas and practices against the inclination to cleave to tradition. In this novel, Emecheta reveals and celebrates the pleasures derived from fulfilling responsibilities related to family matters in child bearing, mothering, and nurturing activities among women. However, the author additionally highlights how the 'joys of motherhood' also include anxiety, obligation, and pain.

👉Motherhood – game of power and control (“Buchi Emecheta's The Joy of Motherhood discusses motherhood in the Ibo society as a

power game of desire and control)

Buchi Emecheta’s The Joy of Motherhood is one of the most complex Buildungsroman novels written in colonial Nigeria across the early- to mid-twentieth century, which describes the protagonist’s journey of a twenty –five years period. The author has underlined the protagonist, Nnu Ego’s escalation from a strong tradition-bound character to a feminist. Her efforts for proving the validity through motherhood is saddened at every turn, unfortunately, subverted by a multifarious and complex set of contradictions she finds herself incapable of the bargain. The novel is dedicated to all mothers which open with the first chapter “The Mother” and end with the last chapter, “The Canonized Mother”. It offers offers a scathing analysis of patriarchal, colonial curtailment faced by mothers like Nnu  Ego,  who’s  societal worth  based on,  first,  her ability to  bear children.

Motherhood was the main theme of the novel. The story began with the motherhood of Ona.She wanted to give a male child to her father. It was not fulfilled by her. So, the motherhood did not give her joy. She also died soon. Her role as a mother was less in the novel. Nnu Ego was the protagonist of the novel. She longed for motherhood in the beginning. Later, she became mother foseven children. The joy that she experienced during her first child birth was not found in her later delivery. She felt relieved especially, when a girl child died soon after it’s birth. Thus, the joy of motherhood becomes ironic. The happiness was turned a relief after some time. 

The title of the novel “The Joys of Motherhood” was ironic. The experiences of the mothers in the story Ona and Nnu Ego proved that though motherhood is a blessing and joyful experience, it is not giving the same joy and happiness for the mothers throughout the novel. She considered motherhood as joy. She felt that when she delivered her first son after so much treatment and shame.

The joy of being a mother was not long lasting. The joy she earned as a mother was less, while comparing to the turmoil she had faced in her life. The motherhood attainment itself was a great challenge for her. The challenge prevailed in bringing up the children. She was expecting a return in her old age from her children’s side. But, that was not offered by her children till her death. After her he death, they had given her a grand burial. It showed the more sorrow ridden motherhood of Nnu Ego and not the joys as it found in the title. So, the title of the novel The Joys of Motherhood is considered as ironic. Emecheta  employs  the  technique  of  mother’s  introspection in  which  the  protagonist realized that she has not brought fulfilment in the family. Found herself as a doubly colonized mother, Nnu Ego expresses the sufferings as well as sacrifice in her statement just after the birth of her twin daughters. Being caught in the web of childbirth and complicated situation, she had one such epiphanic moment. The psychological temperament and grief of a mother expressed in the following  statement  which presents  the Nigerian  women’s  response to  the widespread predicament. In her monologue, she says, “God, when will you create a woman who  will  be fulfilled  in herself,  a  full  human  being, not  anybody’s appendage?  I was  born alone, and I shall die alone. What have I gained from all this? Yes, I have many children, but what do I have to feed them on? On my life. I have to work myself to the bone to look after them. I have to give them my all. And if I am lucky enough to die in peace, I even have to give them my soul. They will worship my dead spirit to provide for them: it will be hailed as a good spirit so long as there are plenty of yams and children in the family, but if anything should go wrong, if a young wife does not conceive or there is a famine, my dead spirit will be blamed. When will I be free?”(JOM. p.186)

Without motherhood, Nnu Ego feels empty and struggled very hard to be a mother. Emecheta wants to transmit the point that bearing more than five or six children do not mean that a mother is going to be prosperous in her old age. She examines the institution of motherliness, unpleasant experiences mixed up in motherliness, and its shock on the minds of the Nigerian women. According to Katherine Frank, "The complete futility of motherhood that we find in The Joys of Motherhood is the most heretical and radical aspect of Emecheta's vision of the African Women".3The chapter titles, "The Mother," "The Mother's Mother," "The Mother's Early Life," "First Shock of Motherhood," “A Mothers Investment”, ‘A Failed Woman” etc., describes the ups and down in the destiny of Nnu Ego. The author has ended the novel by giving ironical title to its chapter as “The Canonized Mother”. Nnu Ego had to experience patriarchal slavery throughout her life and died in solitude. All mothers, Ona, Akadu and Nnu Ego, have been victimized in the patriarchal and traditionally strong Ibo society. But Emecheta’s Nnu Ego challenges the conservative conception that producing numerous children will give a woman much ecstasy.

Thank you.....

Thinking activity: The Only Story

Hello Readers...

This blog is the part of my thinking activity in Google classroom. This blog is about the one famous memory novel The Only Story by Julian Barns. In this we will  have to ponder and explain the some points which is given by our professor Dr Dilip Barad sir.

So first of all let's throw some light on the novel and author:-

Julian Barns:-

Julian Patrick Barnes (born 19 January 1946) is an English writer. He won the Man Booker Prize in 2011 with The Sense of an Ending, having being shortlisted three times previously with Flaubert's Parrot, England, England, and Arthur & George. Barnes also writes crime fiction under the pseudonym Dan Kavanagh.[1] In addition to novels, Barnes has published collections of essays and short stories.

The Only Story :-

Would you rather love the more, and suffer the more; or love the less, and suffer the less? That is, I think, finally, the only real question.

(The Only Story)

The Only Story is a novel by Julian Barnes. It is his thirteenth novel, and was published on 1 February 2018.

The short (273 pp.) novel is the life story of Paul Roberts, who we first meet as a 19-year-old Sussex University undergraduate returning to his parents' house in the leafy southern suburbs of London (Sutton, in Surrey, is suggested as a model.) The time is the early sixties, and there are a few references to current events. Paul joins the tennis club, which is the one of the few opportunities such places offer for socialising. In a random-draw mixed doubles, he is thrown together with Susan MacLeod, a 48-year-old married woman with two daughters older than Paul. Improbably, Paul and Susan become lovers and she eventually leaves her family to set up house with Paul in South London. Having nothing to do but a little housekeeping, Susan soon descends into alcoholism and dementia. Paul departs and embarks on foreign travels, picking up jobs and women at random.

Paul is a quintessentially alienated character. With no interest in either politics or religion, and no particular ambition, he takes life as it comes. As he narrates his life in this book, he freely admits that memory is unreliable and he may not be telling us the truth.

Points to ponder:-

1) Memory Novel - Structurally as well as thematically:-

The novel majorly talks about the theme of memory. ‘The only Story’ is a memory novel. It is based on the memory of Paul Roberts. Sometimes memory should be happy or sometimes it should be something that is unbreakable. This novel wildly talks about how Memory sorts and shifts according to the demands made on it by the rememberer. We come to know four aspects of memory. 

 In the novel the narration of Paul connects with this memory dilemma. Plot of the novel woving around the memory of the novel. He might be hiding something more terrible or we can say ’Trauma in Memory’. It might be possible that he understood that his grief is more than anything and to escape from that he narrates things in a different way. We also find the story of Eric and his love affair. So it is the best example of a memory novel. Paul suddenly talks about him. Eric had a relationship with American women and Eric was ready to leave earthly things but at the moment he realised that he was going the wrong way and he saved himself but Paul was not able to do this. 

2) ‘The only Story’ as Postmodern Novel:-

If we look at this novel as a postmodern novel, we come to know that Postmodernists rejected the view which culminated with realism, that literature was a reliable source of universal truths, though such a view was never before questioned. Thus, 'The Only Story' questions the memory narration of Paul who, earlier in the novel, considers himself as a truth-teller.

It seems that Modernists also believed in the cult of the genius, which they inherited from the Romantics, according to which artists were the elite, hypersensitive persons who can grasp the ultimate truth, which was another idea of modernists that postmodernists rejected. Thus, the protagonist through which 'The Only Story' is narrated has no grasp over the objective truth and neither is he a hypersensitive soul. Through the narrator, Julian Barnes rejects the idea that writers are geniuses who have grasped the universal truth.Modernists still pretended that their novels were not constructs but that they somehow revealed the truth, which again the postmodernist challenged. Even the notion of consciousness, personality, mind, were rejected by the postmodernists, who claimed that consciousness was rooted in language which describes nothing but itself according to them. Thus, the world view constructed by the word ‘love’ is questioned in this novel. The word ‘love’ is supposed to give us a worldview of happiness, togetherness, blissfulness, idyllic, peaceful, harmonious, joyful, ecstatic, heavenly life. In this novel, ‘love’ shatters family life, it brings pity and anger, it makes people alcoholic and liars.

Most of us have only one story to tell. I don’t

mean that only one thing happens to us in our lives:there are countless events, which we turn into countless stories. But there’s only one that matters,only one finally worth telling, this is mine (Barnes,2018, p. 13).

3)Theme of Love (Passion + Suffering):-

“Would you rather love the more, and suffer the more; or love the less, and suffer the less? That is, I think, finally, the only real question. You may point out – correctly – that it isn’t a real question. Because we don’t have a choice. If we had the choice, then there would be a question. But we don’t, so there isn’t. Who can control how much they love? If you can control it, then it isn’t love. I don’t know what you call it instead, but it isn’t love.” (TOS)

This novel is a love story, which talks about the theme of love that love turns into passion and later on sufferings. Most of the novel's quotes describe this theme. This novel is about nineteen years Paul Roberts and 48 years old Susan. The beginning of the novel talks about these things. Julian Barnes very passionately describes this thing. It is not only about a romantic love story. 

The protagonist of the novel Paul who becomes the victim of these things. He is a 19-year-old university student; she, a 48-year-old married woman and a mother of two; they, in London’s suburban “stockbroker belt”, sometime in the 1960s. It is not a romantic, peaceful and happy ending kind of Love. It is described the horre reality of life, Paul’s mistakes, Susan’s over-drinking, the disaster of love, Nothingness of life Paul’s sexual desire, Susan’s rigidity, and Joan’s philosophy towards life and love.

This novel talks about the failure of love and suffering in love. Joan is one of the best examples. She very idealistically represents this idea of love. Another example is Ellen and Paul’s story is at the center. Which describes that love is passionate and turns into suffering. 

“In love, everything is both true and false; it's the one subject on which it's impossible to say anything absurd.”

4)Critique of Crosswords:-

Crosswords are the symbol that is very significantly used by Jullian Barens. In this Novel two people are playing crosswords, one is mr. Gordon Macleaod and another is Joan.

In the novel protagonist Paul Roberts describes hidden aspects of these crosswords. It’s signific the leisure of British people. By playing this game people might think that they are solving the puzzles or difficulties of life. 

“Everyone in the Village, every grown-up – or rather, every middle-aged person – seemed to do crosswords: my parents, their friends, Joan, Gordon Macleod. Everyone apart from Susan. They did either The Times or the Telegraph; though Joan had those books of hers to fall back on while waiting for the next newspaper. 

If we take a one incident from the novel that

where Paul asked Joan 'Why did she cheat him in Puzzle?’ 

‘Why do you cheat at crosswords?’ 

Joan laughed loudly. ‘You cheeky bugger. I suppose Susan told you. Well, it’s a fair question, and one I can answer.’ She took another pull of her gin. ‘You see – I hope you never get there yourself – but some of us get to the point in life where we realize that nothing matters. Nothing fucking matters. And one of the few side-benefits of that is you know you’re not going to go to hell for filling in the wrong answers in the crossword. Because you’ve been to hell and back already and you know all too well what it’s like.’ Both these words in the crossword puzzle seem to signify a taunt on Paul’s middling in between Susan and Gondon’s not-so-happy married life.

5) Paul - the unreliable narrator:-

So first let's see the what is What is an Unreliable narrator? 

The fallible or unreliable narrator, on the other hand, is one whose perception, interpretation, and evaluation of the matters he or she narrates do not coincide with the opinions and norms implied by the author, which the author expects the alert reader to share. 

(MH Abrams) 

In this novel we find the unreliable narrator.Paul is the protagonist of the story. The story is based on the memory of Paul. Memory is something that is not trustworthy. We can say that it shifts according to the individual. Paul during his conversation warns the reader. Here are the quotes which discuss Paul as an Unreliable Narrator. 

“You understand, I hope, that I’m telling you everything as I remember it? I never kept a diary, and most of the participants in my story – my story! my life! – are either dead or far dispersed. So I’m not necessarily putting it down in the order that it happened. I think there’s a different authenticity to memory, and not an inferior one. Memory sorts and sifts according to the demands made on it by the rememberer."These things seem to indicate that Paul is an unreliable narrator.

6) Susan - madwoman in the attic:-

The Madwoman in the Attic: The Woman Writer and the Nineteenth-Century Literary Imagination:- 

The Madwoman in the Attic: The Woman Writer and the Nineteenth-Century Literary Imagination is a 1979 book by Sandra Gilbert and Susan Gubar, in which they examine Victorian literature from a feminist perspective. Gilbert and Gubar draw their title from Charlotte Brontë's Jane Eyre, in which Rochester's wife (née Bertha Mason) is kept secretly locked in an attic apartment by her husband.

In the novel Susan was another protagonist. If we compare the Susan with the Bertha then we find some similarities between both of them.

Bartha was suffering by her husband and here Susan is suffering from some kind of this thing. She becomes an alcoholic. She speaks lies to Paul. Somewhere she is stuck with responsibility. She was beaten by her own husband. She had extramarital affair with Paul, she somewhere wants love, some kind of warmness but she was constantly become a victim of hatred, sexual pleasure and was beaten so many times. Susan also become a victim of child abuse when she went to his uncle Hemph’s house. When finally she went with Paul there she felt lonely and that time she became alcoholic like anything. In the end, Paul also abandons her and her daughter Clara taking care of her. Susan’s character is fascinating because there is another character. The story of both Susan and her friend Joan is interesting but Joan might digest the philosophy of life. 

7)Joan - one who understood existential            enigma:-

Joan is the formal tennis partner and friend of Susan Macleod and sister of Gerald. Gerald is the ex of Susan. She is around fifty-three and she kept yeppers with her. One Ypres died and she decided never to keep them because when you are alone and you love someone whatever they were and they died at that time you feel pain as like you lose your person. Later on, she kept another name Sible. Joan is the counter character of Susan. She had digested the philosophy of life. She spent her time with sible, she drinks, smokes,d and played tennis and crosswords.

And in the second part of the story we will come across to know more about this character Joan.There is a long conversation between Paul and Joan. In the novel, there is a very fascinating incident where Paul asked her cheating in crosswords. 

‘Why do you cheat at crosswords?’ Joan laughed loudly. ‘You cheeky bugger. I suppose Susan told you. Well, it’s a fair question, and one I can answer.’ She took another pull of her gin. ‘You see – I hope you never get there yourself – but some of us get to the point in life where we realize that nothing matters. Nothing fucking matters. And one of the few side-benefits of that is you know you’re not going to go to hell for filling in the wrong answers in the crossword. Because you’ve been to hell and back already and you know all too well what it’s like.’ 

8) Whom do you think is responsible for the tragedy in the story? Explain with reasons.

There is also one theme of responsibility in the novel. If we look at the life of the main protagonist Paul at the age of seventy is not happy with life. He has described at the beginning of the story that it is his only story, which was ultimately one kind of disaster. He is the narrator of the story. He and Susan were in a relationship. When they came to a relationship Paul was so young and Susan was about forty-eight. This tragedy happened because of Paul. He has the nature to escape from an uncomfortable and tough situation. The ship of his relationship was broken because of his escape, his childishness. When his relationship was broken, he started to blame others. 

So here Paul started blaming Gordon for domestic violence so here Paul blamed that if Gordon had not acted badly with Susan this tragedy might not happen. For understanding more we have to look into the novel ‘The Sense of the Ending’ where Julian Banned gave a metaphor of ‘Link’. When we see these links then what becomes significant is Imagine in Chain on the link is breaking then who or what is responsible for that? What are the possible answers if this chain is made with metals? So here we can say that if the chain is made with qualitative metal it might not break. There is frangibility. Some links very quickly break down and some are still there. So if there is a frangibility link will be there. So here Paul also tries to question the responsibility in a different way. Paul is not so fragile to sustain. 

Thank you….....

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...