What did they actually want to assess?

This is an open letter to Chairman JKPSC and was published by the dialy Rising Kashmir. I am not trying to be a typical egotist in writing all this to you but the aim is to be faithful to one’s society and self and relate objectively what I ( and may be many others) have felt in the so called INTERVIEW PROCESS. Yes! I am referring to the interview process that was adopted for the selection of lecturers in English in Secondary Education Department for Kashmir division candidates. My interview was on the 26th Feb, 08; the last day scheduled for the job. And this is what happened:When I entered the hall, around 12:45 pm, I found three persons there: one in the central chair, other going to the bathroom that was attached to the room. I was asked to sit with my back to the third one who was busy doing some paper work. The man in the centre started with my percentage and added why I have secured less than most of the girl students. I had no answer except blaming the newly installed semester system of the university. Then he asked,” Where do you live?” “Islamabad” I said, and he started asking why it is named so and what are the famous tourist sports there and why I haven’t yet visited certain places. “What do you do”, He changed the topic and I was relaxed, expecting something reasonable. “M.Phil. from CIEFL, Hyderabad in Literary theory and Psychology: using the knowledge of personality types from psychology, we are trying to see what kind of personalities emerged in different literary movements of Twentieth century.”He immediately asked the man coming out of the bathroom who was wiping his hands with a towel to take care of me. “Oh! You are from CIEFL, I am also from the same place and now I am a member of a committee there, a great place, modeled on Oxford University, who is your guide,” asekd the new entrant. I answered all. He asked about my research ‘problem’ and I repeated the above sentence. And he ended the discussion. “Your being a CIEFLian attests to your abilities, you should try for higher education: college or university. Best of luck, you can go.” When I came out of the room all the enthusiasm and fervor associated with the day was over and I was wonder struck how on the basis of this they are going to assess my abilities and decide my fate. Mine was not a special case, there were others who where asked more casual and prosaic question than this. In some cases even the subject expert was not present. Sir, we all know (as it has been the norm in the recent past) that interview carries half the marks and it is precisely on this basis that it will be decided if an applicant is in or out. But I am afraid what happened in the process was and is not adequate for assessing the required abilities and qualities that go into the making of a really good teacher unless, the people there have some supernatural and magical powers. On the face of it, it is ridiculous; seems mockery of the process but then may be there is a method involved in it which is not apparent to us and which you alone know. I hope this is something that you would certainly take seriously and reflect upon and if need be, take an immediate action, for there are fates of the people involved in this who have been waiting for this from last five, six years and don’t have any thing else to cling to. I am extremely sorry if in my frankness I have offended you.

Death of the Teacher

Among the greatest of all services that can be rendered by men to civilization is the education and training of children so that they can shine like pearls and can add beauty to human civilization. Henry Von Dyke has said about teachers and teaching; “Ah! There you have the worst paid and the best rewarded of vocations. Do not enter it unless you love it. For the vast majority of men and women it has no promise of wealth and fame, but they to whom it is dear for its own sake are among the nobility of mankind. I sing the praise of the unknown teacher, king of himself and leader of the mankind.” This is a philosophical way of looking at the profession of teaching. Being a teacher in itself means something noble, someone endowed with exceptional faculties of heart and head, committed to the cause that he serves and capable of infinite growth and love. We have not failed as teachers, we have failed to produce them, and this is our predicament. As a rule, every educated man is a man of values. It does not mean that every literate is. We see a dichotomy prevalent in our society. We have outstanding doctors produced by prime national institutes who take away the kidneys of their patients without even telling them; brilliant engineers form the proud institutes whose bridges collapse as soon as their bills are passed; accountants whose intelligent manipulations drain out millions from the public purse; our respected civil servants are truly functioning as unquestioned emperors; politicians promise sky but do not even deliver roof. All of them have received perhaps the best education and are trained in the best institutions. This professional dishonesty is horrifying, and who is to be blamed for this. The institutes that produce them, or the teachers who teach team? Teacher is not a mere source of information, a mere transmitter: today there are books, the audio visual aids and internet services that provide bundles of information to those who need it. Thus teacher's role as the source of information is marginalized. The teacher is more important and relevant today as he has been through ages for his role in transmitting and strengthening value system. The society is becoming more materialistic and values appear to be fast vanishing. There is nothing unusual about it. Each era throws up a role model and the whole society tries to emulate this model. Vedic society produced ‘Reshi’ as model, replaced in medieval society by ‘Warrior’, and in the post independence India this was replaced by ‘Richman’. The notion of ‘Rich’ became so important that all the value systems were subordinate to it. Every one in the society is aspiring to become rich, as much as possible, and as quickly as possible. Getting rich at any cost has become the ultimate motto. Invariably this process of getting rich overnight is always at the cost of values. Our teachers are part of the same game, emulating their cherished model rather than becoming one; and their in lies the death of the teacher. All the education, rather information, they provide is aimed at making personal gains. Education to them has become a tool for personal prosperity even at the cost of others’ happiness. This is manifest in the mushrooming of coaching centers, private schools, tuition centres etc.This attitude towards the profession of teaching is inflicting serious cuts on the system of education. However, all this is not beyond cure. It can be cured. The situation would not remain like this forever. There are enough indications that our nation would awaken once again to those eternal values for which this land has stood for many centuries. We are in a transition period, during which essential values start getting strengthened and at an appropriate time appear again. Only an ideal teacher whose life reflects values can lead a society in the right direction. He has to demonstrate the essential values such as optimism, motivation, willingness to learn and teach, truth, peace, never to speak and think ill of others; creativity and ability to overcome difficult times. But the question is shall our teachers wake up and rise to the occasion. Will they come forward and contribute to the intellectual growth of the nation. A Teacher must realise that he is not a mere transmitters of knowledge; an audio cassette or a CD. He creates right conditions for the student to find his own way, allowing the growth of the student into a complete individual. Unless we change our students into complete human beings, coming out of the morass that we are in, is not possible. This is the challenge of the times.

A STYLISTIC ANALYSIS OF WILLIAM SHAKESPEAR`S SONET: WINTER

Linguistic studies have taken such rapid strides in recent years that the range is baffling to the innocent and amazingly delightful to the linguistics-oriented. Applied linguistics is concerned with many fields and subjects on Planet Earth and possibly beyond that.
A piece of literature largely depends on thought and style. The concept of style in literature is the product of abstraction in the sense that style is based on a special and unique use of language. It is just one quality contained in any piece of writing. The style of a novel, a play, an essay or a poem is only one part of its totality.


The study of style has been in use in German, French and English since the early 19th
century. In the early sixties of the 20th century M.A.K.Halliday introduced the term
'linguistic stylistics'. The main concern of descriptive linguistics is the systematic study of
that part of human behavior called language.
William Wordsworth in Lyrical Ballads (1798) suggested that poetry should deal with the experience of those living close to Nature, especially in the country. It could be "the language of conversation in the middle and lower classes of society.. "

Long before the Poet of Nature came on the scene, Shakespeare brought the language close to those who dwelt in the country. Hence my selection of this particular poem. Keeping in mind all these concepts we can attempt a lexical analysis of the poem composed in the inimitable style of Shakespeare.
Text of the poem: Winter
'When icicles hang by the wall,
And Dick the shepherd blows the nail,
And Tom bears logs into the hall,
And milk comes frozen home in pail
When blood is nipt and ways be foul,
Then nightly sings the staring owl
Tuwhoo!
Tuwhit, tuwhoo!
A merry note!
While greasy Joan doth keel the pot,
When all around the wind doth blow,
And coughing drowns the parson's saw,
And birds sit brooding in the snow,
And Marian's nose looks red and raw,
When roasted crabs hiss in the bowl
Then nightly sings the staring owl
Tuwhoo !
Tuwhit ! tuwhoo! A merry note
While greasy Joan doth keel the pot'.
The poem begins with adverb of time "when" and goes on to use 'when', 'then' and'while', a total of light occurrences. These adverbs render the idea of time and space to the narration. The place is evidently a cottage in the country.
Shakespeare the dramatist provides an interesting dramatic touch with the appearance of characters within and outside the humble house. Dick the shepherd, Tom (must be the son), Joan (of course the wife), parson and Marian. Birds, crabs and the owl complete the picture.
Nominals used for winter:
Icicles Snow Wind

A typical pastoral cottage is described with special register words :

Wall milk Nail pail Hall bowl Logs pot Greasy roasted

Language activity is related to each character:

'Dick the shepherd blows his nail'


'Tom bears logs into the house'


'Greasy Joan doth keel the pot '


The coughing parson'
Marian with a nose red and raw with cold.

In addition to human beings the poet uses the language to bring into focus other creatures like 'roasted crabs'. Even the owl and the birds are engaged in their appointed language activity.

'And birds sit brooding in the snow' 'Then nightly sings the staring owl'

'Brooding birds' and 'sings the staring owl' are alliterative as well as unusual collocations.
The poet attributes human situations like 'brooding' and 'staring' to feathered creatures.

More unusual collocations:

'greasy Joan'
'roasted crabs hissing'

Pots and pans can be greasy but here 'greasy Joan' is a picturesque presentation. Can crabs hiss in the bowl? But it is the poet's prerogative to assign any action to anyone by keeping his inventions under the spell of his language, and without offering any reason! There is a great variety of lexical items in such a short poem. Persons, objects, seasons and surroundings have been artistically blended with words and phrases. The attention of the reader is drawn with appreciation to colorful images, epithets, suitable register words and other poetic devices.

Irony as a poetic device is used in 'merry note' while the song of the owl in such

an atmosphere can hardly be merry !


There is no dearth of sounds in the poem. We find a wealth of phonological material here.But we will not go into details as this analysis is mainly confined to lexical items.
Sounds: coughing hissing tuwhoo tuhoo

In this peaceful though freezing domestic scene creeps in a touch of horror associated with the dark night.
'When blood is nipt, and ways be foul': We know the 'foul ways' are most likely to create terror into such cold, damp, dark and dreary nights. One is reminded of witches in Macbeth with their cries of 'fair is foul'.

Nine descriptive epithets, five 'winter nominals and a number of unusual collocations,
pictorial phrases,

refrains and repetitions enrich the poem with a rare beauty.

'Greasy Joan keels the pot is used twice and can be taken as the summative phrase of this poem about a peaceful, eco-fuendly household. A loving family sustained with care, cooperation and unlimited love with the parson's saw and Marian's red and raw nose complete the rural picture.

With such control, mystery and magic of language Shakespeare is rightly recognized not only as the immortal Bard of Avon but also the Bard of the whole world.





REFERENCES
Carter, Ronald, ed. 1982. Language and literature: An introductory reader in stylistics. London: Allen and Unwin.
Chapman, Raymond. 1973. Linguistics and literature: An introduction to literary stylistics. London: Amold.
Fowler, Roger, ed. 1966. Essays on style and language. London: Routledge.
Fowler, Roger. 1986. Studying literature as language. In Theo D'haen, ed. 1986. Linguistics and the study of literature. Amsterdam: Rodopl.
Freeman, Donald C., ed. 1970. Linguistics and literary style. New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, Inc.
Halliday, M.A.K. 1970. Descriptive linguistics in literary studies. In Freeman 1970.

Halliday, M.A.K., and Ruqaiya Hasan. 1976. Cohesion in

English. London: Longman.

A STYLISTIC ANALYSIS OF WILLIAM SHAKESPEAR`S SONET: WINTER

Shakespeare's Sonnet "Winter": A Stylistic Analysis

William Shakespeare's "Winter" sonnet vividly encapsulates the essence of the season with its stark imagery and portrayal of a pastoral life marked by the harsh elements. This analysis will explore the themes of seasonal change, time passing, and inner turmoil through the poem's notable use of literary devices, including imagery, personification, and symbolism.

Thematic Exploration

Seasonal Change: Shakespeare draws a clear picture of the chilling cold of winter affecting both humans and nature. His depiction is visceral, allowing the reader to feel the biting frost through his words. This change of season illustrates the passage of time and the repetition of life's cycles.

Time Passing: The poem begins with a succession of events marked by the adverb "when," suggesting a rhythmic, although cold and harsh, passage of time punctuated by daily rural activities and the predictable behaviors of wildlife during wintertime.

Inner Turmoil: While the poem presents a tableau of winter's impact on the external world, it also hints at the internal effect of such an environment, perhaps indicating a sense of discomfort or distress that can accompany the isolating cold. This subtle reflection of mood in the environment may explore the theme of inner turmoil and the human condition.

Literary Devices Analysis

Imagery: Shakespeare employs a wealth of vibrant imagery to communicate the frigid atmosphere of winter. Phrases like "icicles hang by the wall" and "milk comes frozen home in pail" evoke strong visual cues that transport the reader into the scene.

Personification: The poem personifies elements of winter, as seen with the "staring owl," which not only imbues the bird with human-like quality but also accentuates the haunting aspect of winter nights. The "greasy Joan doth keel the pot" adds a personal touch to activities, making the environment feel inhabited and lively despite the cold.

Symbolism: Icicles, frozen milk, and a red and raw nose are symbols of the penetrating cold that winter brings. These symbols encapsulate the struggle and adaptation of life in the face of nature's cycles.

Linguistic Analysis

The lexical analysis draws attention to the use of specific terms that ground the poem in its rural setting. Words such as "shepherd," "logs," "hall," and "pot" contextualize the environment while "icicles," "snow," and "wind" serve as 'winter nominals;' these are words directly associated with the season and help in creating the ambience.

Unique collocations such as "greasy Joan" and "roasted crabs hiss" add a distinctive flavor to the poem, employing uncommon pairings which heighten the reader's sensory experience and elicit surprise. This choice of diction reflects Shakespeare's unique style and ability to blend the mundane with the extraordinary.

The poem also makes use of irony, particularly in describing the owl's song as a "merry note," contrasting the perceived gloominess of the setting with the suggestion of cheerfulness.

Conclusion

Shakespeare's "Winter" sonnet is rich in both style and content, embracing the hardships and beauty of the season through intricate language and inventive linguistic choices. Its thematic complexity coupled with eloquent use of literary devices creates a piece that is timeless and evocative, offering insights into both the external world and the internal human experience.