Stage management in Tara ?

Stage management in Tara???

Mahesh Dattani’s two-act play “Tara” tells the story of two conjoined twins, a boy, Chanda, and a girl, Tara, who are surgically separated in an unequal manner intended to favor the boy.  The surgical procedure that separated Chandan and Tara was so preferential to Chandan, in fact, that Tara is unable to survive and disadvantaged in every way growing up, eventually passes away.  Chandan racked with guilt over Tara’s disadvantaged life and early death, moves from his native country of India to England, where he attempts to begin life anew, repressing memories of his personal history and changing his name to the Westernized moniker “Dan.” , Dattani’s play is intended to portray the struggle of an ancient Eastern civilization attempting to conform to modern, Western values, and failing.  The historically subordinate role of women in Indian society and India’s ambitions of emerging as a major global power commensurate with its one-billion-plus population and level of technological advancement.  Cultural traditions that place far lower value on female life than on that of a male, as well as the caste system that has condemned hundreds of millions of Hindu Indians to lives of destitution while the upper classes continue to prosper, have sewn divisions in Indian society that may take generations to eliminate.  During one important exchange between Chandan and his mother, Bharati, who was complicit with the decision to sacrifice Tara’s happiness and life in deference to the boy, tells Chandan with reference to Tara: “Let her grow up.  Yes, Chandan, the world will tolerate you.  The world will accept you – but not her!” Chandan’s guilt over Tara is second only to that of Bharati – a mother who has knowingly sacrificed her daughter because of cultural inhibitions against placing the value of female life on the same level as that of males.  “Tara” is a tragedy.  In many cases, twins have been known to possess an emotional connection that transcends that of other siblings.  For the surgically-separated twins in “Tara,” that emotional bond similarly exists, but is forcibly separated by Bharati and her father, Patel.  As Chandan notes “The way we started in life.  Two lives and one body in one comfortable womb.  Till we were forced out – and separated.. In "Tara" Stage management is defined in various terms. Stage management is the practice of organizing and coordinating a theatrical production. It encompasses a variety of activities, including organizing the production and coordinating communications between various personnel (e.g., between director and backstage crew, or actors and production management)

Language in early English poetry?

Language in early English poetry? 

Old English poetry falls broadly into two styles or fields of reference, the heroic Germanic and the Christian. With a few exceptions, almost all Old English poets are anonymous. Although there are Anglo-Saxon discourses on Latin prosody, the rules of Old English verse are understood only through modern analyses of the extant texts. The first widely accepted theory was constructed by Eduard Sievers (1893), who distinguished five distinct alliterative patterns. Alternative theories have been proposed; the theory of John C. Pope (1942), which uses musical notation to track the verse patterns, has been accepted in some quarters, and is hotly debated. The most popular and well-known understanding of Old English poetry continues to be Sievers' alliterative verse. The system is based upon accent, alliteration, the quantity of vowels, and patterns of syllabic accentuation. It consists of five permutations on a base verse scheme; any one of the five types can be used in any verse. The system was inherited from and exists in one form or another in all of the older Germanic languages. Two poetic figures commonly found in Old English poetry are the kenning, an often formulaic phrase that describes one thing in terms of another. Even though all extant Old English poetry is written and literate, it is assumed that Old English poetry was an oral craft that was preformed by a scop and accompanied by a harp. Other poetic forms exist in Old English including riddles, short verses, gnomes, and mnemonic poems for remembering long lists of names. The Exeter Book has a collection of ninety-five riddles. Some of them play on obscene interpretations of the object described. The answers are not supplied; a number of them to this day remain a puzzle. There are short verses found in the margins of manuscripts which offer practical advice. There are remedies against the loss of cattle, how to deal with a delayed birth, swarms of bees, etc. The longest is called Nine Herbs Charm and is probably of pagan origin. Other similar short verses, or charms, include For a Swarm of Bees, Against a Dwarf, Wið færstice, and Against a Wen. There are a group of mnemonic poems designed to help memorise lists and sequences of names and to keep objects in order. These poems are named Menologium, The Fates of the Apostles, The Rune Poem, The Seasons for Fasting, and the Instructions for Christians.

Partition as a backdrop in clear light of day?

Partition as a backdrop in clear light of day?

Clear Light of Day" is less than 200 pages long, and although there is almost no plot, it has the presence and power of a larger, weightier novel. Indian Anita Desai writes of her country, and, although not well known in America ("Fire on the Mountain," a previous novel, was published in the United States), her work has received numerous awards in England, including a Booker Prize. This is a novel of perfect detail, of looking at the world through a magnifying glass, of collecting enough small bits to make sense somehow of the whole. For post-partition India is so complex, so troubled, so awesome that the details (from rotting fruit in the garden to the heat so intense it quells not only movement but ambition) are the best road to understanding. The story begins when Tara, in her 40s, returns from Washington with her diplomat husband to visit her family in Old Delhi.In the Das family house live older sister/history teacher Bim, and Baba, a brother who never grew up. There is also a neglected garden, a well where a cow drowned long ago, and lots of memories -- memories we sometimes learn about through floating isolated sequences, and sometimes through the characters' struggles to find reality in the rose-colored recollections. Tara, for example, "could not believe the long-remembered, always-remembered childhood had had a backdrop as drab as this, 'we used to likem playing here -- in the dust and mud. What could we have seen in that muddy little trickle? Why, it's hardly a river -- it's nothing, just nothing.'" "Clear Light of Day" is also about separation. There is the separation of India as an imposing backdrop, and so many separations within the Das family that division is considered from norm.
The parents, what with bridge and business (in that order) were away more often than not. And the children begin splitting up early when brother Raja opts, out of admiration for the rich Muslim neighbors, to take his education in Urdu instead of Hindi. When he follows those neighbors to a distant city, marries their dagughter, and becomes the landlord of the Das family home, the separation, from Bim anyway, appears permanent. While, spinster Bim is tied to the old house, to Baba, and to all troubled members of the family in ways even she doesn't seem to understand, timid Tara knows she will take the first opportunity to leave. When she married Bakul he not only took her away, he transformed her "into an active organized woman who her engagement book every morning." But above all else, to the Das family there is Old India and then there is the rest of the world. Bim challenges Bakul about his portrayal of India to the outside world. "I refuse to talk about famine or drought or caste wars -- or political disputes. . . .I can discuss such things here, with you, but not with foreigners , not in a foreign land. There I am an ambassador and I choose to show them and inform them only of the best, the finest."
"Exactly," said Bakul."The Taj Mahal, the Bhagavad-Gita, Indian philosophy, music, art, the great, immortal values of ancient India. Why talk of local politics, party disputes, elections malpractices . . . When such things will soon pass into oblivion? Thesem aren't important, when compared with India, eternal India --" "Yes, it does help to live abroad if you feel that way," mused Bim . . . . "If you lived here . . . I'm not sure if you could ignore bribery and corruption , red-tapism, famine, caste warfare and all that. In fact, living here, working here, you might easily forget the Taj Mahal and the message of the Gita.""Clear Ligh of Day" contains no famine or corruption, nor does it contain the Taj Mahal, the Bhagavad-Gita, or other symbols of India. Yet its spirit reaches to the very heart of India and of humanity

Premchand's vision of truth and beauty ?

Premchand's vision of truth and beauty ?

Premchand appeared on the literary scene when India’s independence struggle had broken out of the strictly constitutional mould, and mass struggle through mobilisation of the masses was an a accepted fact of our social life.  It was time that someone upstaged the common man in Hindustani literature. With Premchand the common man, especially the peasant, became a hero type. According to Premchand, "Beauty is a characteristic of a person, animal, place, object, or idea that provides a perceptual experience of pleasure or satisfaction. Beauty is studied as part of aesthetics, sociology, social psychology, and culture. An "ideal beauty" is an entity which is admired, or possesses features widely attributed to beauty in a particular culture, for perfection." The experience of "beauty" often involves an interpretation of some entity as being in balance and harmony with nature, which may lead to feelings of attraction and emotional well-being. Because this can be a subjective experience, it is often said that "beauty is in the eye of the beholder. There is evidence that perceptions of beauty are evolutionarily determined, that things, aspects of people and landscapes considered beautiful are typically found in situations likely to give enhanced survival of the perceiving human's genes. Truth is most often used to mean in accord with fact or reality, or fidelity to an original or to a standard or ideal. The commonly understood opposite of truth is falsehood, which, correspondingly, can also take on a logical, factual, or ethical meaning. The concept of truth is discussed and debated in several contexts, including philosophy and religion. Many human activities depend upon the concept, where it is assumed rather than being a subject of discussion; these include science, law, and everyday life. According to one estimate, he created 6,000 characters drawn from towns as well as villages. He was certainly not what is called a docu-novelist but his graphic picture of the contemporary reality can easily pass off as a social document. He can profitably be studied as a social historian. And if one may use an overworked term, his is a poetic truth. Premchand’s study of the social reality convinced him that political independence alone would not liquidate the poverty and concomitant cultural and social backwardness of India, and that the solution lay in the replacement of the existing subaltern economic system with a socialist one dominated by workers and peasants. That necessitated another movement, that for class emancipation, parallel with the movement for political independence

Manto's portrayal of Ismat?

Manto's portrayal of Ismat?

Ismat Chugtai and Saadat Hasan Manto were socially progressive Muslim writers during a period when such a description could be tantamount to a death sentence.  Writing during the period when India was struggling for independence only to disintegrate into a bloody war that resulted in the partition of Pakistan, neither society was particularly conducive to liberal sentiments.  Both were hounded throughout the period – Manto would die from alcohol-related illness in 1955 at the age of 45 – by charges of obscenity and remained controversial figures throughout their lives.  In his essay on Chugtai published in The Annual of Urdu Studies, Manto provides a vivid portrait of Chugtai that leaves no doubt regarding the formidable nature of his female colleague and friend.  The Chugrai Manto knew was a difficult individual whose stubbornness was both the weapon she needed to survive and a barrier against intimacy.  Chugtai, Manto points out, was fiercely independent, and virulently feminist.  Early in his essay, Manto describes Chugtai's treatment of an older gentleman infatuated with her:  “I know a fellow writer, an old man, who had a crush on her. He had expressed his love for her through his letters. Ismat encouraged him in the beginning, but eventually gave him such a drubbing that the poor man began to see stars. He may never write this “true” story. Soon after, however, Manto assures the reader that his admiration and respect for Chugtai is absolute. Manto and Chugtai shared the common bonds of being writers unafraid to present humanity in its most realistic and occasionally unattractive form.  As noted, both endured endless charges of obscenity, and both survived the social and political turmoil of an extraordinarily fractured society, he in his native Pakistan and she in India.  Out of such trials are powerful bonds born, and such was the case with these two writers.  Manto’s essay, however, repeatedly emphasizes Chugtai’s difficult and often combative nature.   More importantly, in describing his first encounter with Chugtai during which he criticizes her use of a phrase, and his later reassessment of her character, he discovers the core of her strength as a writer:  “I was going to say something but then I looked at her face.  There I saw the kind of embarrassment that overwhelms common, homely girls when they hear something unspeakable.  I felt greatly disappointed because I wanted to have a detailed discussion with her about every aspect of ‘Lihaf.’  As she left, I told myself, ‘The wretch turned out to be a mere woman after all!’” “If she had not been a ‘mere woman after all!’ then we would not have found such fine and sensitive stories like ‘Bhulbhulaiyan,’ ‘Til,’ ‘Lihaf’ and ‘Gainda’ in her collections.” Defending his colleague against charges of obscenity and criticisms of her feminism, Manto offers his strongest rebuttal to those who dared to view her writings through the prism of religious and social extremism: “People say, Ismat is a bad woman, a witch.  Asses!  And these people judge her on the basis of their abominable morality.  They should be made to stand up before a cannon and be shot through the head.” Manto repeatedly emphasizes Chugtai’s stubbornness.  He recognizes, however, that is that very stubbornness that allowed her to emerge as major literary and social figure in an atmosphere in which intolerance tended to reign supreme

Discuss themes and issues in Tughlaq

Discuss themes and issues in Tughlaq ?

One of the critical issues that Karnad addresses in Tulghlaq is the striking gap between political aspirations and its reality.  Karnad understands this about the historical conditions that surround Tulghlaq, himself: 

When I read about Mohammed bin Tughlaq, I was fascinated. How  marvelous this was, I thought. Tughlaq was a brilliant individual yet is  regarded as one of the biggest failures. He tried to introduce policies  that seemed today to be farsighted to the point of genius, but which  earned him the nick name "Mohammed the mad" then. He ended his  career in bloodshed and chaos. This is seen in different aspects throughout his Tughlaq's characterization.  Karnad renders a vision where the reality and aspirations collide.  How this plays out in the mind of the political ruler becomes one of the central issues of the drama. As the drama opens, Tughlaq implores his subjects to observe a social setting in "without any consideration of might or weakness, religion or creed."  The idealism with which Karnad depicts Tughlaq is in stark contrast to both the historical judgment of him rendered and the political reality within which Tughlaq must work.  Such a depiction shows how difficult political authority is. It is one that compels authentically transformative leaders to risk much in order to challenge an existing system that goes against their vision.  Karnad's depiction of Tughlaq as one who sought to put aside religious differences in the hopes of embracing secularism is a powerful issue in the drama.  The ability to strive to put forth a vision of what can be amidst a setting that is hopelessly immersed in a reality of what is. Tulghlaq states early on that he wishes to see unity between Hindus and Muslims as a significant part of his vision:  "Daulatabad is a city of Hindus and as the  capital, it will symbolize the bond between Muslims and Hindus which  I wish to develop and strengthen in my kingdom."  Aspiration collides with reality as Tulghlaq fails in his vision.  It is because of such a condition that Karnad suggests Tulghlaq is seen as a failure. This dynamic is significant when set against the condition in which Karnad writes the drama.  In 1964, India had been less than two decades removed from Partition and Independence.  The result was a nation where direction and transformative vision was hard to establish.  A nation born from Gandhian principles was still hopelessly locked in sectarian violence and communal hatred, the very elements that Karnad's Tulghlawq desires to overcome in the drama.  The theme of political aspiration being limited by temporal reality is a significant one in both the drama and the historical condition in which it is written.  Tulghaq's initial judgment rendered upon a Brahmin that he "should receive a grant of five hundred silver dinars from the  state treasury… and in addition to that…a post in the civil service to  ensure him a regular and adequate income" is a reflection of how a transformative political vision might not necessarily be received well by the public.  This theme of political transformation stumped in the face of temporal reality is a significant part of the drama.  It is reflective of the India that Karnad sees in front of him, a stunning realization between the gulf between what is and what can be.  The chaos and fragmentation that results out of a vision steeped in genius and transformation becomes a part of both the ruler's narrative and the nation's history

Folk elements in short story ''Compromise''

Folk elements in short story ''Compromise'' ?

I think you can identify the folk elements of any story by thinking about what makes a folk tale different or special from another kind of story. A quote that I love is:
"A folktale is a poetic text that carries some of its cultural contexts within it; it is also a travelling metaphor that finds a new meaning with every telling"-- A.L. Ramanujan, Folktales from India (1991)
Let's break that down and discuss how it related to Compromise by Vijaydan Detha, and how you can discover the folk elements by using that quote as a guide. Poetic text How is "Compromise" poetic? Can you find examples in the language that are like poetry? Especially in the descriptions of people, the landscape, music, or other cultural elements? What are the cultural contexts? How can you be sure that this story is Rajasthani and not from some other place? Any specific mentions of Rajasthan or its culture help define the context are folk elements.
travelling metaphor
How is the story universal? There's a reason why this story was translated into English, and why it was written down by Detha. That reason is that it is a metaphor that can be related to any audience. Originally, folk tales had to appeal to different members of a similar community, but over time they get changed, translated, and travel far and wide because they are metaphors for universal life experiences. What, in "Compromise" is universal? Ironically, it is the universal elements that help you figure out the folk elements of a very specific cultural story. It's important to remember that as Nishat Zaidi wrote in his essay Traversing the Two Worlds: The Folktales of Vijaydan Detha, that Detha changes the stories to suit more modern audiences,  Without compromising their archetypal motifs, psychic underpinnings, and context-sensitive performativity, Detha metamorphoses them into captivating stories, which have a spellbinding impact on the minds of the modern readers.  In some ways, the act of modernizing and changing for the audience is part of the folk tradition, but be careful when noting the folk elements that you don't include the specific changes that Detha has made for modern audiences.