Directly from the Writing Classroom!

As you set out to write:

Switch from one platform to another. Make your preliminary notes and outline in a piece of paper. This is the productive phase. Expand your notes into paragraphs while you type/write in your computer. This is a time to let your writing grow. Do not check your spontaneity in this phase. Avoid ‘backward’ movement. Later, the thought that you could finish your job makes you happier.  Do not add any new points to the outline notes if it bothers you. Do not deviate from the outline because it bothers you!

It is good to put your work aside after the first draft is ready. For a while, you may feel pressed with the urgency to finish. No, you should allow the draft to mature. It is a time to relax with the satisfaction that you have created ‘two’ pages out of the blank regardless of the possible errors.

Later, when you are fully prepared to tackle your lapses yourself, read the draft onscreen once and get a print of it.  Edit it yourself or pass it to someone for feedback. You can discern certain places for changes. Indicate the changes clearly. When the paper is dirty enough with comments and proofs, work in the computer.  If you need any feedback on your work, show it to someone who does not expect too much of gratitude from you. Or let it not be someone who only ‘sniffs at the dirt’ and misses the fragrance lying side by side. Also, let it not be a person from whom you do not expect positive feedback. It should be someone who thinks that the opportunity to read your draft is a reward in itself.  But, have you been able to make your creation so rewarding?

Ask about your weaknesses first making sure that your reader has time and desire to tell you the strengths. Do not defend your writing before you hear the strengths.  Do remember to ask about the strong aspects, and as you hear them, show gratitude. Explain your weaknesses only if you need to. Otherwise, the best conclusion is to thank your reader for reading and showing your lapses.

Writing teachers say writing is an art.  Readers experience the artistry. No writer is fully satisfied because s/he knows something was missed. Sometimes suddenly interesting ideas click when the work has gone out of hand. This always keeps your text in the phase of becoming. So, there is no worrying about what you have not done; the fact is the text is never complete each time a new reader goes through it.

On the Fifteenth Success

We worked because we wanted to. We worked and it happened — KU’s fifteenth convocation, a big event getting bigger each year.

Work for it began about a week ago. I mean my part. And, the part initially included an English-man’s chores — chopping and chiseling English wherever it got shaky. Then it included attending a dozen or so local journalists in a press conference (On 21 Oct.), which contained a sermon and a feast from ‘our’ side, and from their sides nodes,  smiles  and camera flashes. Third, I was helping embellish the speeches of two lady ‘masters of ceremony’ till 10:30 pm of 22 Oct, which was after a hectic day — Geomatics class, CE class, Madhurya-meeting, VC’s article, CE class, lunch, VC’s article; appointment with Julian Zix, Prof. PRA, VC and two policemen  ( I had nothing to do with the law; it was only an admission case); and shopping at Banepa.

I know, only a handful of teachers have offices during the late post meridian. For others, a convocation is a holiday.  This is why a local weekly could claim last year that teachers boycotted the program (See  “May My Students Not Do It” in this blog) as if we post-meridian trouble-takers were not teachers here. This year someone was complaining:  KU had tricked by putting convocation on Friday to deprive its dedicated inmates of the following day that would come as a holiday.

Well, the blotches notwithstanding, the big event was really big. A few points to note for the next event: you are not to blame if people with good intention break few of your barriers during their one-day outing to this beautiful campus; scholars can also become a crowd but you cannot help;  give what they deserve and expect only that they take it. What is the message of the crowd nonetheless? It is that KU is a big place in its merits though the merits are beyond some people’s understanding.

Some worthy tidbits from the day — our Dean’s smile, Hemanta’s happiness and gratitude, a meaningful talk with         Mr. Kunda Dixit, Interviewing Hasko for Indrawati Weekly, chance meeting with Dr. Kishor Shrestha and his promise to resume collaboration, snaps with graduates, Prof. Tuladhar’s offer to let me translate Madhav Kumar Nepal’s speech.

The event was a circuit-breaker though the frustration of having several things pending was seeking outlets. I was happy for being a part of the efforts to make it happen. The real satisfaction came from overhearing “I wish I had been able to study in this university” ; “I had never realized that KU had such merits” ; “Can they establish similar university in the far-west?”; “Even the prime minister had a smooth day unlike in Purvanchal and Tribhuvan Universities.”

The last thought: I want to wear a gown of KU after three years.

On the Lost Idea

Sometimes good ideas occur at odd times. For example, I get through my writer’s block while at the restroom. Similar discovery takes place inside a crowded bus, at the barber’s or while picking up vegetable at a vendor’s. The restroom-creation is generally well-timed with the natural releases and mostly comes forth in writing as I happened to be at home. The bus-, barber-, and vegetable-time thoughts are likely to go into oblivion. Later, I just have a tendency to remember that I had forgotten  an important idea. Unrecorded, it only gives me pressure but never comes back.

I conceived an article a few nights ago. It was at the end of one of my late-night stays with rhetoric and editorials, and probably at the afterthought of an interesting treatise. I went to bed ruminating how interesting the would-be article would be if I could manage to write it up. I got up to begin a new day and to ache myself with new agendas. The interesting article disappeared. I have not been able to recall it. I have been trying to relive the late night, the restroom, entry to the bedroom, thoughts before the slumber, the article preceding it, people who could possibly have featured in my reflections…. No, it does not help.

There could be better issues to delve into, but I am worried about that article. I take it as a kind of miscarriage. It has prevented further conception. I need more nutrition to have a healthier beginning. So, the post-festival mentality brings me amidst new books and numerous readings. I put aside the close-to-finish Ph. D. proposal and grasp these books — found online! But will the lost article come back some day through these new readings?

Post-festival Ruminations

Two festivals have left me puzzled. As always. Something like being left to decide on several alternatives immediately after graduating from a university. Festivals demand concentration. Other priorities are put aside for a while. In the same way studies overlook other choices of life. So, when both festivals and studies are over, the temporarily sidelined chores become pressing.

In my case, however, as the mood of festival subsides slowly, study priorities have come to the fore. I need to do  a lot of reading and writing at a time I have lost some of the self-confidence I had earlier. I have been underestimated in some corners,  for a simple confusion. I believe this overlooks the credentials that helped keep me in KU for about a decade. This equally surprises my acquaintances who believe as much the naturalness of shortcomings as in my potentials to overcome them. For the time being I work with the conviction that one failure has helped me explore three different critical areas successfully. For a while, I remind myself of the fact that I have just scratched a bit of the world and caught sight of just a few of its people. So, why worry about one of the thousand potential failures in store for me in the 25 active years to come?

Well, the festivals leave my accounts low, and pressures high. I recall the last one year and see only two publications. I don’t see any professional presentations. This is where the pressure lies despite the accounts. When was the last time I wrote a few paragraphs of worth? The USA trip gave me much, but I limited it to a few ruminations. The SAUFEST trip to Chandigarh had a tremendous stock of topics, but I did not want to record the unexciting days. I have had worthy thoughts on unworthy occasions, but I let the unworthiness justify the avoidance of creations.

These post-festival ruminations remind me of the lag. It’s still up to me to decide on the speed of work.  For now, at least, I must wake up to prove that I was not, am not and will not be an idiot

Chaos, New Session and Old Mentality

Despite series of negotiations, there are chances of chaos at the KU gate again. The talks between KU and the locals have reached a deadlock and partially failed in that KU has not  fulfilled one of their demands, which is to convert this academia into a recruitment center for sturdy bouncers.

It is admission time and the chaos gives grounds for certain speculations. First, someone must be mudslinging at KU so that the number of students declines. This will ultimately give way to a discourse that the present management has ceased functioning tactfully. This further strengthens the logic of dissenters — the already grumbling staffs and students. Second, someone wants to divert the attention of prospective students towards other mushrooming institutes.  This is to say, the chaos comes in a series of foul games played continuously from the past. As the cases of last four years tell, KU has faced disturbances during examinations and admission times only. Can’t it be the deed of an organized group trying to defame the University to the benefit of the crawling institutions?

Third, the chaos adds to the common contagion of ‘transitional times’, when people have misinterpreted freedom for claiming less-than-practical privileges. The villagers in this sense have strictly local causes than any manipulation from outside. However, this speculation lacks warrants.

People around have either revelled or marvelled at the fact that only a handful of ‘undermatrics’ have shaken a university.  Some insiders would judge the crisis to be a consequence as much of ‘transitions’ outside as of inside.  New session has begun with the traffic of students seeking admissions. Majority teachers  anticipate a successful new year despite the goings-on beyond the gates.

I would only wait to see  if my observation  about the coming times is true: “New session is at the threshold, but old mentality is ahead of it!’

Acting As Educated

One quality that separates educated people from the uneducated is the degree of tolerance they apply in judging things. The same quality sometimes puts them in disadvantage when they deem it fit to be professionals when in fact they are required to be humans. Checking impulses from committing serious errors, they try to avoid meddling with less or un-productive issues. If alternatives abound, critical involvement becomes secondary to them.

This is the reason why KU teachers and staffs have chosen not to show themselves to and see the agitating locals of Bakhundol. When the locals blocked the road to Araniko Highway, burnt tires at the main gate, threatened passers-by with action and passed a notorious order to vacate the residences; KUians took help of local administration. They worked with the logic that as KU is a national establishment, the state has primary responsibility to protect it from damages of any sorts. The agitation seemed to take a destructive turn after KU literally ceased functioning in Dhulikhel. The agitators turned desperate when they knew that KU would rather go for alternatives than succumb to their demands. Then followed the creation and publicity of various myths. One was that water and electricity were cut off. That eighty five or more of KU staffs had vacated the quarters out of fear was the other.

KU even did not defy these myths. Doing this would only highlight the myth-makers. There were bigger things to think over.

Fifteen paradoxes

Young:

1. ‘I’ll be right, the world will be right’ — yesterday.

2. ‘I’m always right, but the world is wrong’ — today.

3. ‘I could be right, but the world was wrong’ — tomorrow.

4.  ‘They’re just stupid.’ — about (grand) parents.

3. ‘Why do the idiots want me to do things?!’ — about mentors.

Middle-aged:

1. ‘I’m much older than you’ –  in front of the peers.

2. ‘I’m much younger than you’ — in front of the young.

3. ‘What did you do at all?’ — to the old.

4. ‘What have you seen yet?’ — to the young.

5. ‘I’m neither stupid nor ignorant’ — to the world.

Old:

1. ‘I am young enough (or too old) to taste the fruit.’

2. ‘I am too old (or young enough) to sow the seeds.’

3. ‘Gone are the days,’ when times are bad.

4. ‘I’m still young,’ when times are good.

5. ‘The young are ignorant, the middle-aged stupid.’

In 2065

The Year 2065 was worth cheers. If I say it was not good, I will have no year in my life that has ever been better. Most of my acquaintances know the following:

Beginning: Elected as the executive member of the Society of Nepali Writers in English
Jestha-Asar: Completion of M.Phil Thesis
Asar: Promotion to Assistant Professor
Asar-Shrawan: Participation in Study of the United States Institutes on Journalism and Media, University of Florida
Bhadra: Thesis defense, M.Phil completed in Dean’s List (GPA 3.98)
Bhadra: Birth of the second son
Bhadra: National Education Award
Magh: Purchased Land in Dhulikhel
Magh-Falgun: Participation in SAUFEST-IV, Punjab University, Chandigarh
Chaitra: Membership offered in the Board of Advisors, The Asian Congress for Media and
Communication (ACMC)

I have reasons to be satisfied. I would say, 2065 was the most productive year of my life. I have been more into creative works, mainly poetry. I have written a substantial number of experimental poems, some of which have been posted in facebook also. Others are being published along with those of my NWEN colleagues. I am updating my M.Phil thesis into a book though a bit slow to complete it.

There has been a significant change in my study thrust. I am more into literature now. Though cultural studies features most in my daily discourses, I see literature to have greater scope for most of my intellectual pursuits. I have recently planned to try working with digital/visual poetry. Work is underway.

I did not compose songs and get popular articles published in 2065. I have not been idle, though. The program coordinator of SDSI 2008 says that I have written a lot. Yes, I have. My post-SDSI blogs and facebook-notes are the proofs. I have written some readable pieces reflecting the outcome of my exposure to USA and SDSI colleagues.

I got three research articles and a few poems in my list of publications. Bodhi, no doubt, counts the most. In Bodhi I experimented simple book designing and it worked. I am designing my book myself.

I dropped the idea of participating in an International conference in Bali, Indonesia, though my paper was accepted. The participation was expensive, and I could not think of a possible source of funding. But no regrets. I have got a research article which I can use any time.

In a nutshell, 2065 is a milestone in my life. So, I have every reason to expect the same from 2066.

Some Days off Work

I went to Morang all of a sudden. I had no plan till 3:30 p.m. on April 2. When Apsara called me home for a ‘discussion’, I thought it was her plan to rush to Kathmandu in order to join her sister. But she wanted me to go along despite anything, or manage her journey by plane. I had to decide in five minutes. There was a ghost of determination in her that clutched me so tight that I had no escape.

One of those frustrating days in the department. After a meeting with students, and on recollecting some of their complaints, I was on the verge of deciding to quit doing anything on media, and at the same time had the sense of greater burden of responsibilities. I was torn between choosing to work from two perspectives. I was thinking April 3 would be a day for a serious beginning. But I decided to set off, for Apsara’s remark that she would never want to make our sons like me – indifferent and aloof from parents and grandparents for a long time. “How will you feel when Anurag and Hridaya grow up, leave home and hardly turn up?” This hit me hard. And I knew I needed a break from the current burden, and give a few days for the loving families.

For a long time (grand) parents wanted to see us. Or everyone wanted to see Hridaya. We could not go home in Dashain because he was too small. We could not go later because Koshi was on our way. There was only one reason why we would not go this time – the impending strikes in the highways and the possibility of being stranded for days with the babies during this hot season and amidst potentially heartless agitations. Apsara angrily forced me to decide; Anurag appealed me to accompany. And there were regular calls from home. I would be a dead tree no to listen to the call of the wind blowing from all sides.

Teaching New Courses

Teaching new courses is both exciting and challenging. The excitement lies in being free to define syllabus goals and choosing topics and relevant texts. The challenge is that there may not be a relevant text book to cover the topics.

Ever since we began Media Studies in KU, we have been designing courses, teaching them and refining them every new session. This has been a constant adventure and learning. Thanks to our regular internet service (so far), it has been easy to frame ideas immediately through researches and sharing among colleagues. In this sense most of us are technologically driven and can update in a timely way. Internet has made it easy to manage student assignments. Such management can have at least three dimensions. First, we can post the project questions in the blog or send through emails. This is what I have not done yet because I have managed to explain everything in the class. Moreover, I don’t like to create a distance between myself and the students. Second, we can ask the students to send their assignments by the email. It has been a good option now because printing is a relatively more tedious job. For me, it saves my table from being occupied by a large pile of papers. And I can assess the paper from home and make comments from there if I need to work overtime. Third, we can send reminders and comments, and even reading materials through the emails. I do it regularly so that none is out of touch. But power failures seem to make it a history in the days to come.

From outside, it looks as if the course under the faculty of Arts is traditional. Humanities and social sciences so far have more theoretical orientation and are controlled by teachers. Media Studies allows maximum freedom for student learning. Not that we have not experienced the defects of such freedom, but we have seen some enthusiasm accompanying it. This makes us our job a bit lighter sometimes, but risky on other occasions. Plagiarism is rampant and we have not been able to check it substantially. My immediate project will be to devise ways of controlling it.