Thinking Activity on "One Night @ the Call Centre"

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1) Does the novel have social realism? If yes, illustrate. If no, what did you expect as social realism which is absent here.

The realistic depiction in art of contemporary life as a means of social or political comment called the social realism. So, yes, the novel do have social realism. Chetan Bhagat has taken the side of young people and may be because of that, some people believe that the novel don’t has social realism but it do has. For example, when everyone are taking call centres in positive way, Chetan Bhagat takes the side of youth, understands their problems and he said that call centres are sweat shops.  Then break-ups, divorces, extra marital affairs and harassment of employee or job seekers. These all are happening in our society and that is what Bhagat has shown in his novel. Love and break-up of Priyanka and Shyam, Divorce of Radhika, Extra marital affair of Anuj, Bakshi’s harassment of Shyam and Vroom and also Esha’s molestation by some producer. By looking at all these things we can say that yes this novel do has social realism.

2) Comment on Narrative structure of the novel. Compare with that of "Life of Pi".

We can found many similarities between Yann Martel’s “Life of Pi” and Chetan Bhagat’s “One Night @ the Call Centre”. Both the novel has prologues and epilogues. Both has central theme of God. But there are differences also. Bhagat’s novel has shallowness and because of that it becomes popular literature. While Martel’s novel has become Real literature. We can see Bhagat’s shallowness in his characterization. On the other hand Martel has built his characters very strongly. For example we can take difference in both of the novel about faith in God. Martel has shown his character believe in God because from the childhood he has brought up with different religions. But Bhagat has not shown anywhere his characters praying then even when call of God comes they easily believe in it. This shows Bhagat’s lack of characterization. This way both have similar narratives but comparatively Bhagat lacks the sincerity.

3) What do you understand by self-help book. Is on@tcc self-help book? Illustrate

The self help books are one which instruct readers to solve their personal problems. One Night @ the Call Centre also falls under the category of self help books. There are many reasons behind it. The first one is at the beginning it has the worksheet. The book asks readers to fill the worksheet before starting the reading of story. It talks with readers. The questions are meaningful, though the purpose was not told before. But while the story reaches to its climax and leading towards the end, we got the answers of our questions or rather solutions of our problems. When God calls in the story, he asked to do things on their own. He instructs them, rather than spoon feeding. It also provides basic motivation to those who are at the beginning. That motivation helps readers to push themselves in starting. At the end the solutions of problems, which are asked before starting the story was given. Thus, we can say that One Night @ the Call Centre is self help book.

4) Is this novel anti-America? Illustrate it in context of theme of nationalism.

Yes, this novel is anti-America. In call centres, instructors are teaching to the trainee that Americans are dumb. The 35 year old have same IQ as the 10 year old Indian child. Further God in his call says that America is most frightened nation. Because any nation which is constantly at war with other nations can not be great. In terms of nationalism, Bhagat has criticise the way of teaching American accents to Indians for getting jobs in Call Centres. He has also criticised the system of giving American names to the employers. Bhagat has criticised whole Call Centre culture. He has called call centres as sweat shops, which are ruining our best and productive generations. As the call centres jobs are coming from America, by satirising it, Bhagat is satirising America. This is how we can say that this novel is anti-America. 

Thank you.

Interaction with Prof. Vedant Pandya

This world has become competitive. There is no easy way to get something. Competition is necessary. Competitive exams are also part of it. To get some particular government services one has to crack the competitive exams. Newbies in this competitive world, will always seek for guidance, which lead them to the right directions. Our department always try to give us that right and appropriate direction, and for that our Head of the Department, Dr. Dilip Barad, keep on inviting scholars of the field.

This time, the workshop was for the paper no.1 of NET/SET examinations. This time the scholar was in our house. He was from MBA department of our MKBU. His name is Professor Vedant Pandya and he was invited to talk about the general paper of NET/SET exams. First he gave us 10 components of first paper, which are like...
1) Teaching Aptitude
2) Research Aptitude
3) Comprehension
4) Communication
5) Reasoning Aptitude
6) Logical Reasoning
7) Data Interpretation
8) ICT
9) People Development and Environment
10) Higher Education System

From all these, he was there to talk about the last section Higher Education System. His style of teaching was very straight forward and simple. He has given us the basic structure of Higher Education System. He has very vast knowledge in this field, and from that we have learned one thing for sure that there are many basic things which we need to know. He has talked about government colleges, grant in aid colleges, self finance colleges, then many things about universities.

He has also talked about traditional universities and specialized universities. He gave examples like there are children university, teacher university, defence university, start-up university and many more. This shows how education system is changing and taking new shape.

Over all this session was worth attending. At the end of the workshop our sir Dr. Dilip Barad has prepared the Kahoot quiz to check our attentiveness in class and it was so much fun. At the end we like to thank our Head of the Department to keep on inviting such dignitaries, and we like to thank Professor Vedant Pandya for sharing his time and knowledge with us.

Thank you. 

Mass Media and Communication with Dr. Jay Mehta

As while constructing a building, base is necessary, same rule apply to the studies. Before starting something new to learn, it is necessary to have base about that particular topic. Same way to construct a base of “Mass Communication and Mass Media” Dr. Jay Mehta was invited on 14th January 2019, at the Department of English, MKBU.

This session was for introductory information. We are very thankful to him as he was ready to come on very short notice. He always make sure his students that they will not going to be bored in his lecture and he always proves it. One technique which he use to keep his students cheered up all the time is, he teach us with the example of movies and also with some Sher – o – Shayri.

He gave us introductory information of all Mass Media. Starting from the Print Media, Radio, Television, Advertisements, Cinema, to the E – Media. He taught us how all these started and how they all have bring major change in society and people. At starting point of every Mass Media Platform there was a negative response to it. But as time passes it has become habit of the people.

With every advanced version of Mass Media and Communication platform, the world has started becoming smaller and faster. We can see the change and also can give example, like in the time of letters it takes so many days to reach to the person but in today’s time, the message takes few second to reach to the other person. Technology and Mass Media makes things easier.

But it also has its side effects. As the speed of reaching to the people has increased, with the same speed and with facts, some fake news also reach to the people. Almost everyone knows how to use these Mass Media platforms, so people should also be aware of the fake news which spreads like virus. People should cultivate the habit of cross checking. With smart technology people should learn to work smartly.

With all these light, short and sweet talking, we have built our base of Mass Media and Communication. To attend Jay sir’s lecture will always be fun. With the knowledge of particular subject, we also enjoys the Shayri. We are very thankful to Dr. Jay Mehta to spare time for us in very short notice and share his knowledge with us.

Thank you.

Translation Workshop with Dr. Vishal Bhadani

It is fun to know more than one language. It is more fun to translate some thing from one to another language. Translation is an art, and on 1st January 2019, we try our hands on the art of translation. On that day we have one guest Dr. Vishal Bhadani, who is author and translator. He has one book named “Fictionalay”. This book is collection of Gujarati short stories.

Dr. Vishal was invited at Department of English, MKBU for workshop on translation. In that one workshop, he made us fall in to love with translations. He says that everybody should translate. It widens our mental horizons. Through translations our reading become vast and because of that our vocabulary also becomes rich.

With all these talking he also gave us some practical work. At that day for the first time we observed a particular word, sentence or the text so closely. He also has said that when one translate the words they look towards the words differently and minutely, which they have never done before. He make us aware of different types of translations like, literary translations, legal translations or religious translations.

As a practical task Dr. Vishal has given us worksheet, which includes all types of translations. It was fun to fill up that worksheet. Every student was lost in the world of translations. After filling that worksheet we realised that in just half an hour we have learned many new words. We have to refer dictionary and google because Dr. Vishal has clearly said that your first guess will always be wrong, don’t rely on your first guess. Which is quite right also.

With translations, he also have passion for writing. As it is mentioned earlier, he has one book which is collection of Gujarati short stories. As he was front of us, we can not miss the chance to listen the piece of fiction from the writer its self. While reading his own work, he has also mentioned that he likes to do experiment with his writings and in some of his stories he has done that also. He is very good story teller also, because when he was reading his own work, he was able to make his audience stick with their seats. His stories are full of variety. It gives amazing feeling of freshness and uniqueness to the reader. We have also read some of his stories like, “Museum of Innocence”, “Sansai and Ramjana”, “Spring”, “Mara Hath Ni Vat Nathi”.

So overall it was very fruitful and interesting session of translation and of short stories. He has also given some ideas to work from home. It was great experience to meet some multi talented person. We are very thankful to Dr. Vishal Bhadani to visit our department and spend some time with us.

Thank you.

Favourite Mass Media Platform

This blog is part of my academic activity. To know more about the task click here.

We are studying "Mass Media and Communication" and that is why we have asked to write about our favourite Mass Media platform for communication.

Which is your favourite Mass media platform for communication? Why do you like it? What are its drawback?

Today everyone is connected with each other in one or other way. This is the gift of Mass media to the humans. Every human is now connected and can communicate whatever they want. The Mass media is removing the language barrier also by providing translations. Here we have asked to talk about our favourite Mass media platform, its benefits and drawbacks.

I personally prefer YouTube. I like YouTube more than any other Mass media platform. We can find anything according to our likings on YouTube and also free of cost. One only needs internet connection for using it. Secondly it effects visuals and hearing together. When it affects two senses, its effect is more than any other things. There is no other obstacles for common people also. One only needs to have Google account and any one can start their own YouTube channel. Any one can spread their new and innovative ideas. It can be reached to the people with in no time. Apart from all these things, it also provides chances to earn money by making YouTube videos. So by sharing your knowledge or give entertainment to people one can make money also. Because of all these things I like YouTube. It also provides copyright feature which will not allow your content to be stolen, and will also not allow you to use others content.

But like any other Mass media platform this also has some drawbacks. Some time it happens that people don’t understand the meaning which one wants to give, or they interpret it in totally different way. Some times this hurts the sentiments of people and it leads to the trolling of people. As YouTube spreads knowledge and innovative ideas, the spreading of fake news or information will also be equal, which will again leads towards trolling people with wrong information. Other than that it is mostly one way communication. Though it allows viewers to comment their opinions under the video but, there are so many comments and we can not guarantee that every comment will going to read by video maker. So some voices of viewers are unheard. Other drawback of YouTube is, it will not word without internet. If some one needs video without internet they have to download a particular video to watch it without internet. Otherwise it will not work.

YouTube is for general communication, in which unknown Mass is involved. But with all these things I prefer YouTube in Mass media communication than any other platforms for general communication.

For personal communication I prefer WhatsApp as Mass media platform. This provides communication at personal level. You can talk to people who are in your contact list. It provides group feature also, that you can chat in group. Here also it is free. One only need to have internet connection. It is not available without internet, we can say that it is big drawback of this platform. It is advance version pf text messages. Here also you can send messages by using internet. In simple text messages we can not know if the person has read our message or not but in WhatsApp we can know that our message is read. It also provides users privacy. It allows you to share everything and not only text. So for personal mass communication I prefer WhatsApp.

Thank you.

Interaction with Professors from France

It is always good to meet some favourite guests, with whom we like to talk about ourselves. But is also great to meet guests from around the world and to talk about their culture and know their country. It get more excitement when it is surprised. On 22nd January 2019, we also got similar kind of surprise guest visit from France. 

Professor Saeed Paivandi and Professor Fontanini Christine, from University of Lorraine, France, had visited the department of Economics in our Maharaja Krishnakumarsinhji Bhavnagar University to talk about ‘Changing Higher Education System’. From there we have surprised visit to our department of English. Professor Kishor Joshi from Economics department has introduced the guest and we have got the chance to interact with them.

There was a question to Professor Saeed about the social, political and economical changes in France society, because he is the professor of Sociology. From his answer we had come to know about some similarities between India and France. He has talked about the unequal distribution of wealth and some current affairs like “Yellow West Movement” and the agitation which has take place in France for reducing the taxes. He also has talked about the importance of democracy. He said that to discuss social, political, and economical facts of country, the freedom is must and that freedom people get from democracy. So he has emphasized on respect and practice democracy.

Then we also interact with Professor Christine. She has done research in gender studies and Feminization of education. Here also we have found some similarities between France and India. She has said that the numbers of female education is increasing but there are more female studies in Humanities and Medicine then in Engineering or Computer studies. Same we can observe in India that there are more numbers of female students in Humanities and less in Engineering. Though there is some difference between the percentage of people pursuing higher education in France and in India. Of course France have more percentage of people going for higher education then in the India.

Both the professors has talked about very interesting phenomenon which is taking place in France, which is merging up the universities to show the universal presence and to make universities recognised and valued at world level. They have said that this merging up the universities will increase the quality of teaching and also will contribute more to the world level.

At the end of the day, though it was very short and surprised meeting we have meaningful interaction with guests and we got some authentic information about France. It is always pleasure to meet some one from across the sea and to know about them. I want to show gratitude towards the guest from France for coming and to the professor of Economics to take them to our department. I also would like to say thanks on behalf of our Department of English.

Thank you

Education and Technology

This blog is part of my academic activity. To get more information click here.

1. Why is it necessary to use Technology in Education?

Take a moment and think about your surroundings. Think how you have circled by technology. Today’s world is world of technology. The curiosity and education is the path through which these all technology is travelling. Now if we can live with technology then why we can’t study with it.

Technology has become essential and inseparable part of our life. It is necessary to use technology in education. Technology has given new way to the life, same it will give new vision to the education. The whole world is now on our fingertips, any information we can get in no time. This shows technology is speeding up the world. We should speed our education and knowledge system also. Technology can be great help to the students and to the teachers. It does not have boundaries. It is proven fact that visuals helps to remember information for longer period of time and also in effective way. Not only visuals but with technology students can learn using all their senses, and this will make the knowledge store in mind.

The world is moving towards new things, so does education should. With technology, the competition is no more with only classmates, it is now with the learners around the world. To keep our feet on the ground, we must have new weapons. We can not keep fighting with old ones. Technology is that new weapon which is now necessary in education.

2. What is the difference between 'using' and 'integrating' technology?

The difference between using and integrating technology is, to using technology means to be spectator but to integrate technology is, to be performer. This is very big difference. Everybody knows how to use technology but hardly some of them are integrating technology in their life.

We can take simple example like, mostly people takes their basic information from Wikipedia, they know how to use technology. But only few create their own Wikipedia page to give information to the world. These people have integrated technology. Our teacher used to tell us that, “Now from downloader, be uploader.” When one is only take advantage of technology, they are using it. But when they started giving advantage to others through technology, they are integrating it. This is the difference between using and integrating technology. For now as technology has become part of humans’ life, we should all integrate technology.

3. How can we integrate technology? 

As I have said before when we become uploader from downloader, it means that we have integrated technology. We have talk about using technology in education. When teacher use technology to teach students and also make students use technology to learn something. This can be called integration. For example, writing this blog is also can be the part of integration of technology. Our teacher has taught us something and, then we have asked to reflect our views on blogs. This is the way of integrating technology.

4. Can technology replace teacher? (Read this)

First of all there are two types of teacher. One, who only think giving information is teaching and the second, who gave new ways of thinking. There is no question rises to replace the first type of teachers because they are already has been replaced. With the help of technology students can get more information that that teacher can give. Because without doubt google has more information than one teacher.

But to replace the teacher who provides new way of thinking with the information provided by technology, in my account it can not be replaced. Technology can only give information. It will not give the new way of looking towards that information, or to connect that information with other similar one. Now this is what a teacher in era of technology do. They tell their students to get information on their own and then guide them to use it in many different ways. These teachers can not be replaced by technology.

5. Write in brief on David Crystal's views on 'effect of new technologies on English language', 'biggest challenge for English language teachers in the times of internet', and 'texting is good for English language'.


1) Effect of new technologies on English language

Here David Crystal has talked about the changes in English language after arriving of certain technologies. He has given example of printing, Telephone, broadcasting, and internet. He says that every time with new technology, new language also introduced to suit that technology. He also talked about the text messages and twitter. He refers to the short length of messages and tweet and says that has bring the abbreviation of the words in use. People tend to think that this abbreviation will ruin the English language but he says that it is not so. These abbreviation of is only 10 percent in the text. Other 90 percent remain the standard English or any English which is used by people. So he basically throws the light on how with the arrival of new technology, people also think and write in new way. Technology bring the new aspect of language, or new way of writing language.

2) The biggest challenge for English language teacher in the times of internet

Language teaching is hardest job according to David Crystal. We all will agree on that. He also has given reasons that why it is the hardest job. First he says that because the language which teacher use and the language which students use are different. In the time of internet new words can be reach to the people in no time. Because of this the students will have different vocabulary then the teacher. Now in this time pf internet teacher should also need to keep pace with the changing world. Teachers have to knew the new words same as their students do. They have to keep all the information which is spreading widely around them. This is the challenge which language teacher has to face. Secondly he says that there is variety of English language and its accents. Teacher should teach students to listen the other accents which are not RP. Teacher should make their students ready for the differences. They can not say that this is the only correct pronunciation. This is another challenge or rather say duty of teacher to make their students accept the differences.

3) Texting is good for English language

Here he talks about the benefits which texting is giving to English language. He also talk about the myth of texting that kids use abbreviation in text and because of that they don’t know how to spell correct word. David here says that kids do abbreviation because for them it is cool to do it. Secondly he says that if they are shortening the word in first place they know the full word. Another myth about texting is that kids will use their abbreviation in other writings also and they will fail in the exams. Here David says that he has gone to school and ask to kids that will they use text abbreviation in exams and he says that kids are smarter these days, they say that it will make them look dumb. Then he talk about that how it is good for literacy. The person who can read and write is called literate and it will be perfect only by practice. Here David says that texting is making people literate because they are practicing reading and writing. By all these things he says that texting is good for English language.

6. Name one web-tool which can help in development of all four L-S-R-W skills. If possible explain how it works.

In this digital era there are number of tools which can help in development of all four basic skills, for me it is YouTube. This is the best tool according to me to improve four basic language skills. We can watch the video in any language we want on YouTube. This will improve our listening skill. The more you listen, the more it affects your speech, so it will help to improve speaking skill. If one will decide to upload their own video and for that they have to write their script and also they read from other descriptive videos. This will improve their reading and writing skill. So this is how YouTube will help in development of basic four language skills.

Thank you.