Saturday, November 26, 2011

Can an Epic be a true story ?


"It is this critical study that led to the conclusion that there was no "Ramayana age" or a particular time in which the "Ramayana" was written. The Valmiki Ramayana continued to change and acquire new passages over a long period. Like Homer's epics Ramayana was composed floating oral legends and ballads which were given the shape of an epic by the genius of a great poet. There has never been historical evidence that the events narrated ever happened in reality.

But for the Hindu right, Ramayana rather than being a mythological poem becomes a fact whose history cannot be questioned

The supremacy of rational inquiry is a fundamental basis of all academic endeavors and undermining that destroys the basis of a university. If the logic of the criticism of Ramanujan's essay is extended, then historical studies will be transformed into theological works that discuss religion only from theological rather than secular standpoint".


Reference-
Ashwin Anshu, 2011. Economic and Political Weekly. No. 46. Ramakatha, Rambhakts and the University.
The writer is doctoral student in Delhi University working on the "Ramkatha and the Construction of Hindu Identity".

Sunday, November 13, 2011

To a Culture Called APU*


To a culture called APU..
Delhi, UP, AP, Assam, Rajasthan, Kerala, Manipur...
18 states are here...
what's happening !!

Adventure trips...
strait to work...huh !!
here become social makers in APU,
Doesn't that look like heaven ?
Its in APU !!!

Cold study here, Na !
Educationist and Social Development students…

...They all hang out here !
Good Actor! ...Food doesn't cost so much here !

If you live in place like this ...
No problem studying !
*Development students love walking around their conference halls*
...oops! Spare time to meet, hear and talked with global scientists every week!

Some of them also play the Guitar...
Not Basketball... ha! ha!
Don't you wish to studied here !

These guys work on some real...
world class facilities..
so much to do..
so little time !!

library has world online books with 3G wi.fi connections...
So books never fall from hand…

This is not Mauritius  !...
...this is a few kms. from Bangalore malls.
studying here too, na!
Cool weather !
 oops! tender coconuts
I 'ld never miss home...
...if I am studying here !

Here in Monsoon...
Its pours ...
... It's lovely here !

Send a postcard back home !
"TIME JUST FLIES ...in APU !

And you quite a bit ....
not only form books ...
not only from classes..
... and two years have passed !!!

you are going back home..
you became a social maker...
....AND YOU DON'T WANT TO GO HOME…

YOU WILL WANT TO COME BACK AGAIN...
...GOD KNOWS WHEN !!!
...LIKE OVER A HUNDRED STUDENTS

Who have learnt so much at APU
... and given APU, so much
THAT IS THE CULTURE AT APU...



* APU- Azim Premji University