Showing posts with label books. Show all posts
Showing posts with label books. Show all posts

Friday 22 March 2019

Memorabilia 2018-19


Memorabilia 2018-19

From the desk of Head of the Department

The Memorabilia 2018-19 reminds the sense of an ending. Julian Barnes has rightly said that the sense of an ending is one of the most curious senses. There are ‘senses’ which are very crucial for human beings. The senses like ‘common-sense’ is necessary to understand worldly affairs when our academic sense fails to unlock the enigmatic life. Similarly, ‘civic-sense’ makes us responsible and accountable citizens of the democracy. Likewise, ‘academic-sense’ guides us in using lessons learned in academia at right time and right place. Unlike these senses, political senses is not much valued and talked about. However, for the citizens who are eligible for casting their votes in democracy, this sense is as inevitable as any other. Bertolt Brecht has equated this with literacy and told very boldly that the worst illiterate is the political illiterate. s/he hears nothing, sees nothing, takes no part in political life . . . and does not seem to know that all citizens life depends on political decisions. Among all these senses, it is ‘historical sense’ which makes a huge difference. In T.S. Eliot’s words - the historical sense involves a perception, not only of the pastness of the past, but of its presence. The historical sense will help in better perception of zeitgeist of our time and space. It is this sense which differentiates people from sheople (sheep + people). We, at Department of English, while teaching English studies, makes an attempt to see that students develop these senses and become more sensible towards their personal lives as well as our society.
Coming back to the sense of an ending, the most curious sense of all these high-profile senses. When we get towards the end of two years, when a batch full of students are passing out – some curious feelings engulf and numbs our senses. No! It is not this Keatsianmy heart aches, and a drowsy numbness pains’ – sort of sense of an ending. It means an end of any likelihood of change in the life. We work very hard and we expect a sort of progressive, positive, and constructive metamorphosis among those with whom we so passionately get involved. At the end of the year, the sense of an ending engulfs.
This Memorabilia 2018-19 is nothing but a sort of pensive of all those wonderful memories. It is like that Time-Turner device made by Ministry of Magic in J K Rowling’s Potter series. It is like the Time Machine of H. G. Wells. Turning pages of this memory-booklet is like unwinding the time in Time-Turner or travelling back in the Time Machine.
 All credit for this sort of meticulous record keeping goes to the Documentation Committee. It is really tough task. However, social media like Facebook is helping a lot to them in keeping records. It was always satisfying to read their posts in the happenings with an interesting write-up and a few photos. It is even more satisfying to revisit all those ‘happenings’ in this Memorabilia, again.
When I look back at the quality of students who are passing out, I see that these students were a bit quicker in adapting to technology than the previous batches. These students have surprised me on several occasions. From presenting their work in digital form to working on online surveys, or preparing certificates with mail-merge feature, or collecting data, or working in collaboration, or even this Memorabilia itself . . . . With almost professional precision, they used assistive technology. I hope the digital skills they have acquired and honed are going to be very vital in their future career and life.
Another unique feature perceived in this batch was their courage and confidence to speak-up and voice their happiness as well as angst and anxiety. Many of them wrote and some even published good poems, short stories, social media posts and blogs.

This was the batch on which we worked very hard to improve their English language. Not that these students were very poor in English language. They possessed normal English language skills which is common with all other batches. However, this time we were able to spare time for remedial classes, answer-writing workshops and academic writing workshops. In a way, this batch is fortunate to have many sessions of improving academic English writing skills. Some of them have learned it and displayed the improvement in their writings also.

It is a tradition that most of the activities are carried out by students of the Department. They are divided in various committees and those willing to lead become natural leaders. Every year, apart from regular co-curricular activities, some unique activities are also planned by these committee members. This year,

  •  ·         the Library committee planned a visit of Barton Library. This library is historically very important site for all book lovers,
  •  ·         the ICT committee organised workshop for P.G. students of all departments and exposed them to basic digital tools. The entire workshop was conducted by senior students and even the resource persons were members of ICT committee,
  •  ·         the Film Screening committee organised watching Hindi film Uri – The Surgical Strike in the cinema theatre,
  •  ·         the Art and Creativity committee organised various competitions on the occasion of Guru Purnima and made digital display of short stories, paintings, poems, photographs and rangoli and winners were selected by online public voting system,
  •  ·         the Celebration committee celebrated International Day of Yoga at Department, the credit of maximum participation in Sports and Adventure activities goes to the Sports and Recreation committee,
  • ·         the Gardening committee carried out projects to support Swacch Bharat / Clean India campaign,
  • ·         the Daily Schedule committee organised some very courageous debates on challenging issues like Pulwama Terror Attack, Adultery Act section 497 of  IPC, LGBT Act section 377 of IPC.


All members of the committee from Semester 4 and 2 are appreciated for these unique activities. We know that all humans are not similar. Neither are we born to do similar things in life, nor are we supposed to think alike. We all are unique and the uniqueness shall be maintained, irrespective of what-so-ever-life offers us. In spite of this, the fact remains that this rule does not apply to leaders. The leaders are supposed to be different from other people. The uniqueness of leaders lies in the fact that they are ready to merge and assimilate with one and all. That’s the sure way to lead the people. 




There is a famous quote ascribed to Bruce Lee: Be like water making its way through cracks. Do not be assertive, but adjust to the object, and you shall find a way around or through it. If nothing within you stays rigid, outward things will disclose themselves.  Empty your mind, be formless. Shapeless, like water. If you put water into a cup, it becomes the cup. You put water into a bottle and it becomes the bottle. You put it in a teapot, it becomes the teapot. Now, water can flow or it can crash. Be water, my friend.” Leader are supposed to be like water. It is glad to see that without knowing all these things most of you have displayed these characteristics. Be with it. In future, you may unlearn many things and relearn also. But do not unlearn these characteristics of leadership which you have acquired by being so – water like! 

Lastly, keep reading literature. Great readers make for great leaders! Reading literature ripens our maturity. The emotional, intelligence, spiritual, creativity, adversity, and physical quotients (EQ, IQ, SQ, CQ, AQ, PQ of literature students / readers are much higher and deeper than students of any other subjects / discipline. At the same time, I would like to suggest to watch as many films as you can. In this year, we have seen the rise of web streaming services. It has opened new vistas for acquiring all these quotients which altogether makes for literary quotients and literary sensibility. If one wants to put it in arithmetic equation, it shall have an integer of multiplication. 

So, it can be – LQ = IQ x EQ x SQ x CQ x AQ x PQ

In addition, L = B + eB + F + YT + WS +TV, wherein Literature is equal to books, eBooks, films, YouTube, Web Steaming and Television. 

Do not nurture bias against these mediums. Do not privilege one over the other. All are equally important for the acquisition of literary quotient.


Wish you all the best for your future career and life. Keep sharing your achievements with us. We will make anecdotes out of your achievements and turn you into role-models for upcoming batches of students.

-         Dilip Barad

The Memorabilia 2018-19



Thursday 14 January 2016

FREE BOOKS: 100 legal sites to download literature

FREE BOOKS: 100 legal sites to download literature


Looking for the next great book to sink your teeth into? Look no further. Below are over 100 links to websites that provide free e-books on a huge variety of topics.
Browse works by Mark Twain, Joseph Conrad and other famous authors here.
1.       Classic Bookshelf: This site has put classic novels online, from Charles Dickens to Charlotte Bronte.
2.       The Online Books Page: The University of Pennsylvania hosts this book search and database.
3.       Project Gutenberg: This famous site has over 27,000 free books online.
4.       Page by Page Books: Find books by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and H.G. Wells, as well as speeches from George W. Bush on this site.
5.       Classic Book Library: Genres here include historical fiction, history, science fiction, mystery, romance and children’s literature, but they’re all classics.
6.       Classic Reader: Here you can read Shakespeare, young adult fiction and more.
7.       Read Print: From George Orwell to Alexandre Dumas to George Eliot to Charles Darwin, this online library is stocked with the best classics.
8.       Planet eBook: Download free classic literature titles here, from Dostoevsky to D.H. Lawrence to Joseph Conrad.
9.       The Spectator Project: Montclair State University’s project features full-text, online versions of The Spectator and The Tatler.
10.    Bibliomania: This site has more than 2,000 classic texts, plus study guides and reference books.
11.    Online Library of Literature: Find full and unabridged texts of classic literature, including the Bronte sisters, Mark Twain and more.
12.    Bartleby: Bartleby has much more than just the classics, but its collection of anthologies and other important novels made it famous.
13.    Fiction.usFiction.us has a huge selection of novels, including works by Lewis Carroll, Willa Cather, Sherwood Anderson, Flaubert, George Eliot, F. Scott Fitzgerald and others.
14.    Free Classic Literature: Find British authors like Shakespeare and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, plus other authors like Jules Verne, Mark Twain, and more.
Textbooks
If you don’t absolutely need to pay for your textbooks, save yourself a few hundred dollars by reviewing these sites.
15.    Textbook Revolution: Find biology, business, engineering, mathematics and world history textbooks here.
16.    Wikibooks: From cookbooks to the computing department, find instructional and educational materials here.
17.    KnowThis Free Online Textbooks: Get directed to stats textbooks and more.
18.    Online Medical Textbooks: Find books about plastic surgery, anatomy and more here.
19.    Online Science and Math Textbooks: Access biochemistry, chemistry, aeronautics, medical manuals and other textbooks here.
20.    MIT Open Courseware Supplemental Resources: Find free videos, textbooks and more on the subjects of mechanical engineering, mathematics, chemistry and more.
21.    Flat World Knowledge: This innovative site has created an open college textbooks platform that will launch in January 2009.
22.    Free Business Textbooks: Find free books to go along with accounting, economics and other business classes.
23.    Light and Matter: Here you can access open source physics textbooks.
24.    eMedicine: This project from WebMD is continuously updated and has articles and references on surgery, pediatrics and more.
Math and Science
Turn to this list to find books about math, science, engineering and technology.
25.    FullBooks.com: This site has “thousands of full-text free books,” including a large amount of scientific essays and books.
26.    Free online textbooks, lecture notes, tutorials and videos on mathematics: NYU links to several free resources for math students.
27.    Online Mathematics Texts: Here you can find online textbooks likeElementary Linear Algebra and Complex Variables.
28.    Science and Engineering Books for free download: These books range in topics from nanotechnology to compressible flow.
29.    FreeScience.info: Find over 1800 math, engineering and science books here.
30.    Free Tech Books: Computer programmers and computer science enthusiasts can find helpful books here.
Children’s Books
Even children’s books are now available online. Find illustrated books, chapter books and more.
31.    byGosh: Find free illustrated children’s books and stories here.
32.    Munseys: Munseys has nearly 2,000 children’s titles, plus books about religion, biographies and more.
33.    International Children’s Digital Library: Find award-winning books and search by categories like age group, make believe books, true books or picture books.
34.    Lookybook: Access children’s picture books here.
Philosophy and Religion
For books about philosophy and religion, check out these websites.
35.    Bored.comBored.com has music ebooks, cooking ebooks, and over 150 philosophy titles and over 1,000 religion titles.
36.    Ideology.us: Here you’ll find works by Rene Descartes, Sigmund Freud, Karl Marx, David Hume and others.
37.    Free Books on Yoga, Religion and Philosophy: Recent uploads to this site include Practical Lessons in Yoga and Philosophy of Dreams.
38.    The Sociology of Religion: Read this book by Max Weber, here.
39.    Religion eBooks: Read books about the Bible, Christian books, and more.
Plays
From Shakespeare to George Bernard Shaw to more contemporary playwrights, visit these sites.
40.    ReadBookOnline.net: Here you can read plays by Chekhov, Thomas Hardy, Ben Jonson, Shakespeare, Edgar Allan Poe and others.
41.    Plays: Read PygmalionUncle Vanya or The Playboy of the Western World here.
42.    The Complete Works of William Shakespeare: MIT has made available all of Shakespeare’s comedies, tragedies, and histories.
43.    Plays Online: This site catalogs “all the plays [they] know about that are available in full text versions online for free.”
44.    ProPlay: This site has children’s plays, comedies, dramas and musicals.
Modern Fiction, Fantasy and Romance
These websites boast collections of graphic novels, romance novels, fantasy books and more.
45.    Public Bookshelf: Find romance novels, mysteries and more.
46.    The Internet Book Database of Fiction: This forum features fantasy and graphic novels, anime, J.K. Rowling and more.
47.    Free Online Novels: Here you can find Christian novels, fantasy and graphic novels, adventure books, horror books and more.
48.    Foxglove: This British site has free novels, satire and short stories.
49.    Baen Free Library: Find books by Scott Gier, Keith Laumer and others.
50.    The Road to Romance: This website has books by Patricia Cornwell and other romance novelists.
51.    Get Free Ebooks: This site’s largest collection includes fiction books.
52.    John T. Cullen: Read short stories from John T. Cullen here.
53.    SF and Fantasy Books Online: Books here include Arabian Nights,Aesop’s Fables and more.
54.    Free Novels Online and Free Online Cyber-Books: This list contains mostly fantasy books.
Foreign Language
For books in a foreign language like French, Spanish and even Romanian, look here.
55.    Project Laurens Jz Coster: Find Dutch literature here.
56.    ATHENA Textes Francais: Search by author’s name, French books, or books written by other authors but translated into French.
57.    Liber Liber: Download Italian books here. Browse by author, title, or subject.
58.    Biblioteca romaneasca: Find Romanian books on this site.
59.    Bibliolteca Virtual Miguel de Cervantes: Look up authors to find a catalog of their available works on this Spanish site.
60.    KEIMENA: This page is entirely in Greek, but if you’re looking for modern Greek literature, this is the place to access books online.
61.    Proyecto Cervantes: Texas A&M’s Proyecto Cervantes has cataloged Cervantes’ work online.
62.    Corpus Scriptorum Latinorum: Access many Latin texts here.
63.    Project Runeberg: Find Scandinavian literature online here.
64.    Italian Women Writers: This site provides information about Italian women authors and features full-text titles too.
65.    Biblioteca Valenciana: Register to use this database of Catalan and Valencian books.
66.    Ketab Farsi: Access literature and publications in Farsi from this site.
67.    Afghanistan Digital Library: Powered by NYU, the Afghanistan Digital Library has works published between 1870 and 1930.
68.    CELT: CELT stands for “the Corpus of Electronic Texts” features important historical literature and documents.
69.    Projekt Gutenberg-DE: This easy-to-use database of German language texts lets you search by genres and author.
History and Culture
Refresh your memory of world history, the classics and U.S. history here.
70.    LibriVox: LibriVox has a good selection of historical fiction.
71.    The Perseus Project: Tufts’ Perseus Digital Library features titles from Ancient Rome and Greece, published in English and original languages.
72.    Access Genealogy: Find literature about Native American history, the Scotch-Irish immigration in the 19th and 20th centuries, and more.
73.    Free History Books: This collection features U.S. history books, including works by Paul Jennings, Sarah Morgan Dawson, Josiah Quincy and others.
74.    Most Popular History Books: Free titles include Seven Days and Seven Nights by Alexander Szegedy and Autobiography of a Female Slave by Martha G. Browne.
Rare Books
Look for rare books online here.
75.    Questia: Questia has 5,000 books available for free, including rare books and classics.
76.    
Arts and Entertainment
This list features books about celebrities, movies, fashion and more.
77.    Books-On-Line: This large collection includes movie scripts, newer works, cookbooks and more.
78.    Chest of Books: This site has a wide range of free books, including gardening and cooking books, home improvement books, craft and hobby books, art books and more.
79.    Free e-Books: Find titles related to beauty and fashion, games, health, drama and more.
80.    2020ok: Categories here include art, graphic design, performing arts, ethnic and national, careers, business and a lot more.
81.    Free Art Books: Find artist books and art books in PDF format here.
82.    Free Web design booksOnlineComputerBooks.com directs you to free web design books.
83.    Free Music Books: Find sheet music, lyrics and books about music here.
84.    Free Fashion Books: Costume and fashion books are linked to the Google Books page.
Mystery
Here you can find mystery books from Sherlock Holmes to more contemporary authors.
85.    MysteryNet: Read free short mystery stories on this site.
86.    TopMystery.com: Read books by Edgar Allan Poe, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, GK Chesterton and other mystery writers here.
87.    Mystery Books: Read books by Sue Grafton and others.
Poetry
These poetry sites have works by Emily Dickinson, Edgar Allan Poe and others.
88.    The Literature Network: This site features forums, a copy of The King James Bible, and over 3,000 short stories and poems.
89.    Poetry: This list includes “The Raven,” “O Captain! My Captain!” and “The Ballad of Bonnie and Clyde.”
90.    Poem Hunter: Find free poems, lyrics and quotations on this site.
91.    Famous Poetry Online: Read limericks, love poetry, and poems by Robert Browning, Emily Dickinson, John Donne, Lord Byron and others.
92.    Google Poetry: Google Books has a large selection of poetry, fromThe Canterbury Tales to Beowulf to Walt Whitman.
93.    QuotesandPoem.com: Read poems by Maya Angelou, William Blake, Sylvia Plath and more.
94.    CompleteClassics.com: Rudyard Kipling, Allen Ginsberg and Alfred Lord Tennyson are all featured here.
95.    PinkPoem.com: On this site, you can download free poetry ebooks.
Miscellaneous
For even more free book sites, check out this list.
96.    Banned Books: Here you can follow links of banned books to their full text online.
97.    World eBook Library: This monstrous collection includes classics, encyclopedias, children’s books and a lot more.
98.    DailyLit: DailyLit has everything from Moby Dick to the more recent phenomenon, Skinny Bitch.
99.    A Celebration of Women Writers: The University of Pennsylvania’s page for women writers includes Newbery winners.
100.Free Online Novels: These novels are fully online and range from romance to religious fiction to historical fiction.
101.ManyBooks.net: Download mysteries and other books for your iPhone or eBook reader here.
102.Authorama: Books here are pulled from Google Books and more. You’ll find history books, novels and more.
103.Prize-winning books online: Use this directory to connect to full-text copies of Newbery winners, Nobel Prize winners and Pulitzer winners.