Well - we are here now

It's 8.24 now and most of you who were supposed to arrive and start the test are late by an Hour and a Half. Yet, it looks like we are going to have a Very Very Long Day Today. The class is full now at 9.00 am - with ALL the 14 chairs 'claimed.'

The Mock will be over by 11.30 am - we write an essay after a briefing session of 5 minutes. We shall mark each other anonymously. 

Not a soul here

And I am waiting in the company of Joseph Conrad and his elaborate case of "an investigating animal" in his PREFACE to The Secret Agent - added to the book 12 years later.

And I am waiting here for 41 minutes now. 

NOT many visitors today

Only a handful and many who attended yesterday did NOT show up - they promised they would! But I think that is OK - the school is closing down for 10 days - we do NOT need a more blissful time. About the festivities - let us all be clear - it does NOT exist in OUR lives. Our festivities begin with the announcements of admissions WITH financial aid. So, there we go.

Persons I have met today:
Saikat, Ahsanul Kabir, Adib, Rakibul, Silmee, Samiha, Tapojit, Saiti, Afsara, Abhijeet, Rafuzzaman, Raeesa, Rohit, Zereen, Ishmum, Fahim and someone else.  

Invention of Love

In 2014 someone from our class went to Paris - they say it is the city of the romantic sojourners. But no, this time our student is unaccompanied by any romantic partner. She had her family with her - I am sure that she had one of her best moments there in that celestial city. But I am also sure that in a not-so-far future she will again encounter this city with an 'appropriate' company. She brought back a copy of Invention of Love by my favorite playwright - Tom Stoppard. I had a stormy night that day in late summer. And how lucky I am to be blessed with a copy bought from one of the grandest bookstores on planet - Shakespeare and Company. 

Here I make TWO links to Stoppard's plays - both are brought out by American Conservatory Theater.

Read the WHOLE booklet from the first link. This takes you to Stoppard's World of Poetry. Read only pages 20-21 from the second link - see how much our own class shares the spirit of learning.

1. Arcadia - Study Tour
2. Life in Oxford University (Sigh!) - Pages 20-21

This Living Hand

A Keats Poem Poster - click the image and read it. Then you should read the appreciation of a poet on this short piece.
This Living Hand - KEATS

Why Major - further instructions - no less than 7 items rejected out of hand

FOLLOWING NOTES (slightly edited) HAVE BEEN SCRIPTED BY ZEREEN

Today we had an extensive lecture about the Why major essay. It was very informative in my opinion and we were given a lot of tips as well as insight about this particular essay.

Firstly, this essay is required to show an awareness of the peripheral issues of our topic. We can not just talk about our major (whether it is engineering, life sciences, sociology, literature or anything else,)without addressing the issues that affect and surround it. To gain this peripheral knowledge we need to research, explore and use our creativity as well as delve into the latest developments of these field from SEVERAL universities, SEVERAL perspectives. 

Secondly, our essay should have the awareness that we are presenting a certain society or community and not just a singular topic. We need to look at the big picture while also focusing on the little things. A tip we got, was to start the essay with something not directly related to your major - this will not only make the essay different but also will show that you are not ignorant to everything besides your major.

Lastly, we need to casually show that we have a full-length understanding of those particular disciplines  (the plural form of the word is underlined strongly) without appearing to be a show-off or know-all. We need to be a person with "cold logic and a warm heart".

Everyone Attended MOCK - except ...

SOWMMA - SILMEE.

None of you even thought it NECESSARY to inform me beforehand. 

Orwell - Hasan Irtija - Report slightly edited

KEEP THE ASPIDISTRA FLYING

when I was assigned this task I cringed at the thought of reading Orwell - you can imagine my embarrassment now that I have read and had thoroughly enjoyed the novel. It was a whole new face of Orwell thought the trade mark stamp of Irony and Contradiction ensured that it was an Orwell original. 

Charmed by the dark humor and witty remarks I skimmed through the pages viewing London through the eyes of Gordon Comstock. A pessimistic, gloomy, arrogant, self-serving and overwhelmingly epigrammatic protagonist; the character setting brought out the sadistic nature in me - I loved to see him struggle, blunder and writhe in agony as he dropped from status, society and finally civilization. He was an excellent book salesman, not for the buyers but for us readers; though however amusing Comstock was I always kept (made to keep) a vigilant mind on his works. The dark and dreary nature of Orwell seeped through Comstock's mouth: Sometimes I think we're all corpses. Just rotting upright.  What made the novel enjoyable was Orwell's narration – a story telling adaptation which lets us observe from afar without having to engulf in the amalgamation of Comstock's daemons; keeping our own opinions crisp and un-mingled.

When Comstock was not spewing abuses or encouraging blasphemies (One for the employers-the elect, the money priesthood as it were- 'Thou shalt make money'; the other for the employed- the slaves and underlings'- 'Thou shalt not lose thy job.') he was talking about aspidistras. It was true love between a man and a plant. Comstock’s ideals changed and with it changed the significance of aspidistra. It was the sole symbol of contradiction that Orwell portrayed in his ideals. In Society the aspidistra mocked the pretense of civility, a panorama of ignorance, greed, vulgarity, snobbishness, whoredom and disease, delusions of Nobel standing and false humility acquired through mindless labor in exchange for money. But in humble living, it was a sign of good will; a sign of peace. This was where Comstock finally found serenity and pronounced Vicisti, O Aspidistra!

The novel ended in tragedy. Not even the great Comstock could run away from the responsibilities of man and was again shackled and bound in the act of conventional pleasure: a favorable turnover for the Comstocks but the death of a poet.

Visit the Old School

From Poetry Society of America. Follow the link below:

Poetry Society of America

A Simple Strong and Confident Report - Shafat Jamil

This is Shafat's second report in a row. I am just surprised how innocent and sharp comments these are - and how truthful they look when I read this. Many of you who ask - "What is the best way to report?" - well, here in another good sample.

MY ANTONIA

The story started describing their childhood; as most novels do. How Jim and Antonia met while they traveled to Nebraska first. One who reads it will get a nice image of the time the story is from. I find the story quite similar to our society. Not much has changed since. People travel from one place to another place just to earn more money and if somehow the father of that family passes out then the overall family depend on the elder son or daughter they have. I admire Antonia, even if she is a little girl she took the responsibility without any hesitation. She was no less than any men. Day by day she grew stronger and more confident. It was the self-esteem and the self-respect that made her carry out her family from the rigorous poverty. After she was left with her child she didn’t for a moment lost confidence in herself. She proceeded whatever the consequence was and at last got what she always wished for. There are so many things we can learn from this piece of story. Life can change significantly any moment without any given signal but we should not get depressed. Our sorrow should never let us down but rather give us the strength to grow up to do what our heart tells us to do. Life is not only about working hard and studying, it’s also about how much we care for our friends and family. How we spend time with them because at the end, the only thing, we will remember is the pastime that we had with our loved ones.

অরন্যের দিনরাত্রি - An Appreciation Par Excellence

I was supposed to watch ‘Charulota’ but ‘Aranyer Dinratri’ (অরন্যের দিনরাত্রি ) seemed to be more intriguing. The name happened to, somehow, hook me to it. I actually don’t have any idea about direction, but at least I understood that the camera works were done fabulously. Every single shot was taken so precisely. Every shot made me feel as if I was standing with the characters. Story line was amazing, although it was predictable. But I am sure that it didn’t make the audience feel dull or bored. I don’t know why, people of our generation, can’t make a movie like this. Some of the dialogues were difficult to grasp but the image was enough to understand what they meant. In our society smart means having spiked hair with some expensive dresses on. But I have learnt, through this movie, what smartness mean. The characters expressed everything so rhetorically in Bangla which to me seemed smartness of the finest kind - it didn’t mean that they can’t speak in English. I wish I could speak in sophisticated Bangla like these characters. I am looking forward to watch more movies by Satyajit Ray.  
Shafat Jamil

Work PLAN for the next 3 DAYS

I have NOT received Work-plan from ALL of you. You are requested to send this crucial document immediately - without delay.

• We meet on Saturday morning at 8.00 
• Our 7 Mock Tests begin on Sunday [28th Sept and ends on 4th Oct.] 

Handling Critical Reading Questions in SAT

Strategies that proved to be effective for critical reading (Saiti did the scripting)

·        The ‘Reading in chunks’ strategy helps in the case of long passages and double passages. However, if the passages are of the narrative type, and include dialogues, reading it at one go might help to give a better understanding of the passage.

·        Very few mistakes occur in vocabulary if we guess the answer before reading the options

·        Paraphrasing is perhaps the strongest of the strategies. Instantly rethinking what one has just read using own words will help to effectively guess an answer without seeing the options. This prevents one from falling into trap answers, or pondering between answer choices.

·        Line markers drawn all over the passage before even beginning to read the passage automatically draws attention to the referred lines, so there is less need to reread the passage again.

·        All these strategies effectively improves time management.

And here is a BLOG link too - just in case you want to see what others are thinking. 

Guide to Critical Reading & Writing
Journal Club - Another Name for Peer Reviewed Class

Work Plan for the Next 4 Days

Here is the format of the work plan - please follow a similar pattern.

Date	Name of Task	Comment

Yesterday's Class - An Observation

Here is an observation from one of the 2 fresh entrants, who attended yesterday's evening session. 

Hello Sir,

  

Today's class was very informative, inspiring and interesting. It was informative because: I learned one of the most important things regarding the application, that is, mere SAT scores and high school grades do not confirm my acceptance in a particular University. Rather, the essays are ticket to my destination. Nevertheless, I should not completely let go of my sat scores and grades. Today's class was inspiring because: most of your former students got into leading Universities which brewed this strange determination that I can reach my goals too. Lastly, it was very interesting because: the students talked about their assignments which were captivating enough to crave for my own assignment. It was great to be a part of such a communicative class. 

Overall it was a very fruitful class where I managed to pick up important life lessons about being respectful and sincere. It will act as a constant reminder to work much harder and not to lose track of my set goals. 

Thank you. 

This is a FINAL Call for submitting Reading Reports - SAT Mocks 7 DAYS

In spite of repeated requests some on the students of 2014-2015 session have NOT been submitting reading reports. Although I have stopped giving NEW assignments - it is expected that you should submit EVERY Reading Items that were assigned in the last 3 months.

This is also to announce that those who fail to submit Substantial Amount of reading reports in the next 4 working days (including today) - their parents will be called and I will submit a FULL picture of their performance. ALL the parents will be Called Together - so that I face them together on ONE Single Session. It is also interesting to note NONE of the girls has failed to submit required amount of reports - so, I take this opportunity to express my satisfaction. Of the boys - only 3 persons had been mailing me their works regularly.

I must add - that among those who does not read and report - there are 3 people at least who NEVER sent me anything worth reading. I will deal with them in a most RUTHLESS manner.

EVERYONE should also send me a plan for their 3/4 days work ahead. From 28th Sept (Sunday) to 4th October (Saturday) - anglophiles shall conduct SAT Exam sessions. Each exam will include writing of 2 page essays.

Two Mails - Hasnat in Wabash

This mail came today morning at 6.08 min

Hello Sir,

I hope you are doing well and the batch of 2019 is progressing well. This email is to keep you updated about the recruitment process this year. I believe you can allow three to four people from Anglophiles to apply to Wabash for the class of  2019. 

This year we had 5 students from Vietnam and 5 from China so I assume they will be seeking applicants from Bangladesh to keep up the balance. However, those students have to eligible through their writing skills. An average SAT I score of around 1550-1900 would be fine enough to start with. But the common app "essays" and "other essays" should be "excellent" to get a ticket to Wabash. In fact these essays would help them to receive more attention and financial aid which the other Asian groups don't get with a SAT I score of 2000-2150. 

Let me know if you have any queries.

Sincerely,

Hasnat

Please ignore the previous email.

The following mail was posted on the previous evening at 7.53 pm

On Sun, Sep 21, 2014 at 7:53 PM, Motahar Hasnat <hasnat250@gmail.com> wrote:

Hello Sir,

I hope you are doing well and the batch of 2019 is progressing well. This email is to keep you updated about the recruitment process this year. I believe you can allow three to four people from Anglophiles to apply to Wabash for the class of  2019. 

This year we had 5 students from Vietnam and China so I assume  seeking applicants from Bangladesh to keep up the balance. However, those students have to eligible through their writing skills. An average SAT I score of around 1660-1900 would be fine enough 

Following report on POEMS is full of Errors

The errors range from defective sequence of sentences, a dropped punctuation, and TYPO. However, it was very spontaneous and I liked the report for its spontaneity. I specifically want all the Attendees who will join me after 9.00 am to read this and send their comments on the REPORT. The Writer's name remain undisclosed. 

Dear Sir,

I read Ode to Nightingale today. I believe Keats was in a state of depression when he wrote this or maybe he had just woken up from a restless sleep full of bad dreams to hear the beautiful and everlasting singing of the nightingale. He compares his state of mind to being drugged or maybe poisoned by hemlock or maybe drowning in the river of the underworld.To Keats the sound is so very magical and immortal,so detached from the horrible disease and death in the real world that he permanently wishes to live in that dream world where only the beautiful things of the world exist. Even if that means he has to die he is willing to go away to the world where no sorrow exist,he says what is the use of living in such a sad miserable world where there is only disease and death. But he did not perhaps want to live in the nightingales world because he was miserable,rather he wanted to leave because it would be worthwhile to live forever in a beautiful place unmarred by sadness.He was perhaps thinking about his brother Tom or maybe,being a surgeon,he had already noticed that he was also showing signs of the then deathly disease. In the last stanza he seems to snap out of his drowsiness or depression and allows that he cannot hear the nightingale forever for it is a bird and will always fly away but in the last line he is still confused about which path he ought to take,the imaginary world filled with only the beautiful things or the harsh reality he is living in. Throughout the poem he describes his fantasy world and says how the natural things in life always exists like the beautiful singing of a bird or the bright colours of flowers;perhaps that particular flower ir bird will not exist but their idea and their qualities will always exist. But i think that eveb though he says that it is worthwhile to leave cause of the beauty of the birds singing ,i think he wanted a way out of the miserable life he lived where his loved ones had died and he was not a success and most importantly,where he could not be with the woman he loved because he did not have the financial means to support her.

I also read Ode to Psyche which is perhaps a romantic poem and which was more cheerful than ode to nightingale. The speaker is a man who is describing the wonderful love of Psyche and Cupid/Eros,the son of Aphrodite who is the goddess of love. Psyche is a moryal who is so beautiful that Aphrodite becomes jealous and sends her son to make Psyche fall in love with  an ugly man. Cupid accidentally hits himself with one of his arrows and falls madly in love with Psyche. He makes her his wife and only comes to her at night and warns her that she should not try to see his face. One day she lights a candle to see his face for her sisters had tempted her and accidently gets hit by one of Cupids arrows and in turn falls madly in love with him. Cupid,angry that she did not listen to him leaves her and she vows to do whatever required to win him back. She goes to Aphrodite who sets her seemingly impossible tasks but Psyche completes them all with the help of people around her and all the Gods. Jupiter,king of all the gods, feeds her the food of the gods thereby making her immortal and in turm making Psyche and Cupids love immortal. The speaker says that he sees the two lovers and is mesmerised by them. He describes the fantastic beauty of Psyche and says that because she is a new goddess she has no temple and no followers or priests to pray to her. But after seeing her and Cupid he says that he will make a temple for her and he will be a priest and will forever pray to her. Keats was probably depressed about how he could not be with his love,Fanny Brawne and wrote this poem which described his dreams of what his and Fannys love could have been. There is a lot of talk about immortal love and living forever which makes me think that he is perhaps thinking about how if he lived and if he had the means,he could be with Fanny forever and their love would always exist. This poem describes the immense passion he had for Fanny for he had written a letter to her which is so emotional and passionate just like this poem. He said in his letter that it always surprised him that men could die martyrs for their religion but after Fanny came into his life and he fell in love ,his love became his religion and he could gladly die a martyr for his love,his religion. It is a beautiful poem filled with descriptions of Psyches beauty which is probably the thoughts he had about Fannys beauty and it has a lot of descriptions of lush meadows and nature. This is probably keats dream of the place where he would like to live with Fanny.

I also read three poems by W B Yeats. Politics,man and the echo and the circus animals desertion. All three are deeply unsettling poems and I felt like Yeats was sort of mocking himself and his life through these poems. I guess he just was not satisfied and I think he showed remorse about the fact that he was not a loyal husband even though his wife did not mind for in one lette she wrote that after his death people would talk about his live affairs but she will say nothing because she will remember how proud he was. But it probably did not comfort him in his last days for he totally shredded his ego to pieces by writing these poems which all appeared in The Atlantic in 1939 the month the poet died.

In The Circus Animals Desertion he mocks his entire litetary career which i find quite interesting because it means that he did not fulfill that which he set out to do when he chose a path of literary excellence. 'My circus animals were all on show' he says which means that according to him,he could not fulfill his wishes,his visions. In the end he says,'Now that my ladders gone,i must lie down where all the ladders start. In the foul rag and bone shop of the heart.' I think by ladder he meant his vision which he lost and now he had to go to the place where he found his vision in the first place ; in the 'foul rag' and 'bone shop' whete there is only broken and hideous things. I think he got sidetracked by taking such an interest in things like politics and mystical beliefs. I also think he was foolish to spend his time as a sexual deviant but then again who am i to judge him,i have not as yet made my mark in this world. The poem 'politics' is all about his sexual experiences which is both talked about and scandalous. He describes himself as a pathetic old man giving in to common lust for young beautiful women which was quite true as he spent his last decade carrying on with women half his age. In the 'Man and the Echo' he talks about his role in the Easter rising and he describes the immense guilt he feels which keeps him up at night. He asks if he had been a bit more compassionate and understanding ,he could have prevented the rising. And he says that it all seems evil until he dies and his echo ,as he stands by the cliff, advises him to lay down and die which gives us an understanding of how immensely guilty he felt that he felt like dying and leaving his guilt behind in the material world. He was so very depressed and guilty during his deathbed years that he became interested in Vedanta,which is an Indian philosophy that teaches that the whole world is an illusion. I guess i can understand why the thought appealed to him. If the whole world was an illusion then so were his actions which would make him not guilty. He lost his grip on what was real and what was an illusion as his death approached. W H Auden said after his mentor and friend died ,"let the Irish vessel lie,emptied of its poetry."

I also read Yeats' poem 'The Rose' which is a romantic poet that describes the beauty if Maud Gonne. He likens her to Helen of Troy saying that she has the sort of beauty which could inspire men to wage war for ,which could cause destruction between nations.  This can also be taken in a literal way as Maud Gonne was a fierce Nationalist and the strife between England and Ireland could be described by this.He did  not believe the cliche that ' beauty passes like a dream' and said that  Maud Gonnes lovely face will live on even after the dream,the human life passes by.He says that she is a being that existed alongside God and angels bowed down to her and the world and all the beautiful things in it were created for her to tread on. This i think  is very weird because he lost interest in the woman ,he wrote such a lovely poem for,as soon as they consummated their relationship. Maybe he just got tired after all her rejections .

This is all that i did till now. I am sorry sir that i could not do all of it because i had internet problems at home and i had to go to a cyber cafe to do all that i did. I have talked to the internet people and i will have a new broadband line connected within two days but dont worry. You shall receive the rest of my report in poetry by today.

Regards,

...

Work Schedule for Next TWO days - Monday & Tuesday

Note: This is an important mail regarding our work schedule for Monday + Tuesday. 

1. I will be visiting a few Ethnic Communities as a preparation for writing a stage play. My play will be based on a Free-adaptation of Irish Playwright Brian Friel's play TRANSLATIONS. I had been teaching this play to A Level Literature Students for about the last 3 or 4 years - therefore this makes a special occasion to recall those who attended my classes during this time. The classes have definitely improved my own understanding of the play by one of the foremost playwrights of 20th century.  
2. As a result of my visit to ethnic community, I will NOT take classes on Wednesday + Thursday + Friday = 3 days. 
3. Therefore, I will assign you with works tomorrow [Monday] and the day after [Tuesday] according to the following schedule.  

Monday 

1. Those who wish to attend tomorrow should arrive at 9.00 am and stay till 12 pm.
2. Shall assign individual tasks for the next FIVE days.
3. Those who arrive at 12 pm shall continue till 3.00 pm
4. Shabbir is meeting me at 7.30 am. 
5. Samiha has an appointment at 3.00 pm
6. Ishmum will arrive at 10 - to discuss his progress with Paper. Need 30 min for this. Have been doing articles from Past & Present.
7. I want to see Khairul, Rafiuzzaman, Rakibul, and Tapojit at 12 pm - if possible. Can you please confirm if you all shall arrive at 12 tomorrow?
8. I want to meet Ritwik at 12 pm or even better at 3.00 pm. Can you please confirm?
9. I have also been told that Fahim will come in the morning. I have instructed you on the WRITING part from - Stressbook, Resourcebook, AND SAT 2400.
10. Silmee - please confirm whether you are coming at 12 pm or 3.00 pm. I prefer 3.00-5.00 pm slot as only Samiha will be here at that time. 
11. Saiti & Raisa - both of you can see me at any given time - 9.00/12.00/3.00 - just confirm. And I have asked Raisa to send me reading reports on Philosophical Items. Saiti, have you sent me anything on Philosophy?
12. Sowmma - I want you to arrive at 12.00 pm
13. Era and Rakeen will be absent tomorrow - but we are meeting on Tuesday morning. 
14. Prachy - I really want to see you tomorrow - any time really! And I thoroughly enjoyed your report on Rape of the Lock. But then why not send more such good stuff?
15. Shibli is also coming at 9.00 am. You are requested to send me MY questionnaire regarding work-plan AND your written responses. Talking with the Anthropologist will not be possible as she is very busy with her faculty works right now. I also do NOT think that your paper goes in any direction to require a meeting with someone like her at this stage. 
16. Shafat will be working with me for his upcoming SAT-II subjects on Oct 11th. 
17. Ahsanul Kabir - no information. 

Tuesday 

• We shall schedule our TUESDAY work tomorrow. 
• Tasneem - I know that it is very difficult for you to come on weekdays. But since this is a little different thing - will it be possible to meet me on Tuesday any time between 8 am and 5 pm? [Just a fresh reminder that I will be absent from class on Wed+Thu+Fri]
• I will expect Afsara and Adib to arrange a meeting with me any time on Tuesday. 
• Afsara, I hope you will work on MATH from Stressbook and SAT 2400 - I want you to report by tomorrow by 8.00 am.
• Zereen will also report on this day - I am still waiting for more reports on some heavy items.

Attention for ALL:

• You MUST understand that sending reading reports will IMPROVE your relationship with ANGLOPHILES. Extensive reading will only increase your chances of writing TOP Quality Essays. 

GRE Students will report on the following items after Reading

These are on Environmental Theory, History and Management Theory put together.

Green Missionaries and Environmentalism
Cricket and Politics in Colonial India
Nature History & Narrative

In Addition,

Rashif will report on Dead Souls
Abhijeet reports on Master & Margarita

A Guardian Article - A Stanford Professor

Everyone is requested to read this semi-fictional article and TALK to me on their next meeting with me.
Gimme gimme gimme

And to keep your sense of humor here is the link to the ABBA title.

ABBA

Morning Work Report - POEMS

1. For today's class we read and gave our personal analysis on three poems so far. They were Keats' "Ode To A Nightangle", "La Belle Dame Sans Merci", and "Fern Hill" by Dylan Thomas. After we wrote our personal reviews for each poems, we checked each others' reviews and shared marked our thoughts with pencils. After that we had an discussion about Dylan Thomas' work in "Fern Hill". 
2. Today I have done Keats’s Ode to a Nightingale, La Belle dame sans merci and Dylan Thomas’s Fern Hill. Ode to a Nightingale and La belle dame sans merci expressed the poets view toward the mystic nature. But Fern Hill is based on personal experience, creating an impression of the carefree youth from the point where the narrator has become adult and is trapped in the dutiful ties of the society. For him childhood was the period when he was carefree and he has now lost the innocence and only has a vague image of it.

3. We have worked on Fern Hill, looking at the poem from different perspectives, once from the literary meaning of the words of the poem and also at the ones which we deciphered based on our personal understanding of the poem. I personally emphasized on the frequency of the inclusion of certain words or imagery in the poem for example time, children and the changes observed with the rising of a new day and the nature that is continuously being described signifying how much. He yearns to leave the matured human world of chaos to the peaceful, secluded world of nature where such disorder and harshness does not exist.

Ohio Wesleyan University - Shabab Sami Kabir

Sir, Shabab here.

OWU [Ohio Wesleyan University] is quite good, the classes are demanding and already putting pressure on me. I have already started working at them hard. In English 105 (a Seminarish class that gets freshmen used to how college papers and stuff work,) I was told that I did well in writing an essay they had as an assignment. People here are very friendly and it already feels like home. Students require 34 credits over four years to graduate and each full-fledged course has about 1 credit to it's name. At the moment I have Intro to Psych, English 105, Intro to Political Science and Appreciation of Music literature. I am on the wait list for Sociology and Economics introduction courses; if I get a spot in either of them by September the 2nd, I might drop political science to get either of them. The Psych and Economics departments are especially strong here. I have also met a few musicians and already started jamming in the chapel. Overall it feels quite great. Professors actually care to get to know students personally, discuss their performance and ask them what went wrong when they do not show up. Besides that there are academic advisors and counselors for further assistance in case anything goes wrong.

I have Psychology, Political Science and Music class on Mondays Wednesdays and Fridays while I only have English at 1pm on Tuesdays and Thursdays, so you can see I get a good amount of breathing space here and there. The Library staying open until 2 am is also quite great in case I need to look things up. My roommate and other people I meet around the inter-dorm open areas on walks are almost always ready to jump into discussions about the world, socio-political and economic matters. My academic advisor is the lead music theory and piano professor around here, by the way. There are about 2 other Bangladeshi students in this freshmen batch or so. There are quite a few clubs for different kinds of activities and so on. I am thinking of joining a SLU (Small Living Unit) called House of Thought next semester. A SLU is a type of house that isn't like a frat or sorority, has about 10-15 people united by a common concept or cause (others are things like Modern Foreign Language, Feminism, Peace and Justice and so on). OWU is pretty much known as one of the 'Ohio Five' as the higher liberal arts colleges in Ohio. The Town surrounding the place is pretty small - mostly food-places-and-stuff here and there; the international orientation leaders took us on trips to Wal-Mart or so on. The Social Sciences in general are pretty big here. The only negative thing about studies I have heard here is about one Bangladeshi Economics Professor who has some negative bias against males from our subcontinent - apparently he never gives an A to males of our race for some reason, no matter how hard they work. Besides that it feels quite good to be here. I am already on getting an on-campus work here and seeking to keep my GPA up to go for scholarships next year or so.

Regards, 

Shabab.

Poetry Week

This will be our POETRY week. Please also include a reading of "Political Theatre of Utpal Dutt". The picture shows Trotsky and A. Breton - two sides of the revolutionary coin.

Political Theatre of Utpal Dutt

Keats:

1. Ode to Nightingale 
2. Ode to a Grecian Urn
3. Ode to Psyche
4. Eve of St. Agnes
5. La belle dame sans merci

Yeats

1. Lake Isle of Innesfree
2. Sailing to Byzantium
3. Politics
4. An Irish Airman Foresees his Death

Auden

1. Musee des beaux arts
2. Unknown Citizen
3. Funeral Blues
4. In Praise of Limestone
5. In Memory of W. B. Yeats 

Following Students are Required Tomorrow

Adib
Rakibul
Ahsanul Kabir
Afsara
Ritwik
Prachy

There are a few pending issues with each of you.

What's Next

Today was a whole day of test - but not too much of a pressure. Tomorrow (Friday), I will go a little rough. We work on a MOCK and then we discuss our individual reading reports submissions. I will also talk about your College Choices. I will post more tonight. Unfortunately, our BLOG had to go private - too many people are accessing our site.  

Tomorrow - Tuesday our Work Plan - Anglophiles Supervision Strategies

We shall briefly talk about the book SAT 2400 - after a discussion of half an hour, there will be a FULL SAT-I test from Princeton 11 Tests. Please get a copy of SAT-II Math for our class tomorrow. You are advised NOT to bring laptop for tomorrow.

I also need to FIX a day for discussion on Literature SAT-II.
We also need to FIX a whole day for discussion on Math for SAT-I.

You are ALL requested to access the following - to know the HOW of our WORKING PROCESS.

Effective Postgraduate Supervision
Undergraduate Project Supervision
The Good Supervisor - Contents - An Eye-opener

israel horovitz - the aftermath

it's a great thing to commit to your memory how you started living but when you want to know how you could have lived there is no other option but to trust someone who once treaded the road or who often mistook a road for a journey's end

horovitz under the gaze
not quite himself

No New Reading Items

Tomorrow - I will arrive in class at 11 am. 

With the end of 100 WH - we are now also done with reading item assignments. However, you are required to submit ALL reading item assignments by the end of this month. I will keep a Sharp Vigil on your performance.

I also want to thank you all for coming back to a life of reading and critical thinking. It is a great experience to have worked with you all - notwithstanding such enthusiasm, I also know that few of you are yet to respond overwhelmingly to the reading requirements. I SHALL make sure that you complete your task in time. I have NO doubt whatsoever that I will be able to have my way. 

Freud - Cinema - Oedipus - Theory of Everything

MUST Read - follow the link below. I will want all of you to take part in a round table discussion. The painting shows the 1788 painting of Oedipus at Colonus by Jean-Antoine-Théodore Giroust.

1. Myth of Oedipus
2. Oedipus in Contemporary Psychoanalysis

Foucault Today - Those who should meet me tomorrow at 7.30 am

Thank you all who attended Foucault today (for the sake of keeping records, this was only the 3rd lecture this season so far) - I would also like to appreciate those who continued till 3.30 pm today and worked on the following:

1. Ode to Grecian Urn
2. Keep the Aspidistra Flying (A Novel)
3. Howard's End (A Novel)
4. When We Dead Awaken (A Play)

You are also advised to access the following materials for further clarifications on Foucault.

1. History of Sexuality
2. Utopias and Heterotopias
3. Las Meninas
4. Foucault Site

I am also including a cover of Stylist that holds MM reading from a 1st edition of James Joyce's novel Ulysses - generally agreed to be the most talked about Fiction of 20th century. How would Foucault read MM reading Ulysses?

Tomorrow morning I will work with the following - Saikat, Shibli, Rakeen, Abhijeet, Sowmma, Saiti, Raisa, Shabbir, Tapojit, Shafar, Ishmum, Afsara, Adib.

If any one of you is unable to attend (we work till 1.00 pm), please notify through an email. Class starts at 7.30 am.

Go to bed Early

Because YOU have a class tomorrow Friday at 8.00 am sharp. No late entry.

Thursday CLOSED. Friday I lecture on Foucault and Technology

I will be out of CLASS tomorrow Thursday. So, no class tomorrow. Those who are supposed to meet me tomorrow - Saikat, Shafat Jamil, Rakeen, Ahsanul Kabir, Sowmma, Raisa - appointments are cancelled.

ON Friday - I hope to come up with a talk on Michel Foucault's lecture series 1970-71. The lectures have only recently been published in English Translation. On behalf of Anglophiles I want to thank Samira Manjoor for bringing this extraordinary volume all the way from her campus in Tufts.

As a preparatory reading for attending the lecture on Friday at 8.15 am - 11.15 am, you can access these two documents linked below. For record, this is also to mention that this will be my only 3rd lecture on a given topic for the SAT/Application students. 

Critical Theory of Technology
Review of Philosophy of Technology
Theory of Technology

Important Notice to ALL

I am very satisfied to have been able to assign a few THEMED reading assignments in the last 4 days. This is to inform everyone that the following students are now expected to keep working at their chosen ares. If you are yet to be assigned any work - talk to me immediately.

Oni (All that is to Kazuo Ishiguro)
Rashif (Ashwin Sanghi - and everything related to Arthashashtrya)
Abhijeet
Afsara (I would add two more to Adiga's novel)
Raisa (Everything about Nabokov and Azar Nafisi)
Rafiuzzman (Works assigned)
Era (Should develop research topic)
Fahim (More to be added because you have finished the last one)
Khairul (Has been assigned with work - not working to my satisfaction)
Rakeen (Works assigned - extremely slow progress)
Rakibul (Assigned with works - inefficient way of working - yet to convince me of your METHOD)
Saiti (Assigned with works - working on several items without much success - Paris 1935 is exception.)
Sowmma (Too much emotional engagement with texts assigned)
Tapojit (Given some tasks - decided that we shall make use of Tractatus)
Tasneem (Given some tasks - I have agreed to your latest research-essay plan - but I shall also include a new ITEM for a further research paper)

G K Chesterton's Aphorisms

Read a few flat and flannel-flashy, frothy, fillups:
Chesterton Aphorisms LINK
Take down some of these in your own LOG-book. Quote them when you talk to me. 

Send These Immediately - Extremely Important

You are yet to send me the following:

1. Math Reco
2. PS (about 10 pages)
3. Why Major

It is very important that I have these withing the next 10 hours today. 

Saturday Class - Mayday Priority

I hope most of you have already accepted the BLOG invitation. Tomorrow I shall assign at least 8 books for the purpose of your individual Graded Papers / Humanities Research Papers. I already have made 3 selections - you are ALL requested to be present in the class tomorrow between 8.30 am and 11 am. I shall continue the ASSIGNMENT Distributions till 3.00 pm.

Additional Works We are going to HEAR tomorrow:

Rakeen and Saiti will make a 20 min presentation on the issue of Renaissance Drama and some fundamental emotions as presented through a medieval text. They will also make a brief reference of Cherry Orchard - Chekhov's finest artistic achievement.

Anthology for Anglophilites

A superb anthology written by young writers of prose.
Essay Anthology

A short introduction to Samuel Johnson:
On Johnson's Writing

On Johnson's sentence structures:
Johnson's Periodic Sentence Structure

Schedule -> Thursday + Friday + Saturday

I shall sit with selected people tomorrow - please send me your preference. We have passed our fourth day today - I have worked in a relaxed mood today. Here is my schedule for the next two days:

Thursday:
Assign some THEME work for few of you + Assign at least 2 Books for Review

Friday:
Review BARRON's SAT 2400 in 2 hours + SAT Essay Writing  + Vocabulary + Lecture on Philosophy on Technology

Sat:
Rakeen and Saiti will make a 20 min presentation on the issue of Renaissance Drama and some fundamental emotions as presented through a medieval text. They will also make a brief reference of Cherry Orchard - Chekhov's finest artistic achievement.

Everybody is requested to start working on Museum of Innocence.
There will be another book for Mandatory Reading - Dr. Faustus - price is 80/-

Something of interest

History & Philosophy of Science + Technology

Report Immediately of your State

Following people are required to report immediately about their work progress:
Afsara [I just received a report last night - not much is in my knowledge]
Raeesa [your research proposal does NOT sound very attractive to me]
Rakibul [come up with something more solid - something through which you can reveal your writing skill]
Fahim [I am yet to receive a solid Plan-of-action from you]
Tapojit [Send me something that will show that you are creative - also expecting a research paper]
Abhijeet [Must send info based on our last-night's conversation]
Khairul [Not yet convinced that you can produce research proposal]
Saiti [Kno Khobor Nai]
Zereen [Slowed down - alarming sign]

Saikat [MUST send me PS 1st draft and at least 2 Reading Report]
Zeenat [MUST send me more reading report]

Grid Sample [Please use MS Word Format]:

No	Name & Deadline	Comment on Program	Supp Essays / Requirements