At home in Thrush Green- Miss Read

There are some books that are just simply comforting. Miss Read's books are that category- books that I would like to have about me to read when I am old and retired.

Miss Read was a teacher and she writes about village life in years just after the World War II.  There is not much of a plot and yet each book is filled with stories- stories that are simple and straight without metaphors and other embroidery.

I was introduced to these books either at the Charlottesville Library or Denver Library and they have been my constant companions- comfortable and cozy reads.

So I was very happy to find Miss Read book at the Delhi book fair. And of course, I started to read it immediately.  I read through the lunch, on the metro, and back at home.  Of course, I finished it before the day ended.  For once, the kdrama was put on the back burner!

As I said earlier, it is a book about nothing spectacular.  Just a year in the life of villagers.  These are old friends- Dottie Harmer and her animals and dreadful recipes, the vicar and his wife,  the doctor's wife, and oh, a new housing for the elderly has come up in Thrush Green.  There is, of course, the primary school.  Just an ordinary village and ordinary people.  And their lives.

This is one book that I will keep in my collection to dip into again and again.

Pachinko by Min Jin Lee - Book review

 Being a kdrama afficiando, I heard that Lee Min Ho was going to act in Pachinko. I am not a big fan of Lee Min Ho but I was interested in the topic as it dealt with the Japan-Korea relationship.  Japan had colonized Korea in 1911 and liberation happened only after the end of the World War.  As a colonizer, Japan committed many atrocities including forcing women into what was euphemistically called as "comfort women" but in reality was prostitution.  The drama was aired in Apple TV which I did not see as I do not have a subscription.  However, I was able to buy the book in the book fair.

The author is a Korean-American and first got the idea for the book in 1989.  Pachinko is a pin ball game- sort of illegal gambling that flies under the radar and is majorly operated by Koreans living in Japan.  As a colonized country, most Koreans were desperately poor and migrated to Japan, where they endured poverty and racist slurs and indignities.  They were not given citizenship and those Koreans who returned back to Korea from Japan, were shunned by their countrymen.  So the Korean-Japanese are kind of neither here nor there people.

The book spans an ambitious time span from 1910 to 1989.  Divided into three parts, the book tells the story of Sunja, the only daughter of Hoonie, a club-footed and cleft-lipped man, and Yangjin, his wife. The first part is compelling as it is set in Korea and deals with the effect of colonization.  Sunja meets a married yakuza (basically a gangster in Japan) and gets pregnant.  An unmarried pregnant woman in those days, in any Asian society, was doomed.  She is rescued from her fate by a Christian Pastor, Baek Isek, who offers to marry her and give her child his name. They move to Osaka where Baek Isek becomes a pastor in a Korean Church.  Living with Isek's brother, Yoseb, they slowly build their life only for it to be shattered.

And from here the book kind of loses its focus.  People come and go, time jumps happen and important events get short shrift, and Sunja never gets a moment of happiness. 

As I read through the second and third part, I was reminded of the book "A Fine Balance" by Rohinton Mistry.  I gave up reading that book towards the end because I just could not take the sort of unhappy events that kept happening in the protagonist's life.  I was like "Just give that poor woman a break!"

The only difference is that I completed Pachinko.  At least in then end Sunja had money and was living a comfortable life. 

It is the bigger message that made me little uncomfortable. As  Sunja's grandson joins his father's Pachinko business, it appeared as though the author was saying whatever happens a Korean-Japanese can never be anything else. That is a very harsh indictment of a society/country.   

Sally and Bean-Webtoon

 I got into reading webtoons because of kdrama.   Fortunately, Naver has English version, though I think should read the Korean version alongside the English version to improve my language skills.

Most of the webtoons, honestly, are meh!  They are set in fantasy European kingdoms and are not my cup of tea. 

Then are some that were absolute favourites. Unfortunately, they got made into kdrama and the entire premise of webtoon was ruined.  The prime example is See you in my 19th life.  The webtoon was a lovely read with the heroine being able to remember all her lives with each of her birth.  The resolution of how she is able to get out of the curse was the highlight. The kdrama completely ruined the story leaving most of us watchers wondering why the writer of the webtoon had even agreed to dramatize it in this way. 

Then there are those that I wait with bated breath for the weekly episode.  Sally and Bean is one such webtoon.  Sally is a grumpy witch and Bean...well, he is a really stretchy dragon.  Sally and Bean tells their story.  There are Unicorns, and trolls, and demon, Pazuzu, who has been actually mandated to guard Sally... It is a funny and heartwarming story.

Other than Sally and Bean, I am also reading The Crown Princess Scandal.

On Science awards in India

 The Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar award was finally announced.  As expected 12 men were awarded.  If you were to look carefully at the list, you will notice also that most of the men belonged to one state.  All of them work in Institutes.  The Print carried an article by Mohana Basu who asked where are the women.  The Hindu had an editorial asking not only where are the women but what about the scientists working in Universities.

Sadly, we do not exist.  Despite the hype about how women were at the forefront in ISRO, the fact that there is a women DG helming CSIR, it is the sad fact that we are ignored.  In fact, I was very amused at the Whatsapp messages circulated by my school friends who lauded the ISRO women scientists for wearing saree to the work place.  Why is it that men are never asked to wear dhoti or panchagajam? That is the traditional attire isn't it?  The reality is that we laud women not for their achievements but for wearing sarees and being a good mom along with being scientist.  No one ever asks whether the man is a good Dad.

As for the Universities, well, the less said the better.  The Universities never had great funding and now, it has been reduced to almost nothing.  The Central Universities are still in a better position than the State Universities.  I do not want to talk about appointments/recruitments in the Univerisities because every one knows how they happen.  That being the case, no one is going to fight our case.

Finally, the committees are helmed by men employed in the Institutes. So unless we consciously make a case for women and for Universities, nothing much is going to change.

Long stitch Anchor kits

I have been explaining to my friend's daughter how important it is to have hobbies while doing Ph.D.  Experiments never work at the first shot.  Sometimes it does not work even after many repeats.  It can be very frustrating especially when you cannot really figure out what is going wrong.  The PI, including me, are never of the patient sort. They demand data.  Often times, when they demand data or project report, they want it, like, yesterday.

The only way to deal with these frustrations is to develop other interests.  Hobbies become very important stress busters.  

I do lots of cross stitch, crochet, knitting.  

Last year, when I was in a slump dealing with so many Covid related deaths, my sister-in-law handed me an unfinished piece of embroidery.  Her advice was that I should do it because I loved doing it.  It will help me, she said.

Well, it took me a year.  I finally finished the piece of embroidery and it did help me through the tough time. 

The kit that my sister-in-law gave me was from Anchor India.  This is the fourth piece that I have completed.

 

Developing School Pedagogy

It has been a year.  Lots of things happened. Some good and some bad.  The good news is that my friend's daughter has joined Law School.

The NCERT books are back in news.  After the government decided that there was no need for student's to learn about evolution (look at the Cheetahs- they grew their winter fur even after transplanting to India. So where is evolution?) and Mendeleev's periodic table, a new committee has been constituted to  design new NCERT books.  The panel of experts does not have any body connected with education. It does have Sudha Murty (who is in news every day), Shankar Mahadevan (musician), Vimal Kumar (Badminton player) among others. There are two mathematicians- Manjul Bhargav (who was on NEP 2020 panel) and Sujata Ramadorai.

Of course, there is no need for educationists to be on panel. What do the teachers know?

Central Universities Entrance Test- the death knell for school education

The Central Universities Entrance Test (CUET) is a much discussed topic among parents whose kids are in the final year of school.  My niece is very anxious. She wants to do law after school which means she has to give Common Law Admission Test (CLAT).  The syllabus is frightful.  Not only does she need to know law and political science but also general knowledge and logical reasoning.  I purchased couple of books for her to study and took a peek into it. I was horrified. If I was to give this exam, I would surely not pass.  Anyway, there are coaching centers for CLAT and my niece has joined couple of them.  But every now and then she has a panic attack.  Her main worry is that how much she needs to focus on the board exams.  We discussed the matter over lunch one day and came to the conclusion that since Delhi University is going to follow CUET, there is not much point getting flustered over the board exams.  She will have to qualify CUET to get admission into Delhi University.   That is only if she does not get through CLAT.  CLAT is plan A and CUET is plan B.

The glitch?  Oh well, there are coaching for CUET too.  There is no structured syllabus for CUET because each University offers different courses and their requirements are different. As a colleague put, the exam is like Civil service exams for undergrads.  As all entrance exams, this one too is an eliminating exam.  So the sylllabus for CUET has no relevance to what is taught in the school.

The UGC chairperson has declared that there is no need to take any coaching for CUET.  I do not know which world he is living in. In the real world, CUET coaching centers have started brisk business.  

The real problem was of course was the way the students were graded in the board exams. Over a period of time, the marks got inflated so much so that even in subjects like History or English, students were awarded 100%. All they had to do was to write the key words as described in the text book.  Instead of fixing the pedagogy and overhauling the board exams, the UGC in its great wisdom decided to introduce CUET.

Meantime, my job this year is to ensure that my niece and I retain our sanity as we navigate the college admission process.