REPORT OF ACTIVITIES OF THE DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH FOR THE YEAR 2009-10

The academic year 2009-10 has been a very significant one for the Department of English in many ways. The most remarkable academic achievement this year was the visit of Prof.E.V. Ramakrishnan, noted poet and critic in both Malayalam and English to the department to give a brilliant lecture on New Trends in Translation. Demonstration class of Navarasa by a renowned Kathakali artist, lecture on Indian Aesthetics by M.T.Narayanan who is on the faculty of Sree Sankaracharya university were other programmes of academic interest. The department remembers with gratitude the efforts taken by A C Sreehari, Meera R U, our final DC student and Dr V M Santhosh for making these programmes possible. Another programme of academic interest the department recalls with pride is the talk on Nuclear Arms Race and India's Nuclear Policy by the national figure of anti-nuclear activities Sri Sukla Sen and Viswanathan, the human rights activist from Kanayi. The discussions that followed all talks were highly productive and contributing to the formation of a better and earth-friendly community. Occasional visit and address by the former students who are studying and working elsewhere provided a sense of direction to our undergraduate students in the last year. The department would like to appreciate the ceaseless enthusiasm of Mr. A J Hareendran behind these creative Alumni interactions with our present students. The visit to the department and a class on the reading possibilities offered by the American Library, Chennai by a two-member team of that institution is recalled with gratitude to Ratnaprabha who helped a lot to realise it.

Achievements on the part of the students include the formation of a puppet play troupe and the adaptation of Nagamandala into a puppet drama very successfully for the first time in the history of Indian theatre regarding this particular play. The play is prescribed for study and the students were able to write the script, make the puppets and translate the drama into a puppet performance on their own. They were invited to SN College, Kannur to perform as part of a national seminar. Invited performances were conducted at a Rotary club function at Payyanur , Chinmaya College, Talap, Kannur as an item of educational entertainment during a seminar, Madai cooperative Arts and Science College and Gurudev Arts and Science College, Mathil. A four day tour to forest area in Wayanad covering about 40 km on foot a day was an exhilarating and unforgettable experience to students. They have conducted the whole trip with commendable managerial ability and economic viability with the guidance of Sri P K Kuriakose who has been instrumental in developing in them a sense of the beauty of nature and the need to keep the world around us clean through the activities of the Forestry Club which included the garden-tending and projects like the planting and maintenance of 500 teak saplings with the financial support of the Rotary Club of Payyanur and the Payyanur Educational Society and also of the FRUIT ORCHARD which includes about 25 fruit trees. It is to be noted that the first semester students devised reading project called BUY, READ, EXCHANGE and CONTRIBUTE by which they bought books worth Rs 1600 read them by exchange and contributed the books to the department. This highly innovative programme inspired students to read more and with a purpose. They came forward to present a review of the book in the class during leisure hours. The department is taking great care to introduce information and communication technology in the classroom to radically transform the teaching learning experience. The common course students were inspired to make powerpoint presentations for their seminar and this gesture in the context of the introduction of the CCSS and Grading system underscores the academic conservativeness and ambiance of the department of English. The initiative and guidance provided to students in this matter signals the innovative gestures of the members like Dr.V.M.Santhosh, A.J.Hareendran, Dr.K Premachandran and A C Sreehari.

One senior member, Elizabeth Xavier, retired from service and she made a remarkable contribution for visualizing the future projects of the department. The routine functions like Welcome Party for the Freshers, Farewell party for the final year students, classes by peer students, cleaning sessions, garden maintenance work, Tutorial sessions, film shows and extending services to the college office on demand are regular and were conducted as usual.