WOMEN IN ACTION

 TEAK GARDEN PLATFORM WORK - NREGP TIE-UP

 

Teak Garden is a dream project of the Payyanur Educational Society realized with the help of Rotary Club, Payyanur and managed by the  Dept of English and the Forestry Club. Occasional help from the students of the PES school is also sought as and when needed.   The project was made possible by the the mediation of Dr Santhosh V M who is on the faculty and a Rotarian too. Sri P K Kuriakose of the Dept of English is the consultant.  This year the club was able to tie up with the Kunhimangalam Panchayath in which the college is situated to make use of the NREGP labour pool to help maintain all the projects of the FORESTRY CLUB and some of the pioneering projects of the College in collaboration with other willing organizations and funding agencies.  This teak garden with 500 saplings planted and almost all surviving would be one of the rare organizational projects in north Malabar towards attaining environmental sustainability, soil protection and enrichment and preservation of remarkable wood heritage.  With the proper flourish of this cultivation, there is also the possibility of wild life being provided a secure place in this area where rabbits, wild pigs, porcupines, Jungle Fowl (some of them being the threatened species) are seen in small numbers  

 It is obvious that projects of the kind is contributing to the goals of the nation, its productivity and sustainability of a culture on one hand while on the other it promotes an earth friendliness that is fundamental to all the ancient cultures of the world.  A statement in paraphrase from Gita Mehtha may drive home this point better: The forest was the source all Indian knowledge and wisdom - it was ancient India's lab, university and source of great philosophies - the rishis lived there and Kings went there to consult them.  So it goes without saying that our schools, colleges and universities and all institutions of creativity and service should be surrounded by small civilized forests declaring human understanding of the interconnectedness and interdependence of all life forms as essential to the sustainability of human life on earth.    It is duty of the enlightened human being to do away with the rivalry between the binaries 'city and the country' and 'Grama and Aranya' that  exist in our society in the words of the famous historian and intellectual ROMILA THAPAR.  The department of English is implementing small projects like the FRUIT ORCHARD, MAHAGONY AND NEEM FORESTS, and the TEAK GARDEN in the direction of evolving an earth-friendly community.

DIVYA PADMANABHAN INTERACTS WITH STUDENTS

Divya Padmanabhan alias Divya Gireesh Kumar,former student of the department of English, Payyanur college visited the department and addressed and interacted with the students and faculty on 16.09.2010. She is expected to join Cardiff University in the immediate future on the Commonwealth Scholarship for Ph.D in literature and she visited the department to share her happiness. It was a rare moment of immense happiness and pride for the faculty and present students to have her with us for some hours. She began her address detailing her experiences as a graduate student in the department underscoring the contributions of each teacher to her overall development as a student. Her reminiscences brought forth the books handled by the various teachers and the exemplary ways in which they did it in the class. She said she was greatly indebted to Dr. V.M.Santhosh for guiding her translation project to a meticulous finish. Then she revisited her postgraduate years in School of Letters in Mahatma Gandhi University. She made a brief mention of her preparations for the Commonwealth Scholarship also. In the interaction session,students were given tips regarding the preparation of synopsis, importance of extensive and in-depth readings, ability to incorporate what one reads into writings, significance of attending and presenting papers in seminars and developing the skill of writing. Discussion touched upon some aspects of research topic and authors focussed on in the study she intends to do in Cardiff. Abdul Rasheed, Aswathi Babu (both III dc), Athira G (III sem), Amal Baby, Dheeraj, Julie George and Jesna Sasidharan (all I sem) participated in the interaction actively. The climax of the function was the surprising offer of a giftpack of books for the department by Divya. It was received with applause. We acknowledge with immense gratitude that she is the first former student to gift books to the department and what made us happier was that she expressed her intention to continue with that in future also. The function was concluded with the vote of thanks extended by Deepak Kumar, Secretary, English Association. http://www.cardiff.ac.uk/