Jugneeta's Blog

Friday, March 18, 2011

Commemorating Centennary Celebrations of Leo TolstoyAnna Karenina By Leo Tolstoy

'World of Books'
Book Reading Workshop
Leo Tolstoy Centenary Celebrations in Nov, 2010 made us revisit his works and we did a book reading on "ANNA KARENINA", which he called his first true novel
An extremely engrossing read, this book tells the tale of one of the most enthralling love affairs in the history of literature. Penned while Tolstoy was wrestling with a religious crisis that nearly destroyed him, the book is filled with passion and soul-searching. Serialized in the Russian Herald from 1875?877 and published in its entirety in 1878, Anna Karenina was wildly popular and controversial.

Yet Anna Karenina is a book that covers much more than one woman's misguided love affair. Tolstoy's broad canvas is big enough to include insight into happy marriages, adultery, sexuality, country life, politics, masculinity and femininity, individuality, conformity, altruism, love, death, longing and success. On nearly every one of its more than 800 pages is a sliver of Tolstoy's philosophy of life. Again and again, these small philosophical interludes resound with meaning that is as applicable today as it was more than a century ago. In all of literature, there are few novels that cover as much territory, or have stood the test of time so well.

There is always a struggle between superficial entertainment and meaningful entertainment. It is like the struggle between a video game and a good book. The literary workshop ‘Pleasure of Reading’ wants us all to look at our innate and compulsive love affair with story, as a species. The workshop entailed analysis, readings, movie excerpts and a PowerPoint presentation.
Rendezvous @ICG "Anna Karenina" by Leo Tolstoy
18th Mar, 2011 from 5.00pm to 7.00pm
The resource persons were Daniel Driscoll and Jugneeta Sudan

Friday, November 19, 2010

An Equal Music by Vikram Seth

AN EQUAL MUSIC is Vikram Seth's novel about music. QUOTE: "It concerns
Michael, a professional violinist, who never forgot his love for
Julia, a pianist he met as a student in Vienna. They meet again after
a decade, and conduct a secret affair, though she is married and has
one child. Their musical careers are affected by this affair and the
knowledge that Julia is going deaf." UNQUOTE

Jugneeta Sudan of Vasco and Dan Driscoll, a long-time Canadian-Goan,
organised a reading and audio-visual presentation. It was a pity that
more musically-inclined people didn't make it to the event (that took
place on a rainy Sunday evening). Some photographs are here:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/fn-goa/sets/72157625088251552/

As the Wikipedia puts it: "The book was especially
well received by musical fans, who noted the
accuracy of Seth's descriptions of music. Several
musical works figure prominently in An Equal
Music. Among these are the Trout Quintet, by
Franz Schubert, and The Lark Ascending, by
Ralph Vaughan Williams."

The programme was very informative, even for people with just a
uninformed interest in music like me. A few of the Kala Academy staff
were present. -- FN

PS: Incidentally, Seth has been described as an "Indian poet,
novelist, travel writer, librettist, children's writer, biographer and
memoirist." He is one of the creative writers and artistes who has
been visiting Goa. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vikram_Seth
Frederick Noronha :: +91-9822122436 :: +91-832-2409490

Saturday, September 19, 2009

Jugneeta Sudan on the Reading Habit on metromela Vizag website

http://vizag.metromela.com/article/Reading+tips+for+kids/2923

Reading tips for kids

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As a group of wide-eyed kids watch in awe, Jugneeta Sudan widens her eyes, pauses and subtly changes her tone into a quiver and a tremble. She has just introduced an element of fear in this exciting reading session that is on at a popular bookstore in Vizag. Jugneeta deftly moves from one emotion of storytelling to another, and her young enthralled fans listen aptly. Based in Vizag, Jugneeta is an academician, an educationist and a self-confessed bookworm. She conducts storytelling workshops across the city and shares a few interesting tips with MetroMela on how to get your kids to begin reading at an early age and on how to sustain that reading habit for life. Read on...

Why does a child need to read?
Reading opens a whole new world to children, a world that has receded into oblivion due an increasingly consumer-driven and techno-savvy lifestyle. Reading helps to open their minds to distant horizons and to perceptions that are not limited by boundaries and pressures. Reading also helps to blend reality with fantasy as it allows their imagination to run free. By reading, children also get to live many lives and experiences through memoirs, biographies, travelogues to exotic locations, etc.

How do parents 'instill' the reading habit in kids?
Kids are born artists, vibrant and fresh. They become what they are exposed to. It is, therefore, imperative that we introduce books to them when they are still a few months old! Read out stories from big, colorful storybooks that are filled with large pictures. A child’s world is all about color and imagination, of rides with Santa Claus, floating clouds, elves and fairies. So create these in the child’s room by writing image-driven fairy tales on the wall. You can also read aloud to the child from charts, boards, etc. Do not put your child in front of the television and kill his imagination. Instead, fill his world with books, words, nature, art, watercolors and clay, and music too.

Which books to begin with?
Begin with words of a rhyme and then move on fairy tales and Indian folk tales like the Panchatantra, Jataka tales and Aesop’s fables. Introduce Arabian Nights and Noddy and then illustrated classics like Black Beauty and Peter Pan. Bring in short stories from Ruskin Bond, Roald Dahl and Rudyard Kipling (the all-time favorite Jungle Book). The time is set for Enid Blyton, Malory Towers, Tom Sawyer, Tin Tin and Swami & friends. High school kids can now move on to Hardy Boys, Nancy Drew, Sherlock Holmes, Harry Potter and then to Christopher Paolini, Charles Dickens, Shakespearean plays, and more of inspirational biographies and memoirs.

How to make reading interactive?
Activities combined with book reading enhance reading skills. They act as appetizers. So the involvement of parents, teachers and friends (like at a Readers Club) must be encouraged. Introduce kids to word games like Scrabble and Pictionary. Brainstorm and create crosswords and quizzes on books reads. Get children to create their own storybook. Attempt pictorial representations. For instance, get your child to critically study Robert Frost’s Stopping by the Woods on a Snowy Evening, and then ask the child to landscape it. Kids can then graduate to either scriptwriting of a story outline or write a poem based on an experience. Have book reading sessions that eventually generate reading communities.

Reading habits for youngsters and for older kids
Smaller ones float in a world of fantasy, magic and wonder. The story and plot hooks them. This can be further dramatized through role-play exercises and pantomimes. On the other hand, the older kids can be led beyond the plot and characters by bringing forth the nuances of the language in active and ongoing discussions. Ensure this – an avid reader must have a dictionary, a rhyming dictionary, a thesaurus and an atlas.

The role of teachers
Their occupation calls for them to be exposed to a plethora of books and authors of classics, poems, biographies, newspapers, journals and even self-improvement books. Especially recommended are Frank McCourt’s The Teacher, ER Braithwaite’s To Sir with Love and Steven Covey’s The Leader in Me.

Reading can be constructive, instructive and inspirational. It can open a new world of words and experiences. MetroMela hopes that Jugneeta’s reading tips help to do just that. Happy reading!

By Fanny Chakrabarti

Posted on: May 27, 2009

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