Addendum

The questions are to be answered in your own blogs. Just making sure you know. However comments on other things you might wish to make, on the poem and the prose piece, are more than welcome.

Assignment 3

Oscar Wilde's nightingale...
1. Would you call her naive?Give me your reasons.
2. Does Wilde's nightingale appeal to you? Reasons again please.
3. Given a choice who do you think you resemble the most and why? The shrewd frog, the gullible nightingale, the selfish professor's daughter, the idealistic nightingale or the lover whose dreams die a quick death...you could give me an explanation or an anecdote to highlight your point.

The Frog and the Nightingale

In school I was a short, fat(that has not changed), darkish human with hair that ranged from short to almost monkish.
This happened when I was in Class VIII. I happened to be selected for a recitation competition and on a whim chose a prose piece. Wasn't the done thing then. The day of the competition saw me with a chest congestion, a hoarse throat and a pretty bad cough.
My english teacher, who hated me, did me a favour - she heard me recite, said i was doing an awful job and then she recited it the way she said it should be. She was terrific.
When my turn came on the stage I stepped up and I felt short, fat, ill and incapable. And began reciting. Something happened.
Since then I have been on stage countless times, have done lots of crazy things - but that hot, humid afternoon(Kolkata weather in the summers) I was a star.
I won the best speaker award, the judges told me I had a lot of talent and tonnes(sp?) of other blah!
That night I cried my heart out ...why? because I was a star? because i still couldn't be like "sunetra" my best friend, rival and the greatest looker in the class or was i just being hormonally challenged at that point? Remember I was thirteen!
I recited an excerpt from "The Nightingale and the Rose" by Oscar Wilde.
Happy reading - http://www.eastoftheweb.com/short-stories/UBooks/NigRos.shtml

The assignment will come on Friday the 13th.
PS - Any guesses on the excerpt?

Inspired!

10A and 10F...well done. Very inspiring for an English teacher. Guys you have outdone yourselves.
And for those who are not posting...make a start. It's not that bad.

We are all animals...

I enjoyed reading the 'animal encounters' a lot. I think it gives a very interesting twist to what we call class dynamics in educational psychology. Of course it's a lot of mumbo jumbo, but there are some home truths as well.
And it was great to see a bunch of 15 - 16year olds enjoying The Singing Ass. Let me just edit that, at least I could see some of you enjoying it. I had a lot of fun reading it.
And rivenscry it's okay to make a few spelling mistakes, thank god actually you make some. I magine how difficult it would get to teach geniuses like you if you never make mistakes.
And threepwood gaybrush(did i get that right?) the comment about Lawrence and his tv deserves an award... i loved it.
HP7 (i am learning the art of shortform from you guys) theories are very interesting. Courtsey Neelesh i read that half baked manuscript and gut feel says Ron's going to die a big, heroic death and quoting saurabhi - 'don't ask me why?' about that. The Neville angle has its merits. Knowing Rowling's devious plotting she will make connections we haven't even thought of.
And going back to animal encounters I thought Chameleon was a very interesting choice for Kabir. Whoever wrote that (and i do know who that was) did a great job.
Question, if you care to comment - Are we humans who tend to be animalistic or are we animals who pretend to be human?