Warrier's COLLAGE July 1, 2021

Welcome to Warrier's COLLAGE ON Thursday July 1, 2021 Old English/Anglo Saxon Period : A brief presentation https://youtu.be/VD8hr2SVmWI A competition entry : https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=4243492755707954&id=100001418158751&sfnsn=wiwspmo (Poem By Ramesh Warrier Thiruvananthapuram) Good Morning Collage in Classroom July 2, 2021 : Human Body IV Nice Day M G Warrier Bhagavad-Gita Dhyana Shlokas https://youtu.be/1JAUNvB-__E A Responses 1) K N Ganapathy I heard discourse of Sri Namboodiripad (only half - rest I will hear later). It is excellent. I know the meaning of Gita, all the chapters. But the beauty of Gita is that you find something new everytime you hear some discosurse. For instance, for the word "Samskaram" I got a better explanation from this discourse. Though your face looks familiar I could not have seen you in Central Office building as I got transfer back to Madras sometime in 1986. Anyway hope I can meet you sometime. I wonder how you manage to get all the time* for your contributions to groupmails and collage. Rest in next K N Ganapathy (*Responses like this and the ones that follow keep me going. Recently I have opted out of a regular responsibility of writing a column for The Global ANALYST which I have been doing for almost a decade. Namaskaram-Warrier) 2) V R Chittanandam Cheñnai The write up sent by Shri Kelkar on ATMs and Indian Connection was very interesting to read. Henceforth when I go to the ATM I shall remember Shepherd-Barron, Ramanujan, Kelkar and the Collage. Thanks and regards. Chittanandam (Collage feels happy, finding that many find the content useful and interesting. Not able to include all responses for various reasons-Warrier) 3) R Jayakumar Mumbai "Read fully without opening the links given. Enjoyed. Thanks..." (Thanks for the feedback. Links help those who want to know more or verify source. Regular readers are, by now, aware of the format and content of Collage) 4) K S Iyer Mumbai Mail received in Exrbitesplus Group : "Thanks* for forwarding the two volumes of Without Reserve. It's after a quite long, I am writing this email. I miss this group for some time. I have been in here intermittently, I was opening mails, would read few mails. WhatsApp with so many groups taking away most of our time. However, about important posts, I could read them in Warrier's COLLAGE" KSI- K S Iyer (*J Santhanakrishnan & Madan Gauria deserve thanks and much more. In different ways they make us feel that we are still part of the Mother-Institution, Reserve Bank of India. Thanks, IyerJi for creating a space to record this-Collage) 5) Kasturirangan Narayanan "Good show on Bhim Sen Joshi" (Collage believes in diversity -Warrier) AA Current Affairs : Monetize Idle Domestic Assets https://www.moneylife.in/article/monetise-reserves-or-govt-will-sell-them-pradhan-to-state-run-oil-cos/64374.html Posted online comments : "Resources Management It is upto the Government of the day to manage the country's finances. They can decide the assets management strategies for public organizations also. Indefinite retention of idle resources can affect the enthusiasm to earn profits. The plea for monetization of a part of reserves of Oil Companies is to be viewed in this context. A realistic national policy on management of domestic assets is overdue : Domestic Gold Stock At this late hour, GoI needs to understand the significance of the treasure in the form of gold stock with institutions and individuals lying idle in the country. As a short-term plan, concrete measures should be initiated for putting a substantial portion of the domestic gold stock to productive use in the next five years. This will reduce the country's gold import bill considerably. This can be achieved by: • Making a realistic assessment of gold stock remaining idle in the country; • Providing incentives to holders of gold stock to properly account for the stock with them; • Making gold deposits with banks remunerative; • Introducing gold-backed financial instruments which are not dependent on imported gold (the tiny instruments now available in the form of Gold ETFs, gold coins and Sovereign Gold Bonds are indirectly dependent on import and have not attracted significant investor interest); and • Quickly arrange for infrastructure, technology support and linkages for gold refining and certification facilities of international standard. RBI also needs to convert the entire gold stock with it to purer variety conforming to internationally acceptable standard. If this happens, a new chapter in the country's gold management will unfold. It is distressing to remember the 1991‘gold pledge’ episode to save the country from a payment default when the forex reserves of the country had touched its nadir. Think of the agony of a central bank governor being forced to ‘ship’ a small portion of gold in the central bank vault for pledging to draw a small amount of dollars. Even though the gold lying with Bank of England has long been freed of pledge, it was not considered necessary to physically ship the bullion back to India. It should have been for valid reasons that options like selling a portion of gold stock or borrowing dollars against‘stock' of gold would have been dropped. Let us forget all that. But, let us re- member, if the stock of gold was of internationally acceptable standard, things would have been different. (c) Long coastal areas India's long coastal areas remain underexploited. More mini-ports, fishing harbors, tourism development, use of sea-belt for transportation of people and goods are all areas needing attention. (d) Forests Forest mapping, planned reforestation, development of medicinal plant gardens in and around existing forests and commercial exploitation of forest-produce without destroying environment need to be prioritized. (e) Workforce Workforce in India is in disarray for various historic reasons. Privatization of public services and outsourcing of work by organizations, reducing the number of regular employees have affected job security in the short term and social security in the long term. Remuneration for every day's work should factor in the concept of fair wage comprising living wage and post-job survival costs." B Collage in Classroom I 1) English Language https://www.britannica.com/topic/English-language DID YOU KNOW? The word "I" is the oldest word in the English language, as well as the the shortest and most frequently used. The shortest grammatically correct sentence in English is "I am". Due to varying meanings of the word buffalo and the fact that Buffalo is the name of a city in the U.S. state of New York, the sentence "Buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo" is grammatically correct. English has become so ubiquitous that all pilots, regardless of their native language, must be able to communicate in English. A quirk of the English language: the nonword "ghoti" can be pronounced as 'fish', with the 'gh' from words such as 'tough', the 'o' from words such as 'women', and the 'ti' from words such as 'station'. 2) Spell-Bound : Vathsala Jayaraman Chennai (Now you know how "ghoti" can be pronounced as "fish", know more about the role of alphabets. Incidentally alphabet doesn't sound like an English word. Alpha and Beta not being from that language. Now you are not sure whether the language is really English! -Collage) This is not for spelling wizards who are particular in correcting the spellings of even proper nouns in what others write. It is a matter of delight to examine how every English letter can be (annoyingly) silent. English is maddening. English can be such an intractable heel, especially when it comes to its spelling : for every rule explaining how a letter is pronounced in a given situation, it often seems like there is a herd of exceptions mooing about how the rule doesn't apply.In fact exceptions are more in number than examples. Many letters do persist in words despite not playing any discernible role in the word's pronunciation. A The a in bread (as well as in tread) does nothing. You might as well spell it bred except that then it looks too much like the past tense of breed. B Most silent b's come at the ends of words and just after m: bomb, climb, comb, crumb, dumb, lamb, limb, numb, plumb, thumb, tomb. Just when one starts to feel comfortable with the relative regularity of these, debt and subtle show up like a couple of toughs. C C may as well cede all power to s in words like science and scissors, but we'll also point out that it's not doing much of anything in acquire, or muscle. D D is shirking its auditory duties in handkerchief and mostly doing the same in handsome. Its appearance in Wednesday can only be seen as some kind of cruel joke. E The word sleeve has an excessive number of e's. We're saying it right now. Sleve or sleev would work fine, but English does not like to leave v's on the ends of words; it props them up with e's, as though they'd fall over otherwise. That v habit explains, then, words like leave and give, but there's no excusing the e in words like imagine. F While some people do in fact pronounce the second f in fifth, the first pronunciation given in our dictionary is the one that omits it. Overall, however, f is to be commended for its performance generally. We'd give it an A, if we were on speaking terms with that letter. G G has no business being in sign nor phlegm, as far as the modern reader is concerned. It obviously doesn't care. This callousness is also evident in that slew of gn- words: gnarl, gnash, gnat, gnaw, gnostic, gnu. It can be no surprise, then, that g also participates in the likes of such words as high, though, and through. H The h's at the beginning of heir, honest, and honor have nothing to say. Neither do the ones in rhyme and ghost. That h makes a contribution of a sort in the second syllable of rhythm. I I doesn't do a blessed thing in business, except to be impersonated by the u in the first syllable. It also does no discernible good in suit, which in a decent orthographic system would be spelled soot. J Some of you may be happy to know that we have at this point only one English word in which the j is silent: marijuana.Is there any other word? K The silent k in a slew of common words demonstrates a callousness for beginner spellers especially: knee, knife, knight, knit, knob, knock, knot, know, knuckle. L The most indecent of the silent l words is surely colonel. The word sounds identical to kernel, which is an honorable, respectfully spelled word. L is also silent in could, should, would, as well as in calf and half, and in chalk, talk, walk, and for many people in calm, palm, and psalm. M One can get through much of life never encountering m in its silent form. By the time a person is ready for a word like mnemonic they have likely come to accept the vagaries of silent letters. N Like silent b's, silent n's tend to come at the ends of words and after m: autumn, column, damn, hymn, limn, solemn. While this might suggest to some that m is a little too accommodating, we would never anthropomorphize letters in such a way. O There is the flagrant excess of letters in enough, rough, and tough, where o is among several who have no place being there. Then there is the formerly mentioned ruffian colonel, in which neither o behaves properly the second o doesn't even bother to try. But in addition to those we then also have jeopardy, leopard, and people. We'll let you draw your own conclusions about o. P P is silent before n in a selection of somewhat technical terms, such as pneumonia and pneumatic. And it's silent before s in a different selection of words such as psalm, psyche, and psychology. It boldly says nothing in corps and coup and receipt. In some pronunciations of comptroller it somehow convinces m to join with it in dissembling; Q Q tends to function wholly aboveboard as an upstanding member of the alphabet. Most of us are fortunate to encounter its dereliction in lacquer only occasionally. R R exists in forecastle only to mock landlubbers. It exists in February only to make us suffer. S S is a mostly-reliable letter. Its failings are limited largely to aisle, apropos, debris, isle, and island. We cannot, however, overlook its participation in the hot mess that is bourgeois. T T refuses to be audible in ballet, castle, listen, and whistle. In asthma it conspires with h to shun its usual duties. U U may appear reasonable, but evidence to the contrary is not difficult to find : build, catalogue, dialogue, colleague, guard, guess, laugh, league, tongue. Note that the second and third of these words have attempted eviction and are meeting with significant success: catalog and dialog are both fully accepted variant spellings. V V is at this point the only letter that refuses to be unheard in any established word of the language. And yet a dark cloud gathers on the horizon: in late May 2017 a much-followed and likely sleep-addled Twitter user tweeted out what was clearly a partially developed composition. The Internet seized on the enigmatic final word and discussed it ad nauseam. Of the myriad pronunciations suggested for this non-word, several of the strongest contenders had a silent v. W W yields all power to the r that follows it in wrack, wraith, wrangle, wrap, wreath, wren, wrench, wrestle, wrinkle, wrist, writ, write, wrong, and wrought. As if that lot were not enough, w with no apparent logic whatsoever sits idly silent in answer, sword, two, and who as well. X We will admit to some small appreciation of x's discretion in its orthographic indiscretion. Its silence seems perhaps calculated in faux and faux pas. Y We cannot blame y for its gratuitous presence in beyond. The letter may, in fact, believe itself to be essential in the word. It cannot be ignored, however, that the word would reasonably have its same pronunciation if it were spelled "beond," "beeond," or "be-ond." Z There will surely be attempts to blame the French, and yet the following have been fully established members of the English language for centuries now: chez, laissez-faire, and rendezvous. We cannot look the other way, Z. My father.( M.A. History and English) was a teacher from 1910 to 1977) for 67 years. Having corrected composition notebooks for long,he had the habit of rounding of spelling errors even in the personal letters received from his sons in-law.Though they held enviable posts they were not good at spellings.This corrected post card came into the hands of my sister's husband who was a great lawyer. He stopped writing to my father for the next 30 years. Amma had to intervene and make compromises. Appa could reconcile only after he became 85,.as he was too tired of correcting. Vathsala Jayaraman C Collage in Classroom II English Literature https://www.internationalstudent.com/study-literature/what-is-english-literature/ Why Study English Literature? Studying English Literature in the USA will give you a better understanding of the world around you. A Literature degree provides transferable skills that teach you to deconstruct and analyze in order to provide a critical viewpoint in all areas. As an international student, studying English Literature demonstrates to an employer that you have a strong grasp of the English language and are proficient in professional English. There are several different paths for careers in literature as a graduate. You can also take graduate courses and become a teacher, lecturer, or journalist, with common crossovers for graduating English students including business, law, and education. Or you can use your analytical skills to move into unexpected careers such as marketing, advertising, or pretty much anything you are willing you adapt to. There are also obvious positions available in the publishing industry, from editor, to proofreader, to literary agent. Many creative writers, including novelists, poets, and screenwriters, among others, start their careers by gaining an in-depth understanding of written English before developing their individual abilities for expression through writing. If you want to gain a strong-hold on the English language, develop your critical analysis of the world around you, and study in a degree that will provide you with numerous different career opportunities, English Literature could be the right pursuit for you. D Books Reviews : A A Milne https://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/authorpage/a.-a.-milne.html Winnie the pooh Judging by his smooth, superior performance here, British actor Broadbent may well have spent lots of time in Milne's Hundred Acre Wood. To generations of children who know the Disney-fied version of these characters, Broadbent's Pooh will sound slightly more buffoonish than merely daffy (as Pooh appears in so many of the Disney animated films). However, this new interpretation is well in keeping with the author's creation of the Bear of Very Little Brain. And Pooh's sweet and loyal attributes are never tarnished. Via Broadbent's treatment, the beloved gang that includes enthusiastic Tigger, agitated Rabbit, melancholy Eeyore and, of course, level-headed Christopher Robin, journeys through a series of familiar adventures and maintains a place of honor in the children's audiobook canon of classics. This recording joins those by the late Charles Kuralt as some of the best adaptations of the material. Ages 5-up. (Oct. 2003). E From File Middle Class at Crossroads : M G Warrier https://www.moneylife.in/article/middle-class-at-crossroads/28457.html It was HG Wells who talked about middle class being pushed down or pulled up to create a world which will have only two classes of people, one living above the ground in luxury and the other living underground. More recently, the Indian Railways had demonstrated the intention of getting rid of “middle class” by offering only first and third class accommodation. Still, long after Wells, and abolition of “second class” by the Indian Railways, the middle class do survive in the dreams of the poor (glorified as BPL category), as they hope one day to cross over the poverty line and become part of the middle class and the wishes of the rich who need a healthy middle class to carry out their orders. What will be the future of middle class in India? F 1) May not be a joke for you! https://www.rd.com/list/grammar-jokes/ Like : "Saying ‘I'm sorry’ is the same as saying ‘I apologize’. Except at a funeral.” —Demetri Martin (Demetri Evan Martin is an American comedian, actor, director, cartoonist and musician. He was a contributor on The Daily Show. In stand-up, he is known for his deadpan delivery, playing his guitar for jokes, and his satirical cartoons.) 2) Failing memory SMILE* Mrs B. is a very careful person-never leaves anything to chance. So when the family has travel by train, she takes along 2 biscuit pockets, horlicks etc-children may need at any time, water bottles, plenty of spare clothes. Hubby has to drag 7 items of luggage when 2 can do. They all settle down wearily in the train. Just when the train starts, hubby sighs deeply and says- We should have brought along the Godrej bureau also. Wife looks at him angrily-if looks could kill, he’d have been burnt to ashes. He explains-We have left the journey tickets on top of the bureau. *Received from A P Ramadurai Cheñnai G Quotes about English Spelling https://www.inspiringquotes.us/topic/2875-spelling Like : "You can't help respecting anybody who can spell TUESDAY, even if he doesn't spell it right; but spelling isn't everything. There are days when spelling Tuesday simply doesn't count." -- A. A. Milne (Alan Alexander Milne was an English author, best known for his books about the teddy bear Winnie-the-Pooh and for various poems. Milne was a noted writer, primarily as a playwright, before the huge success of Pooh overshadowed all his previous work.)