Talks by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

Hello, I am Himanshi Parmar, student of MK Bhavnagar University. This blog i have written as a response to Thinking Activity, Which is a Part of my academic Work. Which we get after each unit. In this blog, i am going to discuss about three video talks by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie. Before that it is important to understand who Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie is.

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie Was born on 15 September 1977. She is Nigerian writer. She is known for writing fiction, short story, novel etc. She was described in The Times Literary Supplement as "the most prominent" of a "procession of critically acclaimed young anglophone authors, is succeeding in attracting a new generation of readers to African literature", particularly in her second home, the United States. She is known by her pen name Amanda N. Adichie. She was received numerous awards like In 2008, she was awarded a MacArthur Genius Grant. She was the recipient of the PEN Pinter Prize in 2018,MacArthur Fellowship (2008)International Nonino Prize (2009) etc.

She is known for her works like novels 'Purple Hibiscus' (2003), 'Half of a Yellow Sun' (2006), and 'Americanah' (2013), the short story collection 'The Thing Around Your Neck' (2009), and the book-length essay 'We Should All Be Feminists' (2014).Her most recent books are 'Dear Ijeawele, or A Feminist Manifesto in Fifteen Suggestions' (2017), 'Zikora' (2020) and 'Notes on Grief' (2021) and many more. Watch this video to know more about her.

   Talk - 1

The Danger of a Single Story.

First video titled as 'The Danger of a Single Story'. It's aTed Talk of July 2009.She talked about negative influence and aspect of Single story. Author Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie uses the phrase “single stories” to describe the overly simplistic and sometimes false perceptions we form about individuals, groups, or countries.

She started writing when she was just Seven year old. In her childhood she used to write stories exactly she read. In her talk she said that all the characters as a child she portrayed in her story was white and blue eyed, played in the snow, ate an Apple, it is totally opposite narration with the place she lived, she lived in Nigeria, and never being outside there.They didn't have snow, they used to ate magos and they never talked about weather because they found no need of it. Though she gave British touch all the way to her characters, her characters used to drink Ginger beer a lot, because people in Britain used to drink it a lot. By sharing her childhood experience she tries to explain how expressionable and vulnerable we are as a child.

After reading books by African writers her perception and mentality got changed.she realized that characters can also be with chocolate skin colour, black, with curly hair and so on. She started writing her own perceptions and experiences afterwards.later on she said that African writer made huge impact on her, she said that,

"African Writers saved me from having a single story".

She came from middle class family. Her father was professor and mother was administrator.They were lived in Mexico. Later she share her experience with her new room mate named 'Fidee' belonged from extremely poor family background and creative too.Which helped to mauled her thoughts and helped to creat new narrations. Then she share her experience as a student in United Kingdom. How her fair skin roommate feel pity for her even before seeing her, the prejudice she had about Nigeria and it's people, falk songs, and how she got shocked when she heard Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie speaking English so well. Because her roommate had single story about Africa. The dystopic Africa. She wasn't aware that Africa is much more than she ever thought.

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie said that before she came to US she never thought herself as a African identity, but in US it was implied on her, it was like forceful implemented. She referred quote by Jhone Lock About African who sailed to West Africa in 1561, the quote was,

"They are also people without heads, having their mouths and eyes in their breasts".

She saying that this what single story is, people see one thing over and over again and that they became. It is impossible to talk about single story without talking about power,

According to Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie. Power is the ability not just to tell a story of another person but also capable to make definitive story of another person. Adichie talks about the effect of political and cultural power on stories. Power controls “how [stories] are told, who tells them, when they're told, how many stories are told”.

Later she speaks about her childhood, probably she had happy, cheering childhood but her grandfather died in refuge camps, her brother Polly died because lack of health care, one of her close friend died in plane crash because it has no water available to maintain fire in plane. She grew up under repressive military government, who sometimes devalued education that her parents didn't paid sallery. And all this negative experiences formed her as who she is. Sharpened her writing.

She refred quote of Palestentine poet Mourid Barghoti’s quote “if you want to dispossess people the simplest way to do it is to tell their story and to start with secondly. Begin with arrows of native Americans and not the British; start with failure of the African state." 

According to her it is impossible to engage with the people or place without engaging with all the stories related to that place and people.sigle story emphasis how people are different rather than how they are similar, and that's the tragedy. She end her talk with wonderful quote.

“When we reject a single story, we regain a kind of paradise”.

Talk - 2

We Should All Be Feminist.

The second video titled as,'We Should All Be Feminist'. Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie said that she don't know what word feminist means, but she call her 'Happy Feminist'. She said that Feminism is not a culture, and she would like to call herself as a African Feminist because her mind was corrupted by British books. Most of the books she read was Feminist and that effected on her deeply. She call herself 'Happy African Feminist'  who does not hate men, who like high hills not for men but for herself. She opposed a Feminist culture that hate men, Bras, African culture etc. Later on she share her personal experience. She said that when she was 9 year old, there is a class test in the beginning of year, and it's the rule that whoever get highest marks will be the class monitor.Chimamanda Ngozi got the highest marks but her teacher refused her to be class monitor because she was a girl and class monitor should be boys only as per her teachers mentality. This how patriarchy works. She shared many other experience also.

Men and women are different. They have different appearance, body structure, sexual organs.she also pointed out physical strength of men and women, men are physically more powerful than women. Women's population is higher than men.52% are women among the total population of world. Yet all the higher positions in the world are hold by men. She also refred one quote that The late Kenyan Nobel Peace Laureate Wangari Maathai put it simply and well when she said,

"The higher you go, The fewer women there are".

She also made a point that how for the same Work/job men and women got paid different sallery. It is showing patriarchy in economical condition. Patriarchy started in ancient time when physical strength was the most important to survive, and men has that physical strength so women because of lack of physical strength considered as a inferior at that time. But today we are living in totally different world, today, to lead, we need creativity, innovativeness, intelligence. And there is no hormonal changes to attribute it.

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie in her talk highlighted the point that how from childhood it's taught to boys that their masculinity is the most important thing, they are supposed to superior than girls, they has to "Hard Men", Crying is something banned for them because those who weak can cry only, like girls. She gave example that how men always willing to pay hotel bills, taxis bills to show their masculinity. Another point raised here was marriage, girl has always taught that marriage is one of the ultimate goal of their life. There are many Indian Hindi serials and Bollywood movies that is representing this point. For example Bollywood movie 'Dilvale Dulhaniya le jayenge', kajol is the female protagonist in the movie whose been forced to get marry and left her all choices, and education behind. Most of the female protagonist from aerials are doing nothing but trying to prove themselves as a best daughter in law (BAHU) and wife. For example, Kundali Bhagya, Tarak Mehta ka Oolta Chashma, Anupama and many more. That is showing how women has been taught to put marriage as a priority. She also said that,

"Language of marriage is a language of ownership rather than partnership."

We teach girls how to walk, talk, sit, behave, eat, dress and everything, but it is rarely taught to boys. She also told that the problem with gender is that it prescribe how we should be, rather than recognizing how we are. One example she gave of gender inequality is, cooking is considered as a work of women undoubtedly, though most famous and majority cooks are men. The way to come out of gender inequality is to think it as a serious problem by both men and women.she further quote that,

"Culture does not make people, people does make culture ".

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie also gave beautiful definition of the word 'Feminist'. That is,

"A person who believes in the social, political,and the economical equality of sexes."

She ended up by giving her own ddefinition of 'Feminist',

"A Feminist' is a man or woman who says, yes, there is a problem with gender as it is today, and we must fix it, we must do better".

Talk - 3

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie addresses Harvard's Class of 2018.

This video titled as 'Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie addresses Harvard's Class of 2018.' She was 2018 class day speaker in the video. She shared one incident of an English woman who, despite her best intentions, somehow mauled her name in front of an audience, calling her “chimichanga.” While explaining post truth era, she said that do not lie, do not lie too often. The word, idea of lying has political potency in America nowadays but it somehow feels very apt above all eles do not lie. She later said that we must protect and value the truth.

We routinely lie about minor things in our life for example about our height and weight, being in traffic when we are late for meeting or gathering with friends, lie because the another person not get hurt and so on. When we feared towards truth, we started lying. Telling a truth is a biggest courage. Telling a truth doesn't always workout. She later said that,

"Sometimes the hardest truths are those we have to tell ourselves".

It is hard to tell ourselves the truth about our failures, our fragilities, our uncertainties. It is hard to tell ourselves that we never done the best that we can.according to her It is hard to tell ourselves the truth of our emotions that may be what we feel is hurt rather than anger. For her literature is her religious which show her the right way, and the way of truth, give courage to stand, speak for truth. She added that think people as people not as abstraction who have to conform to bloodless logic but as people fragile, imperfect with pride that can be wounded and hearts that can be touched. We humane are flawed, but even when we flawed, we enduring goodness. We cannot be perfect before we can do what is right. She refred quote of Shonda Rhimes,

"You have to do something until you can do something eles".

Later she said about experience that how experience serve us in a way we do not even expect. Experience is the best way to teach something. She also share her experience while writing her second novel which was so special for her. Through that she explain procrastinating. procrastinating is a form of fear. And it is difficult at acknowledge fear. But one cannot creat value of anything without self doubt, without self doubt we become complacent. The biggest fear we have is of measuring up. To explain that Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie share lovely lines of the poem Mary Oliver,

"Whoever you are, no matter how lonely, the world offers itself to your imagination."

Chimamanda  end her talk by refred ebow scene "Vanya G Cooney Bhutesu xia", it translate as, "whenever you wakeup that is your morning".

Here is my favorite quote of her.

I hope my blog will be helpful to you. Thank you.

WORD COUNT - 2020

IMAGES - 5

VIDEOS - 4

Flipped Learning : Prose Writers and Poets.

Hello, I am Himanshi Parmar, student of MK Bhavnagar University. This blog i have written as a response to Thinking Activity, assigned by Yesha bhatt ma'am. Click to read teacher's blog.  The task is a Part of my academic Work. Which we get after each unit. In this blog, i am going to discuss about several questions related to prose writers and poets.

Task - 1 (Three Prose Writers)

1] Write a note on S. Radhakrishnan's perspective on Hinduism.

Full name of Radhakrishnan is Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan.He was born on 5 September 1888, and died on 17 April 1975. He was an Indian philosopher and politician who served as the 2nd President of India from 1962 to 1967 and 1st Vice President of India from 1952 to 1962. He was also the 2nd Ambassador of India to Soviet Union from 1949 to 1952 & 4th Vice-Chancellor of Banaras Hindu University from 1939 to 1948. Read more about him here. (Click)

Radhakrishnan described his views on Hinduism in his book 'The Hindu View of Life'. He began the book with question and answer that what Hinduism actually means. According to him Hinduism isn’t an internally recognized word, but a name given to the sub-continent of India by outsiders. Backbone of Hindu culture are recognized as a Vedas. Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan believes that Faith is most important in Hinduism, faith is like a vision of the soul. One can feel spiritual power with faith. Faith help us to understand spiritual part of life. Where physical sense helps to understand only material world.The mind has two powers, reason and intuition. Reason correlates with the physical senses, intuition with faith. The Vedas are a collection of the intuitions of the soul, which became the spiritual intuitions which founded the cohesive Hinduism.

In Hinduism, There are various paths to god.all people believe in their own path. And that's the reason according to Radhakrishnan that we don't just have Vedas but also has many books like Puaranas, Ramayana, Mahabharata etc. This is the Reason that we all have our own path to god and their beliefs on God which based on their own personal experience with religion and god.

A majority of Hindus do not advocate fully the idea of Maya (the belief that the world is an illusion). However, it is held by Samkara who is often seen as holding the ‘standard’ type of Hindu thought. He had several reasons for advocating the doctrine of Maya including: 1) The manifold of experience is incomplete, and we are unable to unify it, 2) Time and space cannot be rounded into one whole, 3) That which is real must be exempt from change, and nothing empirical seems to be exempt from change. Radhakrishnan emphasized that the world was independent of Brahman, but not completely. Logically, we cannot rationalize the relationship of God and the world, so he says we should hold on to both. Agnosticism is the only logical conclusion.

Radhakrishnan also taked about Moksa, Moksa is ‘spiritual realization’. It means ‘release’, and is our self-made spiritual emancipation from samsara (perpetual rebirth). There are three ways of attaining moksa, 1) Wisdom, 2)Devotion, 3) Servitude.Radhakrishnan says that “Hinduism has no sympathy with the view that ‘to mix religion and business is to spoil two good things’. We ought not to banish spiritual values from life”. He also taked about cast conflict in Hinduism. Read more here.

2] "The autobiography of an unknown Indian" is 'more of a national than personal history'. Explain.

The Autobiography of an Unknown Indian is well known autobiographical book of Indian writer Nirad C. Chaudhuri.  The Autobiography of an Unknown Indian is divided into four books, each of which consists of a preface and four chapters. The first book is titled "Early Environment" and its four chapters are: 1) My Birth Place, 2) My Ancestral Place, 3) My Mother's Place and 4) England. He wrote this book when he was 50 year old. The book records his life from his birth. He was born in 1897 in Kishoreganj, a small town in present-day Bangladesh. The book also depicts his mental and intellectual development. The book is more national than personal as it is also showing Nirad Chaudhuri's life and growth in Calcutta, his observations of vanishing landmarks, the connotation of this is dual—changing Indian situation and historical forces that was making exit of British from India an imminent affair. Main subject of the book is Comparative– historical, cultural and sociological analysis of early 20th century India and the British colonial encounter in India.

Tge book is by nature an account of autobiography yet it is more concerned with the story of the struggle of a civilization with a hostile environment in which the destiny of the British rule become necessarily involved. It is about the maturity of a scholar’s mind in that environment. It seeks to show how the mind and character of a typical Indian were made, shaped and quickened by the same British rule.Nirad describes in details the life in Calcutta, the different sections of society both Bengali and English, the missions of the rich and the houses of the middle class. The book also describes the advent of Gandhi on the sense and Nirad’s disillusionment with Gandhi’s passive resistance movement because it degenerated into mob-violence.Nirad Chaudhuri concludes his “Autobiography” with his views of “Indian History”. He believes that that the tropical land of India has ever been a corrupting influence on its people. Last words of Nirad are,  'It is more of a national than personal history'. 

Task - 2 (The New Poets)

1] Write a note on How Kaikini differs from other Indian poets in his poems.

Jayant Kaikini is one of the most significant of the younger writers in Kannada today. He is a well known writer of short stories, film scripts and poetry, and is based in Bangalore. He was born in Gokarn, an idyllic beach town of coastal Karnataka. His father, Gourish Kaikini, a schoolteacher, was an eminent Kannnada litterateur and mother Shanta, a social worker.  He also received many awards like,Karnataka Sahitya Academy award for his first poetry collection at the age of nineteen in 1974. The same award again in 1982, 1989 and 1996 for his short story collections. He has been also awarded the Dinakar Desai award for his poetry, the B. H. Sridhar award for fiction, as well as the Katha National award and Rujuwathu trust fellowship for his creative writing. Read more about Jayant Kaikini here, Click.

Kaikini has published many of poetry collections including Rangadindondishtu Doora, Kothitheertha, Shravana Madhyana, Neelimale, Theredashte Bagilu.He also wrote numbers of Short stories like Dagadoo Parabana Ashwamedha, Aamruthaballi Kashaya, Shabda Teera, Bannada kaalu, Toofan Mail, Ondu Jelebi, Charminar, Anarkaliya Safety Pin and Vichitraseneya Vaikhari. Kaikini has his own unique style of writing. According to him, "Style is nothing but how you perceive things unconditionally".

While writing lyrics he was inspired by Yakshagana, a rich classical form of dance, drama, music, visual aesthetics with an interpretative narrative. He started as a poet, then took to writing lyrics and fiction.

Mainly he wrote about images and metaphors from the simple, day-to-day routine of life. He portrait in a frame-maker’s shop, a dressing mirror in a scrapyard, a street kid kneeling down and peeping into a tiny rainwater pond on a deserted midnight tar road, only to touch the floating image of the moon, which breaks into pieces in small ripples—such images evoke the stories and poems untold. According to him Writing film lyrics demands a different skill. You have to pen lines for pre-set tunes and context. He was wrote poems earlier, and later shift to lyrics.he used to write about, daily life, cities, local people etc. Also he portrayed Mumbai very well in his works. His expertise of writing in Kannada, and a speaker of Konkani make him different than all other poets.

2] Write a critical note on the poems by Nissim Ezekiel.

Nissim Ezekiel was born on 16 December 1924 and died on 9 January 2004. He was an Indian Jewish poet, actor, playwright, editor and art critic. He was key figure in postcolonial India's literary history, specifically for Indian Poetry in English. His writing gener was Modern Indian English Poetry. He received many awards during his lifetime like,  The Sahitya Akademi Award in 1983 for his collection, "Latter-Day Psalms", By the Sahitya Akademi, India's National Academy of Letters.Ezekiel has been applauded for his subtle, restrained and well crafted diction, dealing with common and mundane(simple) themes in a manner that manifests both cognitive profundity, as well as an unsentimental, realistic sensibility, that has been influential on the course of succeeding Indian English poetry.

Ezekiel's evolution as a poet from the ages of 28 to 62. Ezekiel's early work is very concerned with form and contains strict rhyme and meter schemes. Additionally, they are all written in "proper" English and place themselves within a Western literary tradition. As Ezekiel aged, his focus shifted towards his home country, India, and his poems become much more local and specific.

 In the beginning he used strict form of poetry, but in later work he moved to ease and confidence in his free verse.Ezekiel's poetics are fascinated with bodies and nakedness, particularly the bodies of beautiful women. Additionally, his poems across his career juggle dualities and paradoxes. Read more here.

Task - 3 (Conclusion)

1] "India is not a country", says Raja Rao, "India is an idea, a Metaphysic". Explain with example.

Raja Rao was born on 8 November 1908, and died on 8 July 2006. He was an Indian-American writer of English-language novels and short stories, whose works are deeply rooted in metaphysics. The Serpent and the Rope (1960), a semi-autobiographical novel recounting a search for spiritual truth in Europe and India, established him as one of the finest Indian prose stylists and won him the Sahitya Akademi Award in 1964. He also received several other awards like The Neustadt International Prize for Literature in 1988. According to him,"India is not a country,it is a perspective." In his book 'The meaning of India'. He explore the perspective which he calls India, its metaphysic, the philosophical underpinning that sets India apart, uniquely distinguishes its civilisation.

Through fable and real-life encounters, descriptions of journeys and events, or in discussions with contemporaries, Raja Rao’s quest is unceasing and single-focused: how this perspective alone can give meaning to man’s daily action. He draws on a wide range of sources, including the Vedas, Upanishads, teachings of Sankara, the writings of Bhartrihari, and the poetry of Valery and Mallarme. There are essays that describe his meetings with Gandhi and Nehru, so too with Forester and Malraux, westerners who drew close to India.The meaning of India paints and details the essential meta-physical backdrop of his acclaimed writing. Written in rhythmic, sparkling style which Raja Rao has made his own since Kanthapura, both simple and eclectic, expansive and precise, this book holds that India’s civilization and meaning can only be known by understanding the truth about one’s won existence- and that of the world. 

2] What were the reasons that writers of post - Independence Indian writing in English preferred to write in English rather than their mother tongue. Explain with example.

Indian Writing in English is basically started during the British rule in India . Indian writing in English began with the emergence of East India Company in India. As East India Company spread its wing through southern peninsula, English language started to get newer pockets of influence.Early Indian writers used English unmixed by Indian words to demise an expression which was basically Indian. Apart from the freedom struggle that awakened many of the Indians who fought for the freedom, the writers at that time were able to transmit their point of view, which ultimately helped to motivate and guide the crowds. The happiness of accomplishing the magnificent victory against the British rulers was suddenly spoiled by the shocking and traumatic partition of 1947.

The horrors, tragic consequences and partition like the large scale migration, adventurous looting and merciless massacres were portrayed by the writers in their works which captured the interest, and imagination of the reader, the Indian English novels began to prove its mark towards the global dignified storyline. English novels began to prove its mark towards the global dignified storyline.

I hope my blog will be helpful to you. Thank you.

WORDS - 2135

IMAGES -6

References

https://books.google.co.in/books?id=7tYuow3GXFkC&redir_esc=y

https://englishnoteshelper.com/the-autobiography-of-an-unknown-indian-by-nirad-c-chaudhuri.html

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jayanth_Kaikini

https://www.poetryinternational.com/en/poets-poems/poets/poet/102-2721_Kaikini/

https://www.livemint.com/mint-lounge/features/the-poet-in-me-is-always-around-says-jayant-kaikini/amp-1550306580377.html

https://www.gradesaver.com/the-poems-of-nissim-ezekiel

https://indiaclub.com/products/15881-the-meaning-of-india

https://entri.app/blog/brief-history-of-indian-writing-in-english/

Youth Festival 2022 (Amrut Rang 2022 Yuva Urja Mahotsava)

Hello Readers, I am Himanshi Parmar. This blog is made on grounds of a task assigned by Dr. Dilip Barad sir. This blog is about Youth Festival 2022 named 'Amrut Rang 2022 Yuva Urja Mahotsava' celebrated by Maharaja Krishnkumarsinghji Bhavnagar University. After two years of corona pandemic, Maharaja Krishnkumarsinhji Bhavnagar University organized amrutrang 2022 yuvaa urja mahotsav, hosted by Takshashila college on 19,20,21/09/2022. Here i am going to discuss about several questions that given as a task.

1] Themes represented in various tableaux of Kala - Yatra -18 September 2022 from Victoria Park water Tank to Amphi - Theaceremony m to 9:30 am.

Kala Yatra is one of the best part of youth festival. Every year Youth Festival start with Kala Yatra and ends with Prize distribution ceremony. Kala Yatra is considered as a beginning or first event of Youth Festival. Kala Yatra is best platform to represent various innovative ideas in more lively way. This year (2022) Kala Yatra begins on 18 September 2022 from Victoria Park water Tank to Amphi - Theatre. Time of Kala Yatra was 8 am to 9:30 am. In this Kala Yatra studens from different institutions participated and represented their institutes.  In kala yatra all the colleges represent various themes. Here are some glimpse of it.

In these year's Kala Yatra studens represented various themes and try to aware people, for example women empowerment, politics, Milk man of India, Sports, Practical education, online education system etc. We English department students  were also participated in Kala Yatra. We were there with banner of our department and our theme is equal importance of digital tools and books. We hold several posters of Hard Copy of books like 'pride and prejudice','Final Solution','Derrida and Deconstruction','Macbeth','Wide Sargasso sea', 'The wretched of the Earth' etc. Along with this we hold posters of Some digital tools that we use daily in our studies, for example, ''Google classroom','YouTube',''Google Drive', 'Twitter', 'Facebook', ''Google Meet' etc. By holding this poster we conveyed message that how digital tools and Hard copy books has equal importance. All the students from different institutions were there together and all are cheering, happy, Students were chanting slogans. At last kala Yatra end at Amphi - Theatre, 6 O'clock.

Opening ceremony (ઉદ્ઘાટન સમારોહ)

After kala Yatra we had welcome ceremony or we can say opening ceremony (ઉદ્ઘાટન સમારોહ).  It began at 10 am and end at 1:00 pm. The event place was Amphi Theatre. All studens were present there. Also many guests were invited. In the beginning, beautiful dance performance was done by girls of KL Vidhyalaya college. List of guest were already given to students, Prince of Bhavnagar 'Jayveerrajsinh Gohil' and Collector of Bhavnagar was absent according to list. But many other guest was there, Jitubhai vaghani, Incharge Vice chancellor, kirtiben danidharya, Abhishek Jain -director of wrong side Raju, Bhartiben Shiyal, Kaushik Bhatt, Hassen Safan, GM Sutariya sir, EC members etc. Dilip Gohil sir welcomed all the guest and students. One by one all the guest gave speeches, in that Safin Hasan sir talked about today's confused generation and what should be the ideal relation between parents and childrens, also told to follow inspiration and live dreams.

Secondly Abhishek Jain was speak about need of art school in Bhavnagar. Also thanked Bhavnagar for their talent and support while shooting of film in Bhavnagar. He also Buck up Youth to be fearless and active participants in all art activities.  Bhartiben Shiyal considered youth festival as a best platform to explore one's art and creativity. And best stage to show innovative ideas. 

Jitubhai Vaghani talked about the points like, youth's contribution in important,  Right and duties of students as well as faculties, collecting ideas and innovation policy, startup policy,also said that how getting job is one of the toughest thing in present time as we have lots of competition, so it is very important to explore various art, creativities and skills in us to survive. So this how at 1:30 pm, opening ceremony (ઉદ્ઘાટન સમારોહ) ended.

2] Major themes in dramatic events like One Act Play (एकांकी), Skit (लघु नाटक), Mime (मूक अभिनय), Mono-acting (एक पात्रीय अभिनय).

In 2022, it was a 30th Youth Festival. 34 events were organized and around 750 studens were participated in various events. In that we had acting based competitions like, One Act play, Mono - Acting, Mime, Skit etc. Let me discuss all one by one.

One act plays

Every year in youth festival we had lots of participations in one act play competition, and due to that it was very hard to manage all the performances in one day so we had two day for one act plays. And 30 minutes given to each performance. Extra 5 minutes to stage organization. This time drama was in Vinod bhai Amlani Natyamanch or we can say Atal Auditorium. Here i am going to discuss about several dramas that i like the most.

1) Ashifa ek paheli

The play was written by Sanjay Srivastav.The concept of this play was very unique and it told about feminism and shurpankha and her point of views also talked about draupadi and her points of views on feminism.it also reflected current situation and crimes that revolves around women victims like balatkar and acid attack on girls. Also the performance was about Rape and tragedy flash back with Ashifa. It was an amazing performance.

 2) Hu pasalo chu

The play was written by Indu Kuva. This play is a love story one simple man with princess. The play covered Themes like, light humor, Satire and tragedy. He was just a simple human but for love he changed himself as a God, and at the End he realized that human is better then God. So indirectly he satirized god and human's beliefs about god.

 3) Adhuru Chitra

The story is of Royal Family love story and extra merrital affair by king with Panna, a good singer. But she is in love with Karangath state's prince vikram kumar, who is a good painter. king found Panna and kumar on boat on a occasion of shivratri celebration.  king makde domestic violence against Panna she give latter to kumar about her situation. At thr end we find Kumar was mad after this Tragedy flash back with kumar. 

4) Aai khani chopat

The play performed by college Code number - 8.  It Start with man(meraman) who died and her wife (Jaan Bhaee) sitting near him. people challenges to protagonist for revenge to his brother's murder and he was during the entire play continiously playing chopat. Female protagonist's father tell her to merry herbrother in law (manhur) but she recall her memories with his husband beautiful scenes were portrayed. Here we find similarities of this play with final solution by Mahesh Dattani. where two women Daksha and Hardika is playing same character. Here also they creat two character one is having desire of remarriage and another waiting for her husband. Later she marry with her brother in law that reflects very old tradition of Diyar vatu in India.but after merriage she came to know that her husband mudrered by his brother in law so she gave poisonous milk to his brother in law and he died. Monologues of female protagonist was very effective and fascinate audience.

5) Artificial intelligence

Artificial intelligence one act play was performed by Code 13. The play originally written in Marathi and translated into Gujrati by Kalpesh Vyas. The play was directed by Amit Galani. There are five characters in play.They all are Engineer students.  The story revolves around a girl Megha whose father was died and they had their last paper by tomorrow. All other roommates are arguing and quarreling that what is important for the girl whose father was died, giving last paper or to attend funeral of her father. Shivani the most practical girl among all is in favour of giving exam while all other girls like Ragini and Pooja are in the favour of attending funereal of her (Megha) father. At last of the drama when shivani agrees that even if it was her father who died still she would choose to give exam. At that time pooja call to mother of shivani and drama tack twist. She is saying that aunty shivangi will give exam and then only she will come for funeral of her father. Shivani got shocked and started crying. As she came to know that he is her father who died not of Megha. Audience also got shocked as they thought it was Megha's father who died. Also there was a beautiful song at last, words of the song is about a father giving advice to his daughter to be strong. The title is Artificial Intelligence, that we find in play how all the girls by using their artificial intelligence convince shivani to give exam instead of attend her father's funeral. 

All the plays was mainly either based on Historical events and Legendary Events or represented Current situations. Theme like Love, Marriage, Superstitions, crime, social Barriers, rituals and suffering, women empowerment, situation of women and girls child are often used in most of the play.

Mime 

Mime is a silent drama. Time limit for mime is 5 minutes. Also we can say it's a musical drama. There is no conversation, no property use excerpting stage, also black clothing and white face make-up is compulsory in Mime. In this Youth Festival, event of Mime organized at Vinod bhai amlani naty manch. (Atal auditorium). Time of mime was 7:30 pm to 10:30 pm.  Here is all the mimes and very brief about it.

1) College code - 3

Performed mime on Games in mime. Games like ludo and other online games are harmful and physical games are needed that was the main moral of this mime.

2) College code - 6

Code 6 represented Army life. There we find conflict between soldier's personal life and their duties for nation/professional life. The story is saying soldier must choose professional life instead of personal. The mime was Sang a song of patriotism.

3) College code - 7

This mime used Reverse technique that is the most unique thing of this mime. The mime was choreograph by mehul bhil.it was a Beautiful mime. The mime was about Surgical strike, reporting, war, Traffic, flag hosting etc.

4) College code - 8

This mime is talking about Robotics, mechanical life and their harmfulness.showing picture of future that how we will have fear of Robot. Because they are physically more strong then us. And they have no emotions to understand our pain.

5) College code - 13 

The mime was about circus life. Games, jump, and lion. Full of glamours life.

6) College code - 15

Journey of baby girl from childhood to adulthood.Dreams of their parents, future plans, transgender and suffering alone.

Message :- transgender people are good.

7) College code - 18

The mime is portrayed war as a main theme.also through light on Superstition of killing animal. The main story of this mime was life  Story of samrat ashoka. The great king in India.

8) College code - 38

The story was about  'Kisan Andolan'. And how they were beaten up and at the end they win. Story of Farmer, and farming.

9) College code - 41

Mehul bhil's coryography.The play about Circus. Difference of backstage circus and on stage circus.also showing life of Circus people, they make all laugh on stage but backstage they have injuries, tired and painful poor life.

Skit

Skit is short Five minutes Comedy drama. Mainly skit try to satire through comedy. In youth festival 2022, we had skit on last day 21/9/2022, Wednesday. Time of skit was 8 pm to 12:30 pm. Here is some major skit and satire made in that.

1) College code - 3 

Presented mime on Ravan dahan.also covered theme of Ravan in modern time.

2) College code - 6

In beginning this skit showing woman doing Household works and other. Then Rape on women was shown. The skit was about 'Grishma kand(Rape),  tamilnadu reference, thali bajao, diya jalao references also they used in their skit in very satirical way.

3) College code - 7

One Parson walking behind the people who performing skit with posters written Parodi, farce, veet, black humour, keri ketcher, satire etc. Theme of gangubai also used. There is a Kamlesh Pan center and people are discussing about current situation.

3] Can you apply dramatic literary theories propounded by Aristotle (Tragedy), Ben Jonson (Comedy of Humor), Dryden (Play), Martin Esslin (Absurd theatre), Irving Wardle (Comedy of Menace) on the dramatic events presented in Youth Festival?

The classical unities, Aristotelian unities, or three unities represent a prescriptive theory of dramatic tragedy that was introduced in Italy in the 16th century and was influential for three centuries. That is,unity of action, unity of place, and unity of time. These three unities were redefined in 1570 by the Italian humanist Lodovico Castelvetro in his interpretation of Aristotle, and they are usually referred to as “Aristotelian rules” for dramatic structure.

During this Youth Festival, we find there is a event of skit. In skit this three unities, unity of Time, action and place plays vital role. As skit has quickness and loud expressions.also proper dilogue and timing of action should required to make satire through comedy. Same as Mime.

Mime is action play so one has to maintain timing and action.

4] Poetry Competition.

On 19/9/2022, Monday we had poetry writing and recitation competition in youth festival. I was participated in the competition. Subjects were given, all the participants wrote beautiful poem. We also had to recite our poem. The subject given to us are below.

Most of the participants choose 'વિરહી હૈયાની વાત' and 'સ્મરણ' as a topic to write. Mostly the poems was in Gujrati language. Only one poem was in Hindi. Not a single poem written in English. Students mainly wrote poems in couplets and few are in quatrain. Other all poems written in free verse.  Main metaphors used in the poem are, Mirage for unfulfilled desire, deer, rose as a love etc etc. Mostly natural elements are personified. One strange thing is no one used modern elements as a metaphor, all used nature, sky and mythology as a metaphors. Some poems are also written about motherland and patriotism. All the poem was recited beautifully. It was an amazing experience to listen all the poems.

5] On last day, before or after valedictory, all art events like cartooning, painting, collage, poster making, clay-modelling, installation will be open for public display. You can study themes, satire, didacticism, aestheticism in all these artistic expressions.

There was many art events in Youth Festival like Cartooning, Clay modeling, Painting, Collage making, Poster Making, Rangoli, Installation etc. All the participants did very good work. In poster making, and cartooning mainly students made their creations on politics and current society. They satire on various political issues, pollutions, social barriers and rigid society etc. In clay - Modelling most of the students made their model of 'Guru - Shishya' (Student - Teacher) because topics are given to them. Also in rangoli competition students made rangoli by using various elements instead of Colour like flowers, Cod, Grain, embroideries etc. Topics of all the competitions were already given so students moulded their creativity in a way. Here are some glims of it.

6] My experience as a participant.

I was participated in two events in this year's Youth Festival.

1) Poetry writing and Recitation Competition.

2) Short Film Making Competition.

This youth festival was also very beneficial for me. I was participated in youth festival 2019-20, and secured third rank in 'One act play' titled 'Artificial Intelligence', But this year i got 'Bronzemedal' in both the event in which i participated. The events are ShortFilm making event and Poetrywriting and recitation competition.

1) Poetry writing and Recitation Competition :

In poetry writing and recitation competition, we had to write poetry on given topics, topics that i had mentioned above. and also had to recite it. On base of Writing style, Vocabulary, rhyme, Structure, Imagination, Rhythm of recitation, judges had to mark us.we were around 20-25 students participated. I got third rank in this competition. Do watch my poem recitation video here, along with poem.

2) Short Film Making Competition.

Secondly i was also participated in Short film making Competition. We were five participants in this event.

In this event we had to make short five minutes film. Topics that given to us were Social awareness, Patriotism and Historical figures. We made our film on 'Fake news and it's harmfulness' that falls under the category of Social awareness. While making film We had very less time and had lots of work to do like, plot construction,Script writing, shooting, editing, management of costume etc etc etc. But luckily we were able to tackle all the problems and submitted our Movie for competition.

We were also faced several problems even after submission of our movie. When Judges were watching films, our movie was the last one to watch, and finally when our turn came, it was a zest to our heart that the music we had used in our film was not being play. Some scenes were also got cut automatically. At that point of time we were disappointed and had no surety for rank. But fortunately we got third rank, and we are happy that finally our hard work pays of.

Do watch all the films here,

Click to watch.

 Here is some glims of our movie making.

7] If you happens to watch short films and cinematic techniques used by students in making of film.

There are seven participants in short film. The films was made on various subject. Two films Zamku and Magical Box was about women condition in male dominated society. Very good dream sequence used in film Zamku.

1) Film Zamku

Girl zamku saw dream that there is women dominated society and women given orders to male, so zamku gave orders to her Husband, Father in law, Brother In Law, but as soon as her she came out of dream, she find herself in again male dominated society. Film Zamku try to Satire on male dominated environment thorough light comedy.

2)Film Magic Box

 Film magic box was covered theme of domestic violence on women. And how women for reputation and status of her In-laws, suffering all the things silently. There was three generations shown in movie. One the mother who suffered when protagonist was child. Also film shows how putting make up on her scars she hide her dints. Same later happens with protagonist who also hide her dints when her mother visited her house, And her daughter becomes victim of that incident of her mother got beaten by her father and how she hide her dints behind make - up. The film was tragic. Use of lighting was also very good. Dark lights, and red lights were used to show suffering and serious environment. Also zoom in on make up box, and faces said most of the things that wasn't covered in dilogues. They also use silence and pauses beautifully.

3) Films 'Swatantra sangram' and 'Maharajashri'.

Films like 'Swatantra sangram' and 'Maharajashri'.was about life of ancient king of Bhavnagar state named Maharaja Krishnkumarsinghji Gohil. How he sacrifice his everything for India and his contributions and kindness was the main theme of both this movies. In the movie 'Maharajashri', use of shadows were fascinating.

4) Film Bhavnagar 

Film Bhavnagar was a kind of documentary film. Only text, no cinematography. The film was showing Excursion places of Bhavnagar. Also made us aware about history of Bhavnagar and historical places. Use of drawn drew our attention in the film.

5] Fake it till you make it.

Fake it till you make it is about Fake news and it's harmfulness. How politicians overpowered media. And how media is feared of politics. It was about current situation.

8] Lastly, write on whichever other events you attend and along with it, the overall feeling of experiencing Youth Festival - ponder upon this - it is known as 'festival of youthfulness' - युवानी का महोत्सव.

It's been great opportunity to be part of Youth Festival. We learned so many things, we made mistakes, we tackle problems, we loosed, and won, and try. In real sense it is a 'festival of youthfulness'.

This year in youth festival total 44 colleges were participated. For English Department this youth festival turned to be marvellous. We, English Department students were participated in 17 events, among them we secured rank in 9 events. And got 14 medals. 

Elocution - Dhvani Rajyaguru (First Rank)

Debate - Rajeshvariba Rana and Kosha Bhatt (Second Rank)

Mono acting - Dhvani Rajyaguru (Second Rank)

Western Solo - Emisha Ravani (Third Rank)

Clay modeling - Jheel Barad (Third Rank)

Rangoli Competition - Jheel Barad (Third Rank)

Short Film - Divya Parmar, Divya Sheta, Nilay Rathod, Rajeshvariba Rana and i (Himanshi Parmar) (Third Rank)

Essay Writing -Divya Parmar (Third Rank)

Poetry Writing and Recitation - I (Himanshi Parmar) (Third Rank)

Prize destribution video.