Teaching Language through Literature

Hello friends,

Language and Literature are the two sides of the same coin in the teaching and learning process in any language. The language skills like listening, speaking, reading and writing can be improved through Literature. The language process like pronunciation, grammar and vocabulary is learnt automatically when Literature is introduced in a natural process otherwise language learning becomes tough for the new learners.

Literature proves to be a powerful resource in the classrooms when it gives the cultural enrichment, variety and personal involvement. Let us see why a language teacher is required to use literary texts in the language classroom and what type of literature language teachers are supposed to use in the class. We shall see the benefits as well.

This blog explores the idea of teaching English in the Indian context and the role literature plays or can play in the English language classroom. The blog delves briefly into the reasons for English language being privileged in the Indian education system. It then argues for the use of literature to teach language and expands the conventional definition of literature as print to include the use of audio books and songs and films. It does acknowledge the challenges the English language teacher must be aware of when using literature to teach English and posits solutions to be used when selecting such authentic material.

“The  words.  Why  did  they  have  to  exist?  

Without  them,  there  wouldn't  be  any of this.”  

― Markus Zusak, The Book Thief

Language Learning and Literature 

“When I cannot see words curling like rings of smoke round me  I am in darkness—I am nothing.”   

― Virginia Woolf, The Waves

It is imperative to recognise that language learning, be it first or second language, occurs best in  input-rich  environments.  It  is  also  important  that  this  input  be  comprehensible  yet challenging  while  ensuring  the  learners’  interest  is retained  (Krashen, 1982).  It is  in  this context that we should review the affordance of the English language textbook for any level of learner.  It  is,  furthermore, necessary to  bridge  the  gap between “English  as  subject”  and "English as medium” in this increasingly English medium instruction based education system especially at the higher education level in India.   Literature, undoubtedly, provides rich input that is authentic/relevant material that engages the learners’.

Thus literature  has long been revered as  a source for both language learning (learning the rules of grammar use) and language acquisition (comprehending input and presenting ideas in a comprehensible manner). Stories, drama, poetry present to us varied uses of language and often  mimic  contemporary  use  thus  exposing  learners  to  prevailing  attitudes  and  beliefs through the  presentation  of thought.  However, it  is  equally important  to  be  aware  of  the challenges of learning a language through literature. 

The Challenges of Using Literature to Teach Language 

 “But  if  thought  corrupts  language,  language  can  also  corrupt  thought.”  

― George Orwell, 1984  

Despite  this  affordance,  the  challenges  in  the  classroom  when  using  literature  to  teach language cannot be discounted. As Krashen (1984) notes, while the input must be one level above the  learner’s,  it must also not be too  challenging. Not merely the language structures, but the content of the stories too need to resonate with the learners for literature to be an able tool  for  language  learning. The  selection  of  stories  (and poems  and drama)  needs to  be contextually  relevant  to  the  learners. Since  many  classic  stories  in  higher  standards  use English that is slightly out-of-date, we have instances of students using similar phrases that are no longer in use in the modern world. 

The use of translated texts to include diversity often results in students mimicking the unwieldy structures that translated texts sometimes have. If such materials are used to teach language use, it might be best to relevel and repurpose the text to be closer to actual language use than to retain the original phrasing that intended to give the audience a flavor of the ethos of the characters through the structure of the sentence. 

Languages are living creatures that grow, change shape, and perhaps even die. Some are revived as is being attempted with Sanskrit, Manipuri and several other languages in India. Some survive with minor changes as is the case with Mandarin. Some are changed almost beyond recognition such as English as one would realise if one studies the history of English as a language.

Austin & Sallabank assumes, 

“While languages have always gone extinct throughout human history, they have been disappearing at an accelerated rate in the 20th and 21st centuries due to the processes of globalization and neo-colonialism, where the economically powerful languages dominate other languages”.

References:

Things Fall Apart

 

Hey friends,

“If you are not reading a novel a week, you cannot live a moral life.”

Stories organize us culturally and emotionally. They make life meaningful and manageable, but they do even more. Reading stories offers us the opportunity to develop wisdom. Stories stretch our minds and help to grow our moral capacity.

Let’s draw an outline for African Literature

African literature, the body of traditional oral and written literature in Afro-Asiatic and African languages together with works written by Africans in European languages. Traditional written literature, which is limited to a smaller geographic area than oral literature, is most characteristic of those sub-Saharan cultures that have participated in the cultures of the Mediterranean. In particular, there are written literatures in both Hausa and Arabic, created by the scholars of what is now northern Nigeria, and the Somali people have produced a traditional written literature. Works written in European languages date primarily from the 20th century onward. 

History of African Literature

African literature has origins dating back thousands of years to Ancient Egypt and hieroglyphs, or writing which uses pictures to represent words. These Ancient Egyptian beginnings led to Arabic poetry, which spread during the Arab conquest of Egypt in the seventh century C.E. and through Western Africa in the ninth century C.E. These African and Arabic cultures continued to blend with the European culture and literature to form a unique literary form.

Africa experienced several hardships in its long history which left an impact on the themes of its literature. One hardship which led to many others is that of colonization. Colonization is when people leave their country and settle in another land, often one which is already inhabited. The problem with colonization is when the incoming people exploit the indigenous people and the resources of the inhabited land.

Colonization led to slavery. Millions of African people were enslaved and brought to Western countries around the world from the sixteenth to nineteenth centuries. This spreading of African people, largely against their will, is called the African Diaspora.

 

Achebe’s is an essentially melancholic novel and an extended metaphor for African despoliation, life and politics. Things Fall Apart is a sorrowful affair but not a despondent one.

 

Things Fall Apart

This book sings with the terrible silence of dead civilizations in which once there was valor.

Written with quiet dignity that builds to a climax of tragic force, this book about the dissolution of an African tribe, its traditions, and values, represents a welcome departure from the familiar "Me, white brother" genre.

 

1. What is the historical context of Things Fall Apart?

Things Fall Apart is set in the 1890s and portrays the clash between Nigeria’s white colonial government and the traditional culture of the indigenous Igbo people. Achebe’s novel shatters the stereotypical European portraits of native Africans. He is careful to portray the complex, advanced social institutions and artistic traditions of Igbo culture prior to its contact with Europeans. Yet he is just as careful not to stereotype the Europeans; he offers varying depictions of the white man, such as the mostly benevolent Mr. Brown, the zealous Reverend Smith, and the ruthlessly calculating District Commissioner.

Achebe’s education in English and exposure to European customs have allowed him to capture both the European and the African perspectives on colonial expansion, religion, race, and culture. His decision to write Things Fall Apart in English is an important one. Achebe wanted this novel to respond to earlier colonial accounts of Africa; his choice of language was thus political. Unlike some later African authors who chose to revitalize native languages as a form of resistance to colonial culture,

Achebe wanted to achieve cultural revitalization within and through English. Nevertheless, he manages to capture the rhythm of the Igbo language and he integrates Igbo vocabulary into the narrative.

 

2. What is the significance of the title?

From its very title, Things Fall Apart foreshadows the tragedy which the novel depicts. We don’t mean to be downers , but can a book about things falling apart really have a happy ending? The novel documents the falling apart of the Igbo tribe due to the coming of the Christian missionaries and the rule of the English government.

The only point in the book in which the title is referenced is Chapter Twenty, when the main character, Okonkwo, and his friend, Obierika, are discussing the invasion of white men into their community. Obierika says, “The white man is very clever. He came quietly and peaceably with his religion. We were amused at his foolishness and allowed him to stay. Now he has won over our brothers, and our clan can no longer act like one. He has put a knife on the things that held us together and we have fallen apart.” This passage clearly ties the destruction of the Igbo people’s way of life to sneaky, divisive action on the part of European missionaries and imperialists.

The phrase “things fall apart” is from a poem by W.B Yeats, which Achebe quotes more extensively in the epigraph 

 

 

3. Write a brief note on the concept of 'Chi' in Things Fall Apart?

The philosophic examination of chi symbolism in Igbo context is hinged on the fictional text of the great Igbo novelist and thinker, the Igbo biographer Chinua Achebe. Achebe is the basis of my emphasis due to the fact that he is a more universally accepted literary authority on Igbo people. The attempt in effect is to philosophically examine what chi symbolism is from Achebe’s fictionalized articulation of the Igbo life.

The core conflict of individual versus community in Things Fall Apart revolves around the Igbo conception of chi that Achebe rendered as personal god. The chi often comes up in this common saying – onye kwe chi ya ekwe – meaning he who consents, the god will also consent. 

Raph Madu enuciates chi metonymically (35), in interpreting chi as both destiny and dispenser of destiny. In metonymic symbolization, effect can stand for its cause and vice versa because of the intimate relationship between the two: destiny (effect) and dispenser of destiny (cause). Besides the cause and effect relationship which sounds rather fatalistic, one could imagine other metonymic relationships.

Equally, the ambiguities and paradoxes that characterize the application of chi (onye kwe chi ya ekwe and onye kwe ma chi ekweghi) can be approached from a largely cultural perspective, that also suggests some deep coherence. Hence, the conflicting views will be different responses or approaches to, maybe, the same or similar thought-provoking events at different moments and situations in life. Man’s singular encounter with the numerous hazards of life, notably death and failure, does not lend itself to simple enunciation, to a concise or precise formulation which will precede a purely formal deduction. Hence, though nature or life may not be contradictory per se it can and does become easily so in view of the particular human activities that interpret it. In this perspective, some of the ambiguities and paradoxes evident in the signification of the chi are conflicting yet complementary life experiences, each of which is true in its own right. 

Chi is a good example of a symbol with accumulative intention, a traditional spiritual and religious symbol which has taken on so many contradictory values that tend to neutralize one another. The chi symbol also demonstrates the potentiality of some symbols to acquire oppositional values and function that make polysemy one of the prime problems of semantics. 

 

4. What do you think about the incident of Ikemefuna? How does it help to understand the Ibo culture in more specific ways?

Ikemefuna comes to Umuofia early in the book, as settlement for a dispute with a nearby village. Not knowing what else to do with him, Okonkwo lets Ikemefuna live with his first wife. Ikemefuna quickly becomes a well-loved member of the family. He serves as a role model for Okonkwo’s eldest son, Nwoye, and over time he also earns Okonkwo’s respect. But more important than the role he plays in Okonkwo’s family is the effect his death has on the unfolding events of the novel.

When the village elders decide the time has come to kill Ikemefuna and finally settle the dispute with the neighboring village, Okonkwo insists on taking part in the execution, despite the fact that the boy calls him “father.” Okonkwo ends up killing Ikemefuna himself out of fear that his failure to take responsibility would make him look weak. Ikefuma’s death irreversibly harms the relationship between Okonkwo and Nwoye. His death is also a bad omen that has a symbolic connection to Okonkwo’s later exile from Umuofia. In this sense, the death of Ikemefuna signals the start of things falling apart.

 

5. Write a brief note on Ibo people's belief in the world of spirits.

It is necessary to state from the on-set that a discussion of the Igbo world view is undertaken here within the general considerations of African world view.

The Igbo constitute part of the African world, whose various peoples despite their specific differences, have elements shared commonly in their views of the world. 

 

While highlighting the specifically Igbo in these elements, references would often be made to and from the generally African. Attention has often been drawn to the dangers of generalizations about African world view that seem to neglect the fact that most ethnic groups have basic differences readily manifest in their historical, linguistic, and socio-religious expressions.438 Awareness of the societal and individual dynamisms is also equally important. Central to the issue of dynamism is the appreciation of the lasting influence on African world views due to contacts with foreign cultures. Such contacts border mainly on the subjects of slave trade, colonialism and missionary drives. These influences pose difficulties in the bid to ascertain and decipher the originally traditional from the foreign-contact-influenced presentations.

However, despite these influences, some basic assumptions and fundamental views of the African societies with regard to their world, their experience of and relation to it are identifiably original. The central and most profound of these is the issue of religion, understood in the sense of the deep consciousness of transcendence (both in the sense of beings and/a Being).

 

8. Point out the important points of Things Fall Apart which can be compared with Kanthapura by Raja Rao.

 

Myth and archetype concerns itself with creation. Raja Rao and Chinua Achebe are not only masters of literature but also of myth making. 

In Things Fall Apart, Okonkwo is exiled from his native village of Umofia but ultimately he finds his way back to his village after seven long years, only to end his life to escape from the consequence of killing a white man. Okonkwo functions as an archetype as well as a mythic hero for Achebe to bring out colonial experience. Okonkwo’s downfall is the symbol of the destruction of the indigenous tradition and culture by the onslaught of the colonial forces. 

In Kanthapura, Raja Rao has depicted Moorthy as someone who is regarded as the young Gandhi by his fellow villagers. The innocent Moorthy’s martyrdom elevates him to that of the mythic hero. His sacrificing nature is testified by his conversation with the Mahatma:

Mahatma Said, ‘You wear foreign clothes my son.’ – ‘It will go to Mahatmaji.’

‘You perhaps go to foreign Universities’ – ‘It will go to Mahatmaji.’

‘You can help your country by going and working among the

dumb millions of the villages.’ – ‘So be it Mahatmaji.’ 

Moorthy’s alienation from his group when he is arrested is another example of why he is considered as a mythic hero. He becomes an archetype of the heroes of India’s struggle for independence from the foreign yoke. 

 

Thus, in the two novels under discussion, Things Fall Apart and Kanthapura, Achebe and Raja Rao have fused myth with literature and the archetypes that they have drawn from their respective cultures and traditions. Both the authors have deployed different archetypes to evolve and work out fresh connections and interpretations. 

 

By and large we can put here that, As a story about a culture on the verge of change, Things Fall Apart deals with how the prospect and reality of change affect various characters. Things Fall Apart fits the definition of tragedy because it documents both the personal downfall of Okonkwo and the broader erosion of the Igbo cultural world that Okonkwo wishes to defend.

 

 

 

 

 

 

What is literature?

What is literature?

What is literature? Literature is this question itself! Literature has something to say, everything to say and yet nothing to say at all! 

Literature is a fire that burns the reader and the words of literature burn the mind of the reader, not between the body but inside and outside the soul but this fire is so flammable that as the fire grows, its inflammation decreases.  In addition, the reader tries to calm down by reading more and more, burning more and more.

Looking far distantly, literature is the word of a play, a novel, a story and a poem that does not directly or indirectly irrigate the masculinity of the society in which we are living.  Sometimes this literature is just talk.  In unspoken words and perhaps that is why, literature is not only what has been said but also the fire that is still burning inside.

 You may be thinking that here I am combining literature and fire to create a false flare which is not really necessary to that extent.  But friends, there is a need!  Why?

 Is literature happiness?  Is literature just a means of bringing out laughter and compassion?  But literature is the land on which I can stand and fall, where I can sleep with less need for other things.  In the realm of society in which I am bound to live and until I get out of it, literature will always be a constant buzz between the kitchen and the living room.  For me literature is the first and last step of my ladder to fly into this world by piercing the kitchen walls.  Apparently everyone has told me where the women have reached to the sky!  Now is not the time for women as before, all the concessions are given to them.  But my Brahmastra is for me to fight when the burden of responsibility is imposed arbitrarily or when it is automatically taken away in the name of responsibility, love, security and freedom itself, if it really exists and has power!  (As I have seen since childhood on TV, online and in movies which the religion used as the last weapon.  I have also been willing to use a projectile that I have only hated since the beginning of my life, but I think the pain or regret after using it will be less than this.

This literature has become for me a small mound of dust that is constantly being crushed by the shallow mentality of society.  Even though it is constantly down, constantly with and under constant influence, it doesn't say anything by walking in front like the curse of Sahadeva.  But this literature, though cursed by Sahadeva, is quite different.  You may think that I am really insane but I would be happy to share one thing with you all and tell you that I am really insane but I must say that this madness is not mad!.  This madness of mine is not madness.  This madness of mine I got from literature and this literature is the one in which I am ready for any moment of my life to get drenched and hit. For me, literature is, When the power to run flourished in me, the source of which is an inexhaustible source of inspiration for me.

When insanity doesn't seem insane, people will count it among the people who go beyond insanity yet have you ever thought that the power of thinking really flourishes only when thoughtlessness surrounds you and if you are really unaware of this then you don't really know what literature is.  Literature is the road where one can know nothing till the end of life, but all I can know is just words, and the ocean of meanings of all my words that have taken on a meaning of their own is true literature.

 Although there have been countless attempts over the years to understand, write, know and prove literature accurately, this literature is a sun whose light shines in a weary world but when one tries to approach it like light, it shines in its divine radiance.  Leaving because the brilliance of literature that is accustomed to living in the psyche of this society and which is not accustomed to watching without close observation and screen remains difficult and cumbersome for any ordinary reader.  Efforts have been and will continue to be made.  But with the change of time, the slope of which keeps changing, but the silence of motion, the inexhaustible flow of static dynamics, which stays in the same stream forever, is literature.

The question is what is this literature when it is tormented and when this question becomes unbearable to be endured from within the body the mind always runs to answer obviously and eventually stops in the form of "character and event".  This literature is life and life itself is an event.  Living is an event in itself.  Sometimes big, sometimes small.  But in the end, this literature is nothing but an event!

Thus dear friends,

Literature is the ocean you must test, must drink drops from yet can never reach to the last layer!

Thank you.

How Literature has shaped me?

How literature shaped me?

Have you ever thought of a thing that has influenced you? If no, then think first. Your thinking will increase your interest in reading How am I shaped by literature. If I say books have been an essential part of my life since my childhood then this might be because of my tempering the memory by myself only, of course - unknowingly. So, before I start bombarding on destruction of literature which has shaped me, let's roller coaster over a few questions.

What is life? Ever thought? I tried to think and the evolution of thought eventually led me to the realization that just thoughts are not life!  Not only that, what is life, what is the reason for living and all the turmoil took me to the literature.  What role did literature play in my life? If I think about it, I realize that I should first think about when literature became a part of my life.  Literature has been ingrained in me in one way or another way since childhood through the home.  Due to my grandmother's insistence, in Sanskrit literature, religious texts and certain texts were memorized by me while listening to them but I must confess, the literature that has dismantled my shape by fragmenting it is another literature cake.

The craft of literature has really done the masonry work in my life and who can do this masonry?  Literature means that if the pages of a book that is considered rubbish are the masonry of my life, then instead of masonry, only words can be said to have shaped my life.

When I say I love to read, I wonder which novel will be the first to be read!  If you don't count the short stories, the first novel may have been read in Std. 6 or 8 by Kundanika Kapadia's 'Seven Steps in the Sky'.

Literature has done the most important job of breaking the secrets of me.  Not only that, I have broken the values of becoming Arjun and Hanuman.  Social orthodox traditions that always give advice to stay at one's feet have given way to ideas even beyond the walls.  Literature has raised the question in front of me that if I have to work hard to become both Hanuman and Arjuna myself, why should I not become Rama and Krishna itself?  Why don't I crave someone else's freedom with my own freedom rather than learning to be submissive?

Raghuveer Chaudhary's 'Amrita' taught me the importance of freedom in life, yet there is something beyond freedom that would be more important to humans.  Although Amrita's main question has been choice, at the end the question becomes secondary, because when freedom arises to take someone's life, when the choice is ready to burn one's life, it raises question even to the freedom itself!

Whenever I think that a frightening situation has been created, that time is tormenting my head, then unknowingly my mind becomes overwhelmed with Aziz from Tughluq and becomes real in front of the family members.  Whenever I feel like I have to get something under any circumstances, the Mobydick yells at me that whatever happened to you, whatever the other person did to you was subject to his nature.  Will you take revenge for someone's nature and also for one's natural nature?  My mind began to wander as to why I want to take revenge by going against my nature.  At such times the question arises in my mind whether a man can really go against his nature.  To what extent?  In the second hour, it also happens that I am administering my intensity to other human beings.  Somewhere in the name of freedom I do not cut anyone's freedom!

Perhaps I am born in a time where villains attract more attention than heroes.  Iago and Othello, or Hamlet and Claudius, as the literature began to splash more and more, especially in English literature, the water began to fascinate me.  The touch of it was pulling me more and more towards reading that still like this, still more than this where can I find something that is confusing me in this?  Questions lead me to new books and books again to new questions.  In this 21st century, there is probably no shortage of answers, but the question is just a lack of questions.  But whenever I feel this lack, I rush to books and if I am not overwhelmed, my reading will be embarrassed!  Ever since I came to know a little bit of literature, my mind has been constantly wandering to read what literature in not just one language but many other languages is saying.  I took my primary course in Gujarati language and because of that Gujarati language inadvertently became more fluent.  The Bengali language attracted me the most as I got closer to the literature of other languages.  If you look at the dominance of literature, on the one hand, it is a pleasure to read books that cross the line of satisfaction (and this pleasure is not really joy, but anger, weeping, and terrible shock), then on the other hand, I will read literature in a language that I don't know.  So there is a constant quest within for its original meaning that is not going to die somewhere!  I am always confused when language finally becomes a medium and even more so when the medium itself is becoming unreliable. Do I really understand what is being written?  The question also arises as to whether all this literature was really written for a specific purpose or if there was any silence for writing without a purpose.  To get to the root of what might have happened there and what may have been happening in the origin, I am ready to go back to my origin!

Derrida gave me an adequate understanding of language questions in later years and provided me theoretical support in discussions with my unsupported arguments with friends.  At that time, understanding was developed in a different way.  Feminism also reached post feminism and the need for it as well as the reasons for its failure were understood.  However, the fact that there is no need to put a basket of guilt on anyone's head has become so ingrained in the mind that now everything, the matter and the person can be seen automatically with four or five lenses and when viewed from different points of view, confusion with reconciliation is lessened yet it is foolish to think so each and every time!

Listening to the stories of Panchatantra itself, at least 4 to 5 years of life may have passed from my childhood, but Panchatantra was exposed in a new way in the form of an 'Animal Farm' novel.

    

I grew up hearing about the atrocities being perpetrated on women by the savage men of society who cover it in the name of civilization.  Yeah it sounds pretty crap to me, definitely feel that I will not make the mistake of believing what I saw with my own eyes.  I remember Pecola saying that when savagery and molestation goes awry, mother can't even climb into it or fails to help!

The question became more and more complex as the missing link in one book was found in another book and the mind became restless as if a spirit had arisen in the mind.  Whose responsibility is it that Dave Saheb is to blame, who is beyond knowledge and is not ready to spark words even in the life of someone other than himself?  Can there be any hope of philanthropy from Mr. Dave?  The effect of "Angadno pag" is so strong that whenever I see a person full of ambition, Dave Saheb suddenly comes to my mind and starts inspiring me.  I felt sorry for him.  When I feel sorry for someone else, I get angry with myself now that I have to continue painting these slippers.  For me, Shah Saheb is nothing but the peak of darkness, if the benefit of Gnani's knowledge is not going to happen to the personality around him.  At the same time Marlowe's Doctor Faust seems closer to me, but there's no point in explaining anything to people in religious darkness who only believe that women are the cause of their downfall when it comes to mind that even my 21st century is also not out of the shallowness of this idea.   Even today, apparently, women have reached the moon, but they have yet to reach the important administration of the house.  Injustices against women are happening not only in books or movies or crime series but also in one way or another and not anywhere else but in my own home and also in the name of my safety.

Julian Bans asks if the character develops over time?  I have no idea.  But this question has made me think, what if a person really can't grow with time in life?

After reading all this, I have come to hate the male character.  No matter how good a character is, my thoughts are stuck there or in the end it is a man!  But if this thought had taken root in my mind, literature would have made me fail again and I would not have even known myself of my failure.  In the process of reading the literature, I have come to realize that unless we accept a problem as a problem and find a solution to the problem, far from it if root cannot be reached.  I reached out to a writer like Amrita Pritam in a society like Jungle of civilized society where I was burnt to ashes.  I have read translations of many of her original books more than two or three times.

The friendship with a friend grew a little closer during college and the biggest impact it had on my reading.  In the discussion with her, day by day the pleasure came more and more and the reading developed a little bit.  The curiosity to know it also led me to new ideas and we used to go through many things to know one thing!  At first I personally started blaming Sahir and in the end I and my friend have kept this discussion open thinking that it may not be his fault.  In my spare time these characters always reach out to break my solitude.  As I get to know Amrita Pritam's books and life, my desire to meet Imroz becomes more and more influential.  The thing that strikes me most about Imroz is that he is more of a human than a man.  If you go to see the character of Imroz as a man you might kill his personality.  It would be surprising to know but this Imroz is still alive in Delhi or Mumbai!  He lives but it is hard to understand how difficult it is to meet him in the society in which I grew up.  But Herbert of Monkey's Paw suddenly knocks on the door and asks me if I am really the one you want to meet!  The mind sits in the water by making its own grave.

Listening to my concept of male characters, you may have created new ideas somewhere in your mind, new lines may have been decided about me, but before you decide anything about me, without knowing anything about me, I must tell you that only male characters? No, I hate women from my distance.  But Estragon and Vladimir have told me not to let hatred and behavior get in the way.  My hatred for the male character may have diminished to some extent after reading Amrita Pritam, but because of the behavior of a social woman like this society, and because of the currency in this journey, I have no inner interest in her life and ultimately in my life.  Jitesh Donga managed to break this and reject it for me through his novels. Mira and Swara, whom Margaret calls women of mystery, are women who fit the definition.  The question of choice in Gujarati literature, the social question that has arisen in Amrita, breaks down here in Northpole and Vishwamanav and at the end, as Meera says, there is nothing else but just to live with passion!  That's all!

I don't know if I liked anything else, but I can say for sure that literature taught me to read, to read more, Keep on discussing it, keep on learning new things and get lost somewhere in the life of discussions where getting lost is even stronger than finding myrself!

Thank You.