As a school going boy I had the habit of maintaining a journal. Initially it was a verbal record of the daily activities. I would like to name the act as scribbling. My journal writing became more focused and elaborate as I grew up. I started writing about the life around me, e.g People whom I have seen and met, places I have visited and events that I have witnessed. As time went by, I found myself writing more about the inside reality (mind) than the outside reality. The fears and insecurities of life and topics related to spirituality found a regular place in my journal.
As I prepare this rough sketch of the research proposal I am able to trace a pattern in my journal writing habits. It is quite interesting to note that I have approached my journal only in difficult situations. Whenever I faced a road block in my life, I was able to communicate my feelings to the inanimate friend - The Journal.
There are two instances from my life which I would like to quote to exemplify the above mentioned idea. The first one is connected to the death of our pet-dog Caesar. He was a Dachshund and due to his intelligence and loyalty he won our hearts. His death created a vacuum in our family. One day while traveling, I had an idea of writing something about him and soon I found myself writing a short story on him. I am still perplexed by the way the act of creativity happened. The title of the story was – He Came, He Saw and He Conquered Again. It was like paying a tribute to Caesar and his presence in our lives. The kind of emotional fulfillment that I experienced after the finishing the story was phenomenal.
The second was a more personal and painful episode………………..my writings became introspective. I was able to move on in life because my journal writing provided me a new perspective. It was not just my writings that helped me but also two books written by the theologian Philip Yancey. I immensely enjoyed reading and re-reading ‘What is so amazing about Grace’ and ‘Where is God when it hurts?’ by Yancey. His style of writing made me conclude that some writings when properly understood can help in the healing process of the mind.
Moving on to the academic part of writing, the dissertation for my Masters Degree was based on the writings of the African American author Alex Haley’s work – Roots. The book labeled under the literary genre of faction traces the ancestral roots of Haley to a village in Africa. Later when I did my M.Phil program, I did my thesis on yet another African American writer named Ralph Ellison. The title of the book was Invisible Man. In my opinion the African American writers saw their writings not just as a political tool for claiming their rights but also as an act of therapy. They used writing as means of getting out of the pain and anguish of their ‘painful’ race memory.
I became a teacher in the year 2001 and I was introduced to the exciting world of classrooms, blackboard and the young bubbling student life. To make myself better equipped as teacher I used to read a lot about the art of teaching and the life of teachers. Two significant books, which had a deep impact on me, was the book by E.B Braithwaite titled – To Sir, with Love and Teacher Man by Frank McCourt. Both these authors created in me a compassionate attitude towards my students.
As part of the English learning process I asked them to put down in the paper their linguistic problems. They found writing about their problems much easier than speaking about them. Stage Fright, Grammar, Spelling, Problems in Fluency are some of the difficulties they shared with me. Equipped with a proper understanding of my classroom psyche, I was able to create a need based curriculum based on their writings.
I always had a fascination about the working of the human mind. One of the reasons for this is the essay by Sigmund Freud titled – ‘Creative Writers and Day-Dreaming’. The fascination reached a fulcrum when I read about the French Psychoanalyst Jacques Lacan. I noted that the discipline of psychoanalysis became more structural with Lacan. According to Lacan ‘the unconscious is structured like a language’.
As a person who believes in the fact that real learning happens outside the classroom, I have always encouraged learners to come out with theatrical presentations. My first stage production was based on the Dairies of Anne Frank and the second was based on Shakespeare’s Macbeth. The first stage production explored the world of Anne Frank and the audience witnessed the fact that there were two Anne’s – One herself in flesh and blood and the verbal Anne which we can find in her writings.
As I prepare this rough sketch of the research proposal I am able to trace a pattern in my journal writing habits. It is quite interesting to note that I have approached my journal only in difficult situations. Whenever I faced a road block in my life, I was able to communicate my feelings to the inanimate friend - The Journal.
There are two instances from my life which I would like to quote to exemplify the above mentioned idea. The first one is connected to the death of our pet-dog Caesar. He was a Dachshund and due to his intelligence and loyalty he won our hearts. His death created a vacuum in our family. One day while traveling, I had an idea of writing something about him and soon I found myself writing a short story on him. I am still perplexed by the way the act of creativity happened. The title of the story was – He Came, He Saw and He Conquered Again. It was like paying a tribute to Caesar and his presence in our lives. The kind of emotional fulfillment that I experienced after the finishing the story was phenomenal.
The second was a more personal and painful episode………………..my writings became introspective. I was able to move on in life because my journal writing provided me a new perspective. It was not just my writings that helped me but also two books written by the theologian Philip Yancey. I immensely enjoyed reading and re-reading ‘What is so amazing about Grace’ and ‘Where is God when it hurts?’ by Yancey. His style of writing made me conclude that some writings when properly understood can help in the healing process of the mind.
Moving on to the academic part of writing, the dissertation for my Masters Degree was based on the writings of the African American author Alex Haley’s work – Roots. The book labeled under the literary genre of faction traces the ancestral roots of Haley to a village in Africa. Later when I did my M.Phil program, I did my thesis on yet another African American writer named Ralph Ellison. The title of the book was Invisible Man. In my opinion the African American writers saw their writings not just as a political tool for claiming their rights but also as an act of therapy. They used writing as means of getting out of the pain and anguish of their ‘painful’ race memory.
I became a teacher in the year 2001 and I was introduced to the exciting world of classrooms, blackboard and the young bubbling student life. To make myself better equipped as teacher I used to read a lot about the art of teaching and the life of teachers. Two significant books, which had a deep impact on me, was the book by E.B Braithwaite titled – To Sir, with Love and Teacher Man by Frank McCourt. Both these authors created in me a compassionate attitude towards my students.
As part of the English learning process I asked them to put down in the paper their linguistic problems. They found writing about their problems much easier than speaking about them. Stage Fright, Grammar, Spelling, Problems in Fluency are some of the difficulties they shared with me. Equipped with a proper understanding of my classroom psyche, I was able to create a need based curriculum based on their writings.
I always had a fascination about the working of the human mind. One of the reasons for this is the essay by Sigmund Freud titled – ‘Creative Writers and Day-Dreaming’. The fascination reached a fulcrum when I read about the French Psychoanalyst Jacques Lacan. I noted that the discipline of psychoanalysis became more structural with Lacan. According to Lacan ‘the unconscious is structured like a language’.
As a person who believes in the fact that real learning happens outside the classroom, I have always encouraged learners to come out with theatrical presentations. My first stage production was based on the Dairies of Anne Frank and the second was based on Shakespeare’s Macbeth. The first stage production explored the world of Anne Frank and the audience witnessed the fact that there were two Anne’s – One herself in flesh and blood and the verbal Anne which we can find in her writings.
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