Author: wordsbycrafters

Loves to craft words , Literature Enthusiast!

Language is Manmade , not “Human Made” !








This is a very simple title, yet a major loophole that our society is facing for many decades. This is not about giving rights to a specific gender but the suppressions which a language creates in the backdrop of society and makes it a center of concern. Never thought language can create such discrimination against two genders.
In colloquial context we see that every day we speak our language and communicate flawlessly yet we never recognized the ocean of problem which a language brings every day.
Profoundly, the title itself gives us the best example as to how we use the word “Manmade”, linguistically whenever a thing is made by a human it is denoted as manmade. But the question here arrives is that why don’t we spell it as human-made?
There are many endless words where the wordings are based on one gender-biased, for say: countrymen, mankind, etc and mostly these words denote men and women were often neglected or ignored since the formation of words.
“Language has always been a media through which many cultures and communities bounded and created a sense of harmony with each other”.
Whereas we can notice that Gender Discrimination has always been a core of fear since civilization. It has become one of the cliché topics when it comes to feminism and cause of this people are ignorant as they assume that the world is changed and there is no more discrimination in today’s society.
Taking back to the advent of the problem we can observe that many writers, critics have battled to always protect the women community as they are always considered the “weaker section of the society”. We can’t deny this fact but, inevitably, they are still subjected when it comes to literature and language.
 
1.      How Women are Neglected by Language  as Language reflects Patriarchal world:
She says, “Women can either read and choose to stay trapped in their bodies by a language that does not allow them to express themselves, or they can use the body as a way to communicate.” – Helene Cixous (in; “The Laugh of Medusa” ).
This very quote is taken from the famous article written by a critic, writer, and feminist; Helene Cixous who has explained how a woman had gone through repression in history and how literature and language had given an upper hand to the men in society to suppress women.
In “The Laugh of Medusa”, she explains how women should find their voice and the Language is the symbol of how a person portrays themselves. “Writing is for you, you are for you, your body’s yours, take it”. Thisline highlights that it’s high time that women should raise their head and minds and be themselves by being flawlessly independent and break the walls which portray women as fragile and frail.
The author claims that there is a very close relationship between women’s bodies and their writings and both have been repressed by men for centuries. Literature, in particular, explains to us how women as a writer were hard for the audience to accept them due to cultural prejudices laid against them since ages.
Writers like Virginia Woolf show us the patriarchal world through one of her works namely “Room of one’s own” through the lens of all the women present in the world and the problems they go through.
“A Woman must have money and a room of her own if she is to write fiction”. This quote is quite relatable for the women of contemporary society, but this was a major issue which women of the 18th and 19th centuries were facing, to be independent they always needed acceptance to flourish in their fields and for that, they always needed acceptance which was a great hurdle in their lives. For their personal growth, they were bounded to be under 4 walls and do all sorts of wifely duties which gave the society that women are doing dutiful jibs under their husbands present.
But unfortunately, those women were never accepted who was unique and out of the box because society was not people’s perspective, rather it was the male perspective.
Even in “Room of one’s own”, Woolf mentions Judith Shakespeare ( was considered as Shakespeare’s real sister), her character portrays us the devastation a woman goes through while struggling for getting justice.
It also portrays us that many decades of literature didn’t accept women’s works as they were not considered as talented and rather, they were judged based on patriarchal society.
 
2.       Females were Disowned yet contributed best Literature:
As when we look into 18th century British literature, we can see that several female writers have given an immeasurable piece of works which is still remarkable to date.
It would be a disgrace if we forget to mention  Jane Austen, the Bronte sisters, Virginia Woolf, who were the pillars of 18th-century literature. Whether it is a broody romantic novel of wuthering heights or it is jane Eyre, every writer has spilled their hearts and provided the real situation of women in the era.
Some great writers are unforgettable like J.K Rowling who made us believe in fantasy and made childhood more fascinating by giving us Harry Potter which always provides us nostalgia going back to those days.
Unfortunately, these writers have always struggled to prove their identity to the world, that these immense writers like J.K.Rowling, Emily Bronte, had to change their names to get worldwide recognition. Even in the postmodern age, the situation didn’t change and the process of women hiding their originality, their names was like a custom they followed for ages.
But these female writers never let their readers down and always provided the best piece of art even having so many hurdles in their life.
It’s a long way to go, but still, the situation is better as women are gaining recognition and fame in society, the world, and literature through their masterpieces of works.

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

 

The Shadow Lines – A Story about lost Identity!

The novel ‘The Shadow Lines by Amitav Ghosh centers around a young boy, the narrator, whose growth in age and maturity is traced slowly through his understanding of the memories that connect him and his family members. Through the novel, we see that the narrator has flashbacks in time as bits and pieces of stories, both half-remembered and imagined, come together in his mind until he arrives at an intricate, interconnected picture of the world where borders and boundaries mean nothing, mere shadow lines that we draw dividing people and nations.

The title ‘The Shadow Lines’ depicts the author’s perspective on the cultural, ideological, geographical, and psychological borders, which he asks us to disregard in favor of broader humanism. The title ‘shadow lines’ can refer to many different things, but I believe that the allusion of Amitav makes is to the borders that separate nations from each other.

Divisions between nations – shadow lines

Amitav Ghosh asserts that the borders that separate nations are nothing more than artificial lines created by humans. Thus, the ‘shadow lines of the title are the borders that divide people, and one of the main emphases of the novel is on the arbitrariness of such cartographic demarcations.

Why are these lines ‘shadowy’ then? Because like shadows, they lack substance, they lack meaning. Ghosh believes that these ‘shadow lines’, these meaningless borders, can and should be crossed – if not physically, then at least mentally through our imagination and open-minded acceptance of people, irrespective of nationality, religion, or race.

In the novel, the lives of the narrator’s family have been irrevocably changed as a consequence of Bengal’s Partition between India and Pakistan at the time of Independence and the subsequent experience of the East Pakistan Civil War of 1971, which led to the creation of Bangladesh. Towards the end, when members of the family are about to undertake a journey from Calcutta to their former home in Dhaka, the narrator’s grandmother asks whether she will be able to see the border between India and East Pakistan from the plane.

     She is puzzled when told that there will be no such visible demarcation and says: “But if there aren’t any trenches or anything, how are people to know? I mean, where’s the difference then? And if there’s no difference both sides will be the same; it’ll be just like it used to be before when we used to catch a train in Dhaka and get off in Calcutta the next day . . .”

The novel is about how pain inflicts in human life even though it is a heart-throbbing past. The burden of the past never leaves is quite visible through this novel, as the characters in the novel who have suffered from the feeling of losing their real homes, their originality, and motherland show the readers about the devastation of Humans and the consequences with humans community due to war and riots.


This ingenious response on her part highlights the absurdity of the revisionist map-making of the politicians responsible for Partition. Because the truth is that there is no difference between this side of the border and that. There’s nothing concrete about these borders for they only exist in maps and our minds.


Critical appreciation of the movie ‘Parasite’

The parasite is a film that is inevitably mind-blowingly awesome, which would leave even the most verbose enthusiast speechless!.

The movie was celebrated all over the world for its nuanced take on social inequality and making its way to Oscar’s history as the first foreign language winner of best picture. But Bong Joon Ho’s ( director ) scathing critique of modern society goes way beyond its riveting plot points.

Plot and title

Parasite centers around the abjectly poor but cunning Kim family who dream of escaping their filthy semi-basement they scam their way into the lives of the very wealthy park family innovating methods to find work as a tutor, chauffeur, art therapist, and housekeeper for most parts things went smoothly until they found out they’re not the only one beguiling the family, the former housekeeper husband has been staying in the house hidden bunker for year’s to hide from debt collectors.

Tensions between the two working-class families mount and everything descents down at a very bloody birthday party leaving several deaths, after stabbing Mr park, Mr. Kim retreats into the same bunker to hide avoiding the foreseeable future, meanwhile the Kim son fantasies about buying the house and freeing his dad.

Title

The title parasite represents the way these four members of the lower class leach off the good nature and generosity of the Park family, but what is Bong trying to tell us in the aftermath is that the parks are also leaching off the lowers classes by living comfortably on the backs of their labor thus questioning the audience In late-capitalist society who are the parasites? the poor are surviving off the rich while the rich are living off the poor the middle class are busy making resumes

Cinematography and symbolic references

The film owes much of its success around the world to its reliance on cinematic language rather than the spoken language we examine two families on opposite sides of the economic spectrum and every cinematic tool has been used to contrast between the two.

The first shot of the film shows Kims semi-basement window with a glimpse of natural sunlight pouring through and the camera moves downward compare to that we see the park’s home, the camera is moving upwards to the modern home architecture into the full view of the sun we see that Bong ( director)  has used the balance of light and darkness, natural and urban environment to signify their economic status

Most parts of the movies showed Kim’s family infiltration process following the same visual pattern upward towards light finding their host and again moving downwards into darkness until the revealing of the bunker where we descend to the lowest point with no sunlight and no hope it’s more of a prison than a home, but at least better than being dead.

The Kim’s got a taste of paradise to live among the rich before the rain flushed them right back down the parks are sanctioned from everything, not necessarily antagonists but rather they are disconnected from everyday life failing to see the harsh reality of the economically weaker section of the society.

Everything in the movie from clothing, hairstyle to the sad empty fridge, is used to indicate their stature as a family in the lower class, even their smell gives them the way but something never changes and that the dream that once lifted you can come back to haunt you.

Social network and its contemporary flow of language phraseology

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With the rapid growth in the usage of social networks worldwide, uploading and sharing of generated content, both text and visual, has become increasingly prevalent.

Today, social media refers to a wide range of Web sites and Internet-based services that allow users to create content and interact with other users. Language is an evolving thing. It’s naive to think that the language of social media isn’t affecting the way we use English in day-to-day life. It’s more appropriate to consider just how much of an effect it’s having on the way we communicate. A whole host of words originating from social media and the wider Internet have become so commonplace that they’ve now slipped into popular usage, and we don’t even realize it.

 Just a few interesting words that have their origins in technology are blogosphere (the collective word for personal websites called blogs), troll (someone who creates conflict online by starting arguments or upsetting people)

Modern companies (like Adidas, mad over marketing or even celebrities) use their presence on social media platforms for diverse business goals. Social media present a new and unique way for direct interaction between the company and different users, right down to the customer as well. While most social media platforms offer some way to measure user engagement, many focus on customer conversion, rather than content.

The emphasis on linguistics and user-generated keywords on social sites

Multilingualism:

 As of now, and according to the data of http://www.internetworldstats.com, the Internet has eight-hundred fifty million English-speaking users out of one billion five hundred million total users. This means that the market for the English language is more or less than one-third of the total market. All this means that there is an enormous body of information being constantly generated which is also being constantly lost behind language usage this proves language diversity in Internet ecology is of paramount importance.

We consider linguistic features in two classes: variations of English, including spelling, and differences in emotive and personal language, including pronouns, interrogatives, and exclamations but emotive language, and personal informal language are used more frequently than the formal tone.

Variation in Lexical Conventions Tweets in the social chats are more likely to contain apostrophes commas and full stop  (such as “can’t”), with missing apostrophes (such as “cant” and “didn’t”) or abbreviations (e.g., “u” for “you” or “k” for “ok”)

Emotive and Personal Language The two collections also show striking differences in tone and the degree to which posts describe personal experiences or opinions. The social community collection has more instances of exclamations and questions, and more non-standard strings of exclamation and question marks. The abundance of exclamations suggests the messages are more likely to be strongly emotive.

Emotions of one kind are also suggested by the number of messages containing any of several dozen grammatically incorrect or swear words or and those all in upper case. Pronouns too are much more prominent in tweets that include the first-person pronoun, and sometimes include the abundance of “ and ” as a word is partly due because we treated “&” as a word boundary.

The infrequent use of the second person pronoun indicates people are not as involved in discussions. Users in this collection also make much greater use of Twitter hashtags to label their posts. We believe this points to more careful use of the posts and a curatorial intent, where hashtags serve to direct a tweet or post to the right audience when the two individuals do not know each other.

There are also instances of online brands becoming so powerful that words have crept into the English language based on them. ‘Google’ is the world’s leading search engine and it has become so universal in its usage that the phrase ‘Google it’ has virtually replaced the phrase  ‘search for it’ in common speech. There are examples of this lifted directly from social media too;  ‘tweet it’ refers to writing a message using Twitter, but has essentially come to mean ‘share it’

Colors are also being widely used to indicate the source of topics: Topics triggered by the page owners on Instagram or Twitter are highlighted through a light blue color. All data is available in an all-time overview.

To summarise, not all social media language is the same. In our collection, talk in the science or work arena is more formal, with more care taken to address an audience, and more concerned with passing on non-personal information, while the tweets or posts in the social environment are more on a personal note, expressing emotions, describing experiences and asking more questions. This mirrors what could be the equivalent genres in other media: a conversation, on the one hand, scientific writing on the other

The not so scientific techniques of language phrasing on social sites

 Some of these tools, such as multi-party chats, discussion forums, blogs, and online reviews, have been a focus of “natural language processing (NLP) research for quite some time now. But within the last decade, NLP work has expanded rapidly to cover an immense variety of new social media content—microblogs such as Twitter, social networks such as Facebook, comments on news articles, captions on user-contributed images such as on Instagram, and forums dedicated to specialized topics and needs (e.g., health and online education)”. Simultaneously, many other research communities are carrying out work using social media data information science, social science, psychology, and linguistics.

Today, a large number of businesses are also centered on or benefit from, analytics and language usage performed on social media. Given these vast research and commercial interests in the social media domain, we are at a time where we should seek to clearly understand what role language has in the field of social media analysis, both in terms of the key and interesting language questions, as well as contributions NLP had made to the research carried out in other fields.

Identifying patterns of usage:

People use the same language for different purposes; most of the time similar content or language used receives millions of views over a week or a course of few hours( likely because of the language which probably have been making the headlines) timing as well play a major role in deciding how fast that particular language or a keyword is being transferred across a particular location for example if there’s a news related to examination during the pandemic chances are the search engines related to that particular news topic will continue to be on the topmost chart among students on a wider range thus making these words ‘lockdown’, ‘online exams’, and covid, etc a specific headlines on Google or social media sites.

Social network and language impact on Cultural awareness

People using social media primarily collect cultural and language examinations through their own experiences and general mobility: by traveling, working, and studying. Nevertheless, they can also gain additional knowledge on languages, cultures, and cultural awareness through social media itself and through other collaborative virtual communities in which they participate.

From unfriend to selfies, social media is having an impact on language and cultural changes. As someone who writes about social media, I’m aware of not only how fast these online platforms change, but also of how they influence the language in which a person writes.

But how much can we trust different categories of social media, such as Instagram for example? The quality and certainty of available materials remain an open question. For that reason, Many researchers suggest the use of authorized materials already available over the Web and in different virtual communities, but not necessarily social media

Most social media users use social media tools for information gaining or cultural acknowledgment particularly through knowing the names of foods consumed by various people over the world, places or the type of clothes worn by people of different cultures and the everyday experiences of populations,  (e.g, cottage cheese which is a generic  term used around the world is known by a specific name in other world countries like Feta in Greece, Ricotta in Italy, and paneer in India so on )

Conclusion

What social media has done is enable us to communicate with a much larger number of people on a global scale in a way that we only really used to be able to do on a local level. It is a rich playground for experimenting, creating new words, and repurposing old ones; it also provides a platform for people who aren’t consumed by grammatical rules and syntax, giving the freedom to flout the usual maxims of conventional English Language and be innovative, creative and forward-thinking. Language is and always has been ever-evolving. Although the developments and trends we witness in language over time are significant, the foundation of the English language remains as strong and infallible as it always has been.

Fantasy – A wizardry Land of the lost wanderers

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We have always come across the word “Fantasy”, which is different for every person in this universe. For a poet, it is a place where they can get lost and live in those unending stories which don’t have any obstacles. Whereas for some philosophers, fantasy would be something which makes them realize as a beautiful place to live, and for saints, it would be a place where they can encounter God and live a peaceful life.

Sometimes, Fantasy is when a dreamer dreams about their dreams. However, this is a controversial topic as for some fantasy is just a mere illusion of Thoughts.

Although, Fantasy is where unexplored ideas pop up and due to fantasy many great personalities have contributed their best parts to the world of notions.

However, the feeling of Fantasy gives us satisfaction to tackle the real world and provides us a sense of delight in accomplishing our dreams.

“These mortal wizards are the explorers of their wonderland, where they traipse, fondle, gaze over their mystical thoughts.”

The substantiality of our existence is revealed through our reality and our delusion of unrealistic thoughts. Those fictitious stories sprinting through our nerves and then vigorously to our hearts make us feel like the fairies of the fantasy land.

          We mortal beings are so devoid within ourselves but are fulfilled with the phantasm which exists within our heads forever. It is like the unrealistic elements of those magical fables which make us feel accomplished and satisfy our existence. 

             Our existence relates to those oblivious thoughts which are every time inside us, inside our minds. Maybe this virtual world is filled with infinite fictional stories which are yet to be discovered. These never-ending illusioned stories flickering might be part of those parallel universes which is still a mystery.

                    It is the conundrum of my abundant conviction. We are the wizards of our concocted minds, which are still drifting around these mystifying islands. The mortals have a different notion.

                The shattered humans are astray from their delusion and ponder about their fictional characters drifting in those summer haze forests, valleys which are still a blur of memories in this mortal world.

   They are emancipated with those clasped thoughts between the virtual land and the magic land. Perhaps, these fantasies are the mirage of our parallel universe, maybe it’s just the artistry of thoughts popping up out of the crafted minds.

     In those fantasies lies the stripped and naked pain or grief of those humans who are escaping from the harsh reality. The mortal beings are fragmented into deep emotions, sparkling in those never-ending illusions.

                    These artists dilute themselves in those fantasizing moments to get lost, lost from the truth. These tales are smoldering with the reality of their aura, possibly their identity lies somewhere deep under the ocean of those unreal dragons, or the mermaids which is still make oneself a bliss whenever he/she is living on those islands.

               Being frail or fragile is the reason for he/her to be the daredevil in their cloud of thoughts. It’s very outlandish but it is the reality of oneself hiding through their existence.

“Perhaps it’s an eerie or a bewilderment of one’s self.”

How Contemporary Father’s are postively parenting their daughters!

According to Barnett and Kibґiа, positive parent-child relationships heighten many different aspects of psychological well-being while these negative relationships produce psychological distress. Our society mainly concerns mother and child relationships and understanding the impact of the father and daughter relationship on society is almost negligible.

Daughters who have or are being raised under disruptive relations with their fathers are generally plagued with a host of problems throughout their lives and too often problems harming their psychological health, their children as well as other interpersonal relations.

In the age period of adolescence or as young adult women, these girls are more likely to develop psychological and emotional problems and they are more likely to become depressed than the daughters who maintain close relationships with their fathers (Amatο&Dοrius, 2010; Cаrlsοn, 2006; King &Sobοleski, 2006; Stеwart, 2003).

Father – An Underestimated parent

Fathering, since the era of kings and kingdoms were considered a prominent part of the patriarchal society where the sons/daughters were brought up by the fathers whereas the mother was the second parent for their children. The king was the one who taught their sons and daughters about archery and self-defense.  “Man is the creator of the universe”, as rightly pointed in Hinduism and other religion, as Lord Brahma is the creator of the universe and he is the man behind the lives of many living bodies. Man is considered as the priority for giving a contribution to a new soul, without a man a woman cannot contribute to a new life.

Therefore, a father is always a major part of the upbringing of the children.

Father and their Daughter’s :

The reflection of the father affects a daughter’s psyche as her first impression of the opposite gender depends upon firstly looking to her father as her other romantic relationship affects the way she has a positive relationship with her father. The stronger bond she has with her father, the more vigorous and strong understanding she will have for her romantic partner.

Good Parenting is very crucial to build a child with optimistic behavior and psyche. The mindset of any child depends majorly on the place he/she has grown up. The environment impacts a lot in a child’s initial stage of development.

Due to certain cultural and societal norms, we can examine that nurturing of children are often imposed on the mother as a mother is rightly a source of invention, a mother gives life to a soul, so her existence often becomes prominent as she is biologically more connected to a child before he/she is born. Often in this scenario, fathers are distant from their children due to certain norms set by the society that a father is a breadwinner, protector, head of the family, and a medium of finance in the family. So, the Mother becomes a center point of upbringing children,

 As we scrutinize any culture and society, a mother is often subjected if her child is not appropriate in his/her behavior in the further stages of life as the mindset of parenting is towards a mother, not a father!

But as we look in the contemporary society and family structure, we see that fathers are taking a lead role in parenting and this brings a major topic which is called “Fathering”.

Profoundly, fathers are becoming good fathers by having excellent fatherhood qualities that raise their children with a better persona.

Reasons why fathers have taken a lead and gave a contribution to parenting? Well, certain reasons which are so-called “contemporary issues or modern issues” like; divorce of parents, death of a partner, foster parenting, extramarital affairs of father or mother, etc are the reasons counted to be a change in parenting structure.

As we look at the optimistic side, the children raised by fathers are more confident in their professional and personal life as they consider their father as a reflection (to note that certain cases where contemporary issues are going inside the family). As per the study done by the experts in parenting and family structure of society brings us the data that those children who suffer the pain of losing parents or suffer from the environment where their parents do not have a good relation often tend to get discouraged and affects their personality and relationship with the outside world.

In certain cases, the family structure where there is a divorced single parent, the child is often depressed which somewhere or the other affects the cognitive, social, and emotional disbalance in his/her behavior which often makes them negative in personality.

Paternity vs Maternity:

In the provided 2 positions often there is a huge bridge between maternity (Motherhood) and Paternity (fatherhood). The quest is majorly upon, why do paternity be related to father? rather it is denoting both the parents, whereas maternity is only reflected, mother! Paternity is rightly fatherhood as a father is the main key to parenting as he is the divine creator of the whole universe. So, a father is a crucial part of parenting.

Fatherhood is a topic where still researchers are exploring and bringing new notions behind an ideal father-daughter relationship. The contemporary fathers create a benchmark for fathering and prove that fathering or paternity is specifically associated with the father and not the mother.

Breaking the Taboo:

A father in this contemporary society with all those societal norms and ethics breaks all those rules and nurture their daughters without any gender discrimination. The father nurturing was often misinterpreted as a father is a male and a daughter is a female. But this taboo is broken as fathers are the best companions of daughters in their early teenage life where a daughter goes through several body changes in which father becomes a guide, friend, motivator, therapist where she can share her psychological needs and boost her self-confidence by talking and sharing her thoughts with the first man in, her life.

“A good father is one of the most unsung, unpraised, unnoticed and yet, one of the most valuable assets in our society”

– Billy Graham

Is love depleting from the world of humans?

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“Love will find a way through paths, where wolves fear to pray”, as beautifully quoted by Lord Byron. Indeed “Love”, is one of the purest elements in the whole universe, which makes our world more beautiful.

Why do we love? Is it important to love others? Should we love ourselves? There are endless unexplored questions that make us think about it. For a poet, love is like seeing those dazzling stars at night, for a painter, love is beauty gifted by nature, for a philosopher it is something beyond existence. But one common thought which provokes in every human is that love makes us unite, it gives us harmony and a sense of comfort towards each other.

Love is illusioned in our minds, in our hearts, but yet it is fading somewhere from the world of humans.  Somewhere, we humans have forgotten how to love each other.

 We are living in a generation where humans are rebellious and have detached from the emotional state of being. In the Contemporary world, people have forgotten about love and its profoundness. Whether it is self-love, to love others, Humans are having a neglecting behavior when it comes to love and gratitude.

This era is an era of remorse! An era where we are afraid of each other. Humans are toxic to each other. Where people don’t care for each other.

Gone are the days when the world was a beautiful place with all the precious jewels of mother nature. Now our world is a place filled with hatred, jealousy, evilness towards each other. Humans are in a motive to devastate each other for their desires and to let down other humans.

The love is no more the love that was there in the 18th century when Romeo loved Juliet had an eternal for each other. This was the time when love was the most prominent role for all humans to perform. Humans are the most threatening creature on our earth which is not only depleting love but also depleting humankind.

Love is no more than the love we had!

We have lost all our ethics and norms and living a misleading life. Often, we are living a life that has become a misfortune. We are living beings with shallow hearts. We have created a world where faith and trust no longer exist, and if it all is found we are burdened with societal pressure that we fall apart from our convictions.

Love is considered feeble, rather is one of the most vigorous things in the universe.

But as we say there is always hope for all. Love never dies and so we are alive till love exists. It all depends upon us and our convictions that how we perceive it.

In the end, to conclude we can say that why to deplete such a beautiful thing from the world. Let’s make a world more alluring than it is. Let’s make the world a paradise by loving and caring for each other.

How Translation Studies is gaining its recognition in the field of Literature

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“The secrecy behind that pacifism among language is due to the beautiful alteration of those alphabets which allowed themselves to dwell into those anonymous letters and accepted those outlandish cultures!”

Yes, definitely!  It’s the mere alphabets that give consent to the translator who translates them into a different language and give them a new beginning as something which often becomes phenomenal.

It’s always not prominent that the one who thinks great and writes great texts and even the audience who extols it, will be the legendry texts of all time. Certain times, we as a reader forget that those minute things which make a text more fabricated are due to those editors, translators who make a text complete.

Profoundly the question which hikes up is: Do these translators get any recognition for their work? Do they have any popularity like the writers or they are just considered a person who steals a writer’s copyright?

If we talk why translating is a bad job? we will get a plethora of reasons behind not being a translator. But taking the example from the fictional world of literature, translating is somewhat recognized. One of the outs of context but yet one of my favorites is the translated book – After Dark by Haruki Murakami. One of the best Japanese books translated into English which does not make it less beautiful than the original one.

It’s just not only one translated text, but many texts like this play a major role that tackles the problems in language barriers.

Translation and Language in the world of Literature:

Merely when we focus on the job of translation:

            “A translator is an artist who paints those structure, language, and sentence in such a form that it decodes the message to the other sectors of society for whom language built a bridge”.

The notion of translation was encrypted by different critics and poets according to their ages, to which they belonged too. As looking into the 16th century, during the flourishing dazzling age of romanticism, where many poetries were paraphrased and translated. Translation of classics was the only matter of importance in the 18th century. But as in the 1970s, the main focus was on innovation and novelty.

The concept and theories applied in the romantic age were somewhat experimentative, as theories of translations given by John Dryden, Pope, and then by Alexander Fraser Tytler was so much popular in the literary world.

The main hitch that occurred in the field of translation was when it was surrounded by allegations of plagiarism and many writers made certain rules and boundaries or rather principles upon the translations. Translation theories were largely formed around Bible translations in the sixteenth century. Etienne Dolet is credited with the first formulation of a theory of translations.

Certain critics like Dryden, – one of the earliest English translation theorists, classifies translation into three types:

 1. Metaphrase – word for word, line for line rendering,

 2. Paraphrase – wherein translating sense is given more importance

 3. Imitation –   were sense matters in translation.

E.g.: Horace’s Ars Poetica tars by Ben Jonson – metaphrase

Virgil’s Aeneid tars by Waller – paraphrase

Pindar’s two odes by Abraham Cowley – imitation

In 1789, George Campbell suggests three criteria for good translation:

  1. There should be just a representation of the original.
  2. The spirit and manner of the original should be conveyed through consistency with the language of the translation.
  3. The translation should have the quality of original performance to appear natural and easy.

In 1790 Alexander Taylor in The Principles of Translation set up three different principles

  1. The translation should give a complete transcript of the idea of the original work
  2. The style and manner of writing should be of the same character as that of the original.
  3. The translation should have all the cases of the original composition.

Translation maintains the authenticity:

The translation is the right job to do and it maintains the authenticity of the author and it works and keeps the work original.

 As Aristotle rightly said that imitation is not a mere, it’s a photostat copy of life or the world, but it is a recreated ideal copy of the world. Similarly, a translation is also crafted in such a way that it does not take the cultural rights of the original work.

  Yes, as a reader we cannot deny the fact that a translator copies the whole idea of the author and displays the work, but one should always remember that translation is not an easy task as it needs huge determination to learn the mindset, structure, and form of the writer’s mind and have to work accordingly so that the readers don’t repulse upon the translator and it should not hurt the sentiments of the readers of the authors. As translation according to me breaks the bridge created by the prejudicated norms in favor of language.

Literature and Translation are counterparts of each other:

As we know a language has the power to bring war, riots, and bloodshed among the 2 communities, whereas literature is binding the difference and helping to bring harmony among the language in such a way that the translation will help them to cover the gap. By taking the foreseen principles of these writers a translation can portray us in a better way and be fruitful to our literature.

 “The best form of mourning a writer is to read their body of work” — and include the act of translation.

 As rightly said by, Fahmida Riaz that what my interpretation is about the translator is the one who goes through the soul of the author reads it, interprets it, notions all those ideas according to the writer, and then translates it.

“Translation is mere not a copy, rather a piece of art which beautifully presents the bio of the author, the story and the translator”!

Flower of Evil – A Perfect Thriller Drama to watch right now!

One of the most recent areas in the field of entertainment which almost worlds widely popular is South Korean dramas which are gaining huge recognition by providing amazing plot structure, captivating cinematography, and unique themes which are mind blending and are creating crazy fandoms among the 33% of the population from the whole world.

The Fandom over Dramas has been seen since some recent years where people are keenly interested in Korean culture and their beautiful language which keeps them intriguing to know their culture in depth.

The specialty of k – dramas is that it can be watched by any age category of people and is not restricted to any particular language. Though Language is a barrier, language is the reason why people are widely connected and making an emotional bond with these dramas which makes them feel swoon-worthy!

“Flower of Evil”  – A Crime thriller  Drama which is Cathartic too!

 In general, it is observed that Thriller Genres are often very intense and have a serious environment in their background. But taking this particular drama, Flower of evil has broken the wall of the thriller genre and added the essence of Melodrama in it. The perfect blend of Emotions, thrill, suspense, elements of relationships, love story and nostalgia, and a little action make this drama a perfect 10/10 to watch.

As we can see that the ratings are 5.0 with lots of positive feedback, as this drama has certainly gotten a  place in the heart of many drama lovers.

Amazing Plot structure:

Many times we see that though the storyline is fascinating the plot structure spoils the whole sequence of the story and makes the whole drama boring. Although this is not in the case of Flower of Evil, as the plot structure is incredible due to the excellent chemistry between Baek Hee Sung ( performed by Lee Joon Gi ) and Cha Ji won ( performed by Moon Chae Won ).

The plot becomes more interesting as it contains lots of twists and turns and make the viewers in a state of awe as every minute of the plot is important to watch or else one can miss the important key of the story.

Brief Synopsis of the Drama:  

The storyline is about a man who has an anti-social disorder and changes his identity and lived as  Mr. Baek Hee Sung who is the Husband of Ms. Cha Ji Won who is an Intelligent Detective. This lovely couple lived a beautiful life until Ms. Cha started to doubt his husband as the murder suspect of the sudden serial killings around their area.

Mr. Baek was a perfect father and Husband but lived a fake life by hiding his cruel past in which he lost his father ( Do Min – Seok) because of his father, Mr. Do was falsely known as the son of a serial killer.

But due to her wife, Ms. Cha, who cherished love in his life and made him a different person. She even investigated the 20-year-old case and brought justice to his husband by making him innocent in the case.

Flashback and Glimpse of Nostalgia  – A  Key Element

This drama always shows a series of Flashbacks at the beginning of every episode of the love story and the past life of the couple which is very touching. These Flashbacks make the audience aware of the background of the character development.

The characters are often living with the feeling of nostalgia as for some the nostalgia is sweet whereas for some it’s their dark past that is unforgettable.

These flashbacks also raise many queries in the minds of the audience who is the real killer? as all the characters are suspicious in their behavior which makes the audience blown out when they found out the real murderer!

Flower of Evil – An Alluring  Title

When the scriptwriter ( Yoo Jung Hee ) of this Drama was interviewed she mentioned the unique quality of the title which is mesmerizing and also the key center of the whole drama.

“Flower of Evil”, has been taken from Charles Baudelaire’s  “Book of poetry” called – “Les Fleurs du mal” ( The Flowers of Evil in English ). His poems were about the chaos and anxiety that arises when societal values, which should be clear-cut and black-and-white, become ambiguous and borderline.

Both couples are a symbol of the Flower of evil, as Baek Hee Sung is a character which cannot be considered good or evil rather he is like a flower of evil which is neither black nor red it is colorless, like the personality which the protagonist had.

Baek Hee Sung changed his personality from Do Hyun Soo to escape from the tragedy that happened to him in his past and to save her sister ( Do Hae Soo) who was the real culprit of the murder which happened 20 years ago in his life. Mr. Do had an Anti-social disorder due to which he didn’t feel any emotions, but due to her wife, he finally felt every emotion as he was accepted by her wife the way he was.

On the other hand, Ms. Cha Ji won is also considered as the Flower of Evil as she overcomes all the barriers which she had between herself and her husband and loved him eternally, transparently without judging his past life.

Symbol of the Metal shop – “Where the Rising Star stays”

The story behind the title of the  Metal shop is moving for the audience when they watch this drama. The Metal Shop was the place where Mr. Baek was the Metal crafter and named his shop “Where the Rising Star stays” as the title denotes the story of Greek and Roman mythology, where there was a god of a blacksmith named Hephaestus who had a terrible anger issue, he had a wife whom he cherished very much and was named “Venus” in English and was known as “Morning star” which was nicknamed as “Rising star”  which was relatable to the situation of Mr. Baek who cherished her wife very much.

Similar to Hephaestus, Mr. Baek had a personality that was not liked by anyone and that was the reason for him being anxious towards the judgmental society.

This drama kept the audience in a sense of emotional attachment as many incidents were sentimental. The ending is quite satisfying as all the characters were justified according to their will and their dreams.

To find your real  self: Major Element of the drama

This drama also provides a moral message of finding your true self which sometimes hides due to certain circumstances created by life and in the end, the person goes back to their real self and wins all the obstacles made in my life.

Mr. Baek is one of them who proved that he was not a psychopath with fewer emotions rather he had the grief of not meeting her mother and hiding her sister’s murder and running from his real self.

This drama is a perfect bunch of all emotions and makes the story worth watching by the drama freaks!

“When Everyone else was becoming a demon, Only Hyun – so remained a Human Being”

– The Flower of Evil, Drama.

The advent of Fashion trends in pandemic life

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“Your prolific life flares from the fashion you do, have, and live”. Indeed, fashion is one of the most prominent elements for millennials. The transformation has been one of the processes through which we all humans have gone through since the establishment.

                          Profoundly, pandemic life has changed everything in this course of life, the lifestyle, food we eat, and the clothes we all wear!

 Clothes are evident, and the fashion which we follow affects us posthumously. The fashion of 2021 is back on track with the easy peasy, breezy, comfy life. People are less bothered by societal norms and the trendy life rather than more into their comfort zone.

        Fashion affects human life more as it affects psychologically. As the season occurs, festive emerged, our taste of fashions fluctuates. Humans are uncertain and so their fashion too!

   The advent of fashion portrays us the new normal which we live in, work from home, chilling at home, fam – jam and so on.

Let’s talk about the altering in the fashion world, The mask, a protector weapon in today’s life. though it’s a new rule for all people but rather the rule has converted into a new trend. Women especially have an area of interest in the fashion world and this is how the fashion world aims at women’s society! whether it’s lipstick, shoes, classy dresses, or maybe a cute hat all is on the side of women.

      Women exist, so fashion exists! It’s humor but a reality that we have relied more on masks than other things. Our priorities lie to wear masks. Wearing a mask on any sort of dress makes them trendy. Certain trends of lipsticks have been distorted due to the arrival of the pandemic but it’s vague if we still use lipsticks on masks.

     Still, there is always a way to the dazzling notions in the minds of these crafted minds of the industry. Invisible masks, which are safe yet the best way to make a woman feel more glamourous and enthralling.

It has 2 faces for a matter of any sort of matter. Even fashion has its 2 sides, the pros and cons of masks showcase us how even masks filter up our inabilities to use them. Certain situations like eating, drink made this life more miserable for humans.

       Living with despair and abashed thoughts in the new life of pandemic where hope is the only element present in the world. Fashion made our lives more fruitful to have conventions on ourselves. Today’s fashion is more about having faith in oneself and being confident of what we wear in our life to enjoy our life with our comfort zone. How one can be more indigently glamorous in their way, living aftermath with a bright side with all those flickering optimism and yet not so according to the word.

 Today’s fashion is about you, not about them!

It’s a simple quote, yet a transparent difference one can look into it with their point.

How Indian Education System is getting infected due to Appraisal of Online Classes

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All our lives have been paused and shattered due to the arrival of the Covid 19 Virus which has devasted humans Globally and created tough times for every Human being who is striving to survive from this fatal disease.

It is no surprise how this deadly virus has become horrible nightwear for everyone and it provided a gift of Loss in every section of society. Globally it had provided huge losses in all types of professional fields. In these challenging times, one of the major sectors had been at a sea since a massive breakdown in the education sector due to the online classes and pandemic life.

Indian Students and unfavorable effects of Covid 19 on Education System :

 It is majorly remarked that 1.2 billion children in 186 countries have been affected by school closures due to the epidemic of the Covid Virus. There is no doubt that E-Learning platforms have gained wide recognition in such time and the importance of technology in the world of humans has portrayed that human needs Technology to survive in such tough times.

As per in the field of Education sector it is noticed that India has around 320 Million learners who had shifted to E-Learning since the nation closure. Living in the era where E-Learning has become a prominent part of every student’s life, has also shown how difficult it has become for both students and teachers in India.

Since India is still a developing country, there are several drawbacks that Indians are facing in this Contemporary Epidemic. The situation of the education system is worse than the deadly disease which is slaughtering human communities.

India being the world’s 2nd largest school system, after China, has certain factors which are weakening the academic life of students, among these factors, there are several factors:  

  1. Lack of  Sufficient Network Ability: As looking into the current situation, Internet consumption has been a major necessary element in a pandemic life. Everyone coming from all sorts of backgrounds and fields needs network connectivity for their respective purpose to fulfil.

The youngsters significantly need network broadband for their daily online classes and as a student network has become a mandatory part to get educated in the present condition. But sadly the scenario of Rural Indian households is much worsening as we get to observe that fewer than 15%, have Internet access ( as opposed to 42% of Urban Indian households).

  • Gender Barrier is still a Hindrance: This might be an unreal fact to process for many people, but rural Indian household is still not developed in gender equality and educating there children especially when it comes to the girl child. 8.5% of Females use the Internet in Rural India and suffer from the obstacle of getting education because either due to unavailability of network or due to prioritizing male child teachings. Hence, there has been more number of dropouts of children from the online education system.
  • Online System – A major obstacle for the older generations :

In our education system, not only students are suffering from the inconvenience set by the online classes, but it is also the teacher community that is in a state of perplexing when it comes to the usage of technology.

There are times when technology made our elder generations uncomfortable because it is something new for them to learn. In this instance, many teachers leave their jobs due to the uncomfortable environment set by the online classes.

So we can say that online classes are somewhere a curse for everyone in the education system.

Future Generation striving with the adversity:   

Though the times are tough for everyone, as a human we should have the enduring capacity to work on our weakness.

Prominently, the youngsters, who would be the future minds must keep this as a note that, as millennial generations, we have many opportunities to turn the curse into a blessing and provide inspiration for many people globally.

As students, we can create an environment a comfortable zone for the teachers and our elders by making them aware of technology, and that we will be some minute steps which can make our country a developed country and not developing.

Fiction – A defense Mechanisms for the Bibliophiles

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 Fiction is an illusion of the real world and the stories depict us as the reflection of the society, where the characters narrate somewhere in the minds of the readers and make them feel as if it’s their own story portrayed.

As an ardent bibliophile, I get fantasized reading those fictional books which have those themes of love, trust, rebounding, etc. certain books in popular fiction namely as such, Funny Boy, The Handmaid’s Tale, have these feministic approaches applied in it.

Profoundly, fiction and the fictional characters showcase in the books is the harsh reality of society which is dwelled up in sugary coated form and presented to the readers.

     Whether it is taking the example of the well-known melancholic romantic classic novel: “The Wuthering Heights” where the story doesn’t only show us a typical class distinction love story but also gives us the real facts about the medieval 18th century of the Victorian age.

    Factually the 18th-century novel is still loved by the readers and left an imprint of so-called the situation of women at that time.

                 Any fiction is a source of information of age and transfers the knowledge to the global readers of all generations. Decade by decade those stories remain like a classic grandma’s tale whoever reads it. Those fictional characters emotionally get connected with the readers and give them a sense of realization of their situation.

              The depth of fictional stories is such that it gets attached to the readers and makes them feel that they are among them. The power of Arjie (in THE FUNNY BOY) made the readers feel that how a 12yr old Gay boy feels, how he was perplexed and abashed within his own identity and how Arjie made his readers feel his pain. Many readers like Arjie who battle with their identity crisis every day, got a realization that one must be never ashamed of themselves, rather one should be proud of who one is and their originality is the best and purest unique thing which makes them beautiful in there own way.

The youngsters in general, who live a non-plussed life, often prefer to live in these fictional worlds and engross themselves in these stories like a dreamer who wanders on an unknown island without any purpose but finds a destination end.

           The readers live the story when they read those stories, the philanthropic deeds of the characters make a reader see the real world. Fictional stories have always been the best media through which writers sends this message to their readers that, the world is still a beautiful place to live and one must never lose hope like Harry Potter who had a miserable childhood but when he went to the school of Hogwarts, his life became beautiful and reason to live.

       The inevitable vague ideas and situations are also portrayed beautifully. Fiction is like an ocean which is vast as such precious and the characters are the mermaid which is still a mystery and the stories are like pearls that are present somewhere but lost in the ocean.

     Metaphor is that the relevancy of the fictional books is sometimes not conveyed to the outer world and misunderstood by many of the readers, but still, the beauty lies within the oceanic, fictional book.

Flowers- A Perfect Gift for Everyone!

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“The glow of happiness and glee transpires within ourselves when a sparkling smile appears on the face of our loved ones.” 

A little endeavor we make for our beloved will be memorable for them. We are all riddled when it comes to making someone happy with our efforts and we spent numerous hours thinking, what would be the perfect incentive. So how to overcome the dilemma?

Gifts are one of the simplest things to make your beloved reach cloud nine. But with what? People often become bewildered when the topic comes to choose something which would be appealing and at the same time euphoric. So, the solution is concealed in our mother nature. Our nature provides us one of the most alluring gifts and that is flowers.

 “Flowers” – Yes, one of the simplest incentives to express our feelings and gratitude towards someone. Flowers are pure, delicate, flawless and it is the best present given by our mother nature.

      So, nature gives us the solution to all our dilemmas of thoughts. Flowers and bouquets are a fitting choice to be given everywhere and in every situation. To express your love, to apologize to someone, to manifest appreciation, to show gratitude, to congratulate someone, and of course last but not least, to gift someone as a token of love. Simple yet the most magnificent way and the kindliness act to show your love to someone.

Some relevant and interesting facts one should know why gifting flowers or bouquets would be delightful are as follows:

  1.  They represent your emotional bonding with the person: One can portray their emotional bonding to their beloved with flowers.

A painless act yet an effective way to get emotionally connected with your close ones. The receiver’s emotional level will extend with your small act of love. Flowers represent trust and love for the person. The bonding with your beloved enhances with the small efforts done by you.

  1. Flowers goes in all occasions: Flowers are universal, it is accepted at all occasions. Flowers can be offered at any situation, whether it is a blithe moment like birthdays, anniversaries or in a quandary situation like proposing someone special person in your life or to show condolences to a dead person, it is accepted everywhere.
  1. Flowers are a source of happiness:  Flowers represent love, care, joy, trust, respect, zeal, mirth, etc. Flowers have some elements of fascination. It brings a smile to a person’s face. Also, they are a sign of tranquillity. A person’s mood is highly enlightened if he/she has been given a flower.

“String of happiness is connected with each petal of a flower”.

4.Resemblance of divinity: Flowers help us to connect with the almighty. Offering flowers to the lord is a ritual in almost every religion.

 Every religion has its significance of offering flowers to its deity. Flowers connect our soul to our deity. We feel blissful in every aspect when we show our devotion through flowers.

  1. Flowers provide a calmness to the person: Flowers not only provide calmness but also make a person stress-free when he/she receives a flower.
  1. There are various flowers with various characteristic’s with various fragrances, but each one of the flowers is unique in their way, the aura of each flower makes magical. Flowers are mystical.

6. Are you regretting your rude behavior? Go give a flower: we are humans and doing mistakes is an inborn nature inscribed in all of us.

 But sometimes, we hurt someone’s sentiments which makes us feel vulnerable. So how to rectify? Happiness is the end of all solutions and flowers are the most astonishing thing on this planet.

 Flowers are the best option to apologize to the people with whom you have been intrusive and can balance your regret by showing your love for them, a simple flower will keep all the grudges away from your life.

7. A flower a day, keeps your romantic life full of enthusiasm: These vigorous flowers make a romantic life more jovial and contended if you give your partner a flower.

Gifting your romantic partner a flower a day will not only make your relationship strong but will bring positivity among the partners. Flowers bring positivity to every relation. Apart from romantic relations, a flower brings positivity in all types of relations.

8. A flower fixes every situation: we are uncertain in certain situations. Our perplexed thoughts withdraw our positivity and energy and rather we feel low. But flowers fix everything, it is like a tier in the cycle of our life and takes our life further with the happy moments.

Flowers speak more than us and no matter what the situation is, what the person is, it glorifies all the relation with a simple token of love. Sometimes being polite and calm can express all you want to say a person and a flower will help you to make your life brightened with its delicate petals. Want some flowers to convey a message?  Sing See Soon has a wide variety of flowers available for delivery in Singapore. Check them out today!

  So, what are you waiting for? Go get a flower and bring a smile to the face of your loved ones.

Music – Unarticulated yet a Beautiful Language

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Every living creature living in this universe is divided into different fragments of communities and societies. These societies are present in different countries and parts where we are all unique by the language and culture which we follow which represents our originality.

One thing which we all are united with each other is “Music”. It is one simple form of Art that makes all of us as one human being Community. The beautiful thing about Music is that it doesn’t need any language to be understood neither one tries to understand, rather music is a language of the heart. It is a feeling that everyone connects when they hear music.

Music in Diversity

A language, country, and Culture have always made a bridge among people and created consequences and war between them, but the only thing which unities all humans and breaks these boundaries are the presence of Music.

 In Today’s era, we are all Living in Multicultural communities where we have different types of music tastes and our preferences are unique just like us,  We have people around us who listen to different types of music which don’t match with ours, yet we are all united by music.

Music always creates a sense of belongingness among each other, even though we are unaware of each other’s religion, language and country but through music, it keeps us closer to each other.

We all have some kind of music that connects to our hearts and feelings, we get more connected because the magic a musician uses connects with our own life.

Music is a medium through which our soul remains blissful and we feel stressed from our bustling lives.

For decades, Music is one of those art forms which have revolutionized in many versions but have always gained popularity due to the sense of connectedness between the audiences and the Musicians.

Dated back then, when people used to watch operas which were one of the common elite forms of entertainments, which not only portrayed music but traveled through many stories through the tune of every string played through the music Instruments.

Music took a major role in plays and dramas, which is still Engraved in our magnificent history. It has also contributed a massive hand in legends of  Literature. There were many prominent writers like Jane Austen and Pablo Neruda who claimed music as one of the key factors of human harmony.

Music always renovates as the decades passed by, presently music comes under the Category of Pop Music or Pop culture where many bands are popularizing music by making people aware of how music is important and how it plays a vital role to connect and how even in today’s generation music is helping society to know about the moral attitudes which we all need as human beings.

There are several forms of Music, taking one of the examples is K Pop Music which is gaining worldwide recognition with a high amount of social awareness. We can never forget some great bands like “The Beatles”, who are still considered one of the best Classical bands to date.

“BTS“, one of the famously known Boy Bands who are on the top-notch with the extraordinary songs and contribution they are providing to the music industry. There is a fandom for BTS all over the world that shows us that people don’t need any language to get connect rather it’s a heart-to-heart language to understand and feel the music.

Music was never meant to be always vocal, sometimes just a tune is all you need to connect, as rightly some artists like Mozart, Chopin’s explained us through their beautiful music.

Music Is a language that not only connects with a mind and body but also with a soul. No matter whatever the occasion is we humans were bound with music and music has different versions for different situations. The world of Music accepts a very living being that has a soul to connect with.

“We all just need a music to connect, rest the music will ultimately unite us with its alluring tune which strings with our heart forever”.

Reading Culture, An Essential culture for all the Contemporary Parents: In the Novel – “The Reading Promise”

“Parenting” is one of the substantial topics of research study since society brought awareness towards child development and the impact of family structure on a child’s upbringing. The societal impact and the norms, culture, ethics of the sector to which the child belongs often make the personality of a child accordingly.

The contemporary parents in particular have a keen interest to not be a parent but rather a friend to their child. Reading culture is such a medium through which parent-child get closer to each other.

“The Reading Promise: 3,218 Nights Reading with My Father”, is a novel whose title explains very precisely what type of book it is. The Book Portrays the story of a Single divorced father and her daughter who had a beautiful father-daughter relationship cause of Reading culture.

Some Promises are worth be kept Forever, Like – “ A Reading Promise”.

“We called it “The Reading Streak”, but it was more of a promise. A promise to each other, a promise to ourselves. A promise to be there and never give up. It was a promise of hope in hopeless times. It was a promise of comfort when things got uncomfortable. And we kept our promise to each other.“

(Page no: 270, The Reading Promise)

This is a novel that looks more like a daily task performed by every American parent to read books to their children. But this book is more than that, this book is more about a single divorced father who is a librarian in an elementary school and loves to read the book to children which he also does with her younger daughter Alice/Lovie. The book focuses on the father-daughter relationship and their affectionate bond and their journey of how they keep a reading promise which never broke.

Well eventually after some years of life, the promise fades away as time passed and Jim(father) stopped reading books to her daughter (Alice). Jim was a single father who got divorced and living and raising 2 daughters was not an easy task where the societal impact affects a lot on a divorced man. Despite all the barriers he raised 2 daughters beautifully and with good moral values which made them successful in their later years of life.

Jim had a strong bond with Alice as she was young and liked to spend more time with her father. Jim gave a lot of care, attention, and nurturing to Alice. They were more like friends, and as friends, she used to share all her secrets and problems with her father during the night bedtime stories, which was also called “The Streak’s” in which Jim used to read Different lists of novels for 3,218 nights.

Jim –  As a  Positive Father

We can see that Alice and Jim had a very positive father-daughter relationship and in context, to single divorcee fathers it is often noticed that children tend to stay with their mothers rather than fathers.

But the Parenting/fathering of Jim was such that her daughters chose to stay with their father as mother left them for another man. Usually, in a patriarchal context in a divorcee scenario, it is the father who gives divorce, but here the novel portrays the scenario in a different context to portray the importance of a father in a daughter’s life.

Jim traveled with Alice to a lot of places, whether it is mountains, valleys, deep oceans through the imaginary stories they traveled together. They both had an understanding of each other.

Jim grew and lived Alice’s journey as she grew eventually, from the day she is born till the day she is grown into a woman. Being a girl, she had gone through many stages of her life in which adolescence was the most prominent one. It is that stage when most of the girls hide their emotions and personal life with their parents. Due to reading streak, this was not present in Alice behavior, she used to share each and everything of her life; whether it is her low grades in academics, or a fight with a friend, or going on a date with her boyfriend, she used to share each fragment of her life.  

She was never embarrassed in front of her father in any way, this is the major factor that makes Jim a contemporary father where the ideal father deals with all the contemporary issues going on in their children’s life. Jim as a supportive father made her a woman with a strong emotional and mental personality, she was fearless because she had a very positive father in her life. When Alice was in her adolescent stage many things were awkward due to the body changes but Jim normalized that taboo and made her understand that it is all that we are humans.

Usually, fathers face a lot of problems when it comes to raising a girl child because daughters are physically different gender-wise, and the psyche and emotional stability of man and woman differ in many contexts. Despite all these Jim as a father broke all these cultural conflicts and gave Alice a better life without any bad influences and any restrictions in, her life. Jim and Alice celebrated each day with new happiness and new Hope. When they completed 100 nights of reading, they celebrated by eating a pancake in a restaurant.

Although this celebration was not a big event for anyone, they achieved what they wanted to Father’s daughter completed a promise for 100 nights without any change in plans and this should they determination towards each other, they celebrated their promise which they have made with each other.

“My father spent 38 yrs. as an elementary school librarian, and I can say almost without bias that he was the Best around. His students loved him because he was good at what he did – from reading to discipline, to create a general mood of mutual respect, my father was an expert at getting children to love their time in the library.

He was an absolute pleasure to watch almost any given day. On certain days, though, it bordered on cruel and unusual punishment.”

(Page no: 90, Chapter 10, The Reading Promise).

Alice mentioned in the above quote about the qualities which Jim had as a person, she explained that his father was not only an ideal father but an ideal teacher too. Since he was just an Elementary school librarian, he didn’t get much recognition in society but among children he was likable. He had all those qualities which a teacher should have.

Children liked him more because of his soft nature and the humorous way he used to read to the children. When Alice was young, she used to spend time with Jim in his library and used to sleep in the backside of the last benches in the classroom and sometimes used to listen to Jim reading to other kids.

Jim was the reason for Alice to be an Ardent Reader. Jim loved reading books to children, but when he retired and got old then Alice was grown up and looking for a suitable job, that was the time when their streaks go ended.

Jim after retiring used to read books to senior citizens at some old age homes, and sometimes he used to spend time with children who are living in hospitals and used to read books before their surgery. Cause somewhere or the other he still missed his passion of reading books to children, because it was not a hobby but more of a passion that made him feel alive. Reading is the link with Alice’s childhood connection which makes the heart feel more alive every day.

In the end, the book is the best example for every parent to know about parenting is that; “Be a friend to your kid and ultimately you will be a good parent.”