Author Akilan wallpaper /அகிலன் – கணினி திரைச்சித்திரம்

history is actually not so boring :)

At school i always had better things to do in my histrory class ,like

gossiping with friends,

fighting with not so friendly class mates,

sketching in my note book,

seriously watching all the interesting things happening around our school from the window ( i always had a window seat ! lucky me )

for history lessons were so boring, i used to seriously wonder why did the schools taught so many unwanted things? like physics, maths, history ( all most all the subjects, seemed so useless … language was at least tolerable , for you get to read stories.)

especially History i despised most, all credit goes to the dates , that one had to remember,

and the names of the dynasty’s and kings , ( some kings shared the same name ,  making a student’s life miserable)

i felt like murdering some kings , for they had done nothing other than planting trees and digging wells,

i wondered how a king with all his majestic attire and a sword would have dug a well? seemed pretty awkward to me then,

our history teacher at school was not helpful either, she was so particular about the years and places had taken place, that i almost had a tough time before all my history exams,

some of my friends had this capacity to write pages and pages of answers the talent i never grasped, that would have helped , for i think the teacher tends to fall asleep halfway through  your papers and you end up getting more grades.

so in my school days i decided once for all that i would never ever turn to the subject of history.

but that all changed once i joined high school, during my annual holidays  i joined the USIS and BC libraries, i was introduced to a new world of books that were so different from my text books!

these books were quiet simple, yet had real good information on manifold subjects such as,  science,literature,technology,humanity,history,philosophy and so on…

i also had all the time to ponder over our publication works and my grand dad helped me select some good books on various subjects in Tamil .

so i was all set for a holiday with lots of good stuff to read.

i was over whelmed by the new things i learnt through those wonderful books,

i comprehended  with out chemistry we couldn’t use tooth paste, medicines… and physics helps you understand nature better,

maths helped you manage money, and to calculate stuffs that would make life easier

while language was a door to literature and art , that were nothing but life

though literature was my favorite subject, with out even knowing i was involved with history, Darwin’s theory on evolution, ice age, Indus valley civilization ,  Aryan -Dravidian issues, human communication, empires of India, foreign invasions, freedom movement,revolutions, world history…mesmerized me.

i understood the splendor of our past that i failed to grasp before, and then it dawned on me that all the subjects were interlinked and it was essential to understand these subjects

history was no more boring, it turned out to be rather an interesting subject, that was like time travelling backwards

at times some heroes of the past were more inspiring than a famous

fictional super hero – i  realized that emperors did more than planting trees and digging well,

while some battles of the history, were more interesting than an action movie.

so after all history isn’t so boring 🙂

why can’t i enjoy eBook like a hard copy?

Okay, its kinda weird, i don’t know how many of you feel like me,

reading ebook, tried but seems that’s not my cuppa ‘chai’

for a person like me who is crazy about books, and always love to read anytime, any where,

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

i really don’t feel comfortable reading a whole book from laptop, iPad, eBook reader,cellphone etc

its an odd feeling, i enjoy reading in the old fashioned way, rather than hooked to an electronic device,

main issue is, the smell, any true book worm would agree with me, the smell of a book (new or old) can never be missed,

next comes the pleasure of page flipping, how can anyone miss the satisfaction of turning the pages?

nothing can match the rustle and the  paper’s texture brushing our fingers while flipping pages 🙂 not even the virtual page flipping effects helps me.

most important thing i can’t compromise is choosing,browsing and buying books from book shops – love to shop books. I love the experince of choosing a book by its cover, (often by its back cover 🙂

and convincing myself whether to buy a paper back or a library edition,

to me when i hold a book and read it , i completely surrender myself to it, its like a rhythmic act,

there is nothing else apart from me and the book while i read it.

Nothing makes me happier than a good book on a rainy day with a cup of coffee 🙂

anyways i don’t have anything against e books 🙂 its just my personal choice.

i don’t think i can ever enjoy a complete book in any other form other than a real book.

 

 

 

great stuffs to read from world classics…

Love reading? classics are the best here are some for beginers…

Pride and Prejudice- Novel – by Jane Austen this is perhaps the best -loved work of jane austen’s (1775-1817) small but popular output. It contans her greatest satiric characters,Mr.Collins and Lady Catherine, and is easily the most readable by anyone making their first venture into early nineteenth -century English literature.

Almayer’s Folly by Joseph Conrad – The author’s full name was Teodor Josef Konrad Korzeniowski, and he was born in the Ukraine in 1857, after an eventful life at sea he was naturalized as a British subject in 1884, the same year that he gained his master’s certificate.Ten years later he left the sea and devoted the rest of his life to literature.”Almayer’s Folly” is an excellent example of the fluency with which conrad was able to write English.It is also a stirringly effective story of Borneo and the union of East and West.

Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte  Many feel Emily Bronte’s single novel excels any of her sister’s books in raging splendour and sombre passion, Emily the second of the Bronte sisters, is ultimately renowned as a poet rather than a novelist. Perhaps it is the same poetic genius that produced such fine lyrics as “Remembrance” and “Last Lines” that shines at times through her prose with such a splendid spark.

Old Saint Paul’s by Hattison Ainsworth This is a novel with a building as a hero.The cathedral is the really dominant character of “Old saint paul’s” .Always the action leads back to it, and it certainly towers above all the human peronages of the story.

Lorna Doone – by R.D.Blackmore This is the author’s only novel which has survived the passing of time.It was published in 1869 and still brings its annual trail of pilgrims to Exmoor and the “Lorna Doone” country.

Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte, The author Charlotte (1816-1855) the eldest of the three Bronte sisters,wrote only three novels, of which “Jane Eyre” the first (1847) is her most popular work.The Book’s characterization is so detailed and so burning.

Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe This is the first “documentary” novel in so far as it was the first work of fiction based on reality.Alexander Selkirk, a scottish shoemaker, was marooned by captain Dampier on the island of Juan Fernandez, where he remained for five years.In 1719 Defoe printed his novel, in which he had taken the somewhat pedestrian account of Selkirk of his solitude and transformed it into an immediately successful and permanent work of art.

David Copperfield by Charles Dickens This is the best known and by its author , best -liked novel, appeared originally in 1849-1850. It contains a great deal of autobiographical material, but all of it has been subtly transmuted into the basic framework of fiction. A simple, yet powerful work.

The Borthers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoevsky  is not only one of the greatest novels ever written.It is also an attempt to survey the entire life of civilized man in relation to his main problems- religion,love,money,the future of society, etc. This enthralling story of passion and crime clearly depicts the amazing range and grandeur of Dostoevsky’s genius.

Tess of the D’urbervilles A Pure Woman by Thomas Hardy  The tragic epic of Tess Durbeyfield is the tale of a “well meaning” man’s misguided cruelty to the woman he believed he loved. Yet it is far more than that; for in the story of adorable Tess the milkmaid, with her pure,warm heart and her eager human impulses, we discern, with growing horror, the bitter thread of destiny weaving and tightening as time passes, until at last it closes round her young throat on the scaffold. Hardy has wrought a thing of wonder and beauty from this story of ignorance,seduction,heartache and violence with great ability.

The Mill On The Floss by George Eliot  Mary Ann Cross alias George Eliot’s sterling fiction, revealing a profound sense of pathos and humour, as well as a conviction of the purifying effect of suffering upon the human soul.

The Three Musketeers  by Alexandre Dumas is a marvelous journey into history and imagination. Dumas never hesitated to bend history,the result was so entertaining that no one can complain.

Daddy-Long-Legs by Jean Webster A teen novel, first of its kind in all aspect, wonderfuly presented in amazingly simple language, yet powerful.

What is time?

A scientist met Khalil Gibran  and asked  ‘What is time?’

Gibran immediately responded by saying ‘take me to a river bank’

Scientist took Gibran to a river . Gibran pointed the river , said ‘here the river that flows is time…

we can only see it from the bank.

It is absurd  to measure time as measuring the flowing river’ said Gibran.

As a person who wishes to travell on the river would have to swim along with the speed and force of the river, similarly the person who wishes to act per time must adapt his or her act and change it as per time.

Time is a predominant tool among the things man has used to improvise his life…

From Ariyabattah, Aristotle to Albert Einstein… how many scientists have brought up- how many questions about time?!

Some questions has answers, some are still unreciprocated …

We too may have asked these questions and searched for answeres.

‘ The concept of Time ‘ is a myth says a group.

While ‘ no time exists’ claims another.

These arguments goes on… on.. for ever.

Questions have been asked upon the begining /origin of time.

For this some say, ‘time has begun long time back’.

Others disagree by  asking ‘everything begins at some time, so how can time has a origin?’

Everything do have two types of views, based on a real /practical explanation and a theoretical/philosophical explanation.

How ever, Time is essential for each one of us.

time calculation has become a main part of our day to day life. Time is essential for each and every act of ours. Time is unsubstituted.

Calculating time is an age old act, that has been in practice among us for a long time.

The greeks invented clocks in B.C. 250 similarly, Egyptians invented calendar and based on human life pattern, year,month,day,hours were formed, long long ago by Babylonian civilization.

2200 years ago Hipparchus a Greek scientist impeccably calculated the days in a year.Latter a day was divided into 24 hours.

Today’s time calculation is the result of such many age old efforts. The purpose of the invention of todays most accurate watches is to make our life and time more useful.

To whom are these effeorts are for?

Youth must use these facilities to the maximum.

All these efforts and inventions are aimed towards the growth and sucess of younger generation.

Through this not only the student’s life gets enriched, the human community gets enhanced too.

To get such  an enriched future we must spend our time completely for productive work.

We must utilise time…

How do we do that?

—   A small part from my book ‘time management for students’