The Hindu : Tamil Nadu News : Opinions welcome

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Monday, Sep 10, 2007
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Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu

Opinions welcome

In response to the letter ‘Wrong way’ that appeared in Readers Mail (September 3) on inclusion of A.A. Milne’s ‘The Boy Comes Home’ and Chekhov’s ‘The Avenger’ in the syllabus for first year B.A., B.Sc. and B.Com., we wish to present the following information.

Both the works under question are classics that have stood the test of time and formed part of syllabuses consistently.

Included in a number of anthologies, they have been read, interpreted and understood all these years by generations of learners.

The Board had clear pedagogical objective when prescribing these pieces. These two pieces, besides acquainting students with the comic mode and the accompanying thinking styles, have the potential to sensitise them to concept and practice of communication as borne out by the discussion questions and activities appended to the texts.

While the play simply depicts a playful nephew forcing an autocratic uncle to acknowledge his adulthood, the short story concerns itself with revealing human stupidity.

In the former, the revolver displayed is more a symbol of manhood attained by the young man in the war and in the latter, the intended purchase of pistol never materialises.

That the play and the short story can glorify or promote violence is a misleading suggestion and it is unfortunate that works of such international critical acclaim are summarily dismissed using words like ‘distasteful’ and ‘garbage’.

The Bharathiar University has been taking significant steps to ensure possession of cognitive and communication skills by its students and welcomes any informed opinion in this regard.

T. Thirumalvalavan,

Registrar, Bharathiar University.

Coimbatore-Nagercoil Express

More than two months have passed since the metre gauge trains linking Podanur and Madurai were terminated and there is no overnight train from Coimbatore to Madurai as of now.

The only train linking Coimbatore and Tirupur with the southern districts is the 383/384 Nagercoil-Coimbatore passenger which runs in the day.

It is time the Southern Railway inaugurated Nagercoil-Coimbatore overnight daily train (6609/6610).

With Deepavali approaching, it will help a large number of people from the southern districts living in Coimbatore and Tirupur to plan their travel to their home towns.

Ravi. S,

Coimbatore.

Water woes

Quite often water supply is disrupted for days together, sometimes for eight to 10 days, owing to pipe burst or electrical snag in the pumping system.

Whenever the Siruvani system fails, Pilloor water is diverted to that system. But if there is any problem in the Pilloor system water from Siruvani is not diverted to Pilloor.

This is discrimination against uniform tax payers. Phase II of Pilloor is on the cards.

Arrangements should be made to switch over from one system to another whenever occasion

demands. Erratic water supply (supply is done in the dead of night) results in wastage of water and disturbs the sleep of consumers.

The supply should be in the day and it should be notified to all. Meter reading should be streamlined to once in two months so that the consumers will get the benefit of slab rates and the one-time burden of a huge amount can be avoided.

T. Subramanian,

President, Rajiv Gandhi Nagar Residents Welfare Association, Sowripalayam.

(Readers can mail to

cbereaders@thehindu.

co.in with address and phone number)

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