Why all this Creativity?

పంతులు లక్ష్మీనారాయణ శాస్ర్తీగారు పండితుడు. ఆశువుగా కవిత్వం చెప్పగల విశేష సామర్థ్యమున్నవాడు. అతడు శ్రీరమణుల వారిని సందర్శించుకున్నప్పుడు, అక్కడున్న వారు ఆయన ప్రావీణ్యాన్ని గ్రహించి, భగవాన్ రమణుల వారిని గురించి కవిత్వమల్లమని కోరారు.

‘నేను తీరా మొదలెట్టేసరికి, ఏదో దివ్యశక్తి నన్ను ఆవహించి, ఈ కవిత్వం చెప్పిస్తున్నదనిపించింది. గుంటూరు నుండి వచ్చిన ఒక అడ్వొకేటు, నే చెప్తూ వుండగా, కాగితం మీద ఆ ఇరవై పద్యాలను రాశాడు. ఆశువుగా నే చెప్పడమయింతర్వాత ఆ కాగితాన్ని నా చేతికిచ్చి, తాను చాలావరకు కాగితం మీదికి ఎక్కించినా, అక్కడక్కడ, మధ్యమధ్యలో, కొన్ని ఖాళీ స్థలాలు వుండిపోయాయని, వాటిని ఇంతకు ముందు నేను పలికిన పదాలతో పూరించమనీ కోరాడు. ఆ పద్యాలు సహజ స్ఫురణతో అప్పటికప్పుడు రమణ భగవాన్ కృప కారణంగా, నా పెదవులు పైకి వచ్చాయనీ, ఇప్పుడు ఈ సమయాన, నాకాపదాలు గుర్తు రావడం లేదని, అన్నాను. భగవాన్ రమణులు కూడా, ‘అతడు ప్రయత్నించినా, మొదట్లో పలికిన పలుకులు, పునశ్చరణకు అందవు’ అన్నారు.
కృష్ణమూర్తి గారు ‘ఇంతకు ముందు ఇచ్చిన సమాధానం, అదే విధంగా పలకలేనండీ’ అని తన అశక్తత ప్రకటించినప్పుడు, మనం ఆ మాటలు ఇప్పుడు అర్థం చేసుకునే వీలుంది.

ఆ ఘట్టమయిన తర్వాత దేవరాజ మొదలియార్ అనే రమణ భక్తుడు ‘శాస్ర్తీగారు గొప్ప కవి అనిపిస్తున్నది’ అని రమణుల వారితో అన్నప్పుడు, రమణుల వారు అందరూ ఆశ్చర్యపడేట్లు ఇలా సమాధానం చెప్పారు. ‘ఒప్పుకున్నాను’ అంటూ, ‘కానీ ఇదంతా మనసు యొక్క చర్యలే కదా. మనసును మరింత కృషికి గురిచేసిన కొద్దీ, తద్వారా అనేక విజయాలు సాధించవచ్చు; కానీ మనసుకు శాంతి కొఱవడుతుంది. ఇలాంటివెన్ని సిద్ధింపజేసుకున్నా, మనశ్శాంతి సాధించుకో లేకపోతే ప్రయోజనమేమిటి? కానీ ఈ మాట జనులకు చెప్తే, వాళ్లకది నచ్చదు. గణపతి ముని అన్నట్లు, ముందుకు వెళ్లేటప్పుడు వేగం హెచ్చించి పరిగెట్టచ్చు. కానీ వెళ్లాల్సింది వెనక్కు అయినప్పుడు, అంటే లోలోనికి పరిగెట్టాల్సి వచ్చినప్పుడు, ఒక్క అడుగు వేయడం కూడా కష్టమే’ అన్నారు.

Pantula Lakshmi Narayana Sastry is a scholar. he was specially capable of extempore poetry. When eh visited Ramana Maharsh, people there asked him to compose verses on the sage then and there.

'When I started, i was taken over by a divine force and i felt that was reciting the poetry. An advocate transcribed twenty of my poems. Later he handed the paper over to me and asked to fill the gaps. i was reciting them under a spell and could not recollect the missing words" said the poet.

"Maharshi himself said "Even if eh tries, he shall not recollect them". 

"i cannot even repeat the reply i gave you just now" confessed the poet.

A devotee expressed a view that Sastry appears to be a great poet. The sages answer baffled all present there. He said, "I accept. but, it is all minds acts. when you exercise the brain on such things more and more more victories could be attained. But, the piece of mind takes a beating. What is the use of achieving as many such things without  attaining mental piece? People would not appreciate this idea. As Ganapathi Muni said, one can run faster while going further. But, when you are supposed to be going back, means you are expected to run into your self, it is hard to progress even one step"

I am thinking about the comments of the sage!

Why all this creativity/
Does it give you peace?

Please, think!

(The Telugu text is an extract from a column by Neelamraju Lakshmi Prasad in Andhra Bhoomi Sunday.)

Is it only English that delivers?

Here is a thought provoking talk by a seasoned English teacher who taught for three decades in Asia!



In her talk, long time English teacher Patricia Ryan asks a provocative question: Is the world's focus on English preventing the spread of great ideas in other languages? (For instance: what if Einstein had to pass the TOEFL?) It's a passionate defence of translating and sharing ideas. 

The transcript if you are patient enough!

I know what you're thinking. You think I've lost my way, and somebody's going to come on the stage in a minute and guide me gently back to my seat. (Applause) I get that all the time in Dubai. "Here on holiday are you, dear?" (Laughter) "Come to visit the children? How long are you staying?"

Well actually, I hope for a while longer yet. I have been living and teaching in the Gulf for over 30 years. (Applause) And in that time, I have seen a lot of changes. Now that statisticis quite shocking. And I want to talk to you today about language loss and the globalization of English. I want to tell you about my friend who was teaching English to adults in Abu Dhabi. And one fine day, she decided to take them into the garden to teach them some nature vocabulary. But it was she who ended up learning all the Arabic words for the local plants, as well as their uses -- medicinal uses, cosmetics, cooking, herbal. How did those students get all that knowledge? Of course, from their grandparents and even their great-grandparents. It's not necessary to tell you how important it is to be able to communicateacross generations.

But sadly, today, languages are dying at an unprecedented rate. A language dies every 14 days. Now, at the same time, English is the undisputed global language. Could there be a connection? Well I don't know. But I do know that I've seen a lot of changes. When I first came out to the Gulf, I came to Kuwait in the days when it was still a hardship post.Actually, not that long ago. That is a little bit too early. But nevertheless, I was recruited by the British Council, along with about 25 other teachers. And we were the first non-Muslimsto teach in the state schools there in Kuwait. We were brought to teach English because the government wanted to modernize the country and to empower the citizens through education. And of course, the U.K. benefited from some of that lovely oil wealth.

Okay. Now this is the major change that I've seen -- how teaching English has morphedfrom being a mutually beneficial practice to becoming a massive international business that it is today. No longer just a foreign language on the school curriculum, and no longer the sole domain of mother England, it has become a bandwagon for every English-speaking nation on earth. And why not? After all, the best education -- according to the latest World University Rankings -- is to be found in the universities of the U.K. and the U.S. So everybody wants to have an English education, naturally. But if you're not a native speaker,you have to pass a test.

Now can it be right to reject a student on linguistic ability alone? Perhaps you have a computer scientist who's a genius. Would he need the same language as a lawyer, for example? Well, I don't think so. We English teachers reject them all the time. We put a stop sign, and we stop them in their tracks. They can't pursue their dream any longer, 'til they get English. Now let me put it this way: if I met a monolingual Dutch speaker who had the cure for cancer, would I stop him from entering my British University? I don't think so.But indeed, that is exactly what we do. We English teachers are the gatekeepers. And you have to satisfy us first that your English is good enough. Now it can be dangerous to give too much power to a narrow segment of society. Maybe the barrier would be too universal.

Okay. "But," I hear you say, "what about the research? It's all in English." So the books are in English, the journals are done in English, but that is a self-fulfilling prophecy. It feeds the English requirement. And so it goes on. I ask you, what happened to translation? If you think about the Islamic Golden Age, there was lots of translation then. They translated from Latin and Greek into Arabic, into Persian, and then it was translated on into the Germanic languages of Europe and the Romance languages. And so light shone upon the Dark Ages of Europe. Now don't get me wrong; I am not against teaching English, all you English teachers out there. I love it that we have a global language. We need one today more than ever. But I am against using it as a barrier. Do we really want to end up with 600 languagesand the main one being English, or Chinese? We need more than that. Where do we draw the line? This system equates intelligence with a knowledge of English, which is quite arbitrary.

(Applause)

And I want to remind you that the giants upon whose shoulders today's intelligentsia standdid not have to have English, they didn't have to pass an English test. Case in point, Einstein. He, by the way, was considered remedial at school because he was, in fact, dyslexic. But fortunately for the world, he did not have to pass an English test. Because they didn't start until 1964 with TOEFL, the American test of English. Now it's exploded.There are lots and lots of tests of English. And millions and millions of students take these tests every year. Now you might think, you and me, "Those fees aren't bad, they're okay,"but they are prohibitive to so many millions of poor people. So immediately, we're rejecting them.

(Applause)

It brings to mind a headline I saw recently: "Education: The Great Divide." Now I get it, I understand why people would want to focus on English. They want to give their children the best chance in life. And to do that, they need a Western education. Because, of course, the best jobs go to people out of the Western Universities, that I put on earlier. It's a circular thing.

Okay. Let me tell you a story about two scientists, two English scientists. They were doing an experiment to do with genetics and the forelimbs and the hind limbs of animals. But they couldn't get the results they wanted. They really didn't know what to do, until along came a German scientist who realized that they were using two words for forelimb and hind limb,whereas genetics does not differentiate and neither does German. So bingo, problem solved. If you can't think a thought, you are stuck. But if another language can think that thought, then, by cooperating, we can achieve and learn so much more.

My daughter came to England from Kuwait. She had studied science and mathematics in Arabic. It's an Arabic medium school. She had to translate it into English at her grammar school. And she was the best in the class at those subjects. Which tells us that when students come to us from abroad, we may not be giving them enough credit for what they know, and they know it in their own language. When a language dies, we don't know what we lose with that language.

This is -- I don't know if you saw it on CNN recently -- they gave the Heroes Award to a young Kenyan shepherd boy who couldn't study at night in his village, like all the village children, because the kerosene lamp, it had smoke and it damaged his eyes. And anyway, there was never enough kerosene, because what does a dollar a day buy for you? So he invented a cost-free solar lamp. And now the children in his village get the same grades at school as the children who have electricity at home. (Applause) When he received his award, he said these lovely words: "The children can lead Africa from what it is today, a dark continent, to a light continent." A simple idea, but it could have such far-reaching consequences.

People who have no light, whether it's physical or metaphorical, cannot pass our exams,and we can never know what they know. Let us not keep them and ourselves in the dark.Let us celebrate diversity. Mind your language. Use it to spread great ideas.

(Applause)

Thank you very much.

(Applause)