Sunday Reading Task

 " Ecocritical thinking on the Poem " Tree Once Again " by Sitanshu Yashaschandra and translated in English by Devang Nanavati 

10th November 2020

Learning from various resource person is the tradition of our Department. Every time we have guest lectures physically at our Department but now in present time Corona crises gave us new chance to attending these all guest lectures virtually. Earlier we had guests lectures on American literature and Post Colonial studies by Dr. Jay Mehta and Dr. Balaji Ranganathan sir. Today it was totally new subject for us. Yes, we had virtually talk on " Ecocritical Thinking : Sitanshu Yashaschandra's " Tree Once Again." I am very happy to say that really it was an amazing talk by Devang Nanavati sir. He is the former student of Department of English, Maharaja Krishnakumarsinhji Bhavnagar university and Gold Medalist also. He is Ph.d scholar from M.S university Baroda. He is translator of poems and short stories. Today he talked on Ecocritical thinking with reference to the beautiful poem, " Tree Once Again."

Today's session was anchored by Nidhi Jethva from Sem 1. We all know that we all are very important part of nature like animals and birds. We have to take everything from nature like food, water and even oxygen also. But in this post modern era because of the Industrialisation our existence come into danger. We are destroying nature for our greed and need. So, as today's youth it is our responsibility to take care everything. These all points very beautifully described by Devang sir in today's session. To make his point more clear he gave example of many historians and authors also like Amitav Ghosh, William Wordsworth, S.T. Coleridge's " The Rime of the Ancient Mariner and many other. He also discussed that how nature is the part of our culture, myth and religion also. For this he gave various examples from Ramayana and Mahabharata like Krishna, Buddha and Arjuna. If we try to look from post Colonial point of view then we can put here the point of " Displacement." How we are destroying the nature for development and our need. Earlier we had seen that with the example of " Narmada River and Dam. " Devang sir also discussed about various points like,

🔹️Ecocriticism: Appreciate A shift fom Greed centrism to Green centrism
🔹️Gunjan Gandhi - Jessica de Koninck's Poems
🔹️Ecocriticism: Goal strategies - Tools and criteria
🔹️Definition
🔹️ Poem of Sitanshu Yashaschandra's " Tree Once Again " translated in English by D.S. Nanavati.

So, this is the information about today's session. It was quite amazing one. Very interesting question was asked by sem 3 and sem 1 students. And also here I would like to share one more point is that our juniors are very active and fast learners as today's session was anchored by Nidhi. So, I would like to say thanks to Nidhi and my classmates also. Feedback was given by Mehal Pandya, Hina Malek, Kavisha Alagiya and Jignesh from sem 1 student. Thanking speech was given by Tamsa Pandya. Thank you very much to Devang Nanavati sir and specially thanks to Dr. Dilip  Barad sir for always encouraging us and organising these type of knowledgeable sessions.