"The success of every woman should be the inspiration to another."

Please do not (not) distort this FH&M into a “Forwarded as Received”

Food for heart & mind (FH&M):


<i>"The success of every woman should be the inspiration to another."
</i>

The quote in this e-letter is by Serena Williams, the tennis player, who is a woman and black. Like Wilma Rudolph, whose quote featured in the first post of this series "Food for heart & mind", Serena Williams is an inspiration to all women and human-beings --- across the only Earth we share with all.

<i>"The success of every woman should be the inspiration to another. We should raise each other up. Make sure you're very courageous: Be strong, be extremely kind, and above all be humble." </i>
<b>~ Serena Williams.
</b>

----------------------------------

<b>FH&M: a gesture of gratitude ...
</b>

FH&M is presented as a gesture of gratitude to my family, friends, colleagues and students, who follow this blog and keep in touch with me regularly, thereby, giving me a chance to learn life-long. My attempt here is to stretch our thinking & imagination beyond the routine and normal.

I look forward to your frank comments about each FH&M in a way deserving of its contents. If U like what it says, and wish to get it regularly in your email in-box, please post your email address in the Comments section and I will put U on the emailing list of FH&M.

Please note that FH&M is presented as a gesture of gratitude …

Pune, Monday, 16 August 2021.

Please do not (not) distort FH&M into a “Forwarded as Received”

On "writing well" during the "dark days ahead"

 

My dear family, friends, colleagues, students and well-wishers,

Two bits of different news for the record. No connection between the two activities, except that the teacher-author, is the same human-being, ie, me:

1. Finally, on Sunday 17 July 2016, I started the "Master's Proficiency in (written) English (MPE-17)" course that I had been planning for five years. We came to stay near Akshar Nandan Shala, off S.B. Road, after we had to vacate the flat in which we lived for 20 years, because our cooperative housing society was demolished for "re-development".  

2. I have opened an inclusive FB page "Dark days ahead", to consolidate in one place a personal campaign called "Dark days ahead", which I began on my FB wall when the Modi Sarkar was elected on 16 May 2014.
 
*****

MPE-17 allows me to fully use the specialist books in my personal library. I will be preparing an annotated bibliography of the articles, books and websites, which I will be using during the course.

 

Finally, nine (09) students completed the course in August 2017. And we privately published a selection of their writing in partial fulfillment of the course requirements. The book is titled: "Nine Persons, One Journey (NPOJ)". If U want a copy, send an email to: <editjoepinto@gmail.com>

Click here for the detailed program of MPE-17, posted on my blog "Master's Proficiency in (written) English - Class of 2017, which I have opened specially for MPE-17. Please spread the word. Those interested in the course may email me.

 

STOP PRESS: The second batch of fourteen (14) students, some on-line and some attending class, is going on well. 

*****
 

In May 2020, during the trying pause due to Covid-19, six years passed since the Modi Sarkar came to power. But, I have not found one reason to believe that my campaign "Dark days ahead", directed against the RSS/BJP/Modi Sarkar, was misplaced. On the contrary, the days ahead have become even "darker".

The Liberalisation, Privatisation, Globalisation (LPG) regime, inaugurated in 1992, by the then Finance Minister Manmohan Singh of the P.V. Narasimha Rao government (following the demolition of the Babri Masjid and the assassination of Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi), is being more ruthlessly and mercilessly implemented by the Modi Sarkar, aided and abetted by the open nexus between the vicious Hindutva ideology and the smooth corporate world.

The brutal right-wing ideology of the Reaganites and Thatcherites (despite being discredited in the USA and UK) is being unleashed on the Indian peoples in the name of "nationalism".

The time has come to strengthen and deepen the impact of the campaign against the Modi Sarkar. The FB page has a companion blog of the same name. 

 

Your support is my strength,

 

~ Joe Pinto, Sunday, 13 December 2020, Pune.

"... she will give you a part of her that she knows you can break -- her heart..." -- Bob Marley.

Bob Marley is one of my favourite singers. Here is a surprise from him.

Peace and love,
- Joe Pinto.

"She gave me a sense of self-esteem" -- Arvind Gupta

My dear family, friends, colleagues and students,

Arvind Gupta, my dear and close "brother-in-science", is known in India and across the world, for making "science a fun-filled experience" for ALL children, no matter whether they can afford to have their own laboratory and library -- or not.

His methods and materials have also helped children to find out -- on their own and for themselves and at their own pace -- that Nature and the man-made world provides ALL the basic materials that children need to do world-class experiments and, therefore, good science.

His website has loads of fun and science -- toys, books, and films in Hindi, Marathi and English. ANY child or adult (in whom the child is still alive and kicking) can do first-rate science, using the materials on this website.

In his personal tribute to his "best teacher", Mrs Frey of St. Maria Goretti High School, Bareilly, Uttar Pradesh,  Arvind tells Rahul Chandavarkar (now editor, Sakal Times, Pune) about how Mrs Frey gave him a sense of self-esteem.

His mother too played a big role in giving him the sense of self-esteem, which helped him later "to choose a career far removed from his IIT degree".

Click here to read his tribute, first published in the Times of India, Pune on 3rd December 2008.

Arvind is now based at the Inter-University Centre for Astronomy and Astrophyics (IUCAA) in Pune. You may email him at -- arvindtoys@gmail(dot)com

Here's wishing you and your children fun and joy in doing small, great and good science.


Peace and love,
- Joe Pinto, Pune, India, 23rd October 2013.

"I am the master of my fate: I am the captain of my soul."

Just saw an excellent film called "Invictus" on the life of Nelson Mandela. This poem inspired him to endure jail on Robben Island.

Invictus by William Ernest Henley (1849-1902)

Out of the night that covers me,
Black as the Pit from pole to pole,
I thank whatever gods may be
For my unconquerable soul.

In the fell clutch of circumstance
I have not winced nor cried aloud.
Under the bludgeonings of chance
My head is bloody, but unbowed.

Beyond this place of wrath and tears
Looms but the Horror of the shade,
And yet the menace of the years
Finds, and shall find, me unafraid.

It matters not how strait the gate,
How charged with punishments the scroll,
I am the master of my fate:
I am the captain of my soul.

Occupy Wall Street - I am not moving (a short film)

My dear students, friends and colleagues,

You may be following the "Occupy Wall Street" protests.

Note the irony of this short film:

http://front.moveon.org/the-most-powerful-occupywallstreet-clip-you-will-see-this-month

Your support is my strength.

Peace and love,
- Joe Pinto.

Pune, India, Monday, 17 October 2011.

"That hour just before the children came home ..."

My dear students, friends and colleagues,

Many of you, especially women at home, may want to know about various techniques used by great writers to find and make time and get down to writing.

I found this small description of technique in the Carol Shields biography.

Her novel, Small Ceremonies, was published in 1976. Carol Shields was thrilled when Small Ceremonies won the Canadian Authors Association Award. When asked: "How did you find the time to write Small Ceremonies?" Carol replied:

"Everyone asks me this, including my own children. What my children forget is that I did not have a job; they are all raising children and having jobs. But I didn't have a job. I didn't write until they went to school, and I didn't write on weekends and I didn't write in the evening. None of this was possible.

"But I used to try to get that hour just before they came home for lunch, 11 to 12. You know, got all those socks picked up, etc. and then I tried to write a couple of pages.

"That was all I ever asked myself to do.

"Then sometimes, in the afternoon, before they came home from school, I would get back to those two pages, and maybe have a chance to do them over again. But I really only had about an hour or an hour and a half a day. This was how I organized my time, that I would give myself one or two pages a day, and if I didn't get to my two pages, I would get into bed at night with one of those thick yellow tablets of lined paper, and I would do two quick pages and then turn off the light.

"I did this for nine months, and at the end of nine months, I had a novel. I could see how it could be done in little units. I thought of it like boxcars. I had nine boxcars, and each chapter had a title starting with September, and then October, November, December, so it was a very easy structure for someone writing a first novel to follow."

[Interview with Terry Gross on Public Radio, 1 May 2002]

If you come across any other technique, please share it with me.

Your support is my strength.

Peace and love,
- Joe.

Pune, India, Wednesday, 5th October 2011.