Originally posted by: shahnaz12
Madam future Literature professor thanks for saying that👏 please do not mind if I do not ask you the right questions in the right way and make you uncomfortable unintentionally 😳 nahi nahi ismein mind karne wali kaunsi baat hai. If you do not want to share any of the answers I promise I will understand fully and whatever you will share I will accept dearly 😛 thanks for being so sweet 😊. Now here are my questions for now, ……
1.Why did you decide to study English Literature? i had always loved reading... as a kid, read a lot of books and wanted to be a writer... so it was always lit for me...beech beech mein psychology karne ka sochti thi but always came back to lit. 😆 😆
2.Why the teaching profession appeals to you? well the kind of person that i am, teaching is my way of changing the world... if i can get people to think for themselves and be more humane and sensitive, i'd be happy... also i love teaching... showing people texts (books/films) in ways that they had not seen them before.
3.As a Literature professor how do you think you will influence your students? positively i hope. 😉. i know at first hand that studying lit can change your life. i'm not saying that lit can make you a better person, what i'm saying is that it can make you more aware of the interaction between the individual and the social. (Sociology does this too). if my kida can read this interaction at multiple levels and be more tolerant as well as more sensitive to the world around them, i'd be content.
4.What would you like your students to learn from your class besides appreciating the beauty of literature? Well one of the first things that lit students learn is that beauty, of any work of art, is a very constructed idea. that which is seen as beautiful by some people may not appeal to everyone or be irrelevant to their lives. Also, some things which are considered beautiful may be derogatory to someone else's culture, race, country etc. for eg, in the sherlock holmes series, india is the place where the exotic poisons always come from or where mutinies are always happening. now this is a very derogatory way to represent a country but that was how a coloniser country would represent the colonised country. in fact, in 19th and early 20th century novels, india and africa are frequently shown as regions which are mysterious and spiritually rich but also dangerous. thus colonialism, which is a political event, is also deeply rooted in attitudes, attitudes which become clear though literature and other forms of representation such as painting, cinema etc. thus studying lit actually teaches you how there is always an ideology behind everything... even that which you think of as only beautiful. lit teaches students to look at how oppression of women, the poor, the Dalits, the afro-Americans etc is made to seem normal through lit, art and culture. sorry yeh lecture thoda lamba ho gaya 😆... but i would want my kids to learn to think for themselves.
5.Do you feel highly technical people are little immature as they tend to see the world as black and white? i think people who see the world as black and white can be immature... but being highly technical has nothing to do with it. in fact, i think (don't know for sure) even mathematics stops being 'black and white' once you go further in it. maturity depends on a lot of factors, one's choice of profession need not necessarily influence it.
6.Do you feel highly technical people are not really fun to talk to as they have a very simple mind? again i do not think that highly technical people do not have a very simple mind or that they are not fun to talk to. Sometimes their profession is so demanding that they do not get the time to listen to music or watch films or tv and that can limit conversation... but that happens with anyone who's extremly busy. One of my teachers, for instance, is so lost in academics that he never has time for anything else. While i respect him a lot, i do wonder what his friends talk to him about. 😆 😆
7.Do you think highly technical people tend to be caring and understanding lover/spouses as they are very focused individuals as they are not capable of seeing anything else when their loved one is around? Again, i don't think being a good lover is necessarily related to your profession. i think being a good lover/spouse means a lot of patience, a willingness to work at the relationship and a sense of humour. if you have these, toh tum jo bhi ho, jis bhi field mein ho, life set hai 😊
8.Do you wear glasses? If yes … Do you use contact lenses? If not why? yes i do wear glasses. my mom has got contacts made for me since the opthalmologist told her that contacts would stop my number from rising. i do not wear the contacts very frequently, however. this is due to sheer laziness... if i have a class at 9, i usually ge up at 8 30, brush rapidly, eat in the rickshaw while going and barely reach on time... contacts pehenne ka time kahan hai ismein? 😆 😆
9.Do you follow fashion closely? No not at all
10.Western or Eastern attire suits your personality? i wear both kinds. some people tell me eastern suits me more, some tell me western. i'm equally comfortable in both so don't mind anything.
11.Which eastern outfit you think is the sexiest. Saree or Salwar-Kamiz? Saree. no two ways about it. i love wearing sarees and wear them very often.
12.Do you like only the casual western outfits like jeans and t-shirt and business outfits … as these are considered practical these days or you wear western evening dresses as well? i think variety is the spice of life. so ideally try and wear every kind of thing. sometimes wear sarees, sometimes jeans 😊
13.Do you like traditional or trendy hair styles? Do you color or highlight your hair? i think different hair styles suit different people, so i like the hair style depending on how it suits the person. personally, i love long hair and am currently growing my fair. no have never used colour/highlight. am very lazy, trim karwati hoon woh bhi doosro pe ehsaan kar rahi hoon aise karti hoon. also, don't believe in too much chemicals. prefer natural things.
14.Are you athletic? Or fitness freak? Or believe in balanced healthy life style? Or prefer couch potato type easy going life style? complete confirmed couch potato. the only exercises that i like are walking and dancing. do them once in a while.
15.Do you go to beauty parlors? yes. one mistaken trip duirng graduation has meant that i have to regularly get waxing done. find it very boring though and complain about it for days.
16.Do you like jewelry? i was not a jewellery person ever. but recently my friend gifted me a silver neck piece and ear rings that i liked... perhaps that will start off my collection. i like silver and junk jewellery but again am too lazy to shop for them.
17.Are you fond of shoes? If yes …. What type of shoes you have in your closet? not really. one Kolhapur chappal and i'm happy
18.Are you fond of handbags? again not really. in all these things (jewellery, shoes, bags etc) i pick up one or two classic pieces such as a smart black leather bag and then use them for years.
19.Do you consider yourself to be outgoing or shy? definitely outgoing.
20.Are you a social butterfly having a lot of acquaintances around? Or a believer of true and trusted friendship and only have a couple whom you have taken as your friend? Actually i'm a little bit of both. i have some special friends who have been with me through a lot, feathers and claws. At the same time, i have a larger group which i'm on good terms with... the kind you meet once a year and do dhamaal on Holi or Navratri or New Year.
21.Are you stubborn? Or flexible? Very very stubborn.
22.Can you think of the smell of "fresh flowers" as Romance and "Perfume" as Passion? Would you explain why do you think I used this analogy? are you talking about differing levels of intensity, of a perfume being more concentrated than the smell of a flower? is that how you are using this analogy? In my case, lots of things represent 'romance' for me. same for passion. I love flowers though and yes they're one of the things that represent romance for me. I'm not too much of a perfume prson, i like and use perfumes that my friends then tell me are men's perfumes, so this is one thing where i'm clueless 😃
23.Do you have someone special in your life yet ….who is truly yours? lots of people are special to me... par that one special someone is yet to make an appearance.
24.How important is family life to you? family life is important to me, especially since i love kids and wanna give mine a lot of my time. at the same time, i believe that this should not be binding on evey individual. Also i dont want my family to be my only identity...i'm someone who needs to have an identity of her own, so my life would be meaningful only when family life and whatever it is that i'm doing at that point of time come toghether. i believe in adjustment and compromise, not sacrifice. 😊
25.If you were given an opportunity to give life to someone expired …. Whom would you choose and why? My dad. this is a very personal response but this is one question where i cannot be general. If i have to pick a famous personality, i'd say Marx. Then i'd ask him to show us how Marxism can operate in today's world, how is it viable and how not.
26.Do you like to travel? What are the places you liked the most and why? I love travelling. Am an absolute travel freak. Have seen most parts of India. Loved Kerela and Goa. I love the ocean... there's something about it that fascinates me. Kerela is, acc to me, one of the most romantic places i've seen. (Much better than agra 😉). Goa on the other hand is more laid back but can be more fun to be. The reason i envy my friends who stay in Mumbai is that they get the advantages of living in a cosmopolitan city while still having the ocean.
Well thats it Shanaz. Do respond to my answers, i'd love to know your reactions. 😃
