Library 2013

Can't believe I have not blogged for 1 whole year. Feel ashamed! But, on the other hand, there is so much to read.... for work, for study, for pleasure.... Writing always takes a back seat.

There have been many developments on the Library front during the last year. We had the annual Book Exhibition "Booksville" in March, at PACL Campus. Then, in April, we started the Reading Facility in Silver Springs. Though the Reading Hall is not big, at least it's a start. Space crunch is a constant torment for all libraries, for those belonging to new Institutes, it is all the more so.

The new semesters have started. We had to do the Registration in 2 installments due to space problems: one was on 22nd (Monday), for the new M.Sc. and M.Tech, and also new Ph.D. students. Next Monday, new UG batch will be registered. We have scheduled Library Orientation Classes for the new PG batch on 27th, i.e. the coming Saturday, and for the new UG batch on 3rd of August, i.e. next Saturday. It's always good to see the new students (of course, it is good to see the old students, too!). As the year progresses, you discover new talents. I feel so proud of them, I may sound positively conceited to an outsider. We have discovered poets, artists, writers........  I hope they keep their talents fresh once they leave from here. It will be a very good feeling to see one of our students become a great author, or a poet, or a musician, in addition to being engineers.

Been reading Jerome K Jerome (Three Men on a Boat, &  Three Men on the Bummel), though I had read them over and over many times! He is hilarious! I strongly recommend him. Guaranteed to make you feel better before you finish the first page.  E books are a blessing (free e books a double blessing). I have been downloading them quite a lot. Manybooks.net is a very good site, I find. Reading Great Expectations (for the nth time) simultaneously. Dickens is a all-time favorite of mine. Some people say that he is too gloomy, but I think they must not have read Pickwick Papers. There you get to see his talent for humor.

Bring up the Bodies by Hilary Mantel is on my Reading list next. Loved her Wolf Hall.

Have to stop now, positively.

Nora Ephron

Nora Ephron passed away on 26th of June, at the age of 71. She wrote, directed, and produced many movies. My favourites are (no points for guessing) Sleepless in Seattle and You've Got Mail (both Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan starrers), followed by When Harry Met Sally, though that is an older movie.

Of course, Ephron wrote and directed many more movies - the last one being Julie and Julia in 2009, starring Maryl Streep and Amy Adams. A brilliant performance from Maryl Streep, as always. Amy Adams is good, too.

Besides movies, Ephron wrote many books - the last one in 2010 - on getting older "I remember nothing ..and other reflections".

Some of the quotes by Ephron:

Reading is everything. Reading makes me feel like I've accomplished something, learned something, become a better person. Reading makes me smarter. Reading gives me something to talk about later on. Reading is the unbelievably healthy way my attention deficit disorder medicates itself. Reading is escape, and the opposite of escape; it's a way to make contact with reality after a day of making things up, and it's a way of making contact with someone else's imagination after a day that's all too real. Reading is grist. Reading is bliss.”

― Nora Ephron, I Feel Bad About My Neck: And Other Thoughts on Being a Woman

 

“Above all, be the heroine of your life, not the victim.”

― Nora Ephron

 

I am living in the Google years, no question of that. And there are advantages to it. When you forget something, you can whip out your iPhone and go to Google. The Senior Moment has become the Google moment, and it has a much nicer, hipper, younger, more contemporary sound, doesn't it? By handling the obligations of the search mechanism, you almost prove you can keep up....

You can't retrieve you life (unless you're on Wikipedia, in which case you can retrieve an inaccurate version of it).”

― Nora Ephron, I Remember Nothing: and Other Reflections

 

Nora Ephron was clearly a woman with so many talents, and I have yet to read all her books and see all her movies.

 

She will be sorely missed by many.

Nora Ephron passed away on 26th of June, at the age of 71. She wrote, directed, and produced many movies. My favourites are (no points for guessing) Sleepless in Seattle and You've Got Mail (both Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan starrers), followed by When Harry Met Sally, though that is an older movie.

Of course, Ephron wrote and directed many more movies - the last one being Julie and Julia in 2009, starring Maryl Streep and Amy Adams. A brilliant performance from Maryl Streep, as always. Amy Adams is good, too.

Besides movies, Ephron wrote many books - the last one in 2010 - on getting older "I remember nothing ..and other reflections".

Some of the quotes by Ephron:

Reading is everything. Reading makes me feel like I've accomplished something, learned something, become a better person. Reading makes me smarter. Reading gives me something to talk about later on. Reading is the unbelievably healthy way my attention deficit disorder medicates itself. Reading is escape, and the opposite of escape; it's a way to make contact with reality after a day of making things up, and it's a way of making contact with someone else's imagination after a day that's all too real. Reading is grist. Reading is bliss.”

― Nora Ephron, I Feel Bad About My Neck: And Other Thoughts on Being a Woman

 

“Above all, be the heroine of your life, not the victim.”

― Nora Ephron

 

I am living in the Google years, no question of that. And there are advantages to it. When you forget something, you can whip out your iPhone and go to Google. The Senior Moment has become the Google moment, and it has a much nicer, hipper, younger, more contemporary sound, doesn't it? By handling the obligations of the search mechanism, you almost prove you can keep up....

You can't retrieve you life (unless you're on Wikipedia, in which case you can retrieve an inaccurate version of it).”

― Nora Ephron, I Remember Nothing: and Other Reflections

 

Nora Ephron was clearly a woman with so many talents, and I have yet to read all her books and see all her movies.

 

She will be sorely missed by many.

Yatra Naryastu Pujyante......A Nation of Misogynists

Many of us have heard or read the Sanskrit shloka "Yatra Naryastu Pujyante Ramante Tatra Devata...", meaning where women are revered, gods are pleased to be there...or something similar. This shloka is often used to prove how respected women were in ancient India. But then, what about Madhavi, who was given by her father to a king, to be "loaned" to various kings in return for white horses? What about Ahilya, who was turned into a stone by her husband, the Sage Gautam? What about Seeta, who was turned out of her home on account of a few slighting remarks by some people, by her husband Ram, who is called "Maryada Purushottam"?

There are countless such stories, which pose the question: Why did we, as a nation or as a people, hate women so? And much more importantly, who do we continue to do so even today? In an India, where women have achieved so much? And where many parents claim that they love their daughters much more than their sons?

But is this true? Then what about baby Afreen? Baby Falak? A case a few days back in MP where a father beat his three daughters so viciously that one died?

These were babies. Unable to fend for themselves. But grown up, physically able women are killed blatantly by their families - sometimes by parents or brothers/uncles on some pretext or more commonly by their husbands or in-laws - for either money, or you guessed it right - a boy child. Many of us, particularly those who believe in a kind of so-called "Hindu" philosophy, will say that it is fate - "karma". It is also called "Naseeb". And the sad truth about our society is that even parents who had brought up the girl with reasonable care and love, give up on her the moment she is married. If she is tortured, threatened, or is just unhappy, it is her "naseeb", fate, and she has to "adjust", give the marriage and everyone else some time - but they conveniently forget that that is precisedly the thing she may not have - time. She may be killed or kill herself before long. And then they may weep a few tears, and forget her. After all, she was only a girl.

British Library and British Museum, London

Visited the British Library in London in the first week of March. It was a wonderful experience. I would like to introduce at least some of the facilities for our users, if we get space. I loved the exhibition area, which is huge and simultaenously various exhibitions were on. I loved the one of and about Charles Dickens. This is the bicentennial year of Dickens's birth. I got to see some manuscripts in his handwriting. Also in the exhibition area there was a bench, which had headphones, and choice of excerpts from his novels read by ... can't recollect the name right now. I heard a chapter from A Christmas Carol. It was really good.

The Library also has a Conference Centre, which we most definitely would like to have in our Library in the permanent campus. Also other features like a Cafeteria, various Reading Rooms, seating arrangements outside the Reading Rooms and many more...

British Museum is a vast place and needs much more time than I could spend there. However, whatever I could see was awe inspiring. It shows how the people there value the heritage and culture, (not necessarily their own) and preserve it.

May be more of this in the next.

Wi-fi enabled Library

Hello,
Most of the students are enjoying the vacation right now. For those of you who are still here, the library is open and offering all the services as usual. Also, for those of you who are not here, very shortly the library will be accessible to you online, i.e. at least some services to begin with.

There are many new developments in the Library. You will be pleasantly surprised to find the library airconditioned and literally a cool place! Also, the library is wi-fi enabled now, so that accessing Internet will be easier. A photocopier is also available now in the Library. Also, we are working on the Library Software, and very shortly most of the Library facilities will be automated. Lots of new books are being added to our collection at the moment. We are also adding to our team so that we will be able to help you more.

Many of you have borrowed books for the vacation. We would like to get your feedback on them. Those of you who are attending French classes, keep in touch with the language. We will start the classes in July, most probably the 4th week.

So enjoy yourselves and keep reading!

Best wishes,

Anjali

IITI Booksville

Hello everyone!

First of all, I would like to wish you all a very very happy New Year. Though I have been meaning to write this at the beginning of the month, couldn't find the time. Anyway, Happy New Year, once again.

We have been planning to have a Book Exhibition at IITI for some months now. However, due to space constraint, we could not do it. Now, luckily, we have got 2 halls on the groundfloor, which will be used as labs in future. We have named the Exhibition IITI Booksville. To begin with, I had selected a logo depicting a pile of books. Yugendhar, a student, added the letters B and V joined together. So now the logo is 2 piles of books and the letters B and V in between. You will see the logo on the Banners and the Invitation cards put on the Notice Boards.

The Exhibition will be on from 1st February to 3rd February. On 1st, i.e. next Tuesday, it will be inaugurated by the Director at 12.35 p.m. This time was chosen as students have classes till 12.30 p.m. After that, the Exhibition will remain open till 7 p.m. And on 2nd and 3rd Feb, it will be on from 10.00 a.m. to 7.00 p.m.

Please be there, for the inauguration, and also afterwards, to browse through the books. Remember what Somerset Maugham said about the habit of reading? "To acquire the habit of reading is to construct for yourself a refuge against almost all the miseries of life".

See you there,

Best wishes,

Anjali