Feature

BY now our readers have had a fair idea of what we practice in these surmountingly enlightening addas. This week, our guest speaker was a man who had taken in the ideas of the book that we discussed with a seriousness that was hoped for. He had seemingly put a lot of thought into the contents of the text and the message it gives out to the readers. Shamsad Mortuza, the chair of English Department, JU, opened the discussion on Toni Morrison's 'The Bluest Eye', by offering a brief on his own educational journey. He then introduced to a group of young students from different universities around the city, the predominantly acclaimed African American writer, Toni Morrison.

The first thing that came up from the exploring of this amazing piece of literature, was how the paperback jacket had been chosen to talk about the theme of the book. We all agreed on the cover being simple and beautiful; the deliberate use of 'eye' instead of eyes signifies the absence of perception, making one subjected to monovision. Blue eyes traditionally representing impeccable beauty, has been exploited as an overpowering theme in the novel. The use of the superlative 'bluest' only stands out to show how the central character, Pecola, had driven herself into a state of madness over these blue pair of eyes. As Saushan Rahman, one of the participants who has done her masters in literature, read out from the first paragraph we could see that it is straight out of a traditional American children's book. The excerpt is repeated in the second and the third paragraph. What happens interestingly is that, in the second paragraph, there is no punctuation, the sentences run on together and the capital letters disappear. Oddly enough the same thing is shown in the third paragraph, except this time the spaces between the words disappear. This can be the author's way of telling us that we are moving from simplicity towards complication. The lack of the spaces can mean that the innocence is being clustered and there isn't any space to breathe.

The characters in the book are believed to be in search of their identities, as suggested by the guest speaker. The book has seasonal references, and the novel is compartmentalized into segments named after different seasons. In the book we see that Claudia MacTeer, a friend of Pecola, takes us back to the 1940's, one year before the marigolds didn't bloom. It can be related to the idea of nature's protest against the sad violation-the rape of Pecola by her father. At this point of discussion, it occured to us all that this text is very much a phsycological one, and efficiently treads the area of double consciousness; the existence of the other to define oneself. The process became clearer to us when it was pointed out by the dissemination that, as Pecola took a walk down the streets she saw dandelions. She was confused why some one would want to view these beautiful flowers as mere weeds. But her feelings towards the dandelions changed after a certain incident, and subsequently starts reminding her of her own ugliness. So she starts thinking that if she was pretty and could fit in the stereotype of beauty, people would see her differently. It is almost shocking to find how Pecola had been affected by the ills of the society, as she was made to believe that she should be ashamed of the way she looked and covet the looks of little white girls with blonde hair and a pair of blue eyes.

As the discussion rounded up, some other aspects of the novel crossed our way. The jazz technique used by Morrison served as a tool to ensure interaction with the audience. According to the guest speaker, the repetitive and circular technique allowed Morrison to show the contrasts between the haves and the have-nots. One of the participants readily added that this technique acts like hypnotism, playing the role of a constant reminder. The shock affect in the novel was also touched upon by our guest speaker. He spoke a few words on how the horrible incedent in Cholly Breedlove's own life made him vulnerable towards violence.

The adda, though felt more like a classroom experience for most of the literature students there, was no less interactive and educating with a real teacher as our guest speaker. From the discussion of this wonderful book that I think everyone should try and read, it is definite that 'The Bluest Eye' is all about how a community cannot flourish if it has split roots, and having split roots may lead to the loss of perception; making us singlevisioned.

Photos: Ishtiaque Bin Quashem

Help!

Azreen Aziz Mohammad Bhai

"Don't!" she said.
"Don't do it!" she screamed, her lungs on the verge of explosion.
He didn't listen. He didn't care. He felt good, in fact great, like King Kong, as if he could conquer the world.
She continued begging, pleading, telling him to stop, but it was all in vain.
He injected himself with the magic potion once more, the potion that seemed to cure all his problems; it made him feel like a king.
Then when he drifted off into a deep slumber, the girl began to reminisce.
It had all been so different until that horrible night, 6 months ago . . .
It had been that leech, Haroon's fault. It had all started at that stupid party she had not even wanted to attend. Tanveer had begun drinking the minute they had gotten through the door. This was not anything unusual and the girl had just accepted this the way she accepted everything else in life with disapproving silence.
Then the leech had offered Tanveer the drugs, knowing fully well that he was too inebriated to reject the syringe. She couldn't stop him. He was big for his age, very big. He towered over her as she was a puny thing coming up to five foot 3 inches when she stood up straight.
He'd injected himself and enjoyed the effect of the drug immensely and continued doing the drugs. She had known that he would develop an addiction. She was no fool. But she had stayed, tried to help him because she had nowhere else to go.
The girl was jerked back to reality when she realized Tanveer was staring at her.
"What are you staring at?" she snapped.
No response.
No reaction.
He continued staring at her.
It came to her slowly: the unfamiliar face of death was staring at her. She slowly got up, packed a bag, and left.

THERE are a few things that can be done in times of grave emergencies. Your mobile phone can actually be a life saver or an emergency tool for survival. Check out the things that you can do with it:

FIRST Emergency

The Emergency Number worldwide for Mobile is 112. If you find yourself out of the coverage area of your mobile; network and there is an emergency, dial 112 and the mobile will search any existing network to establish the emergency number for you, and interestingly this number 112 can be dialed even if the keypad is locked. Try it out.

SECOND Have you locked your keys in the car?

Does your car have remote keyless entry? This may come in handy someday. Good reason to own a cell phone: If you lock your keys in the car and the spare keys are at home, call someone at home on their mobile phone from your cell phone.
Hold your cell phone about a foot from your car door and have the person at your home press the unlock button, holding it near the mobile phone on their end. Your car will unlock. Saves someone from having to
drive your keys to you. Distance is no object. You could be hundreds of miles away, and if you can reach someone who has the other "remote" for your car, you can unlock the doors (or the trunk).
Editor's Note: It works fine! We tried it out and it unlocked our car over a mobile phone!”

THIRD Hidden Battery Power

Imagine your mobile battery is very low. To activate, press the keys *3370# Your mobile will restart with this reserve and the instrument will show a 50% increase in battery. This reserve will get charged when you charge your mobile next time.

FOURTH How to disable a STOLEN mobile phone?

To check your Mobile phone's serial number, key in the following digits on your phon! e: * # 0 6 #
A 15 digit code will appear on the screen. This number is unique to your handset. Write it down and keep it somewhere safe. When your phone get stolen, you can phone your service provider and give them this code. They will then be able to block your handset so even if the thief changes the SIM card, your phone will be totally useless. You probably won't get your phone back, but at least you know that whoever stole it can't use/sell it either. If everybody does this, there would be no point in people stealing mobile phones.
This is the kind of information people don't mind receiving, so pass it on to your family and friends

(Everything is not applicable for Bangladesh)