An online e-learning portal which contains all the available resources at one place for Tamil medium students in Sri Lanka

For the past 2 months, COVID 19 has brought drastic changes in the whole world. In Sri Lanka, the government has imposed back to back curfews to reduce the gatherings of people. Therefore, most of the people started to work from home. In the student perspective, some teachers started to teach using modern technologies like WhatsApp/Viber to send notes and other needed resources as different formats like videos and PDF contents.

A group of open-minded people from Jaffna gathered a meeting through Zoom every Saturday at 2 PM (IST) to discuss e-learning for Tamil medium students in Sri Lanka. Lots of members from Charity and Non-profit organization members are giving their support on this discussion.

They have taken 2 main action items on improving e-learning during the past meetings

1. Creating an online portal that contains all the list of resources for students in Tamil.
2. Conducting a workshop for teachers on how they can improve their teaching ability using Technology devices.

https://tamilkalvi.online/ is an online portal created to list out all the available resources for students and teachers to get to know. Interestingly this site has got a huge interest among students and teachers.

Currently, the workshop is happening. Til now 2 workshops about how to handle technology devices and how to use google classroom effectively were held among teachers.190 teachers were registered for the workshop and out of that 120 teachers participated.

Still, these open-minded people are having these meetings on how they can improve and support their society by educating future leaders of the Earth. If you are too interested to join this to have your contribution please contact Mr.Sarveswaran (Lecturer University of Jaffna) - iamsarves@gmail.com who is the coordinator of this wonderful future building movement.

Since this meeting doesn't belong to any organization or having any committee/board I just gave the contact person details only. But, thanks to all those who are contributing their time and money on building this society a rigid one.

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In search of Heritage

The historical features that belong to the culture of popular society, such as traditions, languages or buildings or documents/ knowledge resources, that were created in the past and still have the historical importance are known as Heritage.

Heritage comprises of 3 features:

1. Tangible:-  our historical sites, buildings, monuments, objects in museum artifacts and archives.
2. Natural:- our waterways, landscapes, woodlands, bogs, uplands, native wildlife, insects, plants, trees, birds and animals.
3. Intangible:- our customs, sports, music, dance, folklore, crafts, skills, and knowledge.

All 3 comprises and provides us with a common language and enables to dig deeper into to find and explore our identities in detail.

Why Heritage is important?

• it portrays and helps to shape our identity
• highlights our priorities and values
• provides clues to our past and shows how our society has evolved
• examines our customs and traditions

In that way, Noolaham Foundation in Jaffna involves in preserving the heritage of Sri Lankan Tamil Speaking Community. Noolaham Foundation has involved in this process since 2005.

Anyone around the world can have free access to Noolaham resources via 

http://noolaham.org/ - For books, magazines, pamphlets, newspapers

http://aavanaham.org/ - Multi-media resources such as Oral-Histories, Images, Videos, Hand-written documents.

To read more about Noolaham works; check out this article.

On 22nd and 23rd of February 2020, Heritage Exhibition was conducted by Noolaham Foundation at Jaffna Hindu College's prayer hall.

They exhibited the book/magazines/newspapers/palmyra or ola leaves collections which are about 200 years of age, oral history procedures along with demonstrating how to access noolaham.org and aavanaham.org web-pages.

On 22nd the Exhibition was started by appreciating and honoring the person who donated and helped in giving the documents for Noolaham to digitize. Following that, both 2 days from 1.30 to 3.30 discussions on preserving our heritage were held. We could able to witness lots of both younger generation people engaged in checking out the exhibition.

Most people were so excited to see how palmyra leaves/ola leaves are been digitized in Noolaham. Dr.Green's (from the United States) book collections were able to be found at the exhibition. Dr.Green who learned Tamil Language and translated lots of medicine and chemistry-related notes from English to Tamil. Similarly, Magazines and newspapers of long time published materials were exhibited with descriptions for the easiness of the audience.

Explaining how they digitize palm leaves

Crafts related archives done by Noolaham Foundation

Noolaham's yearly achievements from its origin year 2005 to till now

A book published by Hindu priest from the digitized palm leaves by Noolaham

The Morning Star and other rare important documents

Followings are Dr.Green's Collection

The quote is really interesting.

It tells that "Whom we printed writings on the stone then wrote on aedugal (Palmyra/ola leaves) from ola leaves took up to printing press and from printing press, we now moved to the Internet"

Ezhuththaani is the tool used to write on ola leaves

Old age pots parts which have Tamil Brahmi writing and Tamili signs

Check out this interview given by Mr.Gopinath & Mr.Mayooranathan of Noolaham Foundation Regulatory Board members interview to IBC Tamil on the exhibition. They discuss what challenges they are facing and other things related to digitization.

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Journey of past 2 years from Uki coding school to Noolaham Foundation

Two years before 2017, I finished my Advanced Level examination and waited for my results to find a university and a course to follow for the next 4 years to get my bachelors degree. If I couldn't get any university for my result I was in the mindset of writing the exam for the second time.

In the meantime, I got connected to Mr. Harichandran from California through my father. My father was involved in social development activities along with working at Bank Of Ceylon. Through his social works, he got introduced to Mr. Harichandran. While a conversation between my father and Harichandran, he asked about "What your children are doing?"; my dad replied that I have written my exams and waiting for results. After that, he talked with me and introduced me and told me to follow the course at Uki Coding Accelerator program.

Uki is a 6-month coding accelerator program funded by ITEE Foundation and Yarl IT Hub in the aim of providing a job opportunity to the youth of people who are inaccessible to the state university. Even though lots of students have got the best results; some of them are not get selected to the courses in the state university due to the limited amount of allocation.

Then, I joined the Uki in November 2017. I studied Software coding, Personal Skill Development & English. I have already written an article on Uki Coding School. In short, during the six months of learning, I become able to learn new things by myself.

In December, I got my Advanced Level results and I missed to get my expected result. So, I started to study for the exam second time along with continuing Uki curriculums. In those days, I learned how to manage time more efficiently and fruitfully. Since I had a passion for coding I am able to manage the Uki curriculums.

After graduating from Uki in May 2018. I got an opportunity to get an internship from a Silicon Valley-based Tech company in Colombo. So, I choose that path and dropped out my second-time examinations writing process with the scoldings of my mother. I joined there on 5th July 2018.
Then, I worked there for around 8 months and planned to follow a degree in non-state private university called SLIIT in Colombo. I learned a lot related to Software coding practices, took part in the Toastmasters and made my first 'Ice Breaking Speech'  and earned a lot of helpful people. I enjoyed working there.

Unfortunately, I was subjected to the state of discontinuing my internship due to my degree studies. I need to work for 5 days in the weekday for the company and the weekend 2 days for the academic studies. I was not able to do like that since my parents are living in Jaffna lonely since my brother also works in Trincomalee. I can't able to go Jaffna frequently.

One memorable day in my life is sharing my learning with the community. I made a talk at Colombo JavaScript Meetup which was on the topic of "Introduction to React Hooks" ( related to creating web pages using JavaScript programming language ) at WSO2 Colpity office. Around 25 people were gathered there who are not known for me to listen to my talk. That was the first-ever talk I made outside. Before that, I had that experience at Uki.

Then, I joined my degree program and focused on my studies until the first semester ends. After that, I changed my course time to the weekend. At that time, I asked Mr.Harichandran for a job opportunity in Jaffna. He suggested me to try for Noolaham Foundation.

Noolaham is a digital e-library preserving the cultural heritage of Sri Lankan Tamil speaking community.
A brief article on Noolaham Foundation was written by me last month.
For the past 3 months, I have been working at Noolaham Foundation. I involved in implementing and take forwarding the IT-related automation and writing software coding to make the manual works easier.

Learnings and experience that I have got from these 3 months of Internship are priceless. I am proud to be a part of Noolaham which digitally preserves the cultural heritage of Sri Lankan Tamil speaking community for the present and future generation. I feel contentment myself with what I am doing. It doesn't feel like doing an internship or work. Its something cool and can't express by words.

Things I have learned in these 2 years are

• being much more active
• expressing ourself to the world
• keep up the networking and communication skill
• keep upgrading ourself mentally

I'm really thankful to Mr. Harichandran who pointed out and initialized my career path. I have to convey my heartiest faith to my parents who believed in me and allowing me to do what I wished without any hesitations. They supported me a lot during my hard times.

Finally, the almighty God who is being with me all the time.

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Digitizing and Preserving the Sri Lankan Tamil cultural heritage digitally - Noolaham Foundation

In the past, various unexpected occurrences caused the culture and heritage of a community to be vanished. It can be natural disaster, war or unrest. Similarly in 1981, the Sri Lankan Tamil speaking community experienced the tragedy of loosing 97,000 of books including the original copy of "Yaalpaana Vaipava Maalai" (A book describes History of Jaffna Kingdom), palm leaf manuscripts related to medicine, historical moments and long term preserved newspapers like The Morning Star which was published since 1841. What they have loosed can not be replaced or recreated.

There Noolaham comes into picture in aiming of saving the remaining documents to be digitized and preserved for the future through digital media.

Noolaham Foundation, is a non-profit, non-governmental organization which was started by a group of young open minded people in 2005 to document and preserve the cultural heritage of Sri Lankan Tamil speaking community. The main concern of the initiative is to give open access for scholar resources to the scattered Tamil people around the globe through digital platforms.

Hi, I am Parathan. Currently, I have been working as an intern at Noolaham Foundation in helping out with IT related works like automating the process through programming. Its my pleasure to share how digitizing and preserving process are going and my overall experiences.

Till now, 90,000++ documents including:

• printed documents such as books, magazines, journals, newspapers, newsletters, booklets, reports, souvenirs and felicitations, annual publications, posters, flyers and leaflets, fact sheets, invitations, memorial publications, dissertations, ephemera, trade and advertising publications and guidelines and handbooks, : noolaham.org
• Manuscripts archive
• Multimedia Archives including images, audios, videos and electronic medias : aavanaham.org

Collected Ola leaves / Manuscripts to be digitized

The digitization and preservation process is done by the office staff members and group of volunteers from all part of the islands such as Batticaloa, Jaffna and upcountry.

Digitizing methods used in Noolaham Foundation

In the early stages of Noolaham, typing method was used. That is one has to read it aloud and the other one will type and publish it. They could publish around 100 books per year. The advancement & introduction of technology devices such as scanners helped the work easier.

Currently, 3 methods are used

1. Flatbed Scanner: used while scanning the rare books page by page
2. Sheet-fed Scanner: used while scanning the books which are existing in a plenty of amount. Here, the pages will be removed separately and feed in a bulk amount 
3. Camera Scanning: used while scanning the easily damaged documents like Ola leaves, old documents and brittle staged books

Scanning the documents using scanners

How the digitization process of a book is done?

1. The copyright of the author or publication will be taken to digitize the book
2. Considering the type & condition of pages of the book scanning method will be chosen
3. Scanning process will be started and the pages will be scanned
4. Checkers will then collect the scanned documents and check whether the scanned documents are having any faults. If there, it will sent back to re-scan. Else, it will be converted to PDF (Portable Document File) file format.
5. Then the books details will be added to the metadata sheet (The detailed collection of the documents scanned)
6. After that, in the noolaham web-page name and details of the books will be listed
7. Finally, the books will be uploaded and published to the web-page

Often, the backups will be taken in 3 hard-disk to minimize the risk of data loss. When the hard-disks are filled by the back-upped files, those will be checked and finalized according to the list of digitized documents.

Scanned documents are being checked by the checkers

Aavanaham : 
Aavanaham is multimedia archiving project initiated by Noolaham Foundation to document, preserve and archive images, audios, videos and other forms of multimedia such as education related resources like exam papers and tutorials guide for school students.

One of the ongoing process in Aavanaham is Oral History. More than 300 people were interviewed including Sri Lankan Tamil artists, teachers, farmers and different kind of people who are specialized in their profession. They share their experience and how they overcome from their struggles and sharing their memories.

Since, the current generation is involved mostly in watching and listening to the digital medias such audio and video platforms it will be a great opportunity for them to know how the Tamil culture has evolved in the past centuries.

Uploading the documents to Aavanaham web-page

Editing the Oral History Collection

Click here to view the Oral History Collection


Palm Leaf Manuscripts Digitization

Palm Leaf Manuscript

In the ancient time palm leaves were used as papers and the writing nails used as pen to write. This project was initiated by Noolaham along with the collaboration of British Library under Endangered Archives Program.
The British Library helped and guided Noolaham with latest technologies and to digitize according to the standard digitizing methods.

Cleaning the surface and the place to remove dust particles to digitize

Digitization of palm leaf manuscripts needs to be encouraged because they are the sources which give the information related to medicine, mathematics, astronomical observations, astrology, arts, folklore, local history, customs and laws that were created and followed in the past of Tamil culture. These manuscripts are owned by individuals or organizations from the past. Majority of these manuscripts have not been shared or published in print.

Since, the palm leaf can be easily damaged they need to be digitized very carefully. i.e: using DSLR cameras and color charts to digitize according to the digitizing standards.

The issues where Noolaham faces frequently are

1. Contacting the copyright author or publisher related to get the copyright issues to digitize the book and upload the book in web-page.
2. Educating the community about what is preservation and how to find the documents to digitize and preserve. Eg: newspaper
3. The cost spent on salaries and buying necessary equipment for digitizing process

Since, the Noolaham depends mostly on the fund collected from diaspora community and other institutions locally and internationally, they need a lot of help from the Tamil community to elevate the digitizing process faster.

If you are at Jaffna or planning to come for Jaffna, reserve your 1 hour of your valuable time at Noolaham to find out how they are doing.

The address of the Main Office at Jaffna is,
No. 185,
Aadiyapaatham Road,
Kokuvil, 
Jaffna.

Some other links to read more about Noolaham

• Sri Lankan Tamils Create Online Library To Replace One Torched In 1981 
• This Digital Library Is Preserving Sri Lanka's Tamil Literary Heritage
• Audio Interview of Thillainathan Kopinath for SBS Radio Australia 
• Survey and digitisation of individual manuscript collections in Northern Sri Lanka (EAP1056)  

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The cricketer who scored 35 runs in one over...

Have you ever heard of a cricketer player who scored 36 runs in one over? Yes, the world famous West Indies cricket player Gary Sobers established this record in 1968. Indeed,it was a distinguished title . He was the first cricket player who won this world record. Before this fifty seven years ago , another player named Red Aledson scored 34 runs in one over. Thus Sobers had broken Aledson's record.

Sobers was born on the 28th of July, 1936 in bridge town. He was considered as the best all rounder in the field of cricket. Sobers was conferred with "Sir" title by Queen  Elizabeth in 1975 for his invaluable and immeasurable services he rendered to cricket. An outstanding awarding ceremony was also held to honor the internationally renowned cricket player. Sobers used his left hand in bowling and batting.

At first he began as a bowler. In 1965 the west indies team won the Australian team by 179 runs in the first innings itself. Immediately , Sobers was appointed as the captain of the West Indies team won the Australian team.

Sobers slowed his talents at the age of 16. When he was 17 years old, he took part in test matches and established a record. He set up this record in the fifth test match played against England in 1954. This match was held in Sabina Park in Jamaica. At that time Sobers was only 18 years old. At the age of 20 he scored 365 runs in a test match played against Pakistan and established a distinguished record.

The name and fame of Sir Sobers will never fade and will shine forever.

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Our Women in Society

"The hand that rocks the cradle rules the world" is an old saying. This is very true. But do we give the same regards and respect that we give to our mothers and sisters to all women? Most women in our society in the middle and working classes suffer from many indignities, very damaging to their personalities. Our newspapers daily come out with many sad tales that affect our females, both young and old.

On the one hand, we have women leaders as in Sri Lanka. Our country had first women prime minister, the first elected president and many leading politicians. True our learned professions are full of women of distinction; our universities are full of women students. Still our less fortunate mothers and sisters from the lower middle classes suffer in many ways. Working class women safer from all kind of indignities. The poor girls are not safe. They are abducted, raped and killed. Many poor women are hired and fired. They work in shops and factories under depressing conditions. They are denied equal pay for equal work, hundreds of poor girls or young mothers or widows who go overseas to work as domestics or house-maids get cheated; ill-fed; ill-treated and sometimes killed too. This happens in our land too. Many suffers in silence. A few put an end to their lives. Of course, there are women organizations, But quite often the problem continues. Much work remains to be done. The state and all social and voluntary bodies have much work to do.

Sri Lanka, in comparison with many third world countries in Asia and Africa, happily do not have many cases but still we have a lot of work to do to work for the welfare of all women. The plight of the poor women, widows and girls need the care of all, All must be educated to look at this problem as needing urgent and effective remedies. Our courts of law should impose severe penalties on all sadists and criminals who are a threat to our poor, helpless womenfolk. Special relief and guidance centers must be opened every where to help all unfortunate victims. This is our sacred duty. A society where all human beings, men, women, the rich and the poor live without fear and with honor and dignity should be the concers of all.

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The Influence of the Cinema and the Television

"Where thousands of words fail to teach a child, a picture succeeds admirably" is a great educational truth. All irrespective of age, like to see and enjoy a beautifully printed or painted picture. In the same way the cinema, and T.V have influenced people in many ways. They are a form amusement. They are means of education. They are also a means of bringing the different lands and people closer together and in creating better international understanding. In short, the cinema and the T.V influence greatly the social, moral , intellectual, recreational and political life of a country.

The principal role of the cinema and the T.V is to provide entertainment and amusement. A worker who sweats in a factory for eight hours a day, a clerk who gets bored by his routine. job, an accountant who gets easily fatigued by his tiresome duties and even the country farmer who rarely relaxes derive a lot of pleasure and amusement by seeing a picture or watching the T.V.

To students and teachers and also to adults the cinema and the T.V provide useful knowledge. A picture on desert life or a picture like the "Ten Commandments" or a saga like "Nine Hours to Rama" which retells the story of Mahatma Gandhi or a documentary on science or technology not only provides recreation but also imparts useful knowledge which one cannot easily acquire-visual films. Novels by Dickens like "A Tale of two cities" are made more meaningful through films than by the written-word. The impact of the T.V in this respect is even greater. How fortune is a child of today who without. Leaving his home can view on a T.V screen and the latest news and happenings round the globe!!

Thanks to the cinema and the T.V the world has become closer to closer together. The customs and manners of the people all over world and their histories are no longer remote things. The cinema and the T.V have been forceful factors in bringing the East and the West together. The East is no longer the mystic land to the West; and the West is no more a land of strange beings and stranger happenings to the East.

Apart from the numerous good influences of the cinema and the T.V there are certain bad effects which can be checked if we are sufficiently vigilant. Certain film magnates are only interested in amassing riches. They, therefore, produce pictures of low taste and low morals. The so-called crime and horror pictures of the wild west create unhealthy and anti-social tendencies. These are some times suspected of aiding and abetting in the commission of crimes. It is to check this tendency that film Censor Boards are appointed in many countries. If these boards are vigilant enough, these evils can be diminished. But for his tendency , the influence of the cinema and the T.V on the young and the old is immense.

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The Harvesting Scene

When it is time for harvest or the gathering in of crops, all farmers become busy, The entire house-hold , wife and children , and even neighbors and friends join the farmer in his field with sickles in hand cutting the grain. Harvesting time is a season of joy. It is,in fact, the harvest of the rewards of one's hard work.

Even before the sun rises, the farmer and his wife with a number of hired farm workers go to the field to reap the grain. It takes a full day or two to do the harvesting, threshing , winnowing and then taking the load home in carts. Until the entire work is completed, the farmer and his family stay in the field in a temporary shed or tent where they cook, eat and sleep. It is an outing that they enjoy as if we enjoy a picnic.

As the reapers are at work, they gaily sing many songs with laughter and merriment. This makes their work light and less tiresome. The farmer feeds all the workers well and pays for their labor ungrudging in cash and in kind.

Even the farm animals are with them grazing near the fields. The sights of all these is a feats to the eye of the beholder.

During the harvesting season, one could see all the fields full of people at work. In one field a group reaps, in another, a group threshes , in another one, they winnow and still in another one , the grains in sacks are loaded into carts for taking them home. There is a lot of movement in all the fields with the young and the old at work.

Once the harvesting is over and the crops are taken home , the fields once more become one vast ex pans of land as a grazing ground until the next sowing season begins.

The harvesting scene is beginning to lose its age- old pattern Modern civilization and the use of tractors have begun to take away much of its natural charm and thrill and the spirit of togetherness and corporate life of our rural community. This community-living of' 'each for all for each' is our country's pride.Once this is destroyed, it can never be supplied.

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A film I like best

I'm not, like many, a regular film-goer. I go to see one if and when a good film is shown in our town. By a good film,I mean one that is really educative rewarding. Hence, the number of films that I have seen could be counted on one's fingers. One such film I saw recently was the one on "The Life of Mahatma Gandhi" a man of the twentieth century, an incarnation by any standard and a God-man who loved all and hated none.

As one who was born after the death of Gandhi, I am not a contemporary of his. Hence his life and times are as stranger to me as to those who had lived before him. All that I had known of Gandhi before I saw the film on his life was the little I had read and heard of his life and work from books and from elders and betters. Therefore, those like me are grateful to that wonderful English man, Lord Attenborough, for his years of toil and expenses incurred in making the film on the life of Gandhi, who was almost a saint and a superman; a messiah of the twentieth century.

This film is thrilling from start to finish. It depicts beautifully on the silver screen the many episodes in the life of Gandhi. It is true to what we have read of Gandhi and his missions. Ben Kingsley, who has the features of Gandhi has played the role of Gandhi ably. His subdued acting like that of a man of peace, was classic. The varous scenes presented in the film look real, life-like and gave us the satisfaction that we are face with Gadndhi and his times. In short, it is faithful record of Gandhi and his mission. It is no wonder that this film was an award winner and was acclaimed in many countries. This is a picture that no one should miss. Lord Attenborough deserves the gratitude  of all those who love Gandhi who were not fortunate enough to have lived during his time or to have seen him in flesh and blood.

"The life of Gandhi" is a historical and biographical film that depicts and important era of a century on celluloid. Indeed, it is one of the best pictures that I have seen and I would like to see it again and again!!


Thanks for reading my article.

Keep visiting Thank you.

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The Joys of School Days

The joys of school days, when I look back, are marvelous. Those were, perhaps , the best day of our youth. Out of ten students would admit that their school days were most thrilling, adventurous and care-free.One begins to enjoy life in a school after a year or two. The first year in one's school might not be that eventful to many. As time goes on, one gets adjusted or settled to the general school atmosphere.

Soon class-mates and school-mates become friendly; the bonds become strong. Teachers who appeared rough or stern or severe become helpful. The various school activities like sports,dramatics,concerts,exhibitions , scouting, guiding and the prize-day provide opportunities for participation.

Winning and losing in competitions and contests at school or at inter school-level are experiences that help us to discover ourselves. The praises we get from the school community elevates us and enhances our prestige. School becomes a home from home-a center of a lot of activities and joyful experiences. Even a student who is a dullard is carried away by the general enthusiasm of his friends and begins to love the the life in school.

Even the most mischievous trouble-makers in school branded as problem cases by the teachers enjoy their follies in school when they become responsible adults.

When the final year of one's stay in school comes round , one begins to wish if one could stay a little longer in school . The very idea of having to leave school at the end of the year brings about a lot of sadness. When the last day arrives, the very thoughts or act of bidding good bye to all the friends, teachers and the many familiar sights and surroundings become a heart -rending exercise and finally one leaves in tears!!!

Our school days from the part of our lives. If not for our schools and the training we receive there, we will only be half-made. We can always hear adults speak in praise of their school days admitting gratefully that they owe a lot to their schools.

Anyone who has not found his or her life rich or rewarding has really missed much gained out of life.

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Wilfred Owen - An Antiwar Poet

Wilfred Owen became popular as a poet because of his poetic creation 'Anthem for Doomed Youth'. He, in this poem , vehemently criticizes the war taking it as a 'leading way' for the youth to grave. It is quite ironical and really a blunder of his fate that he too was killed in action in the battle field at a very early age.

He was born in 1893 in Shropsgire. His family moved to Birkenhead in his childhood but returned to Shrewsbury later. He was the eldest of the family. He was an Anglican. During his school days, he was bright in his studies. He passed matriculation of the University of London. As the first career in his life, Owen worked as a teacher. In 1915, he was commissioned in the Manchester Regiment and was sent to the Front France at the end of same year. After periods at home, he returned to the front and paradoxically, was awarded the Military Cross.

Wilfred Owen was killed in action shortly before the Armistice in November 1918. It was quite pathetic that Owen bade goodbye to his life at a very young age and he was killed one week before the Armistice, the agreement for the ceasefire was signed. After composing the poem "Anthem For doomed youth" Wilfred Owen wrote a preface for it. It reads as follows...

"My Subject is war and the pity of war; The poetry is in the pity.
This is pathetic as well as ironic because the cruel war cost his life too."

Wilfred Owen , undoubtedly the greatest of war can be consider as as anti war poet. He was commissioned in the Manchester Regiment in 1916 and was sent to the Front in France. He was awarded the Military Cross although he practically rejected the war. He was killed in action in 1918. He enjoyed a short life of only 35 years . In his poetry, he always portrayed the horrors of the war. He once said

"My subject is war , and the pity of war.."

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W.H.Auden - A Small description

Wystan Hugh Auden was an Angelo-American poet, playwright and literary critic. He was a socialist or a hard communist who showed some cool ironic wit in his poetry. However , deeply religious and psychological. Many critics consider Auden as a master of verse. His intellectual vigor and social conscience combined with his poetry. Auden was born in York in 1907 as a son of a physician.

He was graduated from the University of Oxford and after that he worked as a teacher in Scotland and England for five years.

His earlier poems mostly focused on the breakdown of English capitalist society but also showed a deep concern with psychological problems.He was awarded the King's Gold Medal for poetry in 1938.

Later in 1939 , he moved to he United States and settled down there as a citizen. There, he wrote more poems such as "Double man","Age of anxiety" etc. in 1948, Auden was awarded with Pulitzer Prize.

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W.B.Yeats - A small description

William Butler Yeasts was a poet and a dramatist. He was born in Dublin 1865, the son of a noted Irish painter. In 1887, they migrated to London. He wrote lurical,symbolic poems on Irish themes, for example, "The Wanderings of Oisns" and "Lake Isle Innisfree"

He believed in characteristics of ancient Celts. He also wrote : Celtic Twilight" and the "Secret Rose". On his visit ti Ireland, he met the beautiful Irish patriot Maud Gonne and fell in love with her. For the rest of his life, she inspired him.

Yeats returned to Ireland in 1896. There he joined the playwright, Lady Gregory and they both started the famous "Abbey Theater" in 1904. There , he devoted to production of plays. Among the plays he produced with Maud Gonne were "Cathleen ni Houlihan" and "Deidre" a tragedy in verse.

Later in his life, Yeats wrote some more poems Such as,

"The Wing among the Reeds"
"The Shadowy Waters"
"The Green Helmet"

In this poetry, he dislays how much he loved realistic theory. His later poetry was free from self-consciousness.

As Yeats grew older, he turned to practical politics. However in his old age, he wrote more poetry such as "The Wild Swans" "The Tower" and "The Winding Stair" He wrote most plays merely for the aristocrat society not for the middle class. He received the Nobel Prize in 1923. He died in France in 1939 and was byried in Ireland.

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A small description about the Poet James Reeves and his poem "The Sea"

The real name of James Reeves was John Morris. He was a British writer well known for his poetry and contribution to children's literature and the literature of collected traditional songs. He was born in 1909 in Middlesex and educated at Stowe and Jesus College , Cambridge. He started his career as a teacher. He retired from this career in 2952. Then, he became a full time writer.

As a poet, he contributed a lot to the modern English Literature. Some of his constructive works are "Songs for Six Pence" IN 1929 "The Imprisoned Sea" in 1949 , "The Wondering Moon" in 1950. "The Taking Skull" in 1958 and "The Sea".

In his poem "The Sea, Reeves brings an excellent poetic creation vividly describing the different stages of the sea metaphorically comparing the sea to a hungry dog.

The poem "The Sea" is fabricated round the nature of the sea. It is really a vivid description about how the sea appears in the shape of a 'monster', the violence it makes etc.

The poem consists of three stanzas in which the poet draws attention to "three stages" of the sea , really three different behaviors patterns. In the first stanza , the poet mentions about the sea in the day time. In the second stanza, he draws attention how the sea gets violent in the night time. Finally, he takes the calm and silent sea in May or June.

 Let's see the poem "The Sea"

The sea is a hungry dog

Giant and grey

He rolls on the beach all day

With clashing teeth and shaggy jaws

Hour open hour he gnaws

The rumbling,tumbling stones,

And "Bones'bones'bones'bones!"

The giant sea-dog moans,

Licking his greasy paws

And when the night wind roars 

And the moon rocks in the stormy clod

He bounded to his feet and snuffs and sniffs,

Shaking his wet side over the cliffs,

And howls and hollos long and loud

But one quiet day in May or June

When even the grass on the dune

Play no more their reedy tune

With his dead between his paws

He lies on the sandy shores,

So quiet , so quiet , he scarcely snores.

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That's solve this is my first post about Literature..!!

Hope you all enjoyed reading..!!

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A Story - It's better to be Unlucky

Sam, an employed piano tuner, said it was only the second thing he had ever won in his life. The first thing was an Afghan blanket at a church raffle when he was 25 years old. But this was much bigger: it was $120,000! He had won the Big Cube, a state lottery game. To win, a contestant must first guess which number a spinning cube will stop on.

The cube has six numbers on it: 1x, 10x,50x,100x,500x and 1000x.  If he is correct, the contestants must then guess which of two selected variables is going to be grater. So, just guessing which number appears on the cube does not guarantee that you will win any money.

Sam Correctly guessed 1000x but he still had to choose between two variables. One variable was the number of cars that would run the stop sign at Hill Street and Lake Avenue in six hours. The other variable was the number of times that a teenage boy would change TV channels in a three-hour period. This was a tough decision.

Finally, Sam flipped a coin. It came up heads, so Sam picked the teenager. He picked right. The stop sign was run only 76 times , but the teen clicked 120 times. Sixty year old Sam jumped for joy, for he had just won 1000 times 120, or $120,000. Sam dreamily left the lottery studio. Talking excitedly on his cell phone while crossing the street, he got hit by a little sports car.

Sam is slowly getting better. He was in the hospital for a month. His hospital bill was $110,00. And the insurance company for the little sports car's owner sued Sam for $9,000 worth of repairs. Also, Sam still has to pay federal taxes on his winnings. Sam doesn't play the state lottery any more. He says it's better to be unlucky.

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Exercise

Physical exercise is necessary for health. Physical exercise means exercise of the body. Some get all they need in their daily work. Ploughmen,coolies and blacksmiths work hard with their muscles all day. But clerks, teachers and students do not. They sit all day working their heads. They must get some bodily exercise when work is over; Without exercise of some kind they will get weak and fat. Exercise can be can be taken in many ways.

One of the best ways is to play some outdoor game. Foot ball, hockey, cricket and tennis are all good forms of exercise. Riding is a good exercise for those who can afford a horse. Walking suits many people and is is cheap. Perhaps swimming is the best. It exercises all the muscles of the body. Besides these there gymnastic and physical drills. They strengthen the muscles. They improve the general health.

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Pisa Lean

The Leaning Tower of Pisa in Italy is perhaps the most famous bell tower in the world. Work started on it in 1173 and it was not completed still 1372. After the first three storeys were finished the ground below it began to sink. That caused the tower to lean. Every year it leaned a little more. Efforts have now been made to keep it from falling over.

The tower is about 17 feet (5 m) out of line. But engineers hope that they have stopped in form leaning any future and falling over.

In 1994 they placed 660 tons (600 t) of lead on the tower's base. The straightened the tower by 0.4 inch (1 cm). Then in 1995 they buried 10 steel cables 164 feet (50 m) in the ground and attached them to the tower. These reduced the lean by another 1 inch (2.5 cm).

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Value of Trees

Trees are very useful to man. They support the life of living beings. The green leaves of trees absorbs carbon dioxide and give out oxygen. Thus trees replace oxygen which is constantly used up and changed into carbon dioxide in breathing and burning. Trees retain carbon and release oxygen for the use of living beings. Trees help to prevent drought and floods.

Man has not recognized the importance of trees. Man cuts down trees to get quick profit from them. We should not cut them down. Man can live a happy life only if he plants more trees. We can inhale fresh air if we have more trees on this earth.

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Parthenon

The Parthenon in Athens, Greece was built over 2,400 years ago. The Greeks built this temple to honor the goddess Athena. They believed that she protected the city from harm. The ruins if the Parthenon with its great marble pillars still look out over Greece's capital city.

Ancient Greece was made up of a number of city-states,each was called a Polis, In each polis was an an acropolis, which was the highest part of the city . It served as city's fortress, and temples and civic. On the Acropolis of Athens is the Parthenon, the temple dedicated to Athena. The huge columns of the Parthenon rise to a height of 32 feet (10m). Each column is made from number of round marble blocks piled one on top of theother, wood or metal wedges were inserted in the centers of the blocks to keep them in place.

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#Parathan♥

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Nano Technology

Nano Technology deals with materials and machines in day to day life. This is measured in nano meters, Nano Technology. One of the latest technologies is also Nano Technology. Nano Technology is the very small scale Technology, that deals with materials and processes on a scale best measured in Nano meters. A nano meter is a measure of length that is one billionth of a length of a meter.

In addition to getting each atom in the correct location, this new technology should allow scientists to make almost any material-as long as its construction follows the laws of physics.

Nano shells may be the future's best way to fight cancer. Nano shells are about 120 nano meters in size- that's 1,500 times smaller than a human hair. The shells are injected in to a tumor. Then the tumor is heated. Temperatures inside the tumor become high enough to damage the cancer cells..

Researchers can use results from the process to get information about a person's susceptibility to lung cancer. In mineral resources which are important in Nano Technology.

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#Parathan

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