THE PICKWICK REPORT

        On 15^th October 2012, Jamia Millia Islamia, Department of English, commenced with their three days literary extravaganza called The Pickwick Fest, sponsored by Aleph and Rupa. The objective of this literary carnival was to bring about the plethora of talent and immense potential of students from different universities. Also to bring under one roof Dickens’ lovers and to revive readership of Manto. The festival witnessed participation from different universities,  and college of the NCR, in various competitions.

        The festival started off with the inaugural function being presided by the Vice Chancellor, Najeeb Jung who also declared the festival open. Dramatization competition and Graffiti Making competition were the events that took place during the first day. These involved a large number of participants. Results of both competitions were announced at the end of the day.

        The second day was the busiest of the festival with three events being conducted. First of the day was Quiz Competition which was held simultaneously alongside the Elocution Completion. Author Nilanjana Roy was the chief guest at the elocution competition. The third event was a movie screening followed by group discussion. Author Palash Krishna Mehrotra was the guest of honour at the competition.

        A paper presentation was the first event of the last day. The festival came to an end with the valedictory function being presided by Sanjeev Agnihotri, AIR presenter and S.M. Sajid, Registrar of Jamia Millia Islamia. Prizes were distributed after speeches by the dignitaries which was followed by speeches by various members of the organizing team.

-Wafia Kissa

BA (Hons) Eng III

Report: Valedictory

       The valedictory session drew the curtains down on the three day long Literary Festival celebrating the bi-centenary and centenary of Charles Dickens and Sadat Hassan Manto respectively. The event began with a speech by the E.L.A. advisor Mr. Saroj Mahananda, who expressed satisfaction with the whole event. He talked about his earlier wish of organising the event on the scale similar to the Jaipur Literary Fest but it could not materialize due to lack of funds and infrastructure. 

       Throughout the fest Mr Mahananda was marking the whole organisation and had given a mere 5 out of 10 a few days ago, but today a beaming Mr Mahananda expressed satisfaction with the effort that the students put in and gave it a 10 out of 10, which delighted the entire audience. It was followed by an inspiring speech given by the Chief Guest, Dr S. M. Saajid the Registrar of Jamia Millia Islamia, where he lauded the efforts of the students and of the department in hosting such an event. He hoped that such a festival would be repeated again in the near future and on a larger scale.

      The Guest of Honour for the event was Sanjeev Agnihotri an AIR radio presentator , a theatre artist and production manager. He briefly introduced the life of Manto for the and on a lighter note he revealed that he would have been more delighted at being invited for the dramatics competition on the first day. It was followed by the unveiling of the “The Legacy of the Pickwick club” which was a large collage consisting of pictures and quotes taken throughout the event. The next was the prize distribution where Dr. SM Sajid and Mr. Sanjeev Agnihotri handed out prizes to the winners of all the competitions with huge rounds of applause echoing around the venue. This was followed by a presentation of the press club and behind the scenes of the Festival by the students who worked unseen and unnoticed.

The event closed with a PowerPoint Presentation by the students of BA Mass Media, in which the efforts were highlighted, the best part of the day, was, that the legacy of THE PICKWICK FEST will be CONTINUED!

-Farhain Khan

MA Final

Report of the Paper Presentation Competition

Paper presentation/Remembering the masters was the closing event of our festival. A scholarly engagement, where the participants were given a chance to present their research and defend it. As literature students this event was very dear to us, we were looking forward to new and diverse opinions.

Student teams from different universities and colleges participated in the event, and the paper titled, "Charles Dickens in popular media: A story of Christmas Carol", by Aryak Ray, BA (Hons) Eng III JMI, pocketed the first position and one of his batchmates Shabeeh Rahat stood second. Akshita Luthra from Gargi College finished third. The event was judged by Dr. Simi Malhotra, Dr. Anuradha Ghosh, and Ms. Ivy Imogene Hansdak.

This event saw the intellectual side of the students, and the judges seemed to be impressed with the papers presented at the event.

-Sheeza Naaz
BA (Hons) Eng III

Dickens in Memes: Interviewing Aryak and Joubert

Pickwick fest is just round the corner, and perhaps, the animated movie ‘Hard Times: Murdering the innocents' is a perfect advertisement of the enthusiasm and quality of the fest. Press club brings you an interview with the directors and actors of the movie- Aryak and Joubert.

Shazma : So Joubert, tell us something about yourself?

Joubert : I am a student of animation. I do short films and take projects like these, bringing drawings to life and turning words into pictures. That's what I do and I plan on doing it in the future.

Daoud: How was it to work with a literature student?

Joubert: The way they think and visualize projects makes it so much easier to work with them. Every word brings out so much detail. Its great working with someone who can paint, an absurdly clear picture with his words alone. I look forward to working with not only literature students but people from different fields. The ideas are always unique. Quite an experience!!!

Aryak Ray and cast of the movie(G.I.Joes)

Joubert and his idea

Daoud: How had your experience been in working on this particular project?

Joubert: It was interesting. There were so many ideas and challenges, some of the ideas were finalized but most of them were spontaneous, like totally on       the spot ideas that worked out real nice. There were concerns about the quality of the animation work but it turned out quite well even with the crude pictures. I felt the characters were justified, but i am looking forward to see the reactions of the audience and judges.

Shazma: You used 'rage faces' in your movie, what inspired you to do that?

Joubert: Rage faces portray extremely exaggerated emotions. It was a spontaneous idea. It struck somehow. Later I realized that these 'rage faces', being quite an internet phenomenon these days, brought out the contemporary side to our film, that we actually wanted. I realized further that the faces were in tune with how Dickens' work has been visualized in the past with comics and animated films.

 

The movie

Daoud: Aryak, coming straight to the point, my question to you is, Dickens in animation- you have reached out to the audience with a popular media form. How did such separate ideas of 'Hard Times' and memes fit in?

Aryak: 'Hard Times' is a novel where the degree of caricature is immense, and rage comics fulfilled that need. We have used just a handful of memes to show the whole range of expressions in the chapter. We never thought that rage comics could fit in.

Shazma: Why this particular chapter of 'Murdering the Innocents'?

Aryak: The Coketown education system, as Dickens shows it in this chapter from 'Hard Times', is the present education scenario in Indian schools, where science doesn't go hand in hand with art, and both are shown to be opposing forces.

Daoud: Have you ever ventured into field of animation in past?

Aryak: No. This was the first attempt. Don't know how people will take it.

Let's see.

Shazma: Any future collaboration you might want to discuss.

Aryak: I have too many ideas. I plan to render some music videos with Joubert in the future.

Daoud: Last but not the least... Who scored music for the movie?

Aryak: That would be me (smiles). Although initially i thought of roping in Joubert again for playing bass (laughs).

Shazma

Daoud

-Daoud Mohd. Khan and Shazma Iqbal

BA (Hons) Eng III

Interviewing Palash Krishna Mehrotra.

Q) What do you think of the concept of bringing Dickens and Manto on the same platform in this Literary Festival?

-Charles Dickens and Sadat Hassan Manto are two of many favourite authors. It is nice to bring a short story writer along with a novelist on the same stage.

Q) What is your opinion of this particular event?

-(laughs pleasantly) I haven’t really seen it yet. No idea about it.

Q) What kind of books do you prefer to read and who are your favourite authors? And your favourite genre?

-I have read Dickens from a young age mainly the abridged versions. His stories seems to grip you. Manto is someone I have always admired. As a short story writer I have always admired Manto. Some of my favourite writers are Vilas Sarangal, Raven Karen, J. D. Salinger’s Nine Stories (1953) and Jeet Thayil whose work has been nominated for the Booker Prize 2012.

Q) How will you classify your latest work,’ The Butterfly Generation’? and why is it named so?

-It is a book about people in their thirties and the socialist movement of the 70’s India. It is different now as it is capitalistic. Butterfly stands for metamorphosis. India since the 1970’s has seen a change, from Bajaj-Chetak Scooters to Maruti cars. It took my father six years to buy a Chetak scooter. This book brings two worlds together. There is a sense of nostalgia when the two worlds of the past and the present are brought together.

Prof. Assadudin added: The change from cycle to scooter to the Maruti car to the present, we can see, a sea change between the past and the present.

Q) Tell us something about your upcoming work “The Eternal Tenant”?

Mr. Palash Krishna Melhotra - This book is set in South Delhi and its about a House. There are 3-4 dysfuctional middle age characters who pass through this house. The tenant is a guy who moves into the house but never leaves it.  The rest of the plot will work out in the mind gradually (smiles).

Prof. Ameena Kazi Ansari- Interestingly now a days cities have been captured in the writings.

-Nayema, Farhain and Lubna (L-R)
MA Final

What the Report of, “What the Dickens….

        On the second day of the Pickwick Festival, the quiz contest “What the Dickens and Manto?” was scheduled. The programme started with an inaugural speech by the Chief Guest of the event, Professor Anisur Rahman. In his enlightening speech, in which he traced back the history of the word Quiz, along with its mythical origin. The word was coined in 1791, in Dublin and it gained popularity in India, some 45 years ago with the efforts of an Anglo-Indian from Calcutta, Neil O’Brien. He saw the culture of Pub Quiz in England and introduced it in the church in Calcutta. It soon became a popular game and was named “North Star”. It was popularised on Vividh Bharti by Sayani Brothers in the form of the show “Bournvita Quiz Contest”.

         
        The quiz master Mr Roomy Naqvy took the initiative of conducting the event. Being prompt and entertining, his role as the quiz master was commendable. The event heads Ayesha Kamal and Eeliya Jeega, organised the show and ensured its proper functioning with the support of all the volunteers. The atmosphere seemed electrified. The Quiz competition had questions about the life, times and works of Charles Dickens and Sadat Hassan Manto predominantly and their contemporaries as well.

        There was a preliminary round where out of 13, 8 teams made it to the final round which consisted of 5 sessions, where questions were thrown in the clockwise direction thrice, and in the anti-clockwise direction twice, around the teams. Questions such as identifying characters and quotes from the works of these literary giants, were posed to the participants that had them using all parts of their brains. The quiz master’s wit kept the competition a light and a fun affair. It was apparent that, those who paid attention to the details of the plays enacted on the first day at the Dramatics competition, would have hit the bull's eye constantly through the competition.

        The rounds came to a close with team G (members: Aryak Ray and Zainab Abrar) emerging victorious with 160 points. The event was summed up by Dr Ameena Kazi Ansari who said that it was an insightful affair and claimed that she was enlightened by certain facts.

-Lubna Ansari

MA Final

Ameena Ma'am Questioned, For a change! :)

Q1) What according to you is the most important element in a drama?

Ans- There isn't just a single element of importance in a drama. There are a number of things which in fact contribute to a successful drama. Two things, which I consider essential are:

a) Choice of the text: It should be appealing to the audience.

b) Human situation which is relevant to the society.

Q2)Can you throw some light on the plot/theme that Dickens and Manto have incorporated in their works?

Ans- Dickens and Manto’s works reflected basically the world that they lived in. They had a humanitarian approach to the social problem. Also, Manto’s works in particular are historical documents as well.

Q3) As far as props are concerned, how essential are they for dramatization?

Ans- Props are not all important. Its not just the physical prop that one should always think of. There are many other factors like expressions, voice modulation, and gestures which contribute significantly to create dramatic tension on stage.

Q4) All the students had performed plays written by Manto .Unfortunately Dickens did not find a representation here. What do you think could be the reason for this?

Ans- Well, that is primarily because Dickens' world is a foreign world. Students performed plays which are rooted in our soil and one could easily relate to it.

Q5) Characters in drama play a pivotal role in communicating a playwright’s message to the audience. Do you agree with this statement?

Ans- Yes. The characters tell the stories. In fact, they give life to the play. Plays can be adapted in various languages but its only the characters that pertinently appeal to the masses and get entrenched in their minds.

- Sadia Khan
B.A (Hons) Eng III