divaswapna book review in english

The Inquisitive mind.

Views express are strictly personal.

Wednesday, September 26, 2012

Divaswapna: a review.

•  Gijubhai’s concepts of education that he had experimented in a school are ideas that he has conceived, and experimented by himself. Therefore, the big challenged that we faced today is how do these concepts get translated to our teachers in the school? Is our teacher’s efficient enough to practice these concepts in their class? If not, how do we equip them to do so?
• Challenging and changing the existing system is not an easy task. We need a strong structural support. The issue with us today is how do we get this structural (say authority) support?
• Gijubhai’s proposed concept of “child-centered” learning is what we need in our schools today. However, equally (if not bigger) important to it is “teacher-centered” education. Is our teacher’s education designed is such a way that our teacher will be able to imbibe such concepts? Does our teachers’ education system highlight such “sensitivity” so that our teachers will be able to put those into practice?

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Millennial Matriarchs

Musings on Life and Times: Views, Reviews, Previews, Interviews..and Advice

A Teacher’s Reverie: Divaswapna

India marked Teacher’s Day on 5 September. It was once again a time to celebrate teachers, and also a time for articles and discussions on education. The dream of an ideal educational system has found expression in numerous forms—from fiction to inspiring real life stories; from policy documents, to pockets of practice. In all these the focus has been on the teacher as the key. In India this is once again reiterated in the New Education Policy 2020 which states that: The teacher must be at the centre of the fundamental reforms in the education system. The new education policy must help re-establish teachers, at all levels, as the most respected and essential members of our society, because they truly shape our next generation of citizens.  

The NEP 2020 also  adds that: A good education institution is one in which every student feels welcomed and cared for, where a safe and stimulating learning environment exists, where a wide range of learning experiences are offered, and where good physical infrastructure and appropriate resources conducive to learning are available to all students.

This vision is not new. Over years, and generations, educators have imagined such an educational system. It was the same vision that, a hundred years ago, drove a young teacher in Gujarat to become of the great educationists of our times.  This was Gijubhai Badheka.

As he experimented with new approaches and methods of eduaction, Gijubhai closely observed the responses of the children and noted these down. He also realised that his experiments with children would be effective only if teachers and parents were to understand and apply the same in their dealings with children.  All his experiments, observations, notings, and vision for a different kind of education culminated in the book titled Divaswapna (Daydream). First published in 1931, Divaswapna is a fictional story of a teacher Laxmishankar, which has close parallels with Gijubhai’s own experiments in education.

The story is set in a time when the British were ruling India. Education was bound by a prescribed curriculum, belief in corporal punishment, and supervised by white Education Officers.  But in every situation, there are a few outliers, and Laxmishankar was one of them. Divaswapna journals the young teacher’s experiences in his own words.

Laxmishankar a young and idealistic teacher with very different ideas about what good education can be, approaches the British Education Officer for an opportunity to teach in a school and put some of his theories into practise. 

The Education officer at first laughs at him, but then reluctantly gives him permission to teach class 4 for one year. But with the condition that at the end of the year the students would take the same examination as the rest, and show good results.

Laxmishankar takes up challenge. Armed with all his theories and academic reading he enters class 4. He is shocked to finds that it is like a fish market—with rowdy students screaming, running around and fighting. He realises that to make his daydream into a reality he would have to find different ways to reach the hearts of the students.

The next day he starts by telling them a story. The class becomes quiet and attentive. In fact they are reluctant to go home. The stories continue for the next ten days. When he is reprimanded for this, and for not following the curriculum he explains: I am teaching them orderly behaviour through story sessions. They are being motivated. I am exposing them to literature and linguistic skills.  

This initiation leads the students to want read, they begin to perform the stories, and share them with other students. Laxmishankar sets up a small class library. Students who have never read anything other than their textbook, are curious and interested.

Laxmishankar begins to use games as a way to instil the concept of rules, discipline and team work. 

His bigger challenge comes when he has to convince parents to send their children to school in clean clothes, with neat hair and clipped nails. Both educational authorities and parents deride him saying that personal hygiene was none of his business. But Laxmishankar felt that the first lesson to be learnt was neatness, cleanliness, and

Lakshmishankar is a teacher with passion, ideals and zeal to try something different. But he faces innumerable challenges from all quarters. All the while he has to face the derision and challenges from all quarters. Not just in handling the students and other teachers, but equally in meeting the expectations of the parents . “I had believed that giving a talk and a little explanation to parents would suffice. But the parents here know only one thing. “Teach the boys” they say. They don’t have time even to listen to anything else and they don’t understand either.”

His colleagues look upon him as a misguided individual. “ My colleagues the teachers have no faith in me. They look down upon me as an out and out impractical person. Maybe I am rather. Besides I have no experience. But I have no faith in their beliefs and methods of teaching. They annoy me . … The other teachers say that I am spoiling the boys by overindulgence; they complain that I tell the boys stories only and don’t teach them, that I make them miss their classes by taking them out for games.

I am sure mine is the right approach. We shall see. These games and stories are, to my mind, half their education. … I will have to bear in mind that my task is going to be difficult, and I should not lose sight of this .

The higher authorities want quick results. The Education Officer has now become rather impatient. He has his own problems. He has to contend with his superiors and opponents. He wants to share the glory and therefore want results but he wants them quickly.  He has his limitations in helping me.

Undaunted, Laxmishankar continues with these experiments for the first three months. In the third month, he starts looking at the prescribed syllabus. Knowing that the students would have to pass exams in all the subjects, Laxmishankar adopts innovative methods like dictation from storybooks to develop language skills; history through stories; spontaneous play-acting instead of rote learning and recitation; grammar through word games; language through riddles and puzzles; geography and nature study through field trips and outings.

As the year goes on, Laxmishankar continues to try new approaches to teaching different subjects. His students do well in the terminal exams. Some of the teachers too begin to see that changes are possible, but most of them are still sceptical. They feel that Laxmishankar can afford to do these experiments because he does not have to worry about money, and that he reads English books from where he gets his ideas, and that he has the time and leisure for such things. Laxmishankar refutes this. Experiments do not succeed merely because one knows English. That is a lame excuse one resorts to when one doesn’t want to work. The main thing is the intuition to innovate. And that comes from the yearning of ones soul for a cause .

At the end of the academic year the Education Officer sees the real change in the students of Class 4. Not just their academic performance but equally their appearance and behaviour. He recommended that the entire class be promoted. But Laxmishankar himself recommends otherwise in the case of a few students. He feels that these had not come up to the mark. It is not that they are unfit for the school. Rather this school is unfit for them. The school is unable to teach them what they have an aptitude for.

It was decided that instead the prize money of Rs 125 which every year was distributed among the students was instead to be used for starting a school library, and would be continued every year. 

At the Annual Day function the Education Officer concluded by saying: When this gentleman came to me last year with the request for permission to make an experiment in Class 4 of the primary school, I considered him to be an impractical fool. I had thought that he was just like many others of his kind and would run away at the first opportunity when put to the test.  So I gave him permission. I had no faith in him. But I must admit he has achieved success in his experiment. He has changed my ideas .

Divaswapna echoes the continuing quest for an educational system of our dreams, while it tells the story of a teacher who dared to do something to make the dream a reality.  Divaswapna the book is also considered to be one of the greatest contributions to pedagogy in the last century.  Originally published in 1931 in Gujarati, the book was later published by the National Book Trust in 11 Indian languages.

–Mamata

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Empowering learners, one spark at a time.

Book Review of a Wonderful and Delightful read ‘DIVASVAPNA’

What a good read- my seventh book of the year 2019.

The book, Divaswapna has been written by a prominent Gujarati educationist and teacher Gijubhai Badheka (1885-1939). It was first published in the Gujarati language in 1932 and was translated into different languages subsequently.

The author was a strong antagonist of the existing education system which he incidentally called in his book “the old servile system”. He strongly opposed the kind of school whose sole objective was to teach and guide students to overcome the ultimate test at the end of the year called the “examination”.

He has propounded a new and different perspective, concept and method of his own to counter the existing system. He propagated that school should be  a place where children feel free to learn, enjoy and like .  The teacher should be like a friend and not feared by children. Children should develop the zeal to learn and experience the joy of learning in the school.

With his enthusiasm to highlight the fault in the existing system through his own concept, he took the extra step in convincing the Education Officer to provide him with the opportunity to experiment his concept in the school, which he succeeds with his perseverance.

The book is broadly divided into four main parts, namely-

• The experiment begins,
• The progress of the experiment,
• At the end of the term, and
• The last gathering.

These 4 chapters bring into light the concepts, the experiment, the challenges and the outcomes. This book is where he put down into paper his experiences in the entire process.

He has experimented these concepts among the 4 th Standard children in a school in Gujarat. He also faced all kinds of challenges from different corners be it from the children themselves, the teacher as well as the authorit y, i.e the education officer. He had always been in the receiving ends of the Teachers and Head Teachers resentment. Challenges such as ‘ Orthodox teaching method’, ‘Rote memorization’,  ‘Corporal Punishment’ ‘No emphasis of Personal Cleanliness’, ‘Physical fitness’ and ‘Lack of resources’ were the ones that he encountered while he was in the classroom.

Besides, the fact that the ultimate evaluation of the children will be done not on his new concept, but in the existing system, i.e., the term end examination is a big challenged for him. This possesses one of the biggest risks for him as the performance/success of his students at the end of the day will determine whether his new concept conveys a desired message to the authority or will it be nullified.

THE NEW METHODs OF TEACHING: Resembles many of the Remedial measures that I use in my small group lessons.

If you are a special educator, then you must read this book. It includes many good remedial teaching strategies that one can use for teaching skills such as listening skill, history, grammar etc. The author has actually given the list of teaching learning material for topics like teaching geography and arithmetic. I was blown away. He introduces a number of new techniques in teaching, which, other teacher felt very threatening to. However, his new methods of teaching work out very successfully with the children. Through these methods, children developed the art of writing, speaking, orderly behaviour, hygiene or cleanliness. In short, children attained the zeal of learning and experience the joy of it.

• Storytelling: Through storytelling, he taught students orderly manner, the art of listening attentively, discipline and the sense of silence at other’s speech. Also, storytelling is a wonderful tool to build a good rapport between the teacher and pupils.
• Games and Sports: Through games, he taught children the art of decision making, teamwork etc. For instance, there was a big disagreement between children on what kinds of games they should be playing. Some wanted ‘kabaddi’ while the others wanted ‘khokho’. In such a case, children have to make a decision and come to terms on the kind of game they should be playing. On the flipside, Gijubhai also highlighted to others how the concept of division and instilling a competition among the children create an adverse impact on them. The winner-loser mentality has created unnecessary discord between children.
• Activity Based Learning: Learning by doing is a new technique of teaching Mr Gijubhai has introduced in the school. The technique, as usual, does not go well with other teachers. For example, to teach geography, he took his students to the river, mountains etc or took measurement of the school itself. In that way, students better understand what was taught to them.
• Library: He was definitely aware of the importance of having a collection of books which children can read. He was of the view that the availability of such books at their disposal would instil in the children the zeal of learning. It can infuse in the children the habit of reading which is essential in education.

NEW PERSPECTIVES that are widely being put into the Indian education system

By experimenting such numbers of new tools/technique in teaching, the author attempted to infuse different perspective towards education among the authority, society, teachers and the children themselves. His main purpose of the experiment was to put forth a new perspective and concepts in education among the people.

• Child-centred Teaching/Learning: In short, he has propagated that paradigm shift in our education system, from “curriculum centred” learning to “child-centred” learning.
• Talent nurturing/Creativity: Gijubhai strongly believes in promoting the creativity of a child. He was against promoting only the child who fares better than the other children and neglecting those weaker students.
• The holistic approach to education: ‘Education is all around development’. This is a phrase easier said than done. Gijubhai was propagating that education does not only mean what is taught inside the classroom, but it also encompasses all those activities which include the physical, mental and emotional wellbeing of the child. He propounded that education should not be confined to the curriculum or the teaching inside the classroom alone. Education means beyond those boundaries.
• Peer Learning: Children learn not from teachers and books alone, but from each other as well.
• No Punishment: Gijubhai strongly challenged this concept of punishment, wherein children are forced to learn their lesson. Not understanding the lesson is not a crime and children should not be victimized on the pretext of not learning their lesson. Gijubhai strongly put up his view on the issue to the Education officer and even requested him to stop the used of punishment in school.
• Parent-Teacher Co-operation: The role of parents in children’s education was never thought of before. The popular perception was that the education of children lies in the hands of the teacher’s and the responsibility of the parents restricted to the enrollment of the child in the school. The author strongly disagrees and knows the importance of Parent-Teacher co-operation in the education of the child.

It is undeniable that the concepts that Gijubhai has propagated if effectively implemented, would suit the kind of ideal school that we have dreamt of. However, even after a century has passed by since the conception of these ideas, we are yet to see these concepts getting translated into our education system i.e. our schools. But I must share that, many schools that I have come across in my teaching experience have taken the risk of not going with traditional ways of educating students and embrace the concepts propagated by the author in this book.

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Published by Sumita Pandey

I am a certified Rehabilitation Therapist. I am currently working as a Special Educational Needs Teacher in an inclusive school. I am also providing Early Identification and Intervention services at my school. I interact with a range of year groups right from Early Years till Key stage 2. My weekdays are busy tapping the essence of smiles, love and laughter among all the little people around me. Through this blog, I wish to share my joys and sorrows, add a bit about my work experience with all like-minded people. I am a motivated and lifelong learner, striving my best to be a better self. View all posts by Sumita Pandey

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Divaswapna (Daydream)

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Once Upon a Story: Divaswapna and the Gijubhai Method Paperback – March 15, 2019

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• Publisher ‏ : ‎ Independently published (March 15, 2019)
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Gijubhai's Divaswapna

An educator's reverie.

The year was 1911. A young man set up practice as a District Pleader in Vadhwan Camp, in the erstwhile princely state of Bhavnagar in Saurashtra. His practice was doing well, he was gaining a name and earning too, but his heart was not in the machinations of legal matters.

In 1913, he became a father to a son. The advent of the child Narendra triggered the life mission which would launch him into a new role. The man was Gijubhai Badheka and his mission was to bring about a revolution in the field of child development and education.

Indian education during that time was a curious mixture of the Macaulayism as practised by the English rulers and the traditional “spare the rod and spoil the child” tenet. Narendra’s parents saw the sorry state of the local schools and were apprehensive about the kind of education their son would get. Gijubhai yearned for something different for his child, but was not able to visualise what this could be. So he started reading whatever he could find about education and educators. He also started sharing his anxiety and dilemmas with his friends.

One of these was friends was Darbarshri Gopaldas Desai, who visited Vadhwan Camp often. He told Gijubhai “If you want to read literature about children’s education, and see a new kind of school, go to Vaso and meet Motibhai Amin”. This was when the door opened for him. Gijubhai went to Vaso, met Motibhai and saw his school. He came back with many books; among which was a book (Montessori Mother) describing the Montessori Method of education. This was Gijubhai’s introduction to the thinking of Maria Montessori, and her writing.

The more he read, the more deeply he started thinking about children and child development, and about putting the theory to practice. He also started experimenting with young Narendra, and sharing his observations with his friends, as also the ideas of Montessori. As his desire to spend more time and energy into this new challenge grew, the further he drifted from his legal practice.

That is where serendipity stepped in. In 1915, Gijubhai helped to frame the constitution of an educational institution in Bhavnagar called Dakshinamurti. Its founders were kindred spirits, all grappling with dilemmas about education, as well as reading the works of Montessori. This was the turning point. At the age of 32, Gijubhai quit his legal practice, and joined Dakshinamurti in 1916, initially as Assistant Warden of the student’s hostel, and teaching in the High School. His direct interactions with students reinforced his conviction that if real change had to happen – it was critical to start from early childhood. He put forth a proposal to the Board to start an experimental pre-school (Balmandir). His wish was granted and in 1920 the Daxinamurti Balmandir started. This became Gijubhai’s karmabhoomi (the land where one works). And this is where he applied the Montessori philosophy and method, drawing upon the core beliefs and tenets about child development, while adapting the methods and techniques to suit the local realities.

As he experimented with new approaches and methods, Gijubhai closely observed the responses of the children and noted these down. He also realised that his experiments with children would make be effective only if teachers and parents were to understand and apply the same in their dealings with children. And so he wrote about these addressing specifically teachers (Prathmik Shikshak) and parents (Ma Baap Thavu Aghru Chhe and Aa Te She Mathaphod).

All his experiments, observations, notings and vision for a different kind of education culminated in the book titled Divaswapna (Daydream). This is a fictional story of teacher which has close parallels with Gijubhai’s own experiences.

- Mamata Pandya

The Story of Divaswapna

Divaswapna was published in 1931 in Gujarati.

This is the fictional story of a teacher Laxmiram, as related by himself. The book is almost like a journal that traces his experiences of teaching in one year.

It is set in a time when the British were ruling India. Education was bound by a prescribed curriculum, belief in corporal punishment, and supervised by white Education Officers.

Laxmiram a young and idealistic teacher with very different ideas about what good education can be, approaches the Education Officer for an opportunity to teach in a school and put some of his theories into practise.

The Education officer at first laughs at him, but then reluctantly gives him permission to teach class 4 for one year. But with the condition that at the end of the year the students would take the same examination as the rest and show good results.

Laxmiram takes up challenge. Armed with all his theories and academic reading he enters class 4. He is shocked to finds that it is like a fish market - with rowdy students screaming, running around and fighting. He realises that to make his daydream into a reality he would have to find ways to reach the hearts of the students.

The next day he starts by telling them a story. The class becomes quiet and attentive. In fact they are reluctant to go home. The stories continue for the next ten days. When he is reprimanded for this, and not for not following the curriculum he explains:

I am teaching them orderly behaviour through story sessions. They are being motivated. I am exposing them to literature and linguistic skills.

Divaswapna - Gijubhai Badheka (Translation - Chittaranjan Pathak, N.B.T. 2006) (p 12)

This initiation leads the students to want read, they begin to perform the stories, and share them. Laxmiram sets up a small class library. Students who have never read anything other than their textbook, are curious and interested.

Laxmiram begins to use games as a way to instil the concept of rules, discipline and team work.

His bigger challenge comes when he has to convince parents to send their children to school in clean clothes, with neat hair and clipped nails. Both educational authorities and parents deride him saying that personal hygiene was none of his business. But Laxmiram feels that the first lesson to be learnt was neatness, cleanliness, and order. And he introduces daily routines in the class to inculcate these habits.

Laximram is a teacher with passion, ideals and zeal to try something different. But he faces derision and innumerable challenges from all quarters.

He has an uphill task not just in handling the students, but equally in meeting the expectations of the parents.

It is necessary for the teacher to guide the child without letting him feel the pressure too much, so that she may be always ready to supply the desired help but may never be the obstacle between the child and his experience.

I had believed that giving a talk and a little explanation to parents would suffice. But the parents here know only one thing. "Teach the boys" they say. They don’t have time even to listen to anything else and they don't understand either.

Divaswapna - Gijubhai Badheka (Translation - Chittaranjan Pathak, N.B.T. 2006) (p 25)

His colleagues look upon him as a misguided individual.

My colleagues the teachers have no faith in me. They look down upon me as an out and out impractical person. Maybe I am rather. Besides I have no experience. But I have no faith in their beliefs and methods of teaching. They annoy me. …The other teachers say that I am spoiling the boys by overindulgence; they complain that I tell the boys stories only and don’t teach them, that I make them miss their classes by taking them out for games.

Divaswapna - Gijubhai Badheka (Translation - Chittaranjan Pathak, N.B.T. 2006) (p 26)

The higher authorities want quick results.

The Education Officer has now become rather impatient. He has his own problems. He has to contend with his superiors and opponents. He wants to share the glory and therefore want results but he wants them quickly. He has his limitations in helping me.

Laxmiram is battered, but not beaten. He resolutely clings on to his convictions and continues his experiments.

I am sure mine is the right approach. We shall see. These games and stories are, to my mind, half their education. I will have to bear in mind that my task is going to be difficult, and I should not lose sight of this.

These efforts go on for the first three months. In the third month, Laxmiram starts looking at the prescribed syllabus, knowing that the students would have to pass exams in all the subjects. While adhering broadly to the content, Laxmiram adopts innovative methods to tackle the syllabus. He introduces dictation from storybooks to develop language skills; history through stories; spontaneous play-acting instead of rote learning and recitation; grammar through word games; language through riddles and puzzles; geography and nature study through field trips and outings. He engages the students in what we, today, call “learning by doing.”

As the year goes on, Laxmiram continues to try new approaches to teaching different subjects. His students do well in the terminal exams. Some of the teachers too begin to see that changes are possible, but most of them are still sceptical. Their perception is that Laxmiram can afford to do these experiments because he does not have to worry about money; and that he reads English books from where he gets his ideas, and that he has the time and leisure for such things. Laxmiram refutes this.

Experiments do not succeed merely because one knows English. That is a lame excuse one resorts to when one doesn’t want to work. The main thing is the intuition to innovate. And that comes from the yearning of ones soul for a cause.

Divaswapna - Gijubhai Badheka (Translation - Chittaranjan Pathak, N.B.T. 2006) (p 88)

At the end of the academic year the Education Officer sees real change in the students of Class 4. Not just in their academic performance, but equally in their appearance and behaviour. He recommends that the entire class be promoted. But Laxmiram himself recommends otherwise in the case of a few students who he feels had not come up to the mark. And for this he blames not the students but the system.

It is not that they are unfit for the school. Rather this school is unfit for them. The school is unable to teach them what they have an aptitude for.

Divaswapna - Gijubhai Badheka (Translation - Chittaranjan Pathak, N.B.T. 2006) (p 102)

In a break from tradition, it is decided that the prize money of Rs 125 which every year was distributed among the bright students was instead to be used for starting a school library, and this would be continued every year.

At the Annual Day function the Education Officer concludes by saying,

When this gentleman came to me last year with the request for permission to make an experiment in Class 4 of the primary school, I considered him to be an impractical fool. I had thought that he was just like many others of his kind and would run away at the first opportunity when put to the test. So I gave him permission. I had no faith in him. But I must admit he has achieved success in his experiment. He has changed my ideas. …Look at the children of his class. How orderly, healthy and cheerful they are. I am a witness to their development and growth. Their parents have often expressed their satisfaction to me.

Divaswapna - Gijubhai Badheka (Translation - Chittaranjan Pathak, N.B.T. 2006) (p 104)

Lakshmishankar concludes, "The Director's speech was over. Everyone dispersed and I came home."

And thus an educator's reverie bears real fruit.

Divaswapna An Educator's Reverie is considered as a seminal contribution to world-class pedagogy in the last century. It was originally published in 1931 in Gujarati. In 1990 it was published in English by the National Book Trust. It has subsequently been published by NBT in 11 Indian languages.

Publishing Divaswapna

Sharing the dream in many languages.

An educational magazine Naya Shiksak (published by the Education Department, Rajasthan) first reprinted in the 1980s the whole Divaswapna in Hindi as a special issue of their magazine. The book was translated from Gujarati into Hindi by Kashinath Trivedi (Dada) a few years after it came in Gujarati. But Kashinathji failed to find a publisher in Hindi. Later he printed 1000 copies in Hindi with his own money. Kashinathji (Dada) was an eminent Gandhian and also the first minister of Education of Madhya Pradesh. This is what he recounted. "I always carried a few copies of Divaswapna in my bag. Whenever he met someone interested in Education, I always told him the story of Divaswapna and if the person was interested in reading it sell it for Rs 1.25." This is how without any institutional support Dada kept Diwaswapna alive for over 50 years!

I was simply swept away after reading Divaswapna . It was the most original and creative Indian experience of a school which I ever read. So, reaching Divaswapna out to other people became a personal obsession.

Shobha Bhagwat, founder Director of the Garware Balbhavan, Pune translated Divaswapna in Marathi. But we could not find a publisher! "If it is prescribed in the BEd course then we will publish it," the publishers told us.

Anil Bordia - Secretary Ministry of Human Resources Development had read Divaswapna and he loved it. He helped us by giving a grant to the Indian Institute of Education (IIE, Pune) headed by Dr. Chitra Naik to publish it in Marathi. The first print run in Marathi was 35,000 copies!

I sent a copy of the Hindi Divaswapna to Shanta Rameshwar Rao, founder of the Vidyaranya School, Hyderabad and the wife of the Chairperson of Orient Longman. Shanta understood Hindi but was not fluent in reading it. She came to Vidyaranya early for a fortnight and had the Hindi teacher read it aloud to her. Later she wrote to me "Having not read Divaswapna earlier I have no right to call myself an educationist!"

We thought that Divaswapna should be translated into English from the original Gujarati. Then we discovered Chitaranjan Bhai Pathak who had just retired as a principal of a school in Mumbai. He was also Gijubhai's son-in-law. The Hyderabad Book Trust published it first in Telugu and it was published in Malayalam by the Kerala Sastra Sahitya Parishad.

- Arvind Gupta

Divaswapna in 12 languages

દિવાસ્વપ્ન

(Divaswapna)

Author: Gijubhai Badheka Language: Gujarati Format: PDF

दिवास्वप्न

Author: Gijubhai Badheka Language: Hindi (NBT) Format: PDF

Author: Gijubhai Badheka Language: Hindi Format: PDF

Author: Gijubhai Badheka Language: Hindi (Kindle) Format: PDF

Author: Gijubhai Badheka Language: Kannada Format: PDF

Author: Gijubhai Badheka Language: Malayalam Format: PDF

Author: Gijubhai Badheka Language: Marathi Format: PDF

Author: Gijubhai Badheka Language: Odia Format: PDF

Author: Gijubhai Badheka Language: Punjabi Format: PDF

Author: Gijubhai Badheka Language: Tamil Format: PDF

Author: Gijubhai Badheka Language: Telugu Format: PDF

Author: Gijubhai Badheka Language: Urdu Format: PDF

Author: Gijubhai Badheka Language: Nepali Format: PDF

Divaswapna (NBT)

Author: Gijubhai Badheka Language: English Format: PDF

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Divaswapna by Gijubhai Badheka

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Divaswapna: creativity in education- book review by ramesh d. gongadi.

Divaswapna (English translation) Book By Gijubhai Badheka ( in Hindi too )

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• Reading age 5 years and up
• Print length 50 pages
• Language English
• Dimensions 25 x 15 x 5 cm
• Publisher Divaswapna
• Publication date 1 January 2006
• ISBN-10 8123712375
• ISBN-13 978-8123712376
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• Publisher ‏ : ‎ Divaswapna (1 January 2006); National Book Trust
• Language ‏ : ‎ English
• Paperback ‏ : ‎ 50 pages
• ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 8123712375
• ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-8123712376
• Reading age ‏ : ‎ 5 years and up
• Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 50 g
• Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 25 x 15 x 5 cm
• Packer ‏ : ‎ D.K. Printworld Pvt. Ltd., Vedasri F-395, Sudarshan Park, New Delhi - 110015, Contact: +91-011 4172 2626, [email protected]
• Generic Name ‏ : ‎ Book
• #102,631 in Literature & Fiction (Books)

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Paramount shares gain as wall street gauges skydance deal; “the more important question is what happens next,” one analyst notes, ‘young woman and the sea’ review: daisy ridley inspires as first woman to swim english channel in disney’s splendid biopic.

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There was a time when Disney made ideal family movies that weren’t animated, or live action reboots of animated films. In fact, there was a time when Walt Disney would take on original live action true stories designed for the whole family to enjoy.

Now, thanks to the efforts of director Joachim Ronning and mega-producer Jerry Bruckheimer ‘s clout and dedication, the studio has an echo of its past with Young Woman And The Sea , the true biopic and inspiring saga of Trudy Ederle.

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It still took years even for Bruckheimer to convince Disney to make it, and it is getting only a limited theatrical release before streaming. But hopefully, the inevitable word of mouth for this crowd-pleaser will make it more than limited. This is a big screen film that deserves to be seen with an audience, and not lost in the streaming larder. It also proves that they do make ’em like they used to, at least occasionally.

Basically following the linear story of Trudy (Olive Abercrombie plays the young Trudy), we see her early family life, and then her desire to make a difference for girls. The place she could do that was in the pool, an effort supported by her mother (Jeanette Hain), who knew from a previous ocean tragedy that learning to swim was important for her kids. That not only went for Trudy ( Daisy Ridley ), but also her older sister Meg (Tilda Cobham-Hervey), who would go on to become her sister’s biggest supporter, even on the boat that accompanied Trudy as she took on the English Channel.

But the crux of the story is seeing the perseverance it took to achieve this milestone, a belief that you never give up. Ridley simply embodies that spirit of this young woman (who eventually went deaf and died in 2003 at age 98) and delivers a memorable performance, including complete authenticity in her quest. Cobham-Hervey is excellent as well, and the parents are nicely played by Kim Bodnia as Henry, a dedicated German-born butcher and father who feared for his daughter, but then became a #1 fan, and especially by Hain, superb as the wise and determined mother, Gertrude, with a mind of her own and the will to do what is best for her family.

Stephen Graham is excellent and a lot of fun as the most unlikely of coaches, a man who, in 1911, became the second person to swim the Channel, and now is key to helping Trudy make history.

As you might expect with a Bruckheimer production, it looks magnificent, with excellent cinematography both above and below the waves (Oscar Faura was the DP), production design from Nora Takacs Ekberg, and a sweeping score by Amelia Warner. Pulling all this off with so many water scenes could not have been easy, but Ronning, well-versed in water from Kon-Tiki and Pirates Of The Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales ( which he did for Bruckheimer) was clearly the right choice for the job. It looks sensational.

Producers are Bruckheimer, Nathanson, and Chad Oman.

Title: Young Woman And The Sea

Distributor: Walt Disney Studios

Release Date: May 31, 2024

Director: Joachim Ronning

Screenplay: Jeff Nathanson

Cast: Daisy Ridley, Tilda Cobham-Hervey, Stephen Graham, Kim Bodnia, Jeanette Hain, Christopher Eccleston, Glenn Fleshler, Sian Clifford, Olive Abercrombie

Running Time: 2 Hours and 9 Minutes

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Divorced, Disheveled and Hiking Toward Love

In David Nicholls’s “You Are Here,” a boggy trek through the English countryside becomes an unlikely impetus for midlife romance.

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By Paul Rudnick

Paul Rudnick is the author of “Farrell Covington and the Limits of Style.”

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YOU ARE HERE, by David Nicholls

David Nicholls’s captivating new novel takes place almost entirely during a guided, days-long walk through the English countryside, past perilous crags, moors and villages with names like Buttermere, Honister Pass and Bolton-on-Swale. In lesser hands, “You Are Here” might be a literal slog, but Nicholls has fashioned an ideal structure for an affectingly hard-won romance, a genre he has honed as the author of many best sellers, including the much loved and repeatedly adapted “One Day.”

Here, a sightseeing, exercise-anticipating group — “four single people, a married couple, a teenager” — is soon winnowed, thanks to the punishing rain and boot-sucking mud, to just two: Michael Bradshaw, a geography teacher, and Marnie Walsh, a freelance copy editor, both barely recovered from divorces.

Michael, while morosely pining for his ex, still becomes a sturdy and slyly amusing authority figure, his journey “the kind of obsessive project that overtakes men in the middle of life.” He believes that “stepping outside transformed loneliness into solitude,” and his recently grown beard gives him the look, according to Marnie, of “someone who’d spent a year filming puffins in the Hebrides.” While rarely self-pitying, Michael is flailing amid the debris of a loving marriage gone sour and the aftershocks of a random act of street violence.

Marnie is a compulsively witty, winningly cranky near-agoraphobe. While the novel isn’t set during the coronavirus pandemic, those years of enforced isolation and working from home inform the narrative, as Michael and Marnie crawl out from their respective, maybe-too-comfortable burrows. Marnie grew up so obsessed with books that “my parents actually told me to read less.” She admits that she sometimes wished she were an orphan, although “only for the narrative possibilities.”

After splitting from a shallow and unappreciative husband who resembled “the least popular member of a boy band,” Marnie, whose career can be pursued entirely on her laptop, has become estranged from coupled friends and their growing families. She’s someone addicted to “the pleasure of the canceled plan” — not out of envy or spite, but a hermit’s discomfort.

Pushing herself to turn outward, she prepares for the group trek by purchasing “socks of an unimaginable complexity, based on a design by NASA, and a red woolly beanie because wasn’t 95 percent of body heat lost through the head? She bought thermals in case of snow, sunblock in case of sun, she bought maps and a clear waterproof pouch for the maps, and a rucksack with a pocket for the map pouch plus the capacity to carry 40 liters of clothing, though she struggled to imagine what 40 liters of clothing would look like.” In his pack, the more experienced Michael has a single “night-life shirt” and one pair of underwear, which he scrubs in bathroom sinks and leaves on radiators to dry overnight.

Both protagonists are prickly, smart and desperately yearning, but utterly guarded for understandably good reasons. As in the best romances, we cherish Michael’s and Marnie’s difficult personalities, and relish the unlikely process that might bring them together.

Their walk provides a perfect backdrop for conversations that begin with banter and deepen into confession, always enlivened with humor and factoids about limestone outcroppings that should be tedious but also resonate and entertain. Over the course of a week, Marnie keeps plotting escape, via taxi and train, but continues to postpone these arrangements to spend another few knee-punishing, downpour-drenched hours with Michael, who inwardly delights in every delay. They book their nights at a series of hotels, bed-and-breakfasts and linoleum-infested rooms above pubs, the sort of blandly depressing lodgings where “you might stay the night before a relative’s funeral.”

Nicholls manipulates the action with a farceur’s finesse, amping up the sexual heat only to have it thwarted by an inopportune text, lumpy twin beds or a landlady’s prim insistence on “no guests after 10, please!” Marnie and Michael keep ordering champagne, almost falling into each other’s arms and verging on passionate candor without quite crossing the finish line. And rather than growing foot-tappingly frustrating, this almost-but-not-quite gamesmanship becomes delicious, because each is such good company for the other and for the reader.

There are tickling digressions along the way, as when Nicholls encapsulates the joys and irritations of Michael’s job: “He was well liked as a teacher, more than he knew, although he could no longer pull off the larky irreverence required to be adored.” On Marnie, working to copy-edit the “opening orgy” in the manuscript of an absurdly pornographic saga called “Twisted Night,” he writes: “So disorienting was the action that she had to make notes on her napkin to establish everyone’s whereabouts, a complex web of arrows and initials, like a diagram of the Battle of Austerlitz.”

Nicholls builds his own erotic and at times wrenchingly emotional suspense as the would-be lovers reveal past mishaps and surrendered dreams, both imagining themselves to be hopelessly damaged and undesirable. They force themselves to listen to each other’s playlists, a nightmarish test of compatibility. And they share recaps of their capsized marriages; the self-protectively clever Marnie initially makes her recounting too entertainingly glib, almost a standup routine, while Michael hoards his most painful memories, collecting pebbles along the walk to convince himself that he’s still functional, not “cracked and vulnerable, like a cup with a glued-on handle.”

Nicholls is rightfully attached to his central couple and their baggage of cherished neuroses, until he accepts that he has to decide on a happy ending or something more bittersweet, and how to earn either. He succeeds beautifully. Nicholls’s dialogue is flawless (he’s also an experienced screenwriter) and even his descriptions of bogs and muck can enchant. The novel is sharp-tongued and irresistible, the most intelligent treat.

And while I’d never want to trek through so much wooded British acreage, or get so poundingly hung over after sweaty, fragrant pub crawls, “You Are Here” makes its woebegone adventures feel consistently festive and heartbreaking. As my mother always told me, “A little fresh air won’t kill you.” And as I reliably replied, “You don’t know that.”

YOU ARE HERE | By David Nicholls | Harper | 368 pp. | $30

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