Balaji Ranganathan - Reflective blog on learning experiences

                        This Blog is about the feedback on Guest lecturer Balaji Ranganathan sir who came from Central University of Gujarat and he taught us about postcolonial studies. We had three days sessions from 14th September to 16th September 2018, on the  postcolonial paper. 

Postcolonial studies is very hard to understand but Balaji sir taught each and every unit very wonderful way. His level was very high than us because he is teaching to the Ph.D scholars in CUG but he knew our level and try to teach as per our level so, he gave very simple examples so that students understand easily the concept of postcolonial studies. So, now I am going to write that what I liked from the teaching of Balaji sir and what were the unique ideas/style/concept I learnt from the three days.

• Method: Method is very important aspect in teaching learning process if method is not  interesting than students get bore. So, I liked Balaji sir's method, he made an interaction rather than a lecture, because first he ask students that what you think about the topic and what it is and keep on asking such a questions before the beginning of the topic so students can curious about the topic. So, Balaji sir used various approaches and tools like chalk an talk, videos, pictures etc and his style to begin topic was wonderful, he talked through various history to make interesting topic.

• Fluent English: I liked his fluency in English language, pronunciation, vocabulary, tone, voice everything was superb. He also said that it is good that you all are from Gujarati medium and though you selected English in bachelor and also told that if you want to become a master of English language than keep it twenty four hours with you. make your surrounding Englishmay.

• Knowledge: As per the definition of teacher, a teacher must have the knowledge of his content of subject. So, Balaji sir has very good knowledge about the postcolonial studies. Postcolonial studies very hard,  because to teach such a paper one must has the knowledge of the history, to teach 'Orientalism' you must have the knowledge of religions and geography of regions. Thus, Balaji sir has enough knowledge about different religions, regions, various books, philosophers, theorists etc. So, we can say that Balaji sir's reading is very vast and he gave various examples from various books and theories to convey the ideas very easily. He has knowledge about the holy books like Quran, Bible, Geeta, etc and also gave various examples from these books for extra knowledge.

• Use of Examples: Sir used various interesting examples throughout the sessions but I liked most was the example of desire<>Conflict in 'Imaginary Homeland' in which sir drew a formula about the conflict of desire and said that every human have desire, without desire one can not live. So, here is the formula of desire:

         1) Approach approach conflict (++)

         2) Approach avoidance conflict (+-)

         3) Avoidance avoidance conflict (--)

To understand this formula let me give an example that, one girl is looking for marriage and thinking about the wealth of boy and feel good but she do not like the look of boy so, here we can say that this desire is approach avoidance conflict.

• Unique idea/concept: There are many new ideas and concept which I liked most, I liked the idea about the Net/Set preparation pattern in which Balaji sir gave a unique pattern that solved 8000 MCQ with proper way. We can not read world's literature thoroughly we have to prepare in this way and it takes long time too. Another, is about the idea of "nation" and "State" in which sir explained that state means the territory of authority like king, queen, government have geographic state, but nation means an imagination. I liked this idea because sir explained it very well that people have their own definition about the nation, person by person it can be change because it is all about the imagination of people which make nation whatever they want, like now a days many countries like America, India imagining nation as Christian nation and Hindu nation. So, nation is an imagination was superb example and concept which I have learnt from Balaji Sir.

         Furthermore, Sir told us that don't think that you are the students of literature so you can not do any other kind of job, he said that learn any other foreign language like Chinese, Japani, etc to make good business and earn money to one lakh. So, it was also a new ideas to be succeeded in life.

At last, I would like to thanks Dr.Dilip Barad sir for inviting such a genuine professor with full of knowledge and enlightened us.

Thank you.