Devika Panikar
δάσκαλος (dáskalos) means the teacher in Greek. Devika Panikar has been teaching English Language and Literature since 2006. She is an Assistant Professor with the Directorate of Collegiate Education under the Government of Kerala and now works at the Government College Kasaragod. This website is a collection of lecture notes she prepared by referring to various sources for her students’ perusal.
The Kitemaker
Ruskin Bond’s story The Kitemaker presents the differences between the past and present in rural India primarily through the nostalgic recollections of an elderly man. The past differs considerably fr...
Father’s Help
Father's Help is one of R K Narayan's most popular short stories from his famous collection Malgudi Days. In this story, he presents a young boy, Swaminathan who is unwilling to go to school but is fo...
Pather Panchali: Romantic and Realistic
In a folk narrative of any culture, there are always both romantic and realistic elements. Generally, the description is romantic with realism lurking within it. Thus, Pather Panchali by Bibhutibhusha...
Passive Voice in Action
Active sentences are about what people (or things) do, while passive sentences are about what happens to people (or things). In academic writing, it is generally preferred to choose an active verb and...
Woman as Protagonist and Victim
Silence! The Court is in Session is the first of Vijay Tendulkar’s plays to become part of the New Indian Drama phenomenon of the sixties and the first significant modern Indian play in any language t...
I Can’t Help Blossoming
Dr K Ayyappa Panikar is one of the pioneers of modernism in Malayalam poetry. In his poem, I Can't Help Blossoming, he speaks about the importance of contentment in accomplishing one's life's mission ...