Teaching in a Primary School

No more crying for mamma. No more susu puddles in class. No more rank indiscipline. Just a class full of toilet-trained, well-adjusted, more or less disciplined children at a lovely, receptive age, an age when ‘but my mummy said’ or ‘but my daddy said’ gets replaced with teacher-adoration and the magic words ‘but my teacher said’.

Just a class full of six- and seven-year-olds with long- term memories, who will remember you – hopefully, with fondness – years and years after they have forgotten their KG teachers. Sometimes, it seems as if the primary schoolteacher has the best deal of all.

The primary schoolteacher also has the advantage of being the ‘class teacher’ instead of just a ‘subject teacher’. She is as completely involved with her kids as the KG schoolteacher, but unlike her, she can enjoy the rewards of teaching children who understand what she is teaching and respond eagerly, asking intelligent and curious questions, and coming up with completely creative answers to her questions. Again, unlike the subject teacher of the middle and high schools who only interact with a particular class for one period a day and therefore do not have the opportunity to bond too closely with them, the primary schoolteacher has a fantastic rapport with her students. It is up to the primary schoolteacher to create an atmosphere that will encourage children to keep firing their questions, so that they grow up to be individuals who can think for themselves, and to use her rapport with her students to teach them not just their lessons but also other important values of life.

Learning and Earnings

Primary schools are almost never stand-alone, but part of schools that have students all the way up to class X or XII. There are many advantages to being part of a big school. There is a large and vibrant community of teachers to interact with. You don’t lose touch with ‘your’ kids the moment they leave your hands; in fact, you can watch them grow up before your very eyes to become prefects and head boys and girls. It can be a good feeling, especially when they drop in unexpectedly on their way to and from classes to say hello.

How can you become a primary schoolteacher?

To qualify as a primary teacher you need a Diploma in Education (DEd) after your 10+2. You should have an excellent command over English, and an ability to teach all subjects, except languages, for which special language teachers are usually hired .

How much can you expect to earn?

Salary varies from school to school. Government-aided schools pay as per state education board guidelines. Salaries range from Rs. 4,000-5,000 for entry-level teachers and can go up to Rs. 10,000 inclusive of benefits for those with experience. Private or unaided schools have a salary structure as decided by the Trust that runs it, but it is more or less on the same lines.

Employment Opportunities

Schools sometimes advertise staff vacancies in national dailies (if they are schools like the Kendriya Vidyalayas or the DPS [Delhi Public School] which have branches all over India) or in local dailies. But usually you can apply directly, and the school puts you on a database until a vacancy comes up. Once it does, “You have to appear before a panel of the school management, who may test your skills in a live class. If you are selected, you are kept on probation for some time,” says Indira Pillai, principal of the primary section of the SIES school in Mumbai. The probation period varies between 6 months and 2 years depending on the management. Once you are permanently employed, you are entitled to all benefits like Provident Fund and Medical Leave.

With governments showing less and less inclination towards permanent recruitment, however, teachers are increasingly being hired on contract for a certain period, after which their contract is renewed if they have done a good job and the position still exists.

Once you have some years of experience as a primary school- teacher, you could rise to become the Asst Principal and then the Principal of the primary section. Or, if you are a graduate in any subject, and do a BEd alongside your teaching, you could go on to become a subject teacher in the middle or secondary school classes.

Orthodontists

These are the guys who are the bane of the teenager’s life; they do corrective work on teeth and jaws.

Periodontists

These are the gums specialists–they deal with the diseases of the gums and the jaw.

Prosthodontists

These ‘sculptors’ remake parts of the teeth, jaw, or face lost due to injury or disease.

Paedodontists

These dentists concern themselves entirely with the problems and treatment of children’s teeth. There’s lots of money to be made here.

Operativedentistsorendodontists

These dentists are again in a very profitable line of work, because they deal with root canal work.

Cosmetic and aesthetic dentists

These dentistsare involved not only in cosmetic or ‘want-based’ dentistry– where there is basically nothing obviously wrong with a patient’s teeth but he or she would like to get some work done on them to make them look better (teeth are too yellowish, smile is too‘gummy’,etc) but also in aesthetic or ‘need-based’ dentistry (where there are obvious aesthetic problems like protruding teeth).

Oralandmaxillofacialsurgeons

They deal with the repair of injuries and rectifying defects to the teeth, jaws and associated structures.

Forensic odontologists

They deal with the collection and evaluation of dental evidence in order to assist law enforcement officers either through the identification of human remains, bite-mark analysis or the examination of oral-facial injuries.

Oralpathologists

These dentists diagnose diseases of the mouth and jaw.

Oralradiologists

They are the X-ray specialists.

Oralsurgeons

Oral surgeons are qualified to operate on the mouth and jaw.

• Research engineers

Work on fundamental problems in engineering science. They use theory and do experiments to understand various principles and processes.

• Development engineers

Take research engineers’ concepts and transform them into useful processes or prototypes (models).

• Design engineers

Transfer a prototype or proven process from the developmental stage to a product or industrial scale process.

• Production engineers

Select manufacturing equipment and processes for mass production. They design manufacturing plants, and worry about things like costs and safety.

• Construction engineers

Convert designs in the form of plans and drawings into reality. They prepare the construction site, specify methods of construction on the basis of safety and economy, and coordinate materials, equipment, and human resources.

• Operations engineers

Are responsible for the day-to-day control of such facilities as chemical, nuclear, manufacturing, transportation, communication, or water treatment plants.

• Test engineers

Evaluate new designs and prototypes and ensure that raw materials and manufactured products meet the stipulated specifications.

• Quality engineers

Focus on ensuring that products are made to desired quality.

• Sales engineers

Usually are involved in selling technical and industrial products to other related businesses. .

Arsenal’s Thierry Henry was the highest goal scorer in the English Premier League. But half of his goals would not have been possible had it not been for mid-fielders like Dennis Bergkamp, Patrik Viera and Robert Pires. And Henry will be the first to admit it.

So, now you have an idea about what a team is. A set of individuals who have one common aim. To play at the best of their abilities so that the team can succeed.

Unless the team succeeds, individual glories don’t count for much.

Sachin Tendulkar was the man of the series in the 2003 World Cup held in South Africa. He single-handedly took India into the finals. But, as he himself admitted at the awards ceremony, that the award means a lot less to him as India failed to win the World Cup losing to Australia in the final.

If you are interested in sports like hockey, cricket or football, we list down a few things you should always remember:

• Being a team man will be just as important as having the talent.

• Often you will have to compromise so that the team remains united.

• Don’t look for individual glory. Personal achievements will always be noticed if the team is doing well.

• Respect your teammates even if they are not as good as you. They are in the team and are working just as hard as you are for its success.

Me, myself and sports — Individual sports:

In individual sports like tennis, badminton or squash, every player has a team working behind him. Coaches, physiotherapists, nutritionists to name a few. But they have a role as long as the player is not on the court.

After that, it is all upon self-belief and the desire to win. You will not have a teammate to pat on your back if you do well or miss an easy shot. There will be no one to tell you where you are going wrong and what changes you should make to your game as long as you are on the court.

But that’s what inspires champions. The ability of fighting against the world all alone. And just imagine the joy when they actually achieve what they believe in.

No one can tell you if individual sports are tougher than team sports. Both have its advantages and disadvantages. In the end, it depends upon which sport you take up.

But if you do take up an individual sport, we hope you remember these tips:

• Your success depends upon you and no one else. If you fail, it is only because you have not done well. Neither your coach nor anyone else is responsible for your failure.

• It is important to believe in yourself and have the confidence to forget failures and go back on the court and win.

• Off the field, your coach has a very important role to play. He can see where you are going wrong. Respect him and listen to him. Winning may be upon you, but he can make things a lot easier for you.

Posted in Sports ]]> http://futuremap.wordpress.com/2009/03/25/team-sports-and-individual-sports/feed/ 1 futuremap http://futuremap.wordpress.com/2009/03/23/telecom/ http://futuremap.wordpress.com/2009/03/23/telecom/#comments Mon, 23 Mar 2009 06:02:49 +0000 LST Team http://futuremap.wordpress.com/2009/03/23/telecom/ ]]>

About Telecom

So,what is the connection between Alexander Graham Bell and IT and what is this thing called ‘telecom’?

Telecommunications means the exchange of information over a distance, which may be as short as 10 feet or as long as 10,000 miles.

Telecommunications and computer equipment are linked for voice, text, image, data, and video transmission. Examples of such transmissions include calling from one phone location to another, sending data from computer to computer over phone lines or cables, relaying documents over facsimile machines, teleconferencing, sending voice and electronic mail, and transmitting cable television signals.

What are the Careers in Telecom?

You can work as a telecommunications analyst who is responsible for analysing, evaluating, and maintaining a company’s telecommunications systems equipment; modifying telecommunications systems to improve their efficiency; and coordinating the planning and implementation of new telecommunications systems. A telecommunications analyst may be responsible for the entire network or a part of it.

Am I up to it?

What should your traits be? Take a look…

• Think logically — use step-by-step procedures to analyse/solve problems.

• Rate information by personal judgement/standards that can be measured.

• Perform arithmetic operations quickly and accurately.

• See flat drawings or pictures as solid objects.

What does a Telecom Analyst do?

• Repair the malfunctioning telecommunications system of a company.

• Analyse telecommunications requirements and recommend equipment and systems configurations.

• Review and analyse the phone system/data communications equipment costs; long distance transmission costs; and volume of phone/data related calls.

• Coordinate the installation and implementation of telecommunications equipment.

• Test the hardware/software of new telecommunications system.

Hindustani music developed in the northern regions of the country, while Carnatic music is indigenous to the south. Carnatic music is considered one of the oldest systems of music in the world. Songs of both these faculties of music are composed by great artists and handed down through generations of disciples. An important element is its devotional content.

Western Classical music is a term that is applied to a body of notated European music that extends back in time to the first millennium. The Classical period reached its majestic culmination with the masterful symphonies, sonatas, and string quartets by the three great composers: Franz Joseph Haydn, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, and Ludwig van Beethoven. While many composers throughout the twentieth-century experimented in new ways with traditional instruments, many of the twentieth-century’s greatest composers, such as Italian opera composer Giacomo Puccini and the Russian pianist/composer Sergei Rachmaninoff, remained true to the traditional forms of music history. In addition to new and eclectic styles of musical trends, the twentieth century boasts numerous composers whose harmonic and melodic styles an average listener can still easily appreciate and enjoy.

Contemporary music comprises forms that are built up from very well defined structures. They consist of pop music or music that today features in movies. It is heard at festivals, ceremonies, dances, and is part of daily life.

The ghazal is one style which is known for its rich poetic, and romantic content. The Hindi geet which is basically just a song, and undoubtedly the most popular, is the film song.

Indian pop is hotter than ever. With the reach of cable to millions, pop stars have become household names like Alisha Chinai, Bally Sagoo, Colonial Cousins, Daler Mehndi – Bhangra King, Lucky Ali, Shweta Shetty, to name a few. The different forms of improvization add different facets to music and thereby, provide variety. The ability to improvise varies from performer to performer. According to Malik if you want to enter the Indi-pop segment, you either need a good composing mind or else you need to take the help of a composer. “You need to record a demo and then contact a company. If you get a good deal, your musical journey begins from here,” he says.

Moreover, each of these forms of improvisation evokes different moods. Again, the ability to evoke, characterize and exploit these different moods vary from performer to performer, and forms an integral part of the exhaustive and demanding training that is required. All of the above make music a highly refined, demanding, complex and, most importantly, an exciting art form.

Actor: How many of you have dreamt of becoming the next Shah Rukh Khan or the next Rani Mukherjee? If you are one of them, then this is the place for you. An actor or actress has simultaneously the easiest and the toughest job in films and television. The easiest because there’s virtually no technical knowledge necessary there are people like the director to tell the actor what to do: move this way, stand like that, speak clearly, etc. On the other hand, though it may look easy when you’re watching a film, acting is incredibly tough, because altogether the actors shrug off their own personality and become someone else. While there are many methods of acting ( the one used most often is where the actor almost literally gets into the character’s skin by working out his personality, thinking like he would, behaving, like he would, speaking like he would, in every respect in accent and all, and soon, according to actor Rahul Bose),it all boils down to one thing: can the actor convincingly become someone else?

Director: A director is literally the captain of the ship. This involves a tremendous amount of visualization and imagination. Imagine a story that revolves around a family consisting of four people: a man,woman,teenage boy, and a teenage girl. The director has to say what each of these four characters is like, how they live, what their house looks like, what their offices are like, what their schools or colleges are like, what their friends are like, what their servants are like… every single character is given a personality by the director.”And these characters have to be worked out not only from the point they enter the film, but from way back, when they were born,” says Rahul Bose. After that, the director has to work with the actors to make sure they get into their characters’ skin. The director has to work with the cinematographer to create the ‘look’ of the film. After the film is shot, he has to work with the editors to keep the film on track and make sure his vision is finally reflected in the film the way he wants it to be. Some of the famous directors of India are Subhash Ghai,David Dhawan, and the new emerging ones are Karan Johar Ashutosh Gowarikar, Farhan Akhtar. Speaking for the film-makers, New York-based director Mira Nair aid: “Exciting new voices have emerged in the last few years. Their budding success speaks as to where we are today, how we look at the world around us, and the roads we are taking.”

A few other aspects of Films and Television:

The producer: Is the person behind the scenes; putting together a television show involves a thousand details. From the script to the actors, from the costumes to the lighting, from the sound to the props,who has final responsibility? ‘He’ does. He’s the producer. Television producers are responsible for each and every phase of a programme, from the original idea to the final product. There are two kinds of producers. The first is involved solely in finance. They’ll sit with the director and work out a budget and hand over the cash. The other kind of producer is what’s known as an executive producer. He’ll be on the set while shooting is on, makes sure every thing that’s necessary for the shot is available, handles all the people involved in making the film (or television serial) and makes sure everything is organized to the last detail and that the film or serial is not over budget.

Casting Director:This is the person who’s in constant touch with artists of different calibers and styles. He’ll arrange auditions and camera tests, workout fees and dates, and, in the case of extras, schedules. He, therefore, must have a huge database of actors of all types that he can draw on for a film. So, if you want to cast Shah Rukh Khan or Salman Khan in your next film, you know whom to contact.

Lights Technician: The lighting guy makes sure there’s enough light for the camera to pick up movements clearly, or not so bright that it reflects off the camera lens. The responsibility is a great one, particularly because you have to know and understand the quality of light. All this is important to a film, because the film needs to be as realistic as possible. If there’s poor light outside and yet the scene demands a bright sunny morning, the light technician will set up his equipment in such a way that what you see in the final film will be a bright sunny morning.

Scriptwriter: The script writer is the person who has actually written out the story that will be made into a film or a serial episode. This involves creating the characters, creating the plot, writing the dialogues, and soon. He also has to be some thing of a visualizer because he has to see where the story is going and how it must get there. He could even adapt a favorite book for the screen. Writing screenplays is one of the highest paying jobs a writer can do. In the 1990s, Joe Esterhaus made headlines when he earned $3 million for writing screenplay for Basic Instinct.

Sound Technician: The sound guy is a very technical person. It’s his job to make sure that there are no outside sounds interfering when a film is being shot, that dialogue and music is picked up clearly by the mikes, and soon. He can stop the shooting when the sound goes bad. For instance, if there’s a plane flying over head during an out door shoot, he will hold up shooting till the plane has vanished completely. That’s because his equipment is so sensitive that it will pick up even sounds that the human ear cannot hear.

Editor: Do you think the film that you see is the same how it is shot? If you do then you are mistaken. After a film or TV serial is shot and wrapped up, the editor takes over. He has to take the huge amount of film shot at various times and various places and, working with the director, cut it down to the required length, complete with commercial or interval breaks, in a cohesive manner, so that the story flows like it should. Since films are not shot on a continuous basis (the shooting of scene 1 is not necessarily followed by the shooting of scene2), it’s the editor’s job to make sure that the continuity is maintained (that scene 1 is definitely followed by scene 2). This can be difficult, because if scene 2 is shot at a different time, say at 3 p.m. while scene1 was shot at midnight, the editor has to use his skills to make sure the lighting stays consistent (so that scene 2 is not brighter than scene1). The editor also gets the graphics into the film (that’s the opening and closing credits, the titles, and so on).As someone who hasn’t been involved in its production, he’s in a position to see which scenes work and which don’t, where the film is losing focus, what needs to be cut out because it’s useless to the story, and so on. So, in a way, he becomes the second in command.

Cinematographer: Have you ogled at all those terrific locations that films usually show you? A brilliant view of America or the sunset or Aamir Khan dancing… well, the locations are beautiful but to show them just as they are or to capture them in a more beautiful way is the work of the camera man or what the industry has named him-the Cinematographer. The qualified cinematographer is greater than a mere cameraman. He knows and understands his equipment to such an extent that he’ll be able to tell the director what his cameras can achieve in making the vision of the film real. Basically, the cinematographer translates the director’s vision on a film. He works with the director to create scenes where his camera picks up long shots, close-ups, and so on, all of which contribute to the impact a scene can have on the audience. A lot of cinematographers have gone onto become directors.

Choreographer: Have you ever wanted to dance like Madhuri Dixit or dreamt about dancing like Hrithik Roshan on stage, moving your body to steps that are so amazing? Well, they don’t dance on their own- they have a person who teaches them those amazing steps that you always copy. A choreographer is required for the myriad songs that are necessary in Indian films. Typically, the choreographer will work with the director to understand the reason why

there’s a song at a certain point in a film (though the trend these days seems to be to scatter songs through out the film without any reference to the storyline). The choreographer should know and understand different kinds of dance genres from all over the world, and should have trained in dance. Some of the famous Indian film choreographers you might have heard about or maybe your idols too are Saroj Khan who choreographed the famous ‘Bhumro’ in ‘Mission Kashmir’, which was picturized on Preity Zinta. Then Farah Khan, who has choreographed the all famous ‘Chaiya Chaiya’ song from ‘Dil Se’, filmed on Shah Rukh Khan dancing on the train.

Costume Designer: A costume designer is necessary to the film or TV production because she/he understands how the characters should be dressed. For historical or period depictions, the designer has to do a great deal of research to find out how people at different levels of society were dressed at the time and create those costumes. For futuristic films,the costume designer has to figure out what kind of clothes people are likely to wear in 3005, for instance, and create those. For example, ‘Lagaan‘ had a costume designer who had to design clothes for the villagers set around the independence period.

Set Designer: The set designer, also known as the art director, is a very vital part of production because she/he is the person who creates the actual physical surroundings of the characters. If the scene is set in a slum, the set designer will have to make a slum, if it’s a fancy night club, the set designer will create a night club. When it comes to Indian films, you’ll find that a lot of sets are ready-made, particularly at large studios such as Mumbai’s Film City, where you stumble across temples,railway stations,log cabins,and soon, that you can hire and use (which may explain why certain scenes look so familiar in different films). These days, there are films where an entire set is designed and built to give the film the right feel. For example, the whole set for ‘Devdas’ was designed and built to give it that period feel of opulence.

Music Director: The music director works with the director to create the music for the film/television serial. This comprises not only music for songs, but also background music for various scenes in the film. Those amazing songs that you tap your feet to, sing along with the actors, some emotional, some wacky, some devotional, some romantic, expressing such emotions that it gives the movie a totally different feel. These days there are films like ‘Kaun’ and ‘Bhoot’, which work entirely due to its background score. Music has become an important aspect of television too. You have serials like ‘Kyunki Saans bhi Kabhi Bahu Thi’ having a set of songs in between the serial, and care has to be taken for the compositions of the title songs, as now they have become an important part of the serials itself. Music directors like Jatin-Lalit, Nadeem-Shravan, R.D. Burman, Anu Malik are some of them who have made this profession some thing to be reckoned with.

Fight Master/Stunt Director : The amazing stunts that Akshay Kumar performs, or Sunil Shetty’s ability to fight with so many people at a time is nothing but the efforts of the stunt director that have made it possible. The fight master or stunt director creates the fight scenes or stunts necessary. While a lot of stunts you see on screen are clearly masterpieces of editing, a lot are physically performed and the people doing them are directed by the fight master or stunt director. These days, stunts and fights are revolutionized by using special effects. ‘Matrix’ is a good example of this.

Depending on their particular areas of specialization, chemists can be involved in any number of different kinds of jobs. The four basic specializations are:

Organic chemistry – which deals with every compound on earth (and elsewhere) that has a carbon atom in it, and of course, carbon itself in all its forms. This includes every single form of life on earth, so you can see just how wide a field this is. Synthesis – that is, making new things – is the biggest responsibility of the organic chemist. New ‘things’ might include more effective drugs, better fertilizers, and safer food additives. Organic chemists would find jobs in industries like agriculture, the environment, food, medicine, petroleum, rubber, alcohol, and consumer products like soap.

Inorganic chemistry – simply put, this is the chemistry of non-living objects. They are also involved in synthesis, but in the synthesis of things like plastics, glass, ceramics, synthetic fabrics with special properties that make them ideal for certain applications. Chemists were involved with the discovery and development of both nylon and lycra. Inorganic chemists would find jobs in industries as diverse as mining and minerals, chemicals, microchips, environment, polymer technology, cosmetics, and so on.

Physical chemistry – is the area of overlap between physics and chemistry. That means you venture into this area only if you love maths almost as much as you love chemistry. Physical chemists determine the properties, both good and bad, of all kinds of substances. Spectroscopy, which is the study of the physical properties of chemical compounds using light and other forces, is a big area of physical chemistry. So is theoretical chemistry, which is, like its name, mostly about using theories and calculations to predict the existence or behaviour of something that can’t actually be proved. Physical chemists would find jobs in nuclear and atomic research labs, and in a wide range of industries that need materials scientists.

Analytical chemistry – involves deduction, reasoning and analysis. Most analytical chemists work in the area of qualitative and quantitative analysis. It is these guys who check, for instance, if the pollution levels in the atmosphere are within safe limits or not, and if not, how much beyond the safe limit they are. They would also be involved in testing water to see if it is potable, in testing food to check if it is fresh, in testing metals (like gold, for instance), to establish their purity. Analytical chemists work in forensic science departments, medical laboratories (testing blood and urine samples, for instance), in all kinds of industry (where they may work as industrial chemists, testing random samples from production lines to see if the product is up to standard), government environmental departments, and so on.

Manipuri
Manipuri developed in eastern India. The posture of the Manipuri dancer is such that the dancer’s feet face forward and knees are slightly bent. The dancer moves his or her chest and waist in opposite directions, making a figure-of-eight shapes with the body. The dancer’s arms make graceful, curved movements. His/her fingers trace out delicate circles and curves in the air. The Manipuri style includes a large repertoire (range of dances). Five types, consisting of dances involving whole troupes, as well as solos and duets, deal with a story about Lord Krishna. Another body of dances, the Sankirtanas,
involve male dancers performing jumps to the sound of drums, cymbals and clapping.

Odissi
Odissi is a dance form of the state of Orissa, in eastern India. Sculptures found in Odissi, dating from the second and first century B.C., show dancers in distinctive poses characteristic of the Odissi style. The style developed from musical plays and was common in temples and village entertainment. Odissi dances were first performed by men dressed as women around temples. Now, the Odissi style is a solo dance form, usually performed by a woman. It has several similar patterns and poses as Bharata Natyam. But it makes greater use of curves in body movements and postures rendering it an innate sensuality. Occasional jumps add vitality to the Odissi style.

Folk dance
This is a form of social dancing that has become part of the customs and traditions of people. There are as many folk dances as there are states in India. Various styles, apart from the five major classical dance styles, are performed in different regions of India. They include the Yakshagana of Mysore, and the Chhau of eastern India. Unlike the classical forms, these dances are not tied down by rules but are more flexible and spontaneous.
Most of them are connected with religious or seasonal festivals. In many of these dances, the performers use sticks or even swords. Examples of folk dance styles include Bhangra, a harvest dance from Punjab, and Kolattam,a circular stick dance
performed by women in Tamil Nadu and the Lavani in Maharashtra

Bharata Natyam
“Bharata Natyam is like a Banyan tree with great roots. You can bend it, turn it, do what ever you want, but its roots remain strong… I want to take dance further, to use it as a language, as an agent of change,” -Mallika Sarabhai.
Bharata Natyam is one of the most important and probably one of the oldest of the classical styles that comes from south India. Although closely linked with local traditional dance-drama, it was used mainly in Hindu religious ceremonies. The movements of this dance style are developed from a basic pose, in which the thighs are turned out ward, the knees are flexed, and the feet are brought close together and are also turned outward. The feet beat out complex rhythms. Performances may last for about two hours and follow a set list of procedures.

Kathak
Kathak is the major dance style of north India. It combines local folk elements with dance forms that developed in the courts of the Mughal emperors and later, Indian princes.
The folk and temple traditions from which the Kathak style has developed consist mostly of Hindu dance-dramas.
Kathak owes much of its present form to developments made in the 1800s at the court of Nawab Wajid Ali Shah, the ruler of Lucknow. Dancers perform Kathak keeping their bodies straight. Clever and intricate foot work, including highly rhythmical walks, glides, and fast pirouettes (spinning on one foot), gives the style its vital, dazzling, skillful character. Delicate movements of the eyes, eyebrows, neck, and shoulders are also used in some dances. Kathak is frequently lyric based performance with a sense of raunchiness. Both, men and women, perform Kathak dances. Many dances express love or devotion to Krishna.

Kathakali
Kathakali, from the state of Kerala, is true dance-drama. Kathakali dancers act out the parts of different characters in a play. They dress up in out size costumes to give themselves a larger than- life appearance. They also wear mask-like facial make-up, in colors that have strong symbolic meanings.
Kathakali performances are often held out doors and sometimes go on all night. They are accompanied by a person who sings or recites the poetry, while the dancers convey the meaning of each line with movements and gestures, sweeping body movements, and wide, circling arm movements.
The dancers are also trained to convey exaggerated movements through facial expressions. In former times, male dancers took all the parts in a Kathakali play. But now a days women have also started performing this form of dance.

Civil Engineering as a career

Civil engineers are the quiet, unsung heroes of the engineering fraternity. While engineers from other branches work in quiet offices or noisy shop floors, the civil engineers’ theatre of operations are the great outdoors.

Civil engineers blast roads through the strongest mountains to make our journeys shorter. They build the massive dams that generate all our hydroelectricity and the reservoirs that capture rainwater in the monsoon so that people can have water through the long summer months. They design the amazing bridges – across rivers, across the sea, across deep mountain ravines – that can take the load of thousands of vehicles every day for years and years without breaking down. They build the flyovers, the airports, the sports stadiums, the sprawling factories and the underground transport systems. It is civil engineers who go in where others haven’t dared, especially in wartime, as they build roads, construct bridges, and clear forests to facilitate the movement of troops.

Whether it is the world-class Mumbai-Pune Expressway or the Sapporo Dome in Japan that played host to some of the most exciting 2002 World Cup football matches, the border roads between India and Pakistan where building is as difficult as it is dangerous or the underground train systems of London, Paris, Kolkata and Delhi, the Konkan Railway that connects Mumbai and Mangalore, an engineering marvel that incorporates 2,000 bridges and 92 tunnels or the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco, the Pyramids of Egypt or the massive apartment block in your city, it is teams of brilliant civil and structural engineers who have made it possible.

Are you Civil Engineering material?

If you want to be a civil engineer, you need to:

Have a love of the outdoor life – most of the civil engineer’s life is spent at the mercy of the weather elements, be it sweltering sunshine or pouring rain.

Be more or less happy with your own company – civil engineers are usually the only ones on the building team with such a high level of education.

Be a patient kind of person – civil engineering projects usually take years and years to complete, and almost always take longer than what they were supposed to take.

Be able to handle large teams of blue-collar workers.

Be excited by the thought of designing and then overseeing the construction of gigantic structures.

You should not be:

A creature of the city. While there are city-based projects open to civil engineers, like building sky scrapers or flyovers or underground rail systems, there are definitely more projects in remote locations. Manufacturing and chemical plants, projects involving the railways, interstate highways, dams, and power plants situated mostly very far away from cities.

Someone who loves the good life – you will have to learn to live without the modern luxuries such as air conditioning, big cars, posh restaurants, and more, at least while you are on a project outside a city.

What do civil engineers do?

Civil engineers are required where anything needs to be constructed – whether it is a building, a factory, a bridge, a dam or any such structure. The presence of the civil engineer is required prior to construction, during construction, as well as after the construction.

A civil engineer’s job is perhaps more physically demanding than any other kind of engineer’s. You will spend days outdoors when you are on a project. In the first phase, you will survey the land, take soil samples, check the depth of the water table, and so on. This will help you decide what to do next – maybe, you will need to do some blasting if the ground is rocky, or drain some water out if the land is swampy. Testing the soil will also help you decide what type of foundation your structure will need and how deep it should be.

Once building starts, you will be supervising large teams of contract laborers. Apart from handling all the unexpected problems that come up while building, you will also have to manage your team. As head of the project, you have to keep workers’ welfare in mind while also making sure you finish the project within time. You will have to negotiate with your workers on wages, holidays, providing temporary shelters close to work site and so on. You will have to do it well, if you don’t want them to go on strike and bring all building work to an abrupt halt.

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