Maintaining My Streak On Duolingo

 

I have been using Duolingo since March 2019 and find that Duolingo is the best resource available to me to learn French, considering the various constrains I am under. However, I have learned to not use Duolingo mindlessly. Duolingo is designed like a gaming app and it makes one addicted to gaining various types of rewards or credits, which reduces its effectiveness. One of the most well-known features of Duolingo is the 'Streak'. There are folks who proudly claim to have a Streak of over a year, implying that they have used Duolingo regularly everyday to maintain that Streak. However, Duolingo makes it rather easy to maintain the Streak. There are refills and other gimmicks which keeps one's Streak going even if one has not been regular. I have become so annoyed with the Duolingo Streak that I don't use Duoling on weekends and once in a while on weekdays too, but my current Streak has stayed with me for over 58 days. This is the story of my current Streak on Duolingo.  

Duolingo offered refills to maintain my Streak, whenever I was on the verge of losing mine.

Look at my calendar. There have been many days when I did not use Duolingo.

I dropped down the league table many times!

 

I kept dropping

However, I manage to keep my streak

Streak is just one of the incentives offered. There are others too!

There are daily quests.

Once I was inducted into the Streak Society, not sure what that means though.

Look at how my calendar looked around 10 days ago

Book Review: Zainab The Precious Quest, by Shayan

When a butterfly flaps its wings in Delhi, it causes snowfall in Switzerland. When Indira Gandhi abolishes the privy purses of the former rulers of erstwhile Indian princely states, Magnus Montgomery, a Swiss banker focusing on South-East Asia at the Banque Wedderburn Privee, sees a huge uptick in his business.

We live in dystopian times and Zainab The Precious Quest reflects this with muddled precision. Vikas. Magnus, Zainab, Rishika, Varun, Sejal, they get on with lives, as they move across continents, meet new people and lose contact with old friends and then sometimes there is a reunion. Throughout the novel, Vikas, Zainab and Sejal manage to steal moments of happiness. We don’t know if Prakhar did the same. Most probably he did not, since he was always precise and methodical and his entire live was a managed project that did not require any external injection of joy. When the reader reaches the end, s/he is none the wiser (regarding the magic elixir that leads to human joy) than s/he was in the beginning.

Vikas Kumar ran a small travel agency in West Punjabi Bagh. When Magnus Montgomery landed at this doorstep after having lost his briefcase, which had his Swiss passport and expired Indian visa, Vikas was ever so helpful, even going to the extent of suggesting that the word "Banque" in "Banque Wedderburn Privee" was misspelt. Shouldn’t it be “bank”?, Vikas queried. Soon Vikas ended up working for Mangus, which took him to Moradabad, 'the armpit of India,' where he made his way to Rishika Pradhan’s father’s shop. Love blossomed between Vikas and Rishika, even as Vikas enabled, for Magnus, the collection and transfer of literally truckloads of cash from various parts of India through Tyagiji’s hawala parlour in West Punjabi Bagh. In parallel with Magnus using Vikas’s services, Banque Wedderburn Privee decideed to outsource back office operations to cut costs and retains New Horizon Infotech Limited in Noida for this purpose. Vikas managed to get Rishika to work for New Horizon. Fast forward and Vikas becomes a private banker in Zurich, working for Banque Wedderburn Privee. Rishika plays the role of the bored housewife amidst the mountains and snows of Switzerland. How does Vikas become a private banker in Zurich? Do please read this novel to find out for yourself.

Prakhar Solanki, a boring data analyst, and his clever wife Sejal, take-off from India for Zurich so that Prakhar can work on-site on an integration project for his MNC employer. In Zurich, Prakhar continues to be ever efficient and precise, while Sejal becomes a marketing assistant at the Uto Kulm Hotel, where she meet Vikas, who is a total contrast to Prakhar. On weekdays, Sejal swirls her prosecco and meets Vikas often. On weekends, the best she can hope for is an Antakshri with Prakhar’s office-mates and their families. Vikas wishes Rishika could be as much fun as Sejal, but he wishes in vain and so he continues to meet with Sejal whenever he can.

Zainab’s family hails from Hyderabad and her father Mr. Sidhiqui works for IDPL - Indian Drug and Pharmaceutical Limited where he is Senior Purchase Officer. When Mr. Sidhiqui is transferred to IDPL’s Vibhadra branch, he manages to get his wife a job as a Chemistry teacher at the IDPL Inter College. Zainab and her family are allotted a Type-III flat (though he is entitled to a Type-IV flat) and things would have been really dreary for Zainab if she hadn’t become very close friends with Varun Dixit whose father is entitled to a Type-V flat. Water Tank No. 5 of the Virbhadra township is where Varun and Zainab have their frequent rendezvous. Suddenly, Mr. Sidhiqui is transferred to a scientific laboratory in the US on behalf of IDPL and Varun and Zainab are torn asunder. Zainab chances upon some documents, addressed to Mr. Sidhiqui which contains another name. Further, at the US immigration counter, they are escorted by state agents via a special queue, sans the usual ESTA checks. Is it just a high profile posting, or something else? We are told that before the move to the US, Mr. Siddiqui had made several visits to the Office of the Technology Attache in the US Embassy on Shanti Path in Delhi. Do please read this excellent novel to find out more.

Vikas soon starts making frequent trips to Philadelphia where he runs into Zainab. They meet often in a seventh-floor luxury suite of the Crowne Plaza Hotel on Chestnut Street. Zainab has a boyfriend three doors down on the same street. Varun Dixit is a faint memory, though Zainab has been looking for Varun in every man she has had a relationship with until then. When her relationship with Vikas starts to threaten to become serious, Varun gets in touch with Zainab via Orkut and it turns out that Varun is actually in her vicinity. Are Varun and Zainab able to put the clock back and recreate the ambience of Vibhadra's Water Tank No. 5? Go on, please read and find out for yourself. 

Shayan (the author's pen name) writes well in precise prose that does not become a barrier to one’s enjoyment of the story. There is no unnecessarily lyrical prose that diverts your attention. The religious fundamentalists who pop in and out of the story occasionally add colour to the human kaleidoscope that rolls on at moderate speed. Shayan's main characters are all very much lovable - in fact, I didn't find a single character in this novel who is detestable, not even the boring Prakhar. I really enjoyed reading Zainab The Precious Quest and highly recommend it to Winnowed’s readers.

Zainab The Precious Quest is available on Pothi and Amazon.

How Effective Is Duolingo?

I’ve been using Duolingo to improve my French language skills. As I have mentioned in my previous posts on Duolingo, I started learning French sometime in 1999 and have been learning it on and off. As for Duolingo, I started using it in March 2019, used it for three or four months, found it very addictive, but had misgivings about how effective it actually is and gave it up until November 2020, when I went back to Duolingo, more because of the absence of any other feasible option that would help me learn French during my work commute.

I still have mixed feelings about Duolingo. On the plus side, the grammar exercises in Duolingo are very good, and though they don’t cover all tenses, help improve one’s grammar. On the flip side, Duolingo has not improved my ability to converse in French. If at all, I find myself hesitating more, compared to the past, when  I used to rattle off with my limited French vocabulary, unconcerned about my grammatical mistakes. 

These days, I constantly feel that I am not learning as much on Duolingo as I should be, considering I spend around 30 minutes on Duolingo every weekday and sometimes on weekends too. I feel that when I learnt French in a classroom, I learned a lot more. My vocabulary is composed almost entirely of words I learnt in 1999-2001 and later in 2002-2003 in a classroom where the teacher used a textbook (with pictures in it) to teach. I can easily remember a number of phrases from that learning. What I learn on Duolingo is more like water off a duck’s back. The new words I learn on Duolingo, I remember them for a few seconds afterwards and then I forget them. Vocabulary building is one of the places where Duolingo falters though Duo claims to teach so many new words every day. I feel that in a classroom, one creates associations between the newly learnt  words and the surrounding environment (such as the joke cracked by a fellow student or a  rebuke from the teacher), which makes it easy to remember the newly learnt words. 

Ultimately, online learning cannot hold up a candle to classroom learning, I feel and Duolingo is a case in point.

 

Book Review: Elijah, by Susy Matthew

A few weeks ago, I had read Susy Matthew’s In A Bubble Of Time and really enjoyed it. So much so that I wanted to read Matthew’s second novel Elijah, but couldn’t find it on Amazon or any other store. So, I contacted Matthew who was kind enough to let me buy a copy from her.

Elijah revolves around Prophet Elijah who is believed to have lived in the territory that is now Israel/Palestine, in the 9th century BCE. At that time, Israel/Palestine consisted of the northern kingdom of Israel and the southern kingdom of Judah. During the time of Elijah, the Kingdom of Israel was ruled by King Ahab. Ahab’s wife Jezebel was the Head Priestess and, according to the Bible, Jezebel, with her husband’s support, promoted the worship of Gods such as Baal and Asherah. Jezebel also suppressed Yahweh and Yahweh’s prophets. In the relatively smaller southern kingdom of Judah, Yahweh held sway, though Baal and Asherah were not unknown. Elijah fought against the promotion of Baal and Asherah and stood his ground against Ahab and Jezebel.

Just as she did In A Bubble Of Time, Matthew uses the historical setting to tell us the story of Elijah and his sister Ruth. Ruth, who later metamorphoses into Lilith, occupies as much space in Matthew’s book as the Prophet himself. Sold by her wastrel father to the royal household to be a Qedesha or a sacred prostitute, Lilith rises through the ranks of the Qedeshot after some initial hesitation and resistance. Lilith is taught to harness the powers of Baal and Asherah and go beyond the common man’s world, into supernatural realms, from where things and situations in the common man’s realm can be accessed and controlled. She then falls with love with Jehu, a common soldier and out of that love, conceives a child. It is not unheard of for a Qedesha to bear a child, but when Lilith conceived she had already made an enemy of Jezebel and someone betrayed her secret before she was ready to reveal it. Consequences follow.

Matthew writes well, using simple English that does not act as a barrier to the reader’s enjoyment of this spiritual thriller. From the time Eli and his mother struggle against Eli's father’s tyranny, to Lilith’s struggles as a Qedesha to her big fight against Jebebel and Elijah’s battles against Ahab and those who favour Baal and Asherah, Matthew has you at the edge of your seat as she takes you on a grand, pulsating and adrenalin-filled 370-odd page ride.

One of Matthew’s strengths is in her ability to describe situations, something she does with aplomb, whether it be Lilith’s duel with Jezebel (spanning across metaphysical realms) or Elijah’s demonstration of Yehweh’s prowess and superiority over Baal and Asherah. The best thing about Elijah is that it transports the reader to that particular epoch in time and one feels one is living in the semi-arid desert region of Israel and Judah. When Matthew describes a blood sacrifice for Baal, one can sense and smell the gore and fear and pain, just as much as the blind faith that called for the sacrifice. Some of the descriptions are quite gory, but Matthew never loses her artistic touch and her deft handling makes this book such a compelling and unputdownable read.

SPOILERS AHEAD

Ruth/Lilith is a complex character and is actually much more interesting than her brother Elijah. Unlike Elijah, Lilith has a dark side and Matthew brings out the contrast very subtly. Some of those close to Lilith, such as her first caretaker Rebecca and her closet friend Alissa, who possibly betrayed her, are at the receiving end of her experiments and wrath. Lilith refuses to give up her status as a Qedesha and runaway with her lover Jehu, something that seems to make sense, but actually doesn’t. When she catches King Ahab’s eye, Lilith does not give away the opportunity to get close to him, gain his confidence and try and get what she wants. Does she succeed? No, I’m not going to divulge more. 

Go on, get hold of a copy of Elijah and read it. I highly recommend this book. To contact the author for a copy, please refer to her website.

Book Review: In A Bubble Of Time, by Susy Matthew

In A Bubble Of Time is a period novel written by an Indian origin Malaysian author based in Bengaluru, which is set in Judea, during the time of Jesus Christ. Historical fiction carries the tag of fiction, but it requires an extraordinary amount of background research to get it right. Further, the creator needs to also spin a good yarn without messing with historical facts. So, I was quite skeptical when I started reading Susy Matthew’s In A Bubble Of Time. By the time, I was mid-way through, I realized that I was reading a masterpiece, one on par with The Robe.

In A Bubble Of Time is a feminist novel. Its protagonist Deborah is a woman far ahead of her time. A Jewess who hobnobs with the elites of Caesarea, Derorah fights back against cruel fate after her wheeler-dealer father forces her to marry Daniel, a Jewish freedom fighter (against Roman tyranny) and a traditional male chauvinist pig. Deborah’s meeting with Marcus, a Roman officer, could be called destiny. Marcus isn’t your typical Roman and he wins Deborah’s heart. Do the lovers manage to beat the mores and ethos of those times and be together? Do please read this excellent novel to find out. 

In A Bubble Of Time is a beautifully crafted historical novel. Matthew must have done an extraordinary amount of research to get the historical settings right. From page one, I was effortlessly transported back in time and I could imagine myself in the fields of Judea and in the streets of Ceasarea and Jerusalem. It is generally accepted that many of the events mentioned in the New Testament, such as the census taken by Augustus Caesar did take place, though it’s no one’s case that the Bible is a history book. Some of the characters in the New Testament are well-known historical characters. However, some events like Herod’s Massacre Of The Infants may not have taken place at all. In Matthew’s hands, all her characters, whether they really existed or not, come to life. Herod is diabolically clever and Salome is indeed a schemer. Chuza and Joanna, Bartimaeus, Barabbas, Herodias, the Centurion and his servant and many others find a place. The Zealots and the Pharisees are alive and kicking In A Bubble Of Time, which  starts off around the time of Jesus’s birth and concludes just after his death.

Matthew gets the relationship between Rome and Judea just right. Ruled by Herod, a Client King, Jews could follow their customs and the High Priest Caiaphas and his council handled the day-to-day affairs of the people, with the Roman Procurator Sabinus and the Prefect Pontius Pilate, who both lived in Ceasarea, not interfering much. However, In A Bubble Of Time goes a bit beyond history. For example, Barabbas is not  a mere thief (who was meant to be crucified, but was set free by Pontius Pilate as per custom, though innocent Jesus was much more deserving of the customary Passover pardon), but a Jewish rebel who fights the Romans, steals from rich travellers and gives to the poor.

In A Bubble Of Time is a work of fiction. Many of the characters are undoubtedly fictional and so-well crafted. If Deborah is a feminist, Joanna is cut from an old rock and is very conversative and traditional. However, both women, though poles apart, are very real. Elkanah, a crippled beggar, who lived in the vicinity of the Jerusalem temple, took care of the footwear of devotees and was healed by Peter and John after Jesus’s death, is, to the best of my knowledge, not named in the Bible. However, Matthew not only names him after the father of the famous Samuel who lived many centuries before Jesus, but also makes him a three-dimensional human being with anger, pride, jealousy, arrogance and much more. To be honest, Matthew does this with all her characters In A Bubble Of Time.

In A Bubble Of Time is a Christian novel. The Author’s Note makes it clear that Matthew is a believer who drew on her Christian faith to write the first draft of this beautiful book over four years.

Matthew writes in simple, unadorned English, which makes the 630-page tome easy to read.  Her descriptions of crucifixions are in particular excruciatingly beautiful - pun intended. In A Bubble Of Time was published in 2012. I don’t think In A Bubble Of Time has got the publicity and recognition that it deserves. Yet.  Do please read this excellent novel to find out if you agree with my assessment.