On 28th February, the Department of English organized a one-day offline workshop on 'The Imagination' by I.A. Richards. The resource person of the day was Dr. Vishal Pandya Sir. Sir is currently working as Assistant Professor and the Head of the Department of English at Government Arts College, Vallbhipur. The session was anchored by Himanshi Parmamr ma'am. Principal of the college Dr.J.B.Gohil sir addressed the speaker. Further, the verbal welcome of the guest by Aamena Rangwala ma'am. As per the late news we received, we had to shift our program to the class rather than in the conference room. But in the end, we received a amount number of insights from the speaker.
As per the part of the syllabus of the third-year student, the essay 'The Imagination' by I.A.Richards was dealt with by the speaker but it is more about the deep root of the concept. Sir talked about philosophy and questioned the students what we meant by the word Philosophy. The students also enthusiastically participated and answered the questions as well. As the speaker said, Philosophy is not talking about any great thing or idea, but it is about the base and fundamental thing, in short philosophy is wisdom. Sir talked about the evolution of species and as time passed, the particular species were free from hands then another group of species learned that they could afford food from the land so they did not have to need for food from place to place. In conclusion, humans have time to think, you could imagine if you are mentally free. That is the base we can say why humans can imagine. For thinking, freedom to think is necessary. If we are pressured to not think in our own imagination or in our own way, our mind automatically feels depressed from the external aspects and we try to detach ourselves from the external world. Because the root of imagination as per our way of thinking is different from person to person. So what one person thinks about the sky is his or her speculation but another might think differently. The speaker also mentioned how Socretics and other great philosophers had their truth, they spoke and the world neglected them. Sir also mentioned that the WORD created the WORLD. Sir also mentioned the difference between Fancy and Imagination. In imagination, there are outputs through Language. Without language, we are not able to think. Another quite interesting point the speaker raised is that there is nothing perfect in Imagination. It is not necessary to think in a straight way and to express what we think in any kind of perfection. At the same time, the process of imagination is quite important. Sir also talked about the concept of Overstanding instead we say that we just Understand the topic or subject. The fundamental thing in Imagination is that it starts with WHY rather than WHAT. Sir also gave some examples from philosophers like Socrates to Aristotle and Galileo to Einstein.
At the end of the session, the learning outcome from the talk was given by the student from F.Y.B.A Monti Bhill. Prof.Brijedrasinh Jadeja Sir gave verbal thanks to the speaker.
