Reading Exercise Help : The purpose of the reading exercise is to get the correct rhythm of Savitri by reading aloud alongside Shraddhavan's reading . The reading exercises are grouped in 1-, 2-, 3-, 4- line sentences.

Savitri is written in iambic pentameter in Blank verse with or without enjambment. In English, the rhythm is created through the use of stress, alternating between unstressed and stressed syllables. An English unstressed syllable is equivalent to a classical short syllable, while an English stressed syllable is equivalent to a classical long syllable. When a pair of syllables is arranged as a short followed by a long, or an unstressed followed by a stressed, pattern, that foot is said to be "iambic". The English word "trapeze" is an example of an iambic pair of syllables, since the word is made up of two syllables ("tra—peze") and is pronounced with the stress on the second syllable ("tra—PEZE", rather than "TRA—peze"). An iambic pentameter is a line made up of five such pairs of short/long, or unstressed/stressed, syllables.

An iambic foot is an unstressed syllable followed by a stressed syllable. The rhythm can be written as:

da DUM

A standard line of iambic pentameter is five iambic feet in a row:

da DUM da DUM da DUM da DUM da DUM

Some lines in the exercises are colour coded to indicate unstressed and stressed words.

The way to do the reading exercise is to first read aloud a particular sentence without listening to the recording, and then listen to the recording to discover the errors one has made in pronounciation, pauses and the rythms. And then read aloud in synchronisation with the recording until one is able to match one's reading perfectly with the recording.

The individual sentences are played in a 'looped' manner. The sentence will be continuously played until stopped by the reader. One can change the volume or pause at any time during the playback. You can try some examples :

All can be done if the god-touch is there.
[Savitri B-01 C-01 S-01 F-17]

A fire has come and touched men's hearts and gone;
A few have caught flame and risen to greater life.
[Savitri B-01 C-01 S-02 F-14]

It is possible to accidentally play more than one sentence if the earlier playback has not been stopped. In that case just stop the earlier playback.

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