मेघदूत: "नीचैर्गच्छत्युपरि च दशा चक्रनेमिक्रमेण"

समर्थ शिष्या अक्का : "स्वामीच्या कृपाप्रसादे हे सर्व नश्वर आहे असे समजले. पण या नश्वरात तमाशा बहुत आहे."

G C Lichtenberg: “It is as if our languages were confounded: when we want a thought, they bring us a word; when we ask for a word, they give us a dash; and when we expect a dash, there comes a piece of bawdy.”

C. P. Cavafy: "I’d rather look at things than speak about them."

Martin Amis: “Gogol is funny, Tolstoy in his merciless clarity is funny, and Dostoyevsky, funnily enough, is very funny indeed; moreover, the final generation of Russian literature, before it was destroyed by Lenin and Stalin, remained emphatically comic — Bunin, Bely, Bulgakov, Zamyatin. The novel is comic because life is comic (until the inevitable tragedy of the fifth act);...”

सदानंद रेगे: "... पण तुकारामाची गाथा ज्या धुंदीनं आजपर्यंत वाचली जात होती ती धुंदी माझ्याकडे नाहीय. ती मला येऊच शकत नाही याचं कारण स्वभावतःच मी नास्तिक आहे."

".. त्यामुळं आपण त्या दारिद्र्याच्या अनुभवापलीकडे जाऊच शकत नाही. तुम्ही जर अलीकडची सगळी पुस्तके पाहिलीत...तर त्यांच्यामध्ये त्याच्याखेरीज दुसरं काही नाहीच आहे. म्हणजे माणसांच्या नात्यानात्यांतील जी सूक्ष्मता आहे ती क्वचित चितारलेली तुम्हाला दिसेल. कारण हा जो अनुभव आहे... आपले जे अनुभव आहेत ते ढोबळ प्रकारचे आहेत....."

Kenneth Goldsmith: "In 1969 the conceptual artist Douglas Huebler wrote, “The world is full of objects, more or less interesting; I do not wish to add any more.”1 I’ve come to embrace Huebler’s ideas, though it might be retooled as “The world is full of texts, more or less interesting; I do not wish to add any more.” It seems an appropriate response to a new condition in writing today: faced with an unprecedented amount of available text, the problem is not needing to write more of it; instead, we must learn to negotiate the vast quantity that exists. How I make my way through this thicket of information—how I manage it, how I parse it, how I organize and distribute it—is what distinguishes my writing from yours."

Tom Wolfe: "The first line of the doctors’ Hippocratic oath is ‘First, do no harm.’ And I think for the writers it would be: ‘First, entertain.’"

विलास सारंग: "… इ. स. 1000 नंतर ज्या प्रकारची संस्कृती रुढ झाली , त्यामध्ये साधारणत्व व विश्वात्मकता हे गुण प्राय: लुप्त झाले...आपली संस्कृती अकाली विश्वात्मक साधारणतेला मुकली आहे."

Tuesday, October 16, 2007

Charming Saxophone of Pandit Coltrane and Manohari Singh

From October 14, 2007 onwards, Manohari Singh, number one Saxophonist in the world of Hindi film music, has been speaking to Vividh Bharati on his art.

I remember vividly posters of Dev Anand’s Guide displayed all over Miraj circa 1965. It was exhibited at Deval talkies. I wanted to watch the film. My father flatly refused. Quite rightly so because Guide has nothing to offer to a five/six year old boy!

But why did I want to watch it? Its songs, particularly “Gata Rahe Mera Dil”. Manohari Singh has famously played sax in it.I guess I started liking Jazz instruments because of artists like Singh

You can hear Manohari’s sax when you listen to many famous songs like – “Bedardi Balma Tujh Ko” (Arju), unforgettable “Zindagi Bhar Nahin Bhoolegi Woh Barsat Ki Rat” (Barsat Ki Rat), “Yeh Jo Mohabbat Hai” (Kati Patang), “Tere Mere Sapne Ab Ek Rang” (Guide), “Hai duniya usiki, zamaana usika” (Kashmir Ki Kali) etc.

Led by C Ramchandra and R D Burman, some great Jazz-inspired music has been created in Hindi film industry.

This was not unprecedented. Great Tyagaraja composed a raga after listening to western band at the Thanjavur Maratha court of 18th Century. (Source- RGK of Times of India)

Then one day in 1984, I heard John Coltrane’s album “Blue Train” at Rhythm House, Kala Ghoda, Mumbai.

In December 2002, I wrote on Amazon.com about the experience:
“I bought this album in Mumbai, India way back in 1984. I had then not heard much about Coltrane. I was and still not into any form of western music. But I like Indian classical Music. And Coltrane moved me beyond my wildest imagination. Even today when I hear "I'm old fashioned", tears come to my eyes. For me,he is Pandit Coltrane!”

The Economist (Sep 8 2006) said:” Ask any fan or critic to nominate the most influential jazz figures of the past 50 years and two names will invariably come up: John Coltrane, saxophonist extraordinary, and Miles Davis, trumpeter…

Coltrane was a man on a mission. During his time with Davis, he confronted and defeated his addictive demons, a victory he attributed to “a spiritual awakening” that prompted a lifelong commitment “to play music that would make people happy”. Not just make them happy, in fact, but elevate them to another plane. For Coltrane, music became more than mere entertainment. It was also the means by which he pursued an ecstatic personal quest, every time he played.

His spiritual hunger was matched by exhaustive practice. He sometimes literally fell asleep with his horn in his hands, and his knowledge of harmony, scales and modes was encyclopedic.”

Snake charmer below is supposed to be using PUNGI for the job. Pungi is nothing but a double clarinet with the difference being the mouthpieces of the Indian instrument is concealed in a large gourd.

Surely Coltrane’s sax would work the charm!

Artist: Otto Soglow The New Yorker 28 Oct 1939
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