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."

Sunday, November 25, 2007

Being Old, Lonely and Sleepy in India

Times of India October 26, 2007:

“Emotions trap lonely seniors:

Acute loneliness among the wealthy elderly in cities is driving some of them towards "emotional entrapment" wherein they are being duped or are willingly bequeathing valuable real estate to their domestic help, driver or other such seemingly helpful people…

…because children and other relatives don't have the time to take care of elderly people living alone. Some acquaintance willing to do all possible errands and is considered trust-worthy, becomes indispensable and wins the hearts and minds of everyone in the family…

…loneliness was a very serious concern among parents of young Indians settled abroad… "

Before my mother died, she used to be taken around in Nashik city in an auto-rickshaw by a loving guy Bhausaheb. He was like a son to her. She loved me; my brother and she loved Bhausaheb. When she was hospitalised, Bhausaheb was in tears, when she died, he was inconsolable.

No reward to Bhausaheb was unfair.

See the picture below.

Hapless old couple, 10:30 PM, failing vision, stiff joints, half-asleep, waiting perhaps for an ISD call, watching domineering, decadent TV.

If anyone cares for them, what do you think is that caring person’s just reward?


Artist: Vasant Sarwate Lalit Diwali वसंत सरवटे ललित दिवाळी 2007
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3 comments:

mannab said...

Once again, you have highlighted the grave situation in India and It is most appropriate to give the cartoon by Vasantrao Sarvate. Keep it up Shri. Kulkarni.
Mangesh Nabar, USA

November 26, 2007 at 3:19 AM
Anonymous said...

I would like to add another picture to one you have described so aptly. Mothers logging on to cyberspace, waiting for their prosperous and dilligent children come online....Earlier they used to watch the roads which would bring the known footsteps to their waiting house...now its the virtual space...

Anupam Pachauri, UK

November 27, 2007 at 7:51 PM
Aniruddha G. Kulkarni said...

Thanks Anupam.

I will look for a picture you describe.

November 28, 2007 at 8:39 AM

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