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."

Saturday, February 16, 2008

Didn’t You Love Whatever Rajendra Nath Did?

Hindi film comic actor Rajendra Nath died on February 13, 2008.

I am grateful to him for the entertainment he provided. He probably was not in the same league as Johny Walker, Om Prakash, Mehmood and Kishore Kumar but was close second.

Many times I have tried to walk like him, wearing the same “stupid” smile he wore doing it. No one laughed except my mother.

I have lost the count of number of films he acted in.

Only the other day, I saw him performing in Chhoti Si Baat (1975) where he played a cameo so well that my thirteen-year-old son burst into laughing

Talk of longevity of an actor.

Whenever I saw him, I knew my money was not entirely lost. He stood his ground in the company of likes of Dev Anand (Jab Pyar Kisi Se Hota Hai, 1961) and Shammi Kapoor (An Evening in Paris, 1967) quite effortlessly.

Thank you, Mr. Nath.


Artist: C W Anderson The New Yorker 21 June 1930
Posted by at

4 comments:

Nikheel Shaligram said...

Dear Aniruddha,
Your blog on Rajendranatj is superb, a tribute this comedian in our age.But let me express my displeasure about one thing. I did not see your blog on a Malavani stage actor, comedian, who recently died. I need not name him. He is well known in Marathi world.
Nikheel Shaligram

February 16, 2008 at 6:03 PM
Aniruddha G. Kulkarni said...

Thanks Nikheel.

Yes, you are talking about Machindra Kambli.

And I have good reason not do so.

I have not seen anything substantial by the late Mr. Kambli either on stage or on screen. I know it's my limitation but there you are.

MK was very, very talented. One of the very best Maharashtra produced. And he died so young.

This also brings me to another important topic: Power and reach of Hindi and English in this world.

February 17, 2008 at 8:35 AM
Nikheel Shaligram said...

Thank you Aniruddha, you got exactly what I pointed out. There was one more talented actore on stage & screen. He was Laxmikant Barde. His, whatever may be, untimely death also made an impact to all of us. No doubt, his latest films were "also ran" type. but his old talent cannot be forgotten easily. Again, you should not say that you did not see his dramamas or films. Do you?
BTW, I have been in this dialogue from deep corners of India. I found this blog to my Marathi "Maaticha". I may have to leave and return after some days. Bye
Nikheel Shaligram.

February 17, 2008 at 5:49 PM
Aniruddha G. Kulkarni said...

Nikheel,

Thanks.

I think LB's case is different than MK. MK delivered some great, pioneering stuff. LB did not.

LB was very talented but couldn't leverage it. Similar to Sachin Tendulkar. I consider Tendulkar a great technical player but never a great sports-person.

best,

February 18, 2008 at 9:00 AM

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