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."

Wednesday, October 29, 2008

Animal Farms of Maharashtra: Hunting in the Name of Gyanba’s Marathi

I consider myself lucky that after spending almost 11 years outside Maharashtra- else where in India- I came back with 5 medals- to put in the words of a US veteran of Iwo Jima: Two Hands, Two Legs and a Head.

Although I didn't speak any of their languages, Tamilians, Bengalis, Assamese (including ULFA), Kannadigas and numerous other language speakers I met did not kill me.

Not just that, most of them were very kind to me. Suckers!

Of course being a Brahmin in today's Maharashtra, I still run a considerable risk of getting hurt in the name of caste.


Artist: Frank Cotham The New Yorker 3 November 2008 Cartoon Caption Contest 167

Proposed Caption:

“Don’t be afraid. I am Chief Minister of Maharashtra. I know you are totally helpless, defenseless in front of armed goons roaming the streets of our major cities, trying to kill you in the name of Marathi. I also know it’s my constitutional duty to protect you…But er…since you stay in Maharashtra, shouldn’t you all be speaking Marathi?”
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5 comments:

Chetan said...

It is disheartening, heartbreaking, in fact, to see ordinary Maharashtrians justifying and rationalising Raj Thackeray's campaign. The irony of it is that most middle/upper middle class Maharashtrians who support his campaign have a relative who is working abroad and almost all the arguments presented by Thackarey against Bihari's/UPites apply to their kin. It pains me no end to see no strong voice from academia, literature, politics or civil society condemning this in the strongest possible language. This makes me empathise with Muslims in India who are constantly pilloried for not protesting against terrorism strong enough. The feeling of impotence against a sweep of an ideology that 'speaks for' your language/caste/religion as is unbearable.

Anyways, no point in lamenting. I am however curious as to why you added the getting hurt as a Brahmin part to your post. That somehow seems incongruent and orthogonal to the point of the post. Would you care to explain?

October 30, 2008 at 7:48 AM
Aniruddha G. Kulkarni said...

They have burnt and killed in the name of caste in the past and they will do so again. '1948' happened only 60 years ago.

Samarth Ramdas/ Dadoji Kondev/ Bori-vandalism controversies are symptoms of a cancer that refuses to go away.

All minorities are a 'fair game' in today's India and 'progressive' Maharashtra.

I am get lucky though but not my son. Or not his duaghter. Or not her daughter...

October 30, 2008 at 8:55 AM
Chetan said...

I think you are exaggerating. This is like VT Rajshekhar of Dalit Voice comparing Jews and Brahmins. What happened in 1948, mostly in Kolhapur and other parts of Maharashtra in light of Gandhi's assasination was lamentable. However, to assume denouncing of Ramdas, BORI vandalism portend similar attacks on Brahmins falls in the realm of fantastical, in my opinion.

October 30, 2008 at 9:45 AM
Anonymous said...

Searching for Cartoons? :).

October 30, 2008 at 11:04 AM
Aniruddha G. Kulkarni said...

I hope you are right and I am wrong.

October 30, 2008 at 1:11 PM

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