मेघदूत: "नीचैर्गच्छत्युपरि 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: "… . . 1000 नंतर ज्या प्रकारची संस्कृती रुढ झाली , त्यामध्ये साधारणत्व विश्वात्मकता हे गुण प्राय: लुप्त झाले...आपली संस्कृती अकाली विश्वात्मक साधारणतेला मुकली आहे."

Sunday, March 14, 2010

Vinda- My Charvak (or my Eknath?) is Dead

Vinda Karandikar (विंदा करंदीकर) has been here a few times before.

He reminded Dilip Chitre (दिलीप चित्रे) of Sant Eknath (संत एकनाथ).

To me, he was like his own depiction of Cārvāka/ Charvak (चार्वाक), in possibly his best book: -‘ASHTADARSHANE’(अष्टदर्शने), 2003.

Charvak is the last 'darshan' in the book. Arthur Schopenhauer too gets his due but it is no surprise that 'Marxist' in Vinda doesn't like him much.

(I feel privileged that I have this book autographed by him. I also have his letter.)

In Vinda's words, Charvaka was like :

सत्याचा स्वीकार। श्रद्धांचा अव्हेर,
हिंसेचा धिक्कार, । करोनिया,
मानवी जीवन। करणे सुखमय
हेच एक ध्येय। मानणारे
मानवतावादी, । उद्योगप्रवण,
असे हे दर्शन । चार्वाकाचे.

In my words, Vinda was:

सत्याचा स्वीकार। श्रद्धांचा अव्हेर,
हिंसेचा धिक्कार, । करोनिया,
मानवी जीवन। करणे सुखमय
हेच एक ध्येय। मानणारे
मानवतावादी, । उद्योगप्रवण,
असे हे दर्शन । विंदांचे.

But in the final analysis, Chitre was right. At the end of all intellectual discussions and philosophies, what we will remember most about Vinda is his humanism. Like Eknath, like Mahatma Gandhi.

"जगाचिये नेत्री दिसे तो संसारी, परी तो अंतरी स्फटिक शुद्ध" ("In the world's eyes he looks ordinary married man but inside he is crystal pure.")

p.s. Vinda has written thirty odd books. When I last checked, other than his poetry books, most of his books- I was particularly looking for his translation of Dnyaneshwar's (ज्ञानेश्वर) Amrutanubhav (अमृतानुभव), 1981- are not available in the market. Such is the poverty of Marathi publishing world.

8 comments:

mannab said...

Ek utkat manaane vaahilelee shraddhaanjali ! Thanks.
Mangesh Nabar

Aniruddha G. Kulkarni said...

Thanks Mangesh.

Anonymous said...

A great poet is no more!

I recently read his bal kavita and was very impressed by them. His bal kavita do not treat children as mindless beings-- they have a complex and fantastic sense of humor. For example:

खुर्ची आणि स्टूल

खुर्ची म्हणाली, "अरे स्टुला
केव्हा येणार चालायला तुला!"
स्टूल म्हणाले "त्याच वेळी
जेव्हा हाताने वाजवशील टाळी!"
--हे ऐकून पंख हसला
पाय नसून फिरत बसला.

I would love to see here some of your favorite excerpts from Vinda's poetry too.

Aniruddha G. Kulkarni said...

Thanks Anon for quoting witty Vinda.

Frankly, I don't consider Vinda very highly as a poet. He was good but not in the league of Keshavsut, Balkavi, Mardhekar, Sadanand Rege, Chitre, Dhasal and Kolatkar let alone poet-saints.

Therefore, I like to read him but I don't recall him.

He was a good man. I wish we had a few more like him.

Uday Gokhale said...

’चारित्र्य आणि लिखाण यांचा सांधा आयुष्यभर जुळलेला ठेवलेला कवि’ म्हणून विंदा अनेंकांपेक्शा उजवे ठरतात.

Aniruddha G. Kulkarni said...

Thanks Uday.

I agree.

He was India at her best!

And therefore Charvak, Eknath, Gandhi make appearance here.

When is the last time, I remembered them when some one died during my life time?

Gauri said...

nice Vinda Darshan...also check
http://dabholkars.blogspot.com/2010/03/blog-post.html

Aniruddha G. Kulkarni said...

Thanks Gauri. I will visit your blog soon.