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, March 12, 2011

सांगे गोविंदराव टेंबेंची किर्ती

Will Durant:
“Civilization exists by geologic consent, subject to change without notice"

As I mentioned earlier, 100 years ago today Sangeet Manapman (संगीत मानापमान) was staged for the first time.

Although its great subsequent succes was because of team effort, men-of-the-match were writer Krushnaji Prabhakar Khadilkar (कृष्णाजी प्रभाकर खाडिलकर), actors Bal Gandharva (बालगंधर्व) & Nanasaheb Joglekar (नानासाहेब जोगळेकर) and music composer Govindrao Tembe (गोविंदराव टेंबे).

I consider myself singularly lucky that on March 9 2011, I obtained a Marathi book on Govindrao Tembe's life: 'सांस्कृतिक महाराष्ट्राचे शिल्पकार : गोविंदराव टेंबे', 2006 लेखक: डॉ. सौ. चारुशीला दिवेकर ("Sanskritik Maharashtrache Shilpkar : Govindrao Tembe", 2006 by Dr. Mrs. Charusheela Divekar). The books comes with an audio CD. The book has detailed information on every song of Manapman.

I had been aware of its existence for a while now but then it was priced at Rs. 700. Now, it's available at Rs. 250/- from 'Granth Abhiman', Panaji (rajhaunsvitaran@dataone.in).

At that price it is a steal. When I ordered the book they sent it immediately wrapped in probably the best packing I have seen. The entire experience was a real pleasure.

I now have heard the CD and thumbed through the book, all 648 pages. I am in love with the book. I will keep reading it for many months to come.

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5 comments:

mannab said...

I would love to read this book. Where would I get it now?

March 13, 2011 at 10:23 AM
Aniruddha G. Kulkarni said...

contact 'Granth Abhiman', Panaji at this email address: rajhaunsvitaran@dataone.in

March 13, 2011 at 10:36 AM
Anonymous said...

Govindrao Tembe had written a few books. Among them, माझा जीवन विहार is not very readable. Large tracts in it are devoted to self-defense. माझा संगीत व्यासंग is very good.

Tembe acted in two PRABHAT films: Ayodhyecha Raja and Maya Machchhindra. He also wrote songs for those films, and set them to tune. No playback those days, so he also sang the songs filmed on him. Both films are easily available in Pune and are highly watchable.

March 14, 2011 at 10:56 PM
Anonymous said...

I saw this comment on your blog in a post made some time ago:
Another virtue of Tembe's entire writing is the absence of self promotion or 'I'.

While the comment is very true of माझा संगीत व्यासंग, I was disappointed that he tried to settle scores in माझा जीवन विहार, and indulged in a bit of self-promotion in it: 'Balagandharva was an ok artist until Manapman; it was Manapman which brought to him fame and brought out the artistry in him' etc etc. Whether the assessment is accurate or not, the hint of boastfulness in it does strike a sour note.

March 14, 2011 at 11:10 PM
Aniruddha G. Kulkarni said...

Thanks anon for your comments.

I have still not read "माझा जीवन विहार" in its entirety but read only excerpts.

As you said the best quality of Tembe's entire writing is the absence of self promotion or 'I'.

For me it's the highest quality in an artist and so rare to find.

(Recently a popular Marathi writer was talking more about himself than Panipat-3 on Jan 14 2011! What a pity.)

I am going to return to these aspects of Tembe later.

I am also going to talk about his Stefan-Zweig-like comments about the life after the "great war".

Thanks again,

March 15, 2011 at 8:37 AM

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