"When the spring arrives
And I sit outside, working,
I am never bored.
With a chisel in hand
I can raise flowers from stones."
(A Japanese Haiku quoted by the late N J Nanporia in his article on Japan in The Times of India dated around 1980)
Steve Rose, The Guardian, February 28 2013:
"..."Indian films have this obsession with hygienic clean spaces, even though the country's not so clean," says Anurag Kashyap. "They're either shot in the studios or shot in London, in America, in Switzerland – clean places. Everywhere except India." By contrast, Kashyap's latest movie, Gangs Of Wasseypur, seems determined to show the India you don't see in the movies. Wasseypur is a nondescript industrial town in Bihar, India's poorest region. And rather than drugs or casinos, these gangs are fighting for control of coal mines and scrap metal. It was filmed on bustling streets and industrial wastelands, even – since one of the movie's central clans are butchers by trade – an abattoir. "That was difficult," Kashyap recalls. "The smell was so bad. While we were shooting, 60 buffaloes and a camel got slaughtered before our eyes. I don't think any of us could eat meat for a month."..."
Sarang Chapalgaonkar (सारंग चपळगावकर), for me Sarang-mama, is dead. He died on December 20 2012. He was my wife's mother's maternal uncle (मामा).
He was an interesting, handsome man...He was a groupie of Pune city's one biographer V N Natu ('आधीच पुणे गुलजार' वि. ना. नातू.....Btw- I really like Natu's book)...Knowing my tastes, he strongly recommended to me Hari Narayan Apte's (हरि नारायण आपटे) book 'Madhali Sthiti' (मधली स्थिती). I have still not able to get hold of the book.
We could talk for hours on many subjects. Once he told me how the Dalits were not allowed to construct houses in a certain direction of the Pune city because the wind blew from that direction into the city!
He spent his entire working life- from 1942 for 39 years- in Indian (central) railways. A few years go, he wrote a book- "Tikit Please" (तिकीट प्लीज)- based on his experiences there. It was only for private circulation.
It turned out to be a wonderful book. I finished it in one sitting. A lot of the then celebrities make guest-appearances in the book. Among them are Manohar Malgaonkar (मनोहर माळगावकर), Bal Gandharva (बालगंधर्व)...
Mr. Malgaonkar presented him with his autographed book and Balgandharva treated him with great sensitivity and affection . The latter experience made Sarang-mama cry and reading that made me cry! Another instance of Balgandharva's greatness.
But the best thing about the book comes in its foreword by the author:
"टी सी म्हणून साधारण वाटणाऱ्या नोकरीत मी अत्यंत स्वाभीमानाने व समाधानाने दिवस काढले. त्या नोकरीचा मला अद्याप अभिमान वाटतो."
("I spent days with dignity and satisfaction working in an ordinary sounding job like ticket-checker. I still feel proud of that job.")
How rarely I get to read such a sentiment in a native Indian language.
Reminded me of following set of dialogues:
",,,उषा: तुम्हांला सगळ्याचाच मझा वाटतो.
So many books remain unwritten in Marathi....
Has there been a great Marathi book by a nurse? By a house-maid? By an under taker at crematorium? By autopsy (post-mortem) conductors? By a butcher? By a person engaged in manual scavenging? By an auto-rickshaw or a tonga driver? By an ST bus conductor? By a postman? By a dangerous-chemical factory worker? By MSEDCL worker exposed to high-voltage live wires? By a coal-engine train driver?.....What 'Marathi' or language do they use on the job?
And I am not talking about some howling rebel (विद्रोही) books, not the kind whose authors are now 'parallel' celebrities making monthly/quarterly appearances on TV channels anchored by 'socialist' anchors, but written matter-of-factly, making people appreciate: Despite all the likely misery of the job, I did it with quiet dignity and satisfaction and my job was perhaps as important as that of an IT professional or a journalist or a priest or a publisher or an artist or a doctor or an architect or a teacher or a lawyer or an ad-man or an actor or a writer or a builder or a politician or a broker or a pilot or a cricketer or Miss Beauty-queen or a TV anchor...
And I sit outside, working,
I am never bored.
With a chisel in hand
I can raise flowers from stones."
(A Japanese Haiku quoted by the late N J Nanporia in his article on Japan in The Times of India dated around 1980)
Steve Rose, The Guardian, February 28 2013:
"..."Indian films have this obsession with hygienic clean spaces, even though the country's not so clean," says Anurag Kashyap. "They're either shot in the studios or shot in London, in America, in Switzerland – clean places. Everywhere except India." By contrast, Kashyap's latest movie, Gangs Of Wasseypur, seems determined to show the India you don't see in the movies. Wasseypur is a nondescript industrial town in Bihar, India's poorest region. And rather than drugs or casinos, these gangs are fighting for control of coal mines and scrap metal. It was filmed on bustling streets and industrial wastelands, even – since one of the movie's central clans are butchers by trade – an abattoir. "That was difficult," Kashyap recalls. "The smell was so bad. While we were shooting, 60 buffaloes and a camel got slaughtered before our eyes. I don't think any of us could eat meat for a month."..."
Sarang Chapalgaonkar (सारंग चपळगावकर), for me Sarang-mama, is dead. He died on December 20 2012. He was my wife's mother's maternal uncle (मामा).
He was an interesting, handsome man...He was a groupie of Pune city's one biographer V N Natu ('आधीच पुणे गुलजार' वि. ना. नातू.....Btw- I really like Natu's book)...Knowing my tastes, he strongly recommended to me Hari Narayan Apte's (हरि नारायण आपटे) book 'Madhali Sthiti' (मधली स्थिती). I have still not able to get hold of the book.
We could talk for hours on many subjects. Once he told me how the Dalits were not allowed to construct houses in a certain direction of the Pune city because the wind blew from that direction into the city!
He spent his entire working life- from 1942 for 39 years- in Indian (central) railways. A few years go, he wrote a book- "Tikit Please" (तिकीट प्लीज)- based on his experiences there. It was only for private circulation.
It turned out to be a wonderful book. I finished it in one sitting. A lot of the then celebrities make guest-appearances in the book. Among them are Manohar Malgaonkar (मनोहर माळगावकर), Bal Gandharva (बालगंधर्व)...
Mr. Malgaonkar presented him with his autographed book and Balgandharva treated him with great sensitivity and affection . The latter experience made Sarang-mama cry and reading that made me cry! Another instance of Balgandharva's greatness.
But the best thing about the book comes in its foreword by the author:
"टी सी म्हणून साधारण वाटणाऱ्या नोकरीत मी अत्यंत स्वाभीमानाने व समाधानाने दिवस काढले. त्या नोकरीचा मला अद्याप अभिमान वाटतो."
("I spent days with dignity and satisfaction working in an ordinary sounding job like ticket-checker. I still feel proud of that job.")
How rarely I get to read such a sentiment in a native Indian language.
Reminded me of following set of dialogues:
",,,उषा: तुम्हांला सगळ्याचाच मझा वाटतो.
काकाजी: पाहिलं नीट
म्हणजे बराबर
मझा दिसतो.
इंदूर स्टेशनात
एकदा एक
भंगी दोन
लंब्या झाडू
घेऊन कचरा
काढीत होता.
उषा, अरे
ऐश्या झाडू
फिरवीत होता,
की तुझ्या
सतीशला बॅट
देखील फिरवता
येणार नाही
तशी."
("...Usha: You think everything is fun.
Kakaji: If you look carefully, you notice fun alright. At
Indore station once a street-sweeper was sweeping using two long brooms. Usha,
the way he was brandishing broom, your Satish would't be able to wave even a (cricket)
bat.")
['Tujhe Ahe Tujapashi', 1957 (तुझें
आहे तुजपाशीं) by P L Deshpande (पु ल देशपांडे)]
So many books remain unwritten in Marathi....
Has there been a great Marathi book by a nurse? By a house-maid? By an under taker at crematorium? By autopsy (post-mortem) conductors? By a butcher? By a person engaged in manual scavenging? By an auto-rickshaw or a tonga driver? By an ST bus conductor? By a postman? By a dangerous-chemical factory worker? By MSEDCL worker exposed to high-voltage live wires? By a coal-engine train driver?.....What 'Marathi' or language do they use on the job?
And I am not talking about some howling rebel (विद्रोही) books, not the kind whose authors are now 'parallel' celebrities making monthly/quarterly appearances on TV channels anchored by 'socialist' anchors, but written matter-of-factly, making people appreciate: Despite all the likely misery of the job, I did it with quiet dignity and satisfaction and my job was perhaps as important as that of an IT professional or a journalist or a priest or a publisher or an artist or a doctor or an architect or a teacher or a lawyer or an ad-man or an actor or a writer or a builder or a politician or a broker or a pilot or a cricketer or Miss Beauty-queen or a TV anchor...
2 comments:
पोस्ट आवडली. बहुधा तुम्ही या पुस्तकाबद्दल आधीही लिहिलं होतंत.
''टी सी म्हणून साधारण वाटणाऱ्या नोकरीत मी अत्यंत स्वाभिमानाने व समाधानाने दिवस काढले. त्या नोकरीचा मला अद्याप अभिमान वाटतो.'' - हे फार सुंदर आहे.
काम्यूनं 'मिथ ऑफ सिसिफस'मधे एका ठिकाणी म्हटलंय की, ''An emperor and a clerk in a post-office are at a same level if consciousness is common to them.''
साधारण आपण आपल्या पातळीवर विचार केला तरी हे म्हणणं आपसूक आपल्याही डोक्यात येतंच. मला असं आधी वाटलेलं बँकेत काम करणाऱ्या एकाच्या संदर्भात, आणि काम्यूने ते म्हटल्याचं दिसल्यावर बरं वाटलं. त्याच्या म्हणण्याचे संदर्भ आणखी मोठेही असतील कदाचित.
चंद्रकांत खोत संपादित करायचे त्या दिवाळी अंकातल्या काही मजकुराचा 'निवडक अबकडइ' असा खंड लोकवाङ्मयगृहाने नुकताच प्रकाशित केला. त्यात जयंत पवारांचा 'पासवालाः कृष्णा गोविंद मोहिते' असा एक लेख आहे. दादरच्या स्मशानभूमीत रजिस्टर क्लार्क म्हणून काम करणाऱ्या एका व्यक्तीच्या मुलाखतीच्या स्वरूपातला हा लेख आहे. त्यात साधारण ही भावना पुढे आलेली आहे.
पण तरी तुम्ही शेवटी जे म्हटलंयत ते, अमुक अमुक मंडळींनी मराठीत लिहिलंय का, तसं नाही सापडलं कधी.
अजून एक अकिरा कुरोसावाच्या 'सेव्हन सामुराय' चित्रपटात पाहिलेलं : त्यात एक जण एका गावाच्या रक्षणाच्या कामगिरीसाठी सामुराय शोधत असतो. त्या शोधात त्याला भेटतो तो आधी सामुराय असलेला एक माणूस लाकूड तोडण्याचं काम करत असतो. शोधात असलेला ज्येष्ठ सामुराय त्याला म्हणतो, 'तू तर आनंदात दिसतोस!' त्यावर लाकूड तोडणारा सामुराय म्हणतो, 'ते माझ्या स्वभावातच आहे.' म्हणजे हा योद्धा असलेला माणूस लाकूड तोडताना आनंदात असतो कारण ते त्याच्या स्वभावातच असतं. (इथे चित्रपटाबद्दल कदाचित माझी काही तपशिलातली चूक असू शकेल. पण त्या दृश्याचा आशय बहुधा हाच होता.)
Thanks Ek Regh.
I think I had written about what Sarang-mama told me and not about the book. http://searchingforlaugh.blogspot.com/2008/04/when-will-india-get-national-museum-of.html
I often realize how 'poor' Marathi has remained because of the absence of such authors. (If you remember an example N G Kalelkar gives- we write about Shrikhand-puri as great food and not Chicken curry!)
This is similar to what Shripad Krushna Kolhatkar felt after reading H N Apte's "Pan Lakshat Kon Gheto"...when will such a book written about non-Brahmin women?
The same thing I have started getting while reading Laxmibai Tilak's "Smrutichitre"...could the great lady have elaborated on the non-Brahmin characters that appear in her great book?
Thanks for quoting from मिथ ऑफ सिसिफस...I keep forgetting a lot of it...
I have seen great Seven Samurai (even my mother was fond of it) but will try to see it again, particularly for the shot you mention...
I wonder if you have seen "As good as it gets"...There is a line..."If you look at someone long enough, you discover their humanity."...
Here is a toast for looking at long enough!
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