I lived in Mumbai continuously only from mid-1983 to mid-1987 but I got lucky.
I watched नीळू फुले (Nilu Phule) and लालन सारंग (Lalan Sarang) perform सखाराम बाइंडर/ बाईंडर (Sakharam Binder) at साहित्य संघ ,गिरगाव (Sahitya Sangh,Girgaum) from the first or the second row.
I have yet to see a better performance than that on either Indian stage or Indian cinema's silver screen.
I understand he felt emotionally exhausted after every performance of Binder. Why not? I felt devastated watching him just once.
I always thought Nilu Phule would have been a much better नाना फडणवीस (Nana Fadnavis)- a historical character tormented by his often losing struggle with sexuality- than मोहन आगाशे (Mohan Agashe) in विजय तेंडुलकर Vijay Tendulkar's घाशीराम कोतवाल (Ghashiram Kotwal).
It might have given an opportunity to 'Kotwal' to become a dark comedy instead of just great entertainment.
Cinema, unlike theatre, is predominantly director's medium. Unfortunately, for Mr. Phule and us, Marathi cinema did not have great, and not just good, directors while he was active. (How many great directors Marathi has produced anyway?)
He still gave memorable performances in movies like पिंजरा (Pinjara), सोंगाड्या (Songadya), थापाड्या (Thapadya), सामना (Samana), सिंहासन (Simhasan), लक्ष्मी (Laxmi).
My favourite is चोरीचा मामला (Choricha Mamala), brilliantly acted by Phule in the company of another brilliant but under appreciated actor: ललिता पवार (Lalita Pawar).
He always had something interesting to say. I wish he wrote.
He was an atheist like तुकाराम Tukaram: "आहे ऐसा देव वदवावी वाणी । नाही ऐसा मनीं अनुभवावा ।"
कमलाकर सारंग Kamlakar Sarang, talented director of Sakharam Binder, has written passionately about Phule in his autobiographical book बाइंडरचे दिवस (baaindarache diwas),1984.
Tuesday, July 14, 2009
Monday, July 13, 2009
Supreme Court of India, How about Blowing from Guns?
The Times of India reported on July 7, 2009:
"Hanging by the neck till death would continue to be the mode of execution of condemned prisoners, Supreme Court (of India) said on Monday refusing to entertain a PIL seeking replacement of the ‘cruel and painful’ method with the ‘lethal injection’, a method practised in the US.
"How do you know that hanging causes pain? And how do you know that injecting the condemned prisoner with a lethal drug would not cause pain?" asked a bench comprising Chief Justice K G Balakrishnan and Justice P Sathasivam..."
The court is right. We don't know.
But can we trust the judgment of very learned Mountstuart Elphinstone (1779–1859)?
“Elphinstone did not hesitate to order the (Brahmin) ringleaders (of a plot to murder all the Europeans in Pune) to be blown from guns, observing that this method of execution ‘contains two valuable elements of capital punishment; it is painless to the criminal and terrible to the beholder’.”
(Philip Mason. “Men Who Ruled India”)
If we do, the following picture requires a small correction. Instead of tying the convict to the stump, he needs to be put in the barrel.
You still don't need additional staff!
And does the executioner have a sense of humour like Daulatrao Shinde दौलतराव शिंदे (1779 – 1827), the king of Gwalior state?
He ordered execution of his own commander-in-chief Narayanrao Baxi नारायणराव बक्षी by launching him into the sky, with the help of explosives attached to his body, to make a pun: "बक्षीचा पक्षी केला" ("Made bird of Bakshi")! (source: Marhati Lavani by M V Dhond, 1956 मर्हाटी लावणी, म. वा. धोंड)
After reading Mountstuart Elphinstone, I feel Daulatrao was a kind man. He could have chosen to crush Bakshi by elephant, the way Baji Rao II chose to deal with Vithoji Holkar विठोजी होळकर in April 1801, and let Holkar's corpse remain in the street near his palace for 24 hours so that he could enjoy watching it from window.
'Due to staff cutbacks...'
The Spectator
"Hanging by the neck till death would continue to be the mode of execution of condemned prisoners, Supreme Court (of India) said on Monday refusing to entertain a PIL seeking replacement of the ‘cruel and painful’ method with the ‘lethal injection’, a method practised in the US.
"How do you know that hanging causes pain? And how do you know that injecting the condemned prisoner with a lethal drug would not cause pain?" asked a bench comprising Chief Justice K G Balakrishnan and Justice P Sathasivam..."
The court is right. We don't know.
But can we trust the judgment of very learned Mountstuart Elphinstone (1779–1859)?
“Elphinstone did not hesitate to order the (Brahmin) ringleaders (of a plot to murder all the Europeans in Pune) to be blown from guns, observing that this method of execution ‘contains two valuable elements of capital punishment; it is painless to the criminal and terrible to the beholder’.”
(Philip Mason. “Men Who Ruled India”)
If we do, the following picture requires a small correction. Instead of tying the convict to the stump, he needs to be put in the barrel.
You still don't need additional staff!
And does the executioner have a sense of humour like Daulatrao Shinde दौलतराव शिंदे (1779 – 1827), the king of Gwalior state?
He ordered execution of his own commander-in-chief Narayanrao Baxi नारायणराव बक्षी by launching him into the sky, with the help of explosives attached to his body, to make a pun: "बक्षीचा पक्षी केला" ("Made bird of Bakshi")! (source: Marhati Lavani by M V Dhond, 1956 मर्हाटी लावणी, म. वा. धोंड)
After reading Mountstuart Elphinstone, I feel Daulatrao was a kind man. He could have chosen to crush Bakshi by elephant, the way Baji Rao II chose to deal with Vithoji Holkar विठोजी होळकर in April 1801, and let Holkar's corpse remain in the street near his palace for 24 hours so that he could enjoy watching it from window.
'Due to staff cutbacks...'
The Spectator
Friday, July 10, 2009
Amitabh Bachchan, We Just Fall Apart
Mr. Bachchan, 66, is unwell.
His blog has these beautiful lines from his father's Madhushala:
बनी रहें अंगूर लताएँ जिनसे मिलती है हाला,
बनी रहे वह मिटटी जिससे बनता है मधु का प्याला,
बनी रहे वह मदिर पिपासा तृप्त न जो होना जाने,
बनें रहें ये पीने वाले, बनी रहे यह मधुशाला।।
On July 8 2009, he writes there:
“…I was due to travel out tonight but a small problem has arisen. I developed a pain in the stomach much like the one I got last birthday. And it happened just when I was getting set to leave from London. So I travelled home in order that I may be in a climate that understands my condition, rather than stay back in alien country and subject myself to a medical from those that are unaware of my history. I drove straight to my doctor on arrival late last night and after some external physical examinations was subjected to CT scans this morning. The results do not show anything, but the trouble exists, albeit in a much smaller scale than the last time. Some more tests have been advised tomorrow. I have therefore postponed my travel until there is a fix on the problem and a possible line of treatment. I would not want to get moving again and land up in unknown territory and end up in hospital. Its disturbing to be in such state. Frustrating that despite extreme care a repetition of this problem keeps occurring…”
It makes sad reading.
Note: “Frustrating that despite extreme care a repetition of this problem keeps occurring.”
Why?
Dr. Atul Gawande has tried to answer it in the New Yorker April 30, 2007:
“…The idea that living things shut down and not just wear down has received substantial support in the past decade…
Today, the average life span in developed countries is almost eighty years. If human life spans depend on our genetics, then medicine has got the upper hand. We are, in a way, freaks living well beyond our appointed time. So when we study aging what we are trying to understand is not so much a natural process as an unnatural one. Inheritance has surprisingly little influence on longevity…
If our genes explain less than we imagined, the wear-and-tear model may explain more than we knew…
Nonetheless, as the defects in a complex system increase, the time comes when just one more defect is enough to impair the whole, resulting in the condition known as frailty. It happens to power plants, cars, and large organizations. And it happens to us: eventually, one too many joints are damaged, one too many arteries calcify. There are no more backups. We wear down until we can’t wear down anymore…
I spoke to Felix Silverstone, who for twenty-four years was the senior geriatrician at the Parker Jewish Institute, in New York, and has published more than a hundred studies on aging. There is, he said, “no single, common cellular mechanism to the aging process.” Our bodies accumulate lipofuscin and oxygen free-radical damage and random DNA mutations and numerous other microcellular problems. The process is gradual and unrelenting. “We just fall apart,” he said…”
Therefore,
बनी रहे यह मधुशाला...It will perhaps
बनें रहें ये पीने वाले....Never
‘Never bite old people, son, they all taste of statins.’
The Spectator, 2009
His blog has these beautiful lines from his father's Madhushala:
बनी रहें अंगूर लताएँ जिनसे मिलती है हाला,
बनी रहे वह मिटटी जिससे बनता है मधु का प्याला,
बनी रहे वह मदिर पिपासा तृप्त न जो होना जाने,
बनें रहें ये पीने वाले, बनी रहे यह मधुशाला।।
On July 8 2009, he writes there:
“…I was due to travel out tonight but a small problem has arisen. I developed a pain in the stomach much like the one I got last birthday. And it happened just when I was getting set to leave from London. So I travelled home in order that I may be in a climate that understands my condition, rather than stay back in alien country and subject myself to a medical from those that are unaware of my history. I drove straight to my doctor on arrival late last night and after some external physical examinations was subjected to CT scans this morning. The results do not show anything, but the trouble exists, albeit in a much smaller scale than the last time. Some more tests have been advised tomorrow. I have therefore postponed my travel until there is a fix on the problem and a possible line of treatment. I would not want to get moving again and land up in unknown territory and end up in hospital. Its disturbing to be in such state. Frustrating that despite extreme care a repetition of this problem keeps occurring…”
It makes sad reading.
Note: “Frustrating that despite extreme care a repetition of this problem keeps occurring.”
Why?
Dr. Atul Gawande has tried to answer it in the New Yorker April 30, 2007:
“…The idea that living things shut down and not just wear down has received substantial support in the past decade…
Today, the average life span in developed countries is almost eighty years. If human life spans depend on our genetics, then medicine has got the upper hand. We are, in a way, freaks living well beyond our appointed time. So when we study aging what we are trying to understand is not so much a natural process as an unnatural one. Inheritance has surprisingly little influence on longevity…
If our genes explain less than we imagined, the wear-and-tear model may explain more than we knew…
Nonetheless, as the defects in a complex system increase, the time comes when just one more defect is enough to impair the whole, resulting in the condition known as frailty. It happens to power plants, cars, and large organizations. And it happens to us: eventually, one too many joints are damaged, one too many arteries calcify. There are no more backups. We wear down until we can’t wear down anymore…
I spoke to Felix Silverstone, who for twenty-four years was the senior geriatrician at the Parker Jewish Institute, in New York, and has published more than a hundred studies on aging. There is, he said, “no single, common cellular mechanism to the aging process.” Our bodies accumulate lipofuscin and oxygen free-radical damage and random DNA mutations and numerous other microcellular problems. The process is gradual and unrelenting. “We just fall apart,” he said…”
Therefore,
बनी रहे यह मधुशाला...It will perhaps
बनें रहें ये पीने वाले....Never
‘Never bite old people, son, they all taste of statins.’
The Spectator, 2009
Thursday, July 09, 2009
Indian Men: The Bliss of Losing the Self
Disclaimer- I very much belong to this species.
V S Naipaul: “The outer world matters only in so far as it affects the inner. It is the Indian way of experiencing…”
Sudhir Kakar: “We Indians use the outside reality to preserve the continuity of the self amidst an ever changing flux of outer events and things. Men do not, therefore, actively explore the world; rather, they are defined by it. It is this negative way of perceiving that goes with ‘meditation’, the striving after the infinite, the bliss of losing the self; it also goes with karma and the complex organization of Indian life.”
(“India: A Wounded Civilization” by V.S. Naipaul, 1977)
Naipaul on Mahatma Gandhi:
(Double click on the picture to get a larger view)
Ashok Shahane on the journey of Saint Namdev संत नामदेव (c.1270-c. 1350 CE) from Maharashtra to Punjab, contrasting him with Marco Polo, al beruni, Ibn Battuta .
अशोक शहाणे Ashok Shahane (नपेक्षा, Napeksha 2005)
(Namdev however was not self-effacing at probably the most important event in his life: Sant Dnyāneshwar ज्ञानेश्वर taking to salvation (Samadhi) in 1296 CE. It's only because of him we know so much about it.)
‘Prabodhankar’ Thackeray on our habit of not documenting, contrasting it strongly with the British habit, practised by men like James Grant Duff:
"रंगो बापूजी" , केशव सीताराम ठाकरे ऊर्फ प्रबोधनकार ठाकरे, 1948
(“Rango Bapuji” by Prabodhankar Thackeray)
Nothing surprises me since I learnt this:
SN 1054 (Crab Supernova) was a supernova that was widely seen on earth in the year 1054. It was recorded by Chinese and Arab astronomers as being bright enough to see in daylight for 23 days and was visible in the night sky for 653 days, outshining the most brilliant stars in the heavens.
Dr. Jayant Narlikar in his book “The Scientific Edge” (Penguin Books India 2003) has a chapter titled “The Search for records of the Sighting of the Crab Supernova”. It describes Herculean efforts put in by his team to locate any record of this grand celestial event in Indian historical records, including popular literature. Sadly, they failed.
V S Naipaul: “The outer world matters only in so far as it affects the inner. It is the Indian way of experiencing…”
Sudhir Kakar: “We Indians use the outside reality to preserve the continuity of the self amidst an ever changing flux of outer events and things. Men do not, therefore, actively explore the world; rather, they are defined by it. It is this negative way of perceiving that goes with ‘meditation’, the striving after the infinite, the bliss of losing the self; it also goes with karma and the complex organization of Indian life.”
(“India: A Wounded Civilization” by V.S. Naipaul, 1977)
Naipaul on Mahatma Gandhi:
(Double click on the picture to get a larger view)
Ashok Shahane on the journey of Saint Namdev संत नामदेव (c.1270-c. 1350 CE) from Maharashtra to Punjab, contrasting him with Marco Polo, al beruni, Ibn Battuta .
अशोक शहाणे Ashok Shahane (नपेक्षा, Napeksha 2005)
(Namdev however was not self-effacing at probably the most important event in his life: Sant Dnyāneshwar ज्ञानेश्वर taking to salvation (Samadhi) in 1296 CE. It's only because of him we know so much about it.)
‘Prabodhankar’ Thackeray on our habit of not documenting, contrasting it strongly with the British habit, practised by men like James Grant Duff:
"रंगो बापूजी" , केशव सीताराम ठाकरे ऊर्फ प्रबोधनकार ठाकरे, 1948
(“Rango Bapuji” by Prabodhankar Thackeray)
Nothing surprises me since I learnt this:
SN 1054 (Crab Supernova) was a supernova that was widely seen on earth in the year 1054. It was recorded by Chinese and Arab astronomers as being bright enough to see in daylight for 23 days and was visible in the night sky for 653 days, outshining the most brilliant stars in the heavens.
Dr. Jayant Narlikar in his book “The Scientific Edge” (Penguin Books India 2003) has a chapter titled “The Search for records of the Sighting of the Crab Supernova”. It describes Herculean efforts put in by his team to locate any record of this grand celestial event in Indian historical records, including popular literature. Sadly, they failed.
Monday, July 06, 2009
Nothing Found Against Gays Even at the Bottom of an Ocean!
The Hindu:
“In a landmark judgment, the Delhi High Court on Thursday struck down the provision of Section 377 of the Indian Penal Code which criminalised consensual sexual acts of adults in private, holding that it violated the fundamental right of life and liberty and the right to equality as guaranteed in the Constitution.
Gays present in the court room hailed the judgment and greeted one another with hugs.”
(July 3, 2009)
Artist: Michael Crawford, The New Yorker, July 6 2009, Cartoon Caption Contest #199
My caption:
Judge:“Hey fanatic, I knew you wouldn’t find anything in nature against gays even if you scraped the bottom of an ocean. On the contrary, it's likely you saw some fish displaying homosexual behavior.”
“In a landmark judgment, the Delhi High Court on Thursday struck down the provision of Section 377 of the Indian Penal Code which criminalised consensual sexual acts of adults in private, holding that it violated the fundamental right of life and liberty and the right to equality as guaranteed in the Constitution.
Gays present in the court room hailed the judgment and greeted one another with hugs.”
(July 3, 2009)
Artist: Michael Crawford, The New Yorker, July 6 2009, Cartoon Caption Contest #199
My caption:
Judge:“Hey fanatic, I knew you wouldn’t find anything in nature against gays even if you scraped the bottom of an ocean. On the contrary, it's likely you saw some fish displaying homosexual behavior.”
Thursday, July 02, 2009
Sanskrit, That’s Why You is Dead
My 15-year-old son enjoys learning Sanskrit. I too liked it at his age.
In school, I read and reread a story- there exist a couple of variations on this- of Kalidasa.
It ran something like this:
“A poor Brahmin enters Dhara- the capital town of King Bhoja- where Kalidasa lived. He aspires to visit the court of King Bhoja and earn a prize on demonstration of his knowledge of Sanskrit.
It’s an early winter morning. He sees a young woman drawing rangawali in front of Kalidasa's house. Poor Brahmin thinks she is not adequately protected against the winter chill and asks her- in Sanskrit- if she is not afraid of getting harmed by the cold.
She answers that she is not being hurt by the cold but by the faulty grammar of the poor Brahmin.”
Then I thought- very smart. Now I say: What hubris!!!
In Sanskrit, the exchange in Dhara reads as follows:
“
अपि शीतं ते बाधती इति
सा अवदात
ना तथा बाधते शीतं
यथा बाधती बाधते
api shiitaM te baadhati iti
saa avadat
na tathaa baadhate shiitaM
yathaa baadhati baadhate”
[api shiitaM te baadhati iti= does cold bother (trouble) you?
saa avadat = she said
na tathaa baadhate shiitam = no, cold doesn't bother (trouble) me in that manner
yathaa baadhati baadhate = just like the word 'baadhati' bothers (troubles)
baadhati is incorrect usage and the correct usage is baadhate ]
Over the years, I have heard native speakers of Marathi teasing native speakers of Kannada when they speak Marathi. Even some big names in Marathi literature have fallen prey to this temptation in their writings.
It's so vulgar.
When I lived in Kolkata, Bengalis encouraged my wife and me to speak Bengali without any fear.
And finally English. It's as flexible as a Chinese gymnast.
Michael Skapinker writes in FT June 15, 2009:
“…But in their study “Was/were variation: A perspective from London”, Jenny Cheshire and Sue Fox of Queen Mary, University of London, write that those who say “you was” have history on their side. “You was” is hundreds of years old.It has been used in many parts of the English-speaking world…
… But there is no single standard of correct grammar. “You were” would be as much of a howler in some (non-Bangladeshi) parts of east London as “you was” would be in this newspaper…
… In his book, The Fight for English, David Crystal says: “The only languages that do not change are dead ones.”…”
Why didn’t Sanskrit change? Are today’s Indo-European languages, that are native to India, changing fast enough to survive the onslaught of Hindi?
Look at the picture below...She is concerned about his grammar...Is he talking dirty in Sanskrit?
Artist: Zachary Kanin, The New Yorker, May 25 2009
For more pictures of Zachary Kanin, click here.
In school, I read and reread a story- there exist a couple of variations on this- of Kalidasa.
It ran something like this:
“A poor Brahmin enters Dhara- the capital town of King Bhoja- where Kalidasa lived. He aspires to visit the court of King Bhoja and earn a prize on demonstration of his knowledge of Sanskrit.
It’s an early winter morning. He sees a young woman drawing rangawali in front of Kalidasa's house. Poor Brahmin thinks she is not adequately protected against the winter chill and asks her- in Sanskrit- if she is not afraid of getting harmed by the cold.
She answers that she is not being hurt by the cold but by the faulty grammar of the poor Brahmin.”
Then I thought- very smart. Now I say: What hubris!!!
In Sanskrit, the exchange in Dhara reads as follows:
“
अपि शीतं ते बाधती इति
सा अवदात
ना तथा बाधते शीतं
यथा बाधती बाधते
api shiitaM te baadhati iti
saa avadat
na tathaa baadhate shiitaM
yathaa baadhati baadhate”
[api shiitaM te baadhati iti= does cold bother (trouble) you?
saa avadat = she said
na tathaa baadhate shiitam = no, cold doesn't bother (trouble) me in that manner
yathaa baadhati baadhate = just like the word 'baadhati' bothers (troubles)
baadhati is incorrect usage and the correct usage is baadhate ]
Over the years, I have heard native speakers of Marathi teasing native speakers of Kannada when they speak Marathi. Even some big names in Marathi literature have fallen prey to this temptation in their writings.
It's so vulgar.
When I lived in Kolkata, Bengalis encouraged my wife and me to speak Bengali without any fear.
And finally English. It's as flexible as a Chinese gymnast.
Michael Skapinker writes in FT June 15, 2009:
“…But in their study “Was/were variation: A perspective from London”, Jenny Cheshire and Sue Fox of Queen Mary, University of London, write that those who say “you was” have history on their side. “You was” is hundreds of years old.It has been used in many parts of the English-speaking world…
… But there is no single standard of correct grammar. “You were” would be as much of a howler in some (non-Bangladeshi) parts of east London as “you was” would be in this newspaper…
… In his book, The Fight for English, David Crystal says: “The only languages that do not change are dead ones.”…”
Why didn’t Sanskrit change? Are today’s Indo-European languages, that are native to India, changing fast enough to survive the onslaught of Hindi?
Look at the picture below...She is concerned about his grammar...Is he talking dirty in Sanskrit?
Artist: Zachary Kanin, The New Yorker, May 25 2009
For more pictures of Zachary Kanin, click here.
Monday, June 29, 2009
Delayed Monsoon to affect Sowing and Throwing!
Artist: P.C. Vey, The New Yorker, June 29 2009, Cartoon Caption Contest #198
My caption:
“Our boss, Ajit-the-Lion, told us to throw this baby out with the bathwater at a place where he can sleep with the fishes. Damn monsoon! Even dams have dried up.”
Friday, June 26, 2009
Stench and Scent of a Woman
Neil Young:
"A Man Needs A Maid"
...
I was thinking that
maybe I'd get a maid
Find a place nearby
for her to stay.
Just someone
to keep my house clean,
Fix my meals and go away.
..."
Only for "to keep my house clean, Fix my meals and go away."? Not necessarily.
Recently a high profile Hindi film actor has been accused of a brutal rape of his maid.
I am reminded of a scene from Marathi film "Simhasan सिंहासन" (1980):
An elderly man douses his maid (played by Sushma Tendulkar सुषमा तेंडुलकर ) with perfume before sleeping with her. At the end of the act, he calls her a prostitute and 'pays' her with a used saree of his wife.
Dousing with perfume!
On the other hand, Napoleon sent word from the thick of battle to Josephine that she should abstain from washing now that his return was nigh.
R K Narayan:
"I smelt my wife's letter before opening it. It carried with it the fragrance of her trunk, in which she always kept her stationery- a mild jasmine smell surrounded her and all her possessions ever since I had known her."
("The English Teacher", 1946)
In "The Simpsons" episode (Production code: CABF05 Original Airdate on FOX: 14-Jan-2001), a prisoner asks Marge Simpson: "Can I smell your dress?"
बा. सी. मर्ढेकर (B S Mardhekar):
दवांत आलिस भल्या पहाटीं
अभ्रांच्या शोभेंत एकदां;
जवळुनि गेलिस पेरित अपुल्या
मंद पावलांमधल्या गंधा.
(# 25, "मर्ढेकरांची कविता", "Mardhekar's Poetry", 1959)
Forgive my translation:
"You came in early morning dew
decked up like clouds once;
went past me planting
fragrance of your tender steps."
"A Man Needs A Maid"
...
I was thinking that
maybe I'd get a maid
Find a place nearby
for her to stay.
Just someone
to keep my house clean,
Fix my meals and go away.
..."
Only for "to keep my house clean, Fix my meals and go away."? Not necessarily.
Recently a high profile Hindi film actor has been accused of a brutal rape of his maid.
I am reminded of a scene from Marathi film "Simhasan सिंहासन" (1980):
An elderly man douses his maid (played by Sushma Tendulkar सुषमा तेंडुलकर ) with perfume before sleeping with her. At the end of the act, he calls her a prostitute and 'pays' her with a used saree of his wife.
Dousing with perfume!
On the other hand, Napoleon sent word from the thick of battle to Josephine that she should abstain from washing now that his return was nigh.
R K Narayan:
"I smelt my wife's letter before opening it. It carried with it the fragrance of her trunk, in which she always kept her stationery- a mild jasmine smell surrounded her and all her possessions ever since I had known her."
("The English Teacher", 1946)
In "The Simpsons" episode (Production code: CABF05 Original Airdate on FOX: 14-Jan-2001), a prisoner asks Marge Simpson: "Can I smell your dress?"
बा. सी. मर्ढेकर (B S Mardhekar):
दवांत आलिस भल्या पहाटीं
अभ्रांच्या शोभेंत एकदां;
जवळुनि गेलिस पेरित अपुल्या
मंद पावलांमधल्या गंधा.
(# 25, "मर्ढेकरांची कविता", "Mardhekar's Poetry", 1959)
Forgive my translation:
"You came in early morning dew
decked up like clouds once;
went past me planting
fragrance of your tender steps."
Tuesday, June 23, 2009
Vijay Mallya’s Next Generation Flight
Artist: Drew Dernavich, The New Yorker, June 22 2009, Cartoon Caption Contest 197
My caption:
“This year she is on the ramp. Next year she will also be in Kingfisher Calendar.”
Monday, June 22, 2009
Did Alexander the Great exult like Shahid Afridi?
Indian media- to drive up ratings- inform us every little useless detail about Indian cricketers and their WAGS but thankfully they don’t bother about Shahid Afridi. Therefore, I don't know if he is married or not. When he spoke to Nasser Hussain after the match, he did not bring in his family either. He just spoke about the god, the country, the captain and the team.
Regardless of his marital status, if I were a girl or a gay, I would be falling head over hills in love with Afridi!
When he stood exulting after taking a wicket, see picture below, running his fingers through thick black hair, it looked almost surreal.
In that setting, Bollywood's Big Khans would have looked like sideshows.
This was cricket for the sheer joy of it.
“……It said a great deal for Smith that he did not allow the misfortune to throw him off balance. Bowling more carefully, he delivered the rest of the over to the order. Five balls went down, each of them swinging into the batsman. Three of them Troughton was able to leave alone, as they swung across his body and down the leg side, making Deacon leap and stretch to stop them from going for byes. True, Troughton played carefully, once going right up on his toes to bring the ball down on to the pitch in front of him with the straightest of the bats, dropping his wrists and slackening the fingers round the bat handle.
The seventh, aimed straight at the middle stump had Troughton driving across the line trying to work it away to mid-wicket. It moved off the pitch again, but this time in the other direction, touching the outside edge of the bat as it went and winging its way chest high to Gauvinier at first slip- a straightforward, finger-tingling slip catch.
He flung the ball high in delight- for himself, for Norman, for the ball, for the catch, for the score and for the sheer joy of cricket”
(John Parker “The Village Cricket Match”(1977) from cricket anthology “The Joy of Cricket” Selected and Edited by John Bright-Holmes)
Afridi reminded me of Mohinder ‘Jimmy’ Amarnath of 1983, another carefree cricketer. And not a slave to big money.
David Hopps (Guardian) says: “…To term Pakistan cricket indomitable is not to deny its essentially unstable nature. It is unconquerable only in its passion for the game, but the flames of that passion burn fiercely, bringing delight and recriminations, success and failure. The one constant factor is the fervour…”
When will Indian cricket get back its fervour?
Photograph courtesy: Anthony Devlin/PA
Did Alexander the Great exult like this on the bank of Indus/Sindhu River?
June 21, 2009
Regardless of his marital status, if I were a girl or a gay, I would be falling head over hills in love with Afridi!
When he stood exulting after taking a wicket, see picture below, running his fingers through thick black hair, it looked almost surreal.
In that setting, Bollywood's Big Khans would have looked like sideshows.
This was cricket for the sheer joy of it.
“……It said a great deal for Smith that he did not allow the misfortune to throw him off balance. Bowling more carefully, he delivered the rest of the over to the order. Five balls went down, each of them swinging into the batsman. Three of them Troughton was able to leave alone, as they swung across his body and down the leg side, making Deacon leap and stretch to stop them from going for byes. True, Troughton played carefully, once going right up on his toes to bring the ball down on to the pitch in front of him with the straightest of the bats, dropping his wrists and slackening the fingers round the bat handle.
The seventh, aimed straight at the middle stump had Troughton driving across the line trying to work it away to mid-wicket. It moved off the pitch again, but this time in the other direction, touching the outside edge of the bat as it went and winging its way chest high to Gauvinier at first slip- a straightforward, finger-tingling slip catch.
He flung the ball high in delight- for himself, for Norman, for the ball, for the catch, for the score and for the sheer joy of cricket”
(John Parker “The Village Cricket Match”(1977) from cricket anthology “The Joy of Cricket” Selected and Edited by John Bright-Holmes)
Afridi reminded me of Mohinder ‘Jimmy’ Amarnath of 1983, another carefree cricketer. And not a slave to big money.
David Hopps (Guardian) says: “…To term Pakistan cricket indomitable is not to deny its essentially unstable nature. It is unconquerable only in its passion for the game, but the flames of that passion burn fiercely, bringing delight and recriminations, success and failure. The one constant factor is the fervour…”
When will Indian cricket get back its fervour?
Photograph courtesy: Anthony Devlin/PA
Did Alexander the Great exult like this on the bank of Indus/Sindhu River?
June 21, 2009
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