Damn Hampi, You are in Karnataka!

A.G. NOORANI:"...Television has simply run amok. It is unaccountable because there is no audit of the media in the media itself..."

Last few days Marathi TV channels were busy bashing Karnataka over Belgaum. It's their way of celebrating 50th anniversary of birth of modern state of Maharashtra.

Today May 4th is 674th anniversary of the foundation of Vijayanagara, one of the greatest empires of India and the world.

One of the most memorable days of my life is the one I spent at Hampi-Vijayanagara in December 1992.

It seems I never left the place.

When I saw the picture of elephant stables, included below, from Frontline April 9 2010 essay 'History in stone', I once again, just like the day when I was there, was transported 500 years back.

I thought the visit was like reading Percy Bysshe Shelley's 'Ozymandias' where one

"...meets some fragments huge, and stops to guess
What powerful but unrecorded race
Once dwelt in that annihilated place." (Fortunately for us not exactly 'unrecorded race'.)

Year 2010 is 500th anniversary year of the coronation of Krishnadevaraya, one of the greatest rulers India produced.

I don't claim that I read a lot of Marathi publications or follow Marathi news television. But I dare say that this great event is barely being celebrated in Maharashtra.

It was not always like this.

Year 1936 was celebrated in Maharashtra as 600th anniversary year of foundation of Vijayanagara empire.


T S Shejwalkar (त्र्यं शं शेजवलकर) wrote two memorable essays on the occasion: 'Debt of Vijayanagara' (विजयनगरचे ऋण) and 'Impact of Viajayanagara Empire on the empire of Marathas' (विजयनगर साम्राज्याचे मराठेशाहीवरील परिणाम).

Shejwalkar wrote:

"...The idea of Maharashtra state came to Shivaji under the shadow of Vijayanagara empire; it was developed further while he conquered parts of that erstwhile empire; it germinated because of its support; prospered; survived many crises, kept going and in the end when that support vanished, it fell apart."

("महाराष्ट्र-राज्याची कल्पना विजयनगरच्या छायेंत शिवाजीच्या मनांत स्फुरली; त्याचं राज्याचा मुलूख जिंकतां जिंकतां वृद्धिंगत पावली; त्याच राज्याच्या आश्रयामुळे मराठेशाही रूजली, वाढली, गंडांतरांतून टिकली, चालू राहिली आणि अखेरीस तो आश्रय सुटला तेंव्हा कोसळून कोलमडून पडली")

Are we ungrateful bastards?


If you pay attention, you will hear elephants trumpet

In the Battle of Romance, Marathi Lost it to Hindi

Suhas Palshikar: "...MNS or no MNS, preferential treatment to locals is always an easy and attractive policy proposal. What is wrong with it? It is wrong simply because it creates an untenable category of “local”. In administrative parlance it becomes “domicile” – meaning resident for 15 years. This strategy practically abandons diversity. Apart from raising issues of definition of the local, such a policy encourages inbreeding and denies its beneficiaries he advantage of greater exposure and competition. It produces ghettoisation at schools, colleges and at workplaces – resulting in non-diverse social universes –hostels, localities and cities...." (Economic & Political Weekly, Feb 13, 2010)

Does this ghettoisation also affect the culture? I argue it does.

"The Music Instinct: How Music Works and Why We Can't Do without it" by Philip Ball has been reviewed by a number of publications in recent days.

Guy Dammann says: "...We do not love music because it exercises our brains or makes us more attractive to members of the opposite sex, but because we have lived with it since we came into being: it is entwined in our common and individual consciousness to the extent that, simply put, we would not be ourselves without it. In contemplating the mysteries of music we are also thereby contemplating the mystery of ourselves..." (The Observer, 21 February 2010)

A majority of good music for most Marathi speakers has been Hindi film music. Hindi may or may not be India's 'national language' but for me it surely is a language of soulful music. In happiness and in sadness.

I have rarely NOT cried at the end of watching 'Na To Karvan Ki Talaash Hai'- a great paean of love- from 'Barsaat Ki Raat'(1960).

In one of his numerous letters, G A Kulkarni (जी. ए. कुलकर्णी) dismisses lyricist Shailendra in comparison with G D Madgulkar (ग. दि. माडगूळकर).

G A got this horribly wrong. Madgulkar was a very good lyricist. But Shailendra, if any, was slightly better.

(GA was wrong on many other counts such as Marathi poet-saints, Mahatma Gandhi, popular Hindi cinema...

He keeps mentioning Ingrid Bergman...Who doesn't like Ms. Bergman? But how did he miss my goddesses with forever looks: Nutan, Madhubala, Geeta Bali? Were they any less?)

N S Phadke (ना सी फडके) rued in his essay "Poverty of Romance in New-Theatre" (नवनाट्यांतलं शृंगाराच दारिद्र्य) ['laharee', (लहरी) 1966] how Marathi theatre did not come out with a single new great romantic play since 1920.

I don't recall a single great romantic movie in Marathi.

Let us face it: In the battle of romance, since 1950's, Marathi theatre and cinema lost it to Hindi cinema.

[Marathi poetry has fared much better. Although, it must be said, it never reached the heights reached by its saint-poets earlier as in 'पीक पिकलें प्रेमाचें । सांठवितां गगन टांचें...' (Eknath एकनाथ) or 'mujhse pahli-si muhabbat mere mehboob na mang...' (Faiz Ahmed Faiz)]




Geeta Bali / Ingrid Bergman->




I don't think there is as much great music associated with Ms. Bergman as Ms. Bali!

Has IPL Pune Team's Logo Captured Poetry?

Economic & Political Weekly: The gladiatorial spectacle of IPL has brought the worst of our economic and cultural life to the open. (April 17-23, 2010)

The new IPL team 'Sahara Pune Warriors' unveiled the name and logo of its franchise at a grand ceremony in Pune on Saturday April 24 2010.

As expected, the logo- embedded below- is gladiatorial. But does it look good?

Historian T S Shejwalkar becomes lyrical describing a member of Maratha cavalry:

"...a coloured fluttering flag used to be attached to the spear; because of that the sight of shining tip of the spear in daylight along with fluttering flag looked graceful from a distance..." Panipat 1761, 1961.

(त्र्यं शं शेजवलकर:"...भाल्याला फडफडणारे रंगीत निशाणही अडकविलेले असे; त्यामुळे उन्हांत चमकणार्या भाल्याचे टोंक व त्याखाली धावताना फडफडणारे निशाण यांची दुरून मोठी शोभा वाटे..." पानिपत १७६१, 1961)

When I first read this description, I closed the book and tried to imagine that spectacle. The process was exhilarating.

Has the logo captured even a tiny fraction of Shejwalkar's poetic description?

What would have an artist like D G Godse (द ग गोडसे)- who once worked for an advertising agency- done with the idea?

Yes, Hitler was talking about Namby-Pambies of Today's Cricket

‘Tiger’ Bill O’Reilly after his leg was amputated: They can’t no-ball me any more.

It was reported widely in many Indian newspapers that Hitler wanted to use cricket to train troops for war but found it “insufficiently violent” for German Fascists.

If he had watched Bodyline series of 1932–33, he would have certainly not said so.

But when it comes to today's cricket, Hitler was right.

Mike Selvey:"The great Sir Viv (no surname needed) has been sounding off. Modern batsmen, he feels, are namby-pambies, donning their armour as if preparing for the tilting yard, human frailties cocooned and camouflaged behind all the padding and helmet. How can you test a man's mettle if it doesn't at least smart a bit when he gets hit?"

Kevin Mitchell: "There are individuals out there who use the body protection as a form of staying power," he (Viv Richards) said, "to go on as long as possible. That's the worst way anybody can be thinking, that you should cover yourself in a suit of armour, to make yourself brave, or to enable you to hook – when you never hooked in your life – just because you've got a helmet on. That's rubbish. Even though they say cricket is a gentleman's game, it's a man's game."

Also read this story told by Viv Richards:

"...I think I was pretty tough as a youngster. But (Brain) Closey was tougher still. He reinforced the message that you yield to no one...

...Man, he was brave. I remember playing against Gloucestershire and Closey was fielding at silly point. Mike Procter leant back and cracked a square cut. The ball hit Closey on the head and ballooned towards Dennis Breakwell. But Dennis watched the man rather than the ball and joined the rush to see if the captain was OK. When he came to Close's first words were "Did we get him?" He was none too pleased to hear that Dennis had failed to complete the catch...

...Anyway, at Old Trafford, Close got hit in the chest by Wayne Daniel and sank to the floor. OK, I was playing for my country, but this was my skipper on the ground and in pain. So I went up to him. "Are you OK, skipper?" Closey eventually gathered himself together and bellowed "Fuck off." What a man..."

Mike Atherton:

"...The advent of protection for batsmen from the late 1970s has been the biggest change to the game since the introduction of overarm bowling. It has altered profoundly the balance between bat and ball and changed batting techniques, to the point at which modern batsmen (Matthew Hayden and Kevin Pietersen, for example) can walk down the pitch to 90 mph balls and where some (Justin Langer, say) can play on despite numerous blows to the head.

That is before we even start talking about the strokes, such as the overhead “Dilscoop” that are routinely played in limited-overs matches, which would be a non-starter without helmets..."

The Times of India: Parental Guidance Suggested

When my 15-year old son is at home, he is often the first one to pick up the newspaper - The Times of India.

On February 11 2010, Pune edition's headline, on the front page columns 7 & 8, read:

"Babus can no longer ban porn sites" and gave 35 mm x 54 mm colour photo of Savita Bhabhi, a part of the picture is shown here- below left.

On the same day last page, they informed us how Brooklyn Decker, wife of Andy Roddick, "showed off her cover photo from a magazine in New York on Tuesday" by featuring a color photo of 75 mm x 95 mm size. See below right.

Newspapers in India are fighting TV and internet to grab 'urban young' readers. Many of them seem to think 'soft porn' is a way to go.

Will Shripad Krishna Kolhatkar be as Lucky as Mark Twain?

Today is Mark Twain's 100th death anniversary.

Twain knew that he was dead because like Alfred Nobel and Ernest Hemingway, he had the chance to read about it in the newspapers!

He of course was not afraid of it: "I do not fear death, in view of the fact that I had been dead for billions and billions of years before I was born, and had not suffered the slightest inconvenience from it."

What kind of childhood he had?

Ferdinand Mount: “Decayed gentility and a feckless father. These make the springiest springboard for the angry artist. Dickens, Picasso, Joyce, Shaw, Francis Bacon all enjoyed these unsung advantages in life. So did Samuel Langhorne Clemens who called himself Mark Twain”

Twain never received the Nobel. So much for the importance of the prize! He probably was the author of the first typewritten manuscript ever submitted to a publisher.

Abut Indians, Mark Twain says: "It is a curious people. With them, all life seems to be sacred except human life."

('Following the Equator; a Journey Around the World', 1897)

Twain saw humanity's future very clearly when he said: "Whiskey is for drinking; water is for fighting over.”

He took very dim view of our civilization: “We are nothing but echoes, we have no thoughts of our own, no opinions of our own, we are but a compost heap made up of decayed heredities, moral and physical.”

In one of the funniest passages I have read, reminding me where I am heading, Twain describes how fickle human memory could be:

"I used to remember my brother Henry walking into a fire outdoors when he was a week old. It was remarkable in me to remember a thing like that and it was still more remarkable that I should cling to the delusion for thirty years that I did remember it -- for of course it never happened; he would not have been able to walk at that age. . . . For many years I remembered helping my grandfather drinking his whiskey when I was six weeks old but I do not tell about that any more now; I am grown old and my memory is not as active as it used to be. When I was younger I could remember anything, whether it had happened or not; but my faculties are decaying now and soon I shall be so I cannot remember any but the things that never happened."

100 years on , what is happening to Twain's US of A?

Lucy Ellmann says:

“What the hell is going on? The country that produced Melville, Twain and James now venerates King, Crichton, Grisham, Sebold and Palahniuk. Their subjects? Porn, crime, pop culture and an endless parade of out-of-body experiences. Their methods? Cliché, caricature and proto-Christian morality. Props? Corn chips, corpses, crucifixes. The agenda? Deceit: a dishonest throwing of the reader to the wolves. And the result? Readymade Hollywood scripts..."

Jonah Raskin says: "...The anniversary of his death provides an occasion to reappraise his work and rethink his life. Fortunately, critics and biographers have been sifting through Twain's published writings and rummaging through his archives. A half dozen new books delve deeply and from nearly every possible angle into perhaps our most profoundly divided writer..."

Two of the greatest Marathi writers, Shripad Krishna Kolhatkar 1871-1934 (श्रीपाद कृष्ण कोल्हटकर) and C V Joshi (चि वि जोशी ) were deeply influenced by Twain and Kolhatkar surely was as talented as him.

I just finished reading 'eka snehabandhachi gosht' (एका स्नेहबंधाची गोष्ट) edited by Dr. Anjali Soman (संपादक डॉ अंजली सोमण), 2005. The book is based on postal correspondence between Kolhatkar and Anandibai Shirke (आनंदीबाई शिर्के) from Dec 17 1913 to April 21 1934.

By some strange coincidence, like Twain but not on that scale, as per the book, Kolhatkar too had financial problems. He became a farmer to overcome them. From a few of his distressed letters to Ms. Shirke, you begin to understand what it meant to be a small farmer in Vidarbha. (I plan to return to this book a few more times. BTW- The photo of Ms. Shirke in the book alone is worth the price of the book!)

The Times of India reported on Mar 28, 2010:
"Nine more farmers in Vidarbha region of Maharshtra committed suicide in the last 24 hours. This takes the toll of farmers’ suicides to 19 in the last one week and 194 this year, claimed Vidarbha Jan Andolan Samiti — an NGO keeping track on farmers’ suicides since 1997..."

Looks like, in some important aspects, little seems to have changed since 1934!

Will Kolhatkar's 100th death anniversary celebrate his work as much as Twain's? Even one new critical book on his art, reissue of all of Kolhatkar's books and G D Khanolkar's (गं दे खानोलकर) biography of him will do.

I doubt it.



Artist: Joseph Keppler, Puck magazine, 1885

How Artists should Celebrate Other Artists...

BBC reported on March 4 2010:

"...The survey, commissioned to mark World Book Day, asked which best-selling book of the past decade people would give to young people...

...More than 1,000 people aged 16 to 64 were surveyed across Britain..."

At number nine came, 'The God Delusion' by Richard Dawkins, 2006.

Recently Ian Mcewan's 'Solar' was published.

I mention them because I was impressed the way cartoonists of Spectator celebrated both these books.

I am always touched seeing the way artists are loved by other artists.

In recent years, I have not seen such an example in Marathi cartoons. I will be happy to be proven wrong.

Cat doesn't know (care?) about god but is absorbed in reading 'The Dog Delusion'!


Artist: Geoff Thompson, The Spectator

If Mcewan's book is not sold, it surely can be put to good use!



Spectator

I Love You, Ms. Roy

Sunil Khilnani:

"Our great private institutions - above all, the media - have made themselves unable to engage in fundamental debates (What kind of society do we wish to be Who should we reward, and why) . Private wealth is unwilling to direct its energies and resources to trying to bring about such a desired society (philanthropy is a good deed - but it is not a step towards changing the world: whatever it makes up for in reflecting well on the giver, it loses in its lack of social ambition - however big the gift in monetary terms). And as a citizenry, we are marked by an underwhelming sense of intellectual ambition in trying to understand the generational and planetary consequences of our present ways of life - of the collective, long-term consequences of our individual, short-term choices. So, even as we can celebrate a greater flourishing of the ambitions of individual Indians, we face the collapse of a collective Indian ambition. Our task and our challenge now is to renew and reinvigorate that complex will to power and goodness that brought modern India into being: the ambition to find a political form that combines freedom with a just social order - and that can so realise one of the most remarkable - and ambitious - national moral imaginations of modern times."

Michael Crichton

"A lot of people complain that television lacks focus. But that's the nature of the medium. Television's not about information at all. Information is active, engaging. Television is passive. Information is disinterested, objective. Television is emotional. It's entertainment. Whatever he says, however he acts, in truth Martin has absolutely no interest in you, or your company, or your airplanes. He's paid to exercise his one reliable talent: provoking people, getting them to make an emotional outburst, to lose their temper, to say something outrageous. He doesn't really want to know about airplanes. He wants a media moment. If you understand that, you can deal with him."

On April 18 2010 afternoon, CNN-IBN anchor preposterously asked Arundhati Roy: "Why does India love to hate you?".

Ms. Roy should have said: Next question, please.

In any case, Ms. Anchor did not get media moment from Ms. Roy.

I have still not read any of her books but I loved Ms. Roy when I first saw her "In Which Annie Gives It Those Ones", 1989. And I love her today.

In fact, she now looks even more beautiful than ever.

Mr. Aamir Khan, We ALL are a bunch of Johnny-come-latelies

Kundan Shah when asked by Hindustan Times if a script like 'Jaane Bhi Do Yaaro' would find a financier: "...Maybe if a star backs a project, it may be possible but my experience is that all of them without exception are highly illiterate." (February 7 2010)

Naseeruddin Shah: "I've lost the hope of seeing a truly great film being made in this country, at least in my lifetime." (March 20, 2010)

Susan Sontag: "...To be sure, there was always a conflict between cinema as an industry and cinema as an art, cinema as routine and cinema as experiment. But the conflict was not such as to make impossible the making of wonderful films, sometimes within and sometimes outside of mainstream cinema. Now the balance has tipped decisively in favor of cinema as an industry. The great cinema of the 1960's and 1970's has been thoroughly repudiated..."

They say "3 idiots" is the biggest hit in the history of Hindi films. Maybe it is.

Aamir Khan, a star, aggressively promoted it using 'innovative' methods.

In December 2009, in temple town of Mahabalipuram, a tour guide took Mr. Khan by surprise when he admitted to never even having heard of the actor.

I have always found Mr. Khan, a narcissist, an average actor who happens to be very successful.

He never mentions luck while talking about his success.

It's always his hard work, his body, his scalp, his dedication, his patriotism, his intelligence, his creativity, his wife, his family, his vision...

See the episode at Mahabalipuram here.

I was quite amused by it and thought it was very ironic.

Mahabalipuram, that appears on this blog here, dwarfs every one. Occasionally even the neighbouring Bay of Bengal!

Reviewing "The Earth After Us : What legacy will humans leave in the rocks?" by Jan Zalasiewicz, Robin McKie says:

“… the planet's constantly shifting geology will, inevitably, crush and bury every one of our greatest creations, our skyscrapers, motorways, bridges, churches and temples. Tectonic trashing, then, is to be the fate of most of humanity's handiwork.

Not all will be lost, however. Odd clues will emerge when seismic activity will push up a slice of petrified city. "Here there will be metres-thick layers of rubble, of outlines of tunnels and pipes, of giant middens of rubble and waste." That, then, will be our legacy. It is not much of a memorial. Indeed, by contrast, Ozymandias did well with a couple of headless trunks of stone.”

“…we still dig up plenty of 100-million-year-old dinosaur bones today. However, those ancient animals thrived for tens of millions of years. By contrast, Homo sapiens has lasted around 100,000. By that reckoning, we are a bunch of Johnny-come-latelies.” (The Observer, Sunday 27 September 2009)

Sadly even Mahabalipuram may do only as well as Ozymandias.

('Ozymandias', 1818 is an example of how a great work of art persists.

In last few years, I have seen it being quoted by scientists like Jared Diamond in 'Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed', 2005 and Richard Dawkins in 'The Ancestor's Tale', 2004.)


‘Own up, Narcissus, you’re responsible for this graffiti, aren’t you?’
Artist: Richard Jolley (rgj), Spectator

Renuka Shahane & Archana Joglekar, Try Mirabai Not Positivity on Your Patients

Renuka Shahane (रेणुका शहाणे) is (was?) hosting a reality TV program in Marathi 'Yala Jeevan Aise Nav' (याला जीवन ऐसे नाव).

I saw its promos.

Ms. Shahane is famous for her smile. She in fact is the pioneer of its Indian-TV version. Remember 'Surabhi', the program she co-hosted on Doordarshan?

Today Ms. Shahane promotes positive thinking. She feels it is panacea. Whatever is your problem, she has the answer: "Be Positive".

The other day I briefly saw Archana Joglekar (अर्चना जोगळेकर) on Marathi TV. She too was talking about the power of positive thinking. She asked viewers to embrace 'positivity'.

I bet if you watch Marathi TV everyday, you will get a large dose of positive thinking, kind of Jamalgota for your mental constipation.

(See an earlier post on the subject here.)

I wish both the fine ladies read either 'Bright-sided /How the Relentless Promotion of Positive Thinking Has Undermined America' by Barbara Ehrenreich or Lucy Ellmann's review of it:

"...Positive types aren't just misled, they're mean...

...The pitiless message to the powerless from all these motivational speakers, megachurch preachers, self-help gurus and other assorted selfishness-sellers is that sad sacks get what they deserve.

Promoting the idea that happiness is within your grasp is in the interests of corporations trying to bamboozle an overworked and underpaid workforce...

...Informing the uneducated and unmedicated that their plight is all their own fault is followed up by instructions for making anything you desire – from a new TV screen to a trip to Mexico – "materialise" through mind control. The censorship of negative opinion combines perfectly with the American policy of each man for himself in the best of all possible worlds.

This is the philosophy that gave us the smart bomb, the space programme, sub-prime mortgages, plenty of psychopaths and Sarah Palin. Every dumb American idea we've all had to stomach and die for can be attributed to this devotion to fantasy and self-satisfaction...

...Americans aren't happy, they're just trained to look as if they are. It's fake orgasm on a grand scale, and we're almost deafened by the din..." (The Guardian, Saturday 9 January 2010)

During the interview in February 2010, Ms. Joglekar talked about how her mother- Asha Joglekar, a classical dancer herself,- once completely ignored whatever Archana and her students were doing in class and instead immersed herself in a book on/by Mirabai.

Wise choice. I am sure junior Ms. Joglekar didn't mind the snub because of her 'positivity'.

But the message I got from senior Ms. Joglekar: Mirabai helps even in dance.


Artist: Colin Wheeler, Spectator