Something as certain as death

Benjamin Franklin is supposed to have exclaimed: "Certainty? In this world nothing is certain but death and taxes. "

But was he aware, how this dreaded term "tax" was unleashed upon humanity? Following picture tells us how.

On the subject of taxes, I read very funny story in M V Dhond's "Marhati Lavani"- Peshwa Bajirao-II (infamous for his life dedicated to debauchery) imposed a tax called "Santosh Patti" ("Pleasure Tax") on population of Pune after his accession under the presumption that people were happy to have him as their king!

Henry Martin The New Yorker 11 Jan 1969

Vodka brands. Decadence of the Western world?

I like vodka and rum (of all colours).

Thanks to my weak liver, I cannot afford to drink either much but I like to nurse them. They are great catalyst for conversations about life and art and test-cricket.

Barbara Holland claims in her new book "THE JOY OF DRINKING": (Drink is) "......the social glue of the human race. Probably in the beginning we could explain ourselves to our close family members with grunts, muttered syllables, gestures, slaps and punches. Then when the neighbors started dropping in to help harvest, stomp, stir and drink the bounty of the land, after we’d softened our natural suspicious hostility with a few stiff ones, we had to think up some more nuanced communication, like words. From there it was a short step to grammar, civil law, religion, history and ‘The Whiffenpoof Song.’ ".

A stiff claim indeed!

SERGE SCHMEMANN wrote in NYT April 15 2007 "Dispatches From the Front Line of the Great Vodka War" that vodka brands are pretty meaningless because Vodka is just a diluted ethyl alcohol. He says: "The proliferation of premium vodkas, in ever fancier bottles and at ever higher prices, is understandable, given the decadence of the Western world.”


Jack Ziegler The New Yorker 24 July 1989

Philosopher or just a lazy bum?

When I stopped working for big corporates, I thought I became a philosopher.

But my wife would never agree.......
The New Yorker Joseph Mirachi 22 March 1958

Dealing when I should be wheeling. And vice versa!

I don't consider myself a failure but by most criteria of the society I live in, I probably am one!

I went to IIT and qualified for IIM. I worked for leading multinationals before I became disillusioned with them.

I went abroad many times each time wanting to return home more desperately.

I left Miraj, the town where I lived for first 21 years of life, with some excitement but now I realize I have ended up "on a hillside far from home under an alien sky".

CHARLES ISHERWOOD has written an excellent essay “Take a Bow, Loser, the Spotlight’s Yours” NYT April 8, 2007.

I really liked a few points he has made:

“……Behold a new face of the Broadway musical, bearing a wry comic grimace that reflects the new mood abroad in America. A country renowned — for good or ill — as the land that enshrined success as a prize to be cherished above all others has lately evinced a sneaky fascination with failure. The losers on “American Idol” are almost as famous as the winners — sometimes more so. Kicked off one contest show, a new-minted pseudo-celebrity becomes a star of the next. Paris Hilton’s very pointlessness constitutes the whole of her appeal; no one really wants her to acquire a talent………

The affection for life’s also-rans is equally strong at the moment in the more popular media. Exhibit A in the case for the country’s new love affair with flopdom would have to be “American Idol,” arguably the most influential showbiz phenomenon of the last decade. ……

Maybe this new mood enshrining failure as the new success is related to the last decade or so of dissatisfaction with the country’s ostensible political winners, and the policies they’ve pursued. But it surely reflects a population embarking on the new century with a perhaps not unhealthy dent in its self-esteem……….

But everyone of a certain age (say 30) has probably lived through a few of those startling moments when you take stock of your life as it is and wonder: How did I get here, exactly? When did the curves come that moved me away from one destiny and toward another? I guess it all must have happened during intermission.”
Artist: Richard Decker The New Yorker 13 Oct 1962

Are we Haves and Give Nots?

Reading the late Arun Kolatkar’s poetry at its best is like reading Tukaram and W H Auden (2007 the centenary year of his birth) together.

“Jejuri” (1976) is arguably Arun Kolatkar’s finest work. I consider it a collection of the best poems written in English by an Indian author.

I have not been to Khanderaya’s Jejuri yet, but it is all around me! Its 'old woman' asks me: Where do you belong? ......... Haves, Have Nots, Gives, Give Nots

"An Old Woman

An old woman grabs
hold of your sleeve
and tags along.

She wants a fifty paise coin.
She says she will take you
to the horseshoe shrine

You've seen it already.
She hobbles along anyway
and tightens her grip on your shirt

She won't let you go.
You know how old women are.
They stick to you like a burr

You turn around and face her
with an air of finality.
You want to end the farce.

When you hear her say,
'What else can an old woman do
on hills as wretched as these?'

You look right at the sky.
Clear through the bullet holes
she has for her eyes.

And as you look on,
the cracks that begin around her eyes
spread beyond her skin.

And the hills crack.
And the temples crack.
And the sky falls

With a plate-glass clatter
Around the shatterproof crone
who stands alone

And you are reduced
to so much small change
in her hand."


Artist: Dana Fradon The New Yorker 17 Aug 1957

Sex in no longer a taboo subject but........

When I googled Taimes of India’s website for word “sex” “appearing in headline” for “within past 30 days”, it threw up three pages of results.

One imporatnt search result: Governments of Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat and Maharashtra have banned sex education in school. The sex education classes were part of the adolescence education programme for Class IX and above, aimed at creating AIDS awareness among students.

Chief minister of Madhya Pradesh said: "...... Children should be taught yoga and Indian culture and tradition instead of sex education.” (March 20).

A Maharashtra law maker said: "The message reaching younger generation will be different from what the government aimed at. Instead of having a healthy attitude towards sex, the images currently used actually harm young and impressionable minds. These books are so bad and lacking in sensitivity that they will destroy Indian culture." (March 30)

There is another important news item dated April 4 2007: “US 5th-graders arrested for having sex in class- Five fifth-grade students face criminal charges after authorities said four of them had sex in front of other students in an unsupervised classroom and kept a classmate posted as a lookout for teachers.”
Artist : Eldon Dedini The New Yorker 17 Sept 1966

Temples of modern India or disease of giganticism

Ramachandra Guha in his essay “Prime Ministers and big dams” for Hindu on December 18, 2005 says:

“SPEAKING to the Central Board of Irrigation and Power in November 1958, Jawarhalal Nehru deplored a "dangerous outlook developing in India", which he termed the "disease of giganticism". The "idea of doing big undertakings or doing big tasks for the sake of showing that we can do big things," remarked Nehru, "is not a good outlook at all". For it was "the small irrigation projects, the small industries and the small plants for electric power which will change the face of the country, far more than a dozen big projects in half a dozen places". The Prime Minister drew his audience's attention to "the national upsets, upsets of the people moving out and their rehabilitation and many other things, associated with a big project". These upheavals would be on a lesser scale in a smaller scheme, enabling the State to "get a good deal of what is called public co-operation……..For this was the same Nehru who was an enthusiast for large projects, who once celebrated big dams as the "temples" of modern India.”

I see no problem here.

Great leaders are like great books. And to follow them, we do Ned Flanders (the Simpsons Character) when he says: “ I've done everything the Bible says - even the stuff that contradicts the other stuff!”
Artist: Richard Decker The New Yorker 17 July 1948

To hunt in the morning, fish in the afternoon, rear cattle in the evening, criticise after dinner

When in college, I read the late Prabhakar Padhye’s Marathi book “Manav Aani Marks”.

It taught me a lot of things.

For example, how alienation is not necessarily bad for mankind. How? If not for alienation, Tukaram might not have written his Gatha. (The greatest book in Marathi and one of the best in the world).

I read in it Marxism’s ultimate goal: “In communist society, where nobody has one exclusive sphere of activity...society regulates the general production and thus makes it possible for me to do one thing today and another tomorrow, to hunt in the morning, fish in the afternoon, rear cattle in the evening, criticise after dinner, just as I have in mind, without ever becoming hunter, herdsman or critic.” This was very charming. I have never ever got over this.

Although I still did not know what Marxism was, I became more Marxist after reading all this!

The Economist (Christmas Special Double issue of 2002) has a good essay on Marx. It says Marxism as a system of government is dead or dying but as a system of ideas, its future looks secure. Lord Meghnad Desai, author of “Marx's Revenge”, argues that Marx was misunderstood and that the great man was right about far more than he is given credit for.

When Lisa Simpson tells her father ( [3F03] 'Lisa the Vegetarian' Original airdate: 15-Oct-95): " While I was gone I got some really good advice from Paul and Linda McCartney." Her father Homer Simpson says: "Rock stars. Is there anything they don't know?".

Similarly Gandhi and Marx have commented on just about everything under the sun. Much more than even prophets.

I wonder if there is any comment from Marx on this specific “tired, rundown feeling”. Also, will these guys ever get a chance to hunt or fish?

Artist : Mario Micossi The New Yorker 10 Oct 1964

It’s good to be Thackeray or Pawar!

The Times of India on 31st March 2007 reported:

"Vijay Tendulkar calls Bal Thackeray and Sharad Pawar Jekyll and Hyde personalities with a mix of the good and the bad."

Tendulkar indeed has mellowed down because earlier he had called Thackeray choicest names.

But his description of Thackeray and Pawar fit us all. By morning Dr. Jekyll, by evening Mr. Hyde. Or the other way round.

So we all are like Thackeray and Pawar. Only a whole lot poorer!

Therefore, to paraphrase Mel Brooks, I say:” It’s good to be Thackeray or Pawar.”!

Artist: Sidney Hoff, The New Yorker, 6 Feb 1960

Gosh darn

In the past, comic Marathi serials on TV would make fun of Hindi soap opera like “Sans Bhi Kabhi Bahu Thi” but would kindly leave their ‘sister’ programming in Marathi alone. Time has now come for them to light into Marathi soap opera because Marathi serials on TV have hit a new low.

For a long time now most of them have been either vulgar or prurient or dumb or combination of them. Silly but not dangerous perhaps. Now, they have crossed the threshold. They have turned injurious to our health.

Serial “Asambhav” on Zee Marathi give credence to things like rebirth, ghosts, black magic etc. Many of them (“Vahinee Saheb”, “Avghachi Sansar”) show abominable violence against women. They perhaps would like to show more sex to make the ultimate cocktail but currently don’t.

If there are any sensible actors involved in making of this trash, I am sure they ask:
“During rehearsals, at least, couldn’t I just say ‘Gosh darn’?”

Artist: Richard Decker The New Yorker 12 Jan 1963