तुझें आहें तुजपाशी...Black Narcissus...Victory of Earthly Desires

काकाजी:
"… आपल्या देवासला पावसात हजारो बेडकं ओरडतात मेंडकी-रोडवर, ओहोहोहो! काय खर्ज लागतो एकेक बेडकाचा- असं वाटतं, की  कोणी दशग्रंथी ब्राह्मण वेदपठण करून राहिले आहेत बेटे ! काय ?"
(पु ल देशपांडे, 'तुझें आहें तुजपाशी', १९५७)

Neil Armstrong, BBC Culture, November 2020:

"...The longer they spend in this wild, elemental place, the more the women’s religious calling is clouded by very earthly desires. One becomes obsessed by her garden, planting it with flowers instead of vegetables. The nun who is particularly good with children yearns for a baby of her own. Sister Clodagh is troubled by memories of a youthful love affair and the increasingly tormented Sister Ruth lusts after Mr Dean, a somewhat dissolute Englishman who lives in the village. There are further ripples in the undercurrent of repressed longing when the handsome young nobleman being educated by the nuns has his head turned by Kanchi, a beautiful village girl. Eventually, the undercurrent becomes a torrent and the dam breaks..."

 ब्लॅक नार्सिसस नावाची BBC-FX यांनी तयार केलेली टीव्ही सिरीज नोव्हेंबर २०२० मध्ये दाखवली जात आहे. Rummer Godden यांच्या त्याच नावाच्या कादंबरीवर ती आधारित आहे. 

त्यावर आधारित आधी १९४७ साली एक उत्तम सिनेमा निघाला होता , ज्याचे कौतुक Martin Scorsese सारख्या निष्णात सिनेदिग्दर्शकाने केले आहे.  (आपल्या हिंदी सिनेमातील अभिनेत्री निम्मी ह्यांनी तर त्यांचा काही सिनेमातील लूक कांची सारखा केला होता असे वाटते.)

  Jean Simmons as Kanchi

 मी तो सिनेमा नोव्हेंबर २०२० मध्ये पहिला आणि मला अतिशय आवडला... आणि मजा म्हणजे तो बघताना पु ल देशपांडे यांचे 'तुझें आहें तुजपाशी', १९५७ आठवले.

 का?  ते समजण्यासाठी तो सिनेमा, टीव्ही सिरीयल पहा किंवा कादंबरी वाचा. 

 Kathleen Byron as Sister Ruth and Deborah Kerr as Sister Clodagh

Espionage is an Extreme Version of the Human Comedy, even the Human Tragedy...John le Carré

#JohnleCarré 

"ए परफेक्ट स्पाय" ह्या जॉन ल कॅरे ह्यांच्या कदाचित सर्वोत्कृष्ष्ट पुस्तकाचा एपिग्राम पहा:

"A man who has two women loses his soul.

But a man who has two houses loses his head." (Proverb)

 दोन घरे असणाऱ्या सर्वांनी लक्षात ठेवण्यासारखा आहे!

माझ्याकडे त्यांची अनेक पुस्तके आहेत पण त्यातील फक्त एकच मी पूर्ण वाचले आहे. 

मी मुंबईला १९८३ साली नोकरीसाठी गेल्यावर स्ट्रँड बुक स्टोर मधून अत्यंत देखणे 'The Spy Who Came in from the Cold', १९६३ हे हार्डबाऊंड पुस्तक विकत आणले होते आणि काही दिवसात अडखळत पण रोमांचित होत संपवले होते. 

 

त्यावरचा रिचर्ड बर्टन यांचा सिनेमा चांगला आहे पण पुस्तक अप्रतिम आहे. जी. ए. कुलकर्णींनी हेरकथा लिहावी तसा तो अनुभव माझ्यासाठी त्यावेळी होत. त्यातील एक उतारा:

 

"...The watch tower’s searchlight began feeling its way along the wall towards them, hesitant; each time it rested they could see the separate bricks and the careless lines of mortar hastily put on. As they watched the beam stopped immediately in front of them. Leamas looked at his watch.

 “Ready?” he asked.

 She nodded.

 Taking her arm he began walking deliberately across the strip. Liz wanted to run, but he held her so tightly that she could not. They were half-way towards the wall now, the brilliant semi-circle of light drawing them forward, the beam directly above them. Leamas was determined to keep Liz very close to him, as if he were afraid that Mundt would not keep his word and somehow snatch her away at the last moment.

 They were almost at the wall when the beam darted to the north, leaving them momentarily in total darkness. Still holding Liz’s arm, Leamas guided her forward blindly, his left hand reaching ahead of him until suddenly he felt the coarse, sharp contact of the cinder brick. Now he could discern the wall and, looking upwards, the triple-strand of wire and the cruel hooks which held it. Metal wedges, like climbers’ pitons, had been driven into the brick. Seizing the highest one, Leamas pulled himself quickly upwards until he had reached the top of the wall. He tugged sharply at the lower strand of wire and it came towards him, already cut.

 “Come on,” he whispered urgently, “start climbing.”

 Laying himself flat he reached down, grasped her upstretched hand and began drawing her slowly upwards as her foot found the first metal rung.

 Suddenly the whole world seemed to break into flame; from everywhere, from above and beside them, massive lights converged, bursting upon them with savage accuracy...."  (John le Carré's 'The Spy Who Came in From the Cold', 1963)

 “Now he could discern the Wall and, looking upwards, the triple strand of wire and the cruel hooks which held it.”

Artist: Matt Taylor

CrimeReads.com:

"...but the power of The Spy Who Came in from the Cold is its ability to endlessly fascinate and inspire new generations of readers and spy fiction connoisseurs.

This year, The Folio Society has released a new edition of le Carré’s classic, introduced by the author and illustrated by the artist Matt Taylor. The artwork in this new volume evokes a noir world slowly spilt over with grayish blues and flashes of startling color. Espionage-crazed readers that we are, we wanted to share some of these illustrations with you. Here, then, is an artist’s vision of le Carré’s bleak midcentury world, a new rendering of a classic story..."

 

जी ए कुलकर्णीं स्मृतिदिन....The Best Doctor by Alfred Kubin

#जीएकुलकर्णींस्मृतिदिन 

आज डिसेंबर ११ २०२०, जी ए कुलकर्णींचा ३३वा स्मृतिदिन

जी ए कुलकर्णी, 'घऱ', पृष्ठ २१८, 'पिंगळावेळ', १९७७:

"...  तिला एकदा तिचे घर मिळाले की मी सुटलो. मग मोडीत निघालेल्या माझ्या ठोकायंत्राची मला भीती नाही. केंव्हा का बंद पडेना ते ! मग शेजारी सिगरेटचे एक पूर्ण पाकीट असावे. एखादा दरबारी छबिना  चौघडे-तुताऱ्या वाजवत डौलाने यावा, त्याप्रमाणे वाटणारा मालकंस टेंपरेकोर्डवर तासभर उलगडत असावा. या दरिद्री जनतायुगात निःसंकोच सरदारी दिमागाने चित्रे आणि लेख छापणारे 'National Geographic' किंवा 'Realities'- सारखे एखादे मासिक हातात असावे . मग बोलावणे येऊन घेणाऱ्या , तू कसाही ये. तू दार ठोठावून ये. अगर आडदांडासारखा आत शीर.  असल्या एका सिगरेट मधून आलास तरी चालेल- नव्हे तू तसाच ये ! ते मलादेखील फार आवडेल ! ..."

Alfred Kubin, The Best Doctor, c. 1901

Hilary Ilkay, Lapham's Quarterly, December 2013: 
"....symbolist painter and writer Alfred Kubin strips death of any disguise in his pen-and-ink drawing, The Best Doctor. Composed between 1901 and 1902, Kubin’s creation is eerily hermaphroditic: the bare skull sprouts tufts of straggly long hair and the body is an amalgamation of masculine muscular arms and a flat chest with sharply exaggerated feminine curves, outlined by a tight black dress. It could almost be described as a figure in drag. The drawing is a dark reflection on humans’ trust in the saving powers of medicine. Death, supposedly “the best doctor,” is not gently covering the eyes of the deceased man, but forcibly pressing down on his face and smothering him." 

 

Réalités (French magazine) 1946-1981 हे मासिक जीए जायच्या आधीच गेल होत. त्याच्या दोन अंकांची मुखपृष्ठे  सोबत. दोन्हीच्या थिम्स ह्या कलावंत आणि निर्मिती ह्या आहेत असे वाटते. 

 

 Jean-Philippe Charbonnier, Réalités, April  1958

 Jean-Philippe Charbonnier, Réalités, Jan  1958

When Death Plays Beth Harmon...

 "And when the Lamb had opened the seventh seal, there was silence in heaven about the space of half an hour"

The Seventh Seal, 1957

One of the pivotal scene from Ingmar Bergman's great film 'The Seventh Seal' was inspired by
a medieval church painting:

 'Death playing chess' by Albertus Pictor (1440-1507). 

Location: Täby kyrka, Diocese of Stockholm.

 courtesy: Wikipedia

 

 Death (Bengt Ekerot in The Seventh Seal, 1957) plays Beth Harmon (Anya Taylor-Joy in The Queen's Gambit , 2020)

लुक्रीशसची .स्वच्छ, जळजळीत दृष्टी...Lucretius' Importance and G A Kulkarni

 

जी ए कुलकर्णी,  लुक्रीशस च्या 'ऑन दी नेचर ऑफ थिंग्ज' ह्या  पुस्तका बद्दल म्हणतात:

 "...स्वच्छ, जळजळीत दृष्टीने Lucretius ने केलेला देव, देवता, भाबड्या कल्पना यांचा विध्वंस मला आवडला होता...". 

(पृष्ठ २४८, 'जी. एं.ची निवडक पत्रे', खंड २, १९८८)  

ही पोस्ट वाचण्यापूर्वी ह्याच ब्लॉग वरची मार्च २६ २०१८ तारखेची पोस्ट वाचा. 

लुक्रीशस बद्दल मराठीत चर्चा मी तरी पहिली नाही. विंदा करंदीकर त्यांच्या 'अष्टदर्शने', २००३ मध्ये त्याचा उल्लेख करत नाहीत. 

पण तो किती महत्वाचा आहे हे मला हा पॉडकास्ट  (conversation between John N. Gray and Richard Holloway in November 2020) ऐकून पुन्हा एकदा समजले. 

लुक्रीशस  (१५ ऑक्टोबर इ. स पू ९९- इ. स पू ५५) च्या  'ऑन दी नेचर ऑफ थिंग्ज' चा अनुवाद जी. एं.ना करायचा होता. 

लुक्रीशसच्या 'ऑन दी नेचर ऑफ थिंग्ज' पुस्तकामुळे जग आधुनिक झाले असा दावा करणारे आणि पुलित्झर (२०१२) आणि अमेरिकेचा नॅशनल बुक अवॉर्ड (२०११) मिळवणारे पुस्तक पाहून जीएंना अत्यानंद झाला असता. 

Stephen Greenblatt, 'The Swerve: How The World Became Modern", 2011:

"...The stuff of the universe, Lucretius proposed, is an infinite number of atoms moving randomly through space, like dust motes in a sunbeam, colliding, hooking together, forming complex structures, breaking apart again, in a ceaseless process of creation and destruction. There is no escape from this process. When you look up at the night sky and, feeling unaccountably moved, marvel at the numberless stars, you are not seeing the handiwork of the gods or a crystalline sphere detached from our transient world. You are seeing the same material world of which you are a part and from whose elements you are made. There is no master plan, no divine architect, no intelligent design. All things, including the species to which you belong, have evolved over vast stretches of time. The evolution is random, though in the case of living organisms it involves a principle of natural selection. That is, species that are suited to survive and to reproduce successfully endure, at least for a time; those that are not so well suited die off quickly. But nothing—from our own species to the planet on which we live to the sun that lights our days—lasts forever. Only the atoms are immortal.

In a universe so constituted, Lucretius argued, there is no reason to think that the earth or its inhabitants occupy a central place, no reason to set humans apart from all other animals, no hope of bribing or appeasing the gods, no place for religious fanaticism, no call for ascetic self-denial, no justification for dreams of limitless power or perfect security, no rationale for wars of conquest or self-aggrandizement, no possibility of triumphing over nature, no escape from the constant making and unmaking and remaking of forms. On the other side of anger at those who either peddled false visions of security or incited irrational fears of death, Lucretius offered a feeling of liberation and the power to stare down what had once seemed so menacing. What human beings can and should do, he wrote, is to conquer their fears, accept the fact that they themselves and all the things they encounter are transitory, and embrace the beauty and the pleasure of the world.

I marveled—I continue to marvel—that these perceptions were fully articulated in a work written more than two thousand years ago. The line between this work and modernity is not direct: nothing is ever so simple. There were innumerable forgettings, disappearances, recoveries, dismissals, distortions, challenges, transformations, and renewed forgettings. And yet the vital connection is there. Hidden behind the worldview I recognize as my own is an ancient poem, a poem once lost, apparently irrevocably, and then found..."

 

 

गर्ट , श्री के क्षीरसागर आणि रस्त्यावर उघडणारी खिडकी....The Large Window of Our Miraj House

Sabine Rewald, curator of “Rooms with a View: The Open Window in the 19th Century”, 2011: 

“…Most artists painted so few open window scenes that I had to go all over to find the ones that existed….” 

The picture enclosed is : 'Goethe at the Window of His Roman Apartment'.... 

John Armstrong, city-journal, Autumn 2013:

"... Consider, for example, Tischbein’s Goethe at the Window of His Roman Apartment. We see the great man from behind: a slipper falls casually from his foot as he leans out, and the dim coolness of the room and the bright sunshine of the street make a powerful contrast. Some might see in this work an attempt to preserve the lessons learned on holiday. Away from home and work, in the warm South, Goethe became (like most travelers) a slightly different—and, in some ways, better—version of himself. The drawing attempts to memorialize the good version of the self and make that more prominent and more readily accessible when one has returned to familiar surroundings. The point is not so much to recall that Rome was interesting as to encapsulate who one became there. Goethe could hardly take the Italian weather back to Weimar; what he could do was hold on to the insight into his nature and needs that he gained while away. Hence it is a pity if one is more likely to encounter such images on the walls of a pensione in Trastevere than in a subway station in a metropolis, where its meditative qualities are more needed.. ."

माझे वडील त्यांच्या एस पी कॉलेज, पुणे तील कॉलेज जीवनामधील १९५० च्या दशकातील एखादी आठवण अधून मधून सांगायचे. त्यांचे एक प्राध्यापक होते मराठी साहित्यिक आणि टीकाकार श्री के क्षीरसागर. 

 

वडील म्हणत श्रीकेक्षींना मराठीतील 'खिडकी' हा शब्द अगदी गद्य आणि रोमँटिक गोष्टींसाठी अगदी अयोग्य वाटत असे. 

मला त्याचे कारण कधीच समजले नाही... श्रीकेक्षींनी 'पडोसन', १९६८ हा सिनेमा कधी बघितला का मला माहित नाही... कारण ज्याला त्यातील 'मेरे सामने वाली खिड़की में' ह्या सुमधुर गाण्यातील किंवा एकूणच त्या अप्रतिम सिनेमातील खिडकीचे महत्व समजले असेल तो खिडकी या शब्दाला  श्रीकेक्षीं सारखा दोष आयुष्यात देणार नाही. 

 

चित्र पाहताना, मला आमची मिरजेची, माडीवरची रस्त्याच्या लगतची- एका माणसाला सहज बसता येईल अशी- मोठी खिडकी आठवली... ती खिडकी म्हणजे आमची घरातील सर्वात जास्त exciting वाटणारी गोष्ट होती (१९६१- १९८४)... 

 

तिची तुलना हिचकॉक यांच्या Rear Window, 1954 शी करता येईल... लग्नाच्या वरातींपासून प्रेतयात्रे पर्यंत.... सुंदर मुली पहाणे, हवाहवासा पाऊस , शेजाऱ्यांच्या घरात डोकावणे, कुटुंबातील व्यक्तींची वाट पहाणे सगळे सगळे तिथे बसून झाले आहे ...

'Goethe am Fenster seiner römischen Wohnung', 1787

 
Artist : Johann Heinrich Wilhelm Tischbein

याच प्रकारचे आणखी एक चित्र बघायला मिळाले :

 The Attic Room,  1946  by Louis Icart 1880- 1950