मेघदूत: "नीचैर्गच्छत्युपरि च दशा चक्रनेमिक्रमेण"

समर्थ शिष्या अक्का : "स्वामीच्या कृपाप्रसादे हे सर्व नश्वर आहे असे समजले. पण या नश्वरात तमाशा बहुत आहे."

G C Lichtenberg: “It is as if our languages were confounded: when we want a thought, they bring us a word; when we ask for a word, they give us a dash; and when we expect a dash, there comes a piece of bawdy.”

C. P. Cavafy: "I’d rather look at things than speak about them."

Martin Amis: “Gogol is funny, Tolstoy in his merciless clarity is funny, and Dostoyevsky, funnily enough, is very funny indeed; moreover, the final generation of Russian literature, before it was destroyed by Lenin and Stalin, remained emphatically comic — Bunin, Bely, Bulgakov, Zamyatin. The novel is comic because life is comic (until the inevitable tragedy of the fifth act);...”

सदानंद रेगे: "... पण तुकारामाची गाथा ज्या धुंदीनं आजपर्यंत वाचली जात होती ती धुंदी माझ्याकडे नाहीय. ती मला येऊच शकत नाही याचं कारण स्वभावतःच मी नास्तिक आहे."

".. त्यामुळं आपण त्या दारिद्र्याच्या अनुभवापलीकडे जाऊच शकत नाही. तुम्ही जर अलीकडची सगळी पुस्तके पाहिलीत...तर त्यांच्यामध्ये त्याच्याखेरीज दुसरं काही नाहीच आहे. म्हणजे माणसांच्या नात्यानात्यांतील जी सूक्ष्मता आहे ती क्वचित चितारलेली तुम्हाला दिसेल. कारण हा जो अनुभव आहे... आपले जे अनुभव आहेत ते ढोबळ प्रकारचे आहेत....."

Kenneth Goldsmith: "In 1969 the conceptual artist Douglas Huebler wrote, “The world is full of objects, more or less interesting; I do not wish to add any more.”1 I’ve come to embrace Huebler’s ideas, though it might be retooled as “The world is full of texts, more or less interesting; I do not wish to add any more.” It seems an appropriate response to a new condition in writing today: faced with an unprecedented amount of available text, the problem is not needing to write more of it; instead, we must learn to negotiate the vast quantity that exists. How I make my way through this thicket of information—how I manage it, how I parse it, how I organize and distribute it—is what distinguishes my writing from yours."

Tom Wolfe: "The first line of the doctors’ Hippocratic oath is ‘First, do no harm.’ And I think for the writers it would be: ‘First, entertain.’"

विलास सारंग: "… इ. स. 1000 नंतर ज्या प्रकारची संस्कृती रुढ झाली , त्यामध्ये साधारणत्व व विश्वात्मकता हे गुण प्राय: लुप्त झाले...आपली संस्कृती अकाली विश्वात्मक साधारणतेला मुकली आहे."

Friday, October 19, 2007

Pune Roads, What a Silly Place to Walk?

Times of India on October 15, 2007 reports “Oldies walking on danger path”.

This blog first visited vulture culture of Pune motorists here.

I have been to many cities of India and the world but I have never met people as rude as motorists in Pune.

When I first went to Mumbai and attempted crossing the road at Opera House, I was overwhelmed but not scared. Cars were helping me cross and not trying to crush me to asphaltic death.

At Pune even on small roads, I feel scared as drivers seem to be rushing towards me. They follow me if I run. They seem to enjoy my panic. They make me sick.

Few years ago an old woman grabbed my hand at Deccan Gymkhana to ask my help to cross the road.

I see no hope for Pune’s old and poor unless some drastic measure are undertaken. Today the only way to beat Pune motorist is to become one!

TOI’s Gitesh Shelke reports :
“…These three accidents are not isolated cases as the city continues to register an increasing number of accidents involving senior citizens, ranging from minor injuries to fatal.

Statistics available with the city traffic police revealed that in the year 2005 as many as 24 senior citizens were killed, 19 were seriously injured and 61 sustained minor injuries in various accidents. The number of fatal accidents increased to 32 in 2006. This year so far 18 serious accidents has been registered while 61 minor accidents were reported.

This year, as many as 14 senior citizens were killed on the road, 12 sustained serious injuries while 46 sustained minor injuries in various road accidents by the end of June.

Suresh Bhoomkar, assistant commissioner of police (ACP, traffic), said that fatalities involving senior citizens usually take place while either crossing the roads or driving two/four-wheelers or while travelling in public or private vehicles.

However, records showed that majority of the citizens have been killed while crossing or walking on the roads. Sangramsinh Nishandar, ACP, traffic, pointed out that motorists, especially two-wheeler riders were insensitive towards the elderly…”

When Pune motorists watch a pedestrian crossing, they say “What a Silly Place to Walk”.


Artist: Anatol Kovarsky The New Yorker 10 May 1947
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Females are always cheaper. Even on Durgashtami.

Times of India’s Kounteya Sinha reported on October 12, 2007:
“…Over 40% of women in a nationwide survey reported being beaten by their husbands at some point of time. More shockingly, around 54% of the women surveyed thought that such violence was justified on one ground or the other.

According to India’s most comprehensive National Family Health Survey-III, which interviewed 1.25 lakh women in 28 states and the national capital during 2005-06, 41% of women justified wife beating if it was because they showed disrespect towards their in-laws while 35% women were OK with being brutally assaulted by their husbands if they neglected household chores or their children.

Not surprisingly then, 51% of the 75,000 men interviewed didn’t find anything wrong with assaulting their wives. “

Older the civilization, more the hypocrisy? I feel so as we celebrate Durgashtami today.


Artist: Perry Barlow The New Yorker 5 June 1948
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