E A S Sarma:
S R Sankaran, the retired IAS officer, died on October 7 2010. During the 30-odd years that he served the state and the centre as a civil servant in various capacities, Sankaran’s home offered an open shelter to anyone in need of help and solace. He transcended the rigid barriers of the civil services to reach out to the needy, the oppressed and the deprived. His uprightness, sincerity and compassion for the poor disarmed politicians, inspired young civil servants and provided hope and succour to millions of voiceless people. He was a civil servant with a difference. More than that, he was a self-effacing human being par excellence. (EPW, Vol XLV No.43 October 23, 2010)
Mel Brooks:
“Nietzsche whispers to you: ‘Without audacity there is no greatness.’ Freud whispers to you: ‘Why must there be greatness?’ That fight’s still going on. And you don’t understand either one, because they’re both whispering in German."
Peter Maass, The New Yorker, January 10, 2011:
"In a way, statue topplings are the banana peels of history that we often slip on."
Dadoji Konddeo (दादोजी कोंडदेव) was NOT Shivaji's (शिवाजी) guru. I agree.
They removed Konddev's statue from Lal Mahal (लाल महाल) . I have no quarrel with that.
One of the all-time top five Marathi writers, Samarth Ramdas (समर्थ रामदास) was NOT Shivaji's guru. I have no quarrel with that either. (In fact, M V Dhond म वा धोंड argues that Shivaji was Ramdas's guru. I agree with Dhond. When you are a contemporary of a giant like Shivaji, how can you be NOT his disciple?)
But when I heard caste-fundamentalists of Maharashtra disparaging Konddev as "ordinary", "lowly" servant of Shivaji, I felt sad.
By all accounts I have read, Konddev was an honest and trusted civil servant of Shivaji and his father.
Isn't that enough to make him a hero in this country? How many honest civil servants has India got 363 years after Konddev's death?
Why can't you be ordinary? Why do you have to be great to be remembered? What have most elites done for the majority of this country?
Konddev-sir, Don't feel bad. Your statue has only been removed from one place. Mr. S R Sankaran most likely will have no statue.
Launched on Nov 29 2006, now 2,100+ posts...This bilingual blog - 'आन्याची फाटकी पासोडी' in Marathi- is largely a celebration of visual and/or comic ...तुकाराम: "ढेकणासी बाज गड,उतरचढ केवढी"...George Santayana: " Everything in nature is lyrical in its ideal essence, tragic in its fate, and comic in its existence"...William Hazlitt: "Pictures are scattered like stray gifts through the world; and while they remain, earth has yet a little gilding."
Tuesday, December 28, 2010
2 comments:
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Following comment was recd from my senior friend and noted author Shri. Yeshwant Karnik on your blog :-
ReplyDeleteWhether Dadoji Konddev was Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj's political mentor and Sant Ramdas was his spiritual guru are matters of conjecture based on folklore and beliefs. We had no system of writing about events immediately for posterity . Much of our history is based on what is written in 'Bakhars' many years later. What wisdom people like Mete have to treat what was written in Bakhars or believed by millions for years as false?
These irresponsible people are bringing back the painful memories of the post-Mahatma Gandhi assasination riots in Western Maharashtra of which I was a witness. Hope that situation does not arise again.
Yeshwant Karnik.
Thanks Mr. Karnik.
ReplyDeleteHope it doesn't happen again.