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."

Tuesday, May 04, 2010

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
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