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, June 05, 2015

स्वमग्न अग्रलेखाची लक्षणे ...Lead and Leader


(I have used Marathi word स्वमग्न to mean self-absorbed, and not its modern meaning autistic)

Business Line, July 6 2015:

"The United Kingdom, Canada, Singapore and Australia are a few of the foreign nations that have found Nestlé’s Maggi safe to eat after India held that its sundry varieties of instant noodles suffered from toxic contamination. So what should we make of this? It is tempting to argue we should go by our own tests, our own testing protocols, and our own interpretation of food safety norms, rather than be influenced by what other countries do or say. But this is a piece of hyper-nationalistic nonsense for more than one reason. To begin with, our food safety regulations are largely borrowed from the West. They are also extremely poorly enforced. Also in Maggi’s case, the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI), when testing for the contaminant lead, appears to have applied a norm that is totally at variance with international practice. The FSSAI’s ban on the product took place under the glare of a largely hostile media, an atmosphere in which TRPs trumped reason, self-righteous anger prevailed over sober analyses, and ideology replaced science..."
 
I buy Loksatta (लोकसत्ता) only for one reason:  their consistent, principled stand against fascist forces in Maharashtra (महाराष्ट्र), so rare among Marathi media. But most times, I don't read their  leaders.

The paper surely has a few interesting articles, on the editorial pages and else where, especially readers' letters, from time to time. Occasionally, even a leader, especially the one that takes apart fascist or corrupt forces,  is good but it's not their forte, indeed their Achilles heel.

Many of them are rudderless, clumsily written, socialist rant. The latest example of that is their leader on the subject of Maggi.

Let us start with the title: 'मॅगी'मग्न समाजाची लक्षणे...it means nothing other than the pun on words 'मॅगी' and मग्न....

"नवमध्यमवर्गीय घराघरांतील कुलदीपक आणि दीपिकांच्या आनंदाचे आणि त्यांच्या मातोश्रींच्या पाककलानिपुणतेचे निधान असलेल्या मॅगीनामक खाद्यपदार्थावर बंदीचे फतवे निघू लागल्याने आधीच मंदीने ग्रासलेल्या या वर्गाचे जगणे हराम झाले आहे."

What world the editors live in?....so many bachelors and low income people have survived on Maggi....I know it personally....Maggi is one of the most cost effective food in this country today....and until recently safer than any street food of similar price points.....

"आपल्या पोराबाळांना इंग्रजी माध्यमांच्या शाळांत घालणारे आणि मॅगी देण्यात आपल्या पालकत्वाची कृतकृत्यता शोधणारे हे दोन्ही एकाच लायकीचे."

What nonsense they peddle? What have English medium schools to do with Maggi eating? I went to Marathi medium school and I have eaten Maggi, since 1983, as a bachelor and, even when my wife is an excellent cook and we almost never eat out.

My son went to an English medium school, does not much eat Maggi and, if it were up to me, as and when his daughter arrives, she too will go to an English medium school even if meanwhile Maggi becomes extinct....

The rest of the leader is full of sweeping generalizations and left-leaning claptrap....

Such newspaper editorials are more dangerous for the body than an occasional pack of Maggi, even if it is laced with lead!
 Artist: Perry Barlow (1892-1977), The New Yorker, January 12 1957

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