Taslima Nasreen and Sanskrit Playwright Bhasa, What is Common to them?

Outlook December 10, 2007 said: Taslima Nasreen is on the run again. Earlier she was attacked in Hyderabad in August 2007 at a book launch. In November 2007, riots in her name erupted in Kolkata.

Her detractors want her work burnt down. Here she is in good company of great Sanskrit playwright Bhasa (circa 4th/5th century BC).

Take heart Ms. Nasrin.

A G Noorani said in Economic & Political Weekly December 1, 2007 : "Book banning is a civilised form of the vice of book-burning which is a sure symptom of fascism. India has a formidable record of book banning. As with much else, independent India simply took over the habits of the British raj."

Does India have a formidable record of book burning too?

According to the late Durga Bhagwat दुर्गा भागवत, Indians burnt down Bhasa’a भास play “Pratima प्रतिमा” because they didn’t like it.

Durga Bhagwat liked Bhasa’s plays more than any one else’s.

She said: “Kalidasa is sweet to ears but there is no ‘stuff’ in him. No ‘stuff’ no drama…”

Bhasa wrote ‘Pratima’ based on the life of Rama.

She further said: “…But people didn’t like it (Pratima) and they burnt it down. After passage of hundreds of years some one discovered ‘Pratima’ and hence we have it…

…Such was the unprecedented talent of Bhasa. I like Bhasa very much. There is not an iota of artificiality in him.”

(Source- Easy Conversations: With Durgabai by Pratibha Ranade ऐसपैस गप्पा : दुर्गाबाईंशी, लेखक प्रतिभा रानडे 1998)

D G Godse द ग गोडसे too wrote a beautiful essay on controversial ‘Pratima’.

According to Godse, Rama in Bhasa’s play has the main objective of expanding Arya’s empire beyond river Godavari by conquering Anaryas (non-Aryans). (No wonder M Karunanidhi isn’t happy.)

Like the Old Testament, both Ramayana and Mahabharata (episode of burning of Khandav Forests) tell us chillingly how Aryans went about acquisition of new land, dispossessing it of its earlier inhabitants.

The Economist December 15, 2007 said:"...Over the centuries, pioneer peoples, from the Ulster Protestants to the Boers, have drawn inspiration from passages in the Old Testament which describe the acquisition of new land, and the dispossession of its earlier inhabitants.

What makes America's Christian Zionists unusual is that their fascination with conquest is vicarious: it is projected onto a land thousands of miles away. The movement's followers are unlikely to feel at first hand the consequences of the policies they advocate. This makes their aspirations both more aggressive and more fantastical."

One interesting observation of Godse is as follows: Jatayu is a traitor Anarya. While killing a fellow Anarya- Jatayu, Ravana says: I will send you to dwelling of Yama (यमसदन). But dwelling of Yama is an Aryan concept. Therefore, Ravana’s usage of this alien phraseology is very meaningful.

(source: "Destiny in Bhasa's Play Pratima"------ "भासाच्या 'प्रतिमा' नाटकातील 'नियती' "-------'नांगी असलेले फुलपाखरू' 1989)

On December 9, 2007, the Hindu reported:

“…Mr. Bhattacharjee was referring to the controversy generated by reports in a section of the media that said that the Chief Minister, while delivering a public speech on the 15th anniversary of the demolition of the Babri Masjid on Thursday, had said that Lord Ram existed only in the poet’s imagination.

“While addressing a public meeting organised by the government of West Bengal, Sports and Youth Service department, in connection with the 15th anniversary of the demolition of the Babri Masjid, I quoted the following lines from Rabindranath Tagore: ‘Kobi tobo monobhumi Ram er jonmosthan Ayodhya r theke satya jeno’ [the poet’s mind is the birth place of Ram, which is more real than Ayodhya],” the statement said.”

Tagore is dead for a while now. Else, he would be on the run! How can anything be more real than Ayodhya?

Like in the picture below, Ram indeed has become a dreaded word for many people.


Artist: R K Laxman Times of India 18 September 2007

Selling of Heritage, Fragment by Fragment!

KATHERINE BOUTON has reviewed Nina Burleigh’s book “MIRAGE /Napoleon’s Scientists and the Unveiling of Egypt.” (NYT December 9, 2007).

“…The most famous artifact the scholars discovered was the Rosetta stone, which soon wound up in British possession. The French military leadership, ever impatient with the scientists left in their care, bargained it away, along with all the scientists’ notes, drawings and specimens, in the truce that finally allowed them to return home. To this day it sits in the British Museum despite Egypt’s request for its return, with a label that says only “Captured in Egypt by the British Army in 1801, presented by King George III.” Perhaps it was historic justice that a Frenchman eventually cracked the code (working from copies), in 1822.

…The book’s legacy — and the legacy of Napoleon’s Egyptian adventure — was enormous, prompting the half-century of Egyptomania that swept Europe. The resulting decades of plunder brought Cleopatra’s Needle to New York, the Luxor obelisk to the Place de la Concorde, and room after room of mummies to the Metropolitan Museum, the British Museum and the Louvre. Two hundred years later, a new struggle over national cultural heritage may in the end restore at least some of this magnificence to its country of origin.”

We all know India was looted of its treasures during the British Raj and is being done so during the Indian Raj. But now I begin know the price tag of the loot!

Times of India reported on November 26, 2007 an example of how “precious” our heritage is in dollar terms!

See the picture below of Avlokitesvara and Green Schist Gable Relief circa 2nd-3rd century.

Those two alone are reportedly worth US$ 1,070,000!

It may be interesting to put up a price tag outside each archeological site to let people know the worth of what they are viewing and how careful they should be.


Avlokitesvara and Greenschist Gable Relief Gandhara 2nd-3rd century



Artist: Alan Dunn The New Yorker 7 March 1959

Does Teenage Pune Forget to Wear a Condom?

Newsweek December 10, 2007 has an interesting story:
“A Special Delivery/With all the films about unplanned pregnancy this year, 'Juno' is the only one to discuss abortion.”

Its author Jennie Yabroff says:

“This may go down as the year Hollywood forgot to wear a condom. Several prominent films—"Knocked Up," "Waitress," "Bella," "Margot at the Wedding"—feature women who unexpectedly find themselves in the family way. While they react to the news with varying levels of delight and/or despair, sooner or later they all accept their condition, as though motherhood has been a fait accompli from the moment of fertilization. Then there's the 16-year-old at the heart of "Juno." After downing gallons of Sunny Delight to facilitate multiple pregnancy tests, Juno MacGuff does what most women do in her circumstances: she calls her best friend. Then she has an awkward conversation with the baby's father. But finally, she does something hardly any other pregnant character in a film has done since Roe v. Wade: she goes to an abortion clinic.

Hollywood is generally assumed to be a bastion of political liberalism, but when movie characters find themselves unintentionally pregnant, one of two things happens: they keep the baby, or they conveniently miscarry. "Juno" is the only film in recent history in which the protagonist seriously considers termination. ..”

After I read this, I asked my wife if she remembered any Hindi or Marathi film where a leading lady went for the abortion of an unwanted pregnancy.

Both of us couldn’t recall a single instance.

In Hindi films too, "they keep the baby, or they conveniently miscarry." See related entry on this subject here.

Times of India November 23, 2007 reported:

“Teen abortions rising at alarming rate:

The number of teenagers and young unmarried women going for abortions has risen sharply in Pune, sparking concern among gynaecologists over unsafe and unprotected sex…

Most of these girls and women are educated and are either students or working women…

While the members of the society said it was difficult to count the actual number of teen abortions in the city, they agreed that the number has risen sharply…”

I had read in the past how abortions among teens went up few weeks post-Navratri.

However, Times of India reported in October 2005:

“Solved: Post-Navratri abortion

It's a revolution of sorts. Social researchers waiting to dish out those cliched surveys on abortion rates after Navratris in Gujarat, are in for some disappointment. Because revellers, especially girls, are shedding inhibitions and walking up to the neighbourhood chemist asking for condoms.

And invading the market are the Cobras, Draculas, Skinless Skin — all brands of condoms from China. With the nine nights of revelry having peaked over the week-end gone by, chemists are confessing that condom sales are up by up to 50 per cent…”

Considering that Hindi films tend to have a lot of influence on Indian teens and that, like Hollywood films, they can’t show abortion, I hope they promote use of condoms to Indian teens.


Artist: Alan Dunn The New Yorker 11 January 1930

Omar Khayyam or Tycho Brahe? Mardhekar Chose Tycho Brahe.

While reviewing book on Marco Polo (“MARCO POLO/ From Venice to Xanadu.” By Laurence Bergreen) , BRUCE BARCOTT said:

“…In the end, Marco Polo’s greatest contribution to history was to deliver this simple news to Europe: The Asians, they’re not so bad. They’re kind of like us. In some ways, they’re better.” (NYT December 2, 2007)

I wonder what Europeans learnt from Polo’s message but what about us, Indians?

We still don’t know enough about greatness of our neighbouring civilizations in China and Iran. I was never taught in my school anything good about China. We then thought Chinese ate roaches and geckos for breakfast, lunch and dinner!

Iran particularly has fallen off the map of most educated Indians. Funny considering Marathas, for a tiny while in 18th century, nursed the dream of invading Iran and Farsi once was as important in India as English is today.

Here is one possible reason.

I am told you don’t ever get US visa if your passport is stamped with Iranian visa. And for middle class Indians, US visa is better than even that of mythical Chitragupta’s चित्रगुप्त visa to heaven!

Quite a few Indians know about Omar Khayyam (1048 – 1131), an Iranian, though thanks to “… the Rubaiyat, a collection of his free-spirited quatrains made famous around the world by the translations of the 19th-century poet Edward Fitzgerald.

It has been said that these immensely popular books, first published in 1859 and running into numerous editions, contributed more phrases to the English language than the Bible and Shakespeare combined.”

Marathi has seen few translations of the Rubaiyat. My father (Gopal Dutt Kulkarni) for instance made one- “Geet Rubayat” (गीत रुबायत)- during 1960’s.

Justin Marozzi reviewed “Omar Khayyam: Poet, Rebel, Astronomer /His own man by Hazhir Teimourian” for The Spectator, 21st November 2007.

He said:“…Khayyam developed a calendar which had an error of one day in 3,770 years (superior to the Gregorian calendar with an error of one day in 3,330 years).

It was based on his amazingly accurate determination of the length of the year as 365.242199 days. The length of the year is currently 365.242190 days...”

Even today, almost 1000 years later, I have hard time comprehending this accuracy. Number numbness!

Poet B S Mardhekar बा. सी. मर्ढेकर (1909-1956) was an ardent fan of another good poet and Farsi pandit Madhav Julian माधव जूलियन् जुलियन(1894-1939). (btw- Mardhekar has written a moving poem on ordeals faced by Madhav Julian.) Madhav Julian माधव जुलियन translated the Rubaiyat from Farsi into Marathi (1929-1933). He also created a Farsi- Marathi dictionary (1925).

Mardhekar chose to use Tycho Brahe (1546–1601) who was famous for his accurate and comprehensive astronomical observations in following lines of his well-known poem: [मी एक मुंगी, हा एक मुंगी, (I am an ant, he is an ant,)] (poem 16 "आणखी कांहीं कविता" some more poems)

ह्या नच मुंग्या : हींच माणसे :
असेच होते गांधीजीही,
येशु क्रिस्त अन् कृष्ण कदाचित्
कालिदास अन टैकोब्राही.

(These not ants : these only humans :
Like this was Gandhi too
Jesus Christ and Krishna perhaps
Kalidas and Tycho Brahe too)

If he were to use Omar Khayyam instead of Tycho Brahe, it would read like this:

ह्या नच मुंग्या : हींच माणसे :
असेच होते गांधीजीही,
येशु क्रिस्त अन् कृष्ण कदाचित्
कालिदास अन ओमर खय्याम.

Still sounds great to me!

I wonder why Mardhekar didn’t choose Omar Khayyam. Did he know Omar Khayyam too was a great astronomer?
Also, in politically correct second half of 20th century, it would have meant showcasing a great Muslim in the company of great Hindus and Christians.

Pity, I still know so little about Khayyam as a poet, rebel, astronomer and possibly a tent maker!


Artist: Ed Fisher The New Yorker 26 March 1990

p.s. Now I think I know why Mardhekar chose Brahe. Read this article from NYT dated Nov 29 2010.

The Dolphin is the Cow of the Brahmaputra/ And Brahmaputra is My Mother

Asian Age November 29, 2007 reported: “Brahmaputra’s dolphins dying out”.

My first thought was a deep regret: Although I lived in Assam from 1989-1992 intermittently, I never saw a dolphin even once! My ‘affair’ with Brahmaputra is documented here.

I fell in love with river dolphins after reading Amitav Ghosh’s “The Hungry Tide”(2004).

I liked the book mainly because it has so much 'water' and water-borne objects in it.

I was raised in western Maharashtra, land of hills and stream-like rivers. Those rivers sometimes have no water, let alone hungry tides, crocodiles and dolphins!

Ghosh has portrayed romance between protagonist Piyali Roy and Irrawaddy dolphins (Orcaella brevirostris) with great sensitivity.

Sadly, the book has no pictures. As reported in the press, I hope they don't make a shoddy Hindi film based on the book and instead include pictures of Sundarbans in the next edition.

R K Sinha, a Patna-based ecologist who studies the river’s eco-system intimately says:

"The Ganga has more life in it than a forest; its biodiversity is rich. We know so little because its aquatic life is largely undocumented. The river dolphin is an indicator of the river’s health as it is at the top of the riverine food chain, like the tiger is in a forest. That’s why locals say: “Sons bachao nadi mein,/ naam kamao sadi mein”. (Save the river dolphin,/ earn name and fame.) “Sons Ganga ki gaia hain/ Ganga meri maia hain”. (The dolphin is the cow of the Ganga/ And Ganga is my mother.) … Only some 2,000 dolphins remain today…”

If intelligent dolphins come to know about what we have done to them, they might say...

Artist: Warren Miller The New Yorker 30 December 1991

माता कापी गळा Mother Slices the Throat. With King’s Excalibur.

Tarun J. Tejpal has written a scathing article: “Partying While Gujarat Burned” (Newsweek December 3, 2007).

The article may make some of us not swallow our food.

“…There are times when the tragedy is particularly gory—as during the Gujarat riots of 2002, which, after someone set fire to a train carrying Hindu travelers in a town named Godhra, killing 59, saw the massacre and rape of more than 2,000 Muslims by Hindu zealots.

…2002 killings had been planned, had enjoyed the sanction of the state and its chief minister, Narendra Modi, as well as the collusion of the police. Later on, the process of justice had been effectively manipulated to keep those responsible out of jail.

The evidence was graphic. Mass murderers appeared on camera, describing how they killed, why they killed and who helped them kill…”

Tejpal concludes:

“…Any nondoctrinaire Indian can see that a serious schism between its 900 million Hindus and about 150 million Muslims would tear the country apart.

… The fact is India cannot be fixed through economic initiatives alone. It needs great political vision. And there are no signs of that. Yes, India is highly resilient, which allows the management of great contradictions and crises. But in the coming years, this resilience will be tested as never before.”

I agree with Tejpal's conclusion but I think he still underestimates India's resilience. Often in the past, India looked similar to what it looks today but it persists, largely because of sway of Bhakti/ Sufi movement over Indian masses.

Gujarat 2002 reminded the late M V Dhond म वा धोंड Tukaram's तुकाराम following poem:

माता कापी गळा, तेथे कोण राखी बाळा,
हें का नेणां नारायणा, मज चाळवितां दीना,
नागवी धावणें, तेथें साह्य व्हावें कोणें,
राजा सर्व हरी, तेथे दुजा कोण वारी

(Akshar Diwali अक्षर दिवाळी 2002)

Can likes of Tejpal with their pens fight Excalibur of Modi? We shall see.


The Spectator 2007

Sanjay Dutt Found Books an Excellent Form of Escape!

Thanks to Sanjay Dutt, more than cop Kiran Bedi, we know a lot about Indian jails.

I wish he next went to Dharavi in his neighbourhood. Then, we would know a lot about urban squalor.

Times of India on November 22, 2007 reported:

“Actor Sanjay Dutt, who may have found little time to read books in the normal course of his life, has taken to reading spiritual books as an inmate of the Yerwada central prison here…

…In the last few days, he has been reading spiritual books and newspapers voraciously, deputy inspector general of police (prison) Ravindra Kedari told TOI. Reading newspapers is one of the rights of the inmates and Dutt has been reading newspapers in the library every morning, he added…

The Yerwada prison has a collection of over 7,000-9000 books in its library. Inmates can go to the library and also take books to their cells for reading, Kedari said. However, the books are scanned by the authorities and given to prisoners only if they are considered appropriate…”



The Spectator 2007

कुठली सीता, कुठला राघव? Which Seeta, Which Raghav?

I wrote the original post a couple of days ago. I need to revise it because sadly M V Dhond म वा धोंड, who I have quoted extensively on this blog, died on December 5, 2007 at the age of 93. Along with D G Godse द ग गोडसे and Durga Bhagwat दुर्गा भागवत, he was one of the greatest art critic anywhere in the world. This now becomes his obituary.

See few more entries from this blog on Dhond's scholarship here.

I have had number of interesting exchanges with him. Some of them have already been described, more will follow. One such letter is included at the end of this post. He gifted me an autographed copy of his classic ज्ञानेश्वरी:स्वरुप, तत्त्वज्ञान आणि काव्य (Dnyaaneshwari : Nature, Philosophy and Poetry 1980) in year 2001. I was in tears when I received it.

Headline in Marathi newspaper Pudhari पुढारी on December 6, 2007 says: "M V Dhond merged with infinity."

Atheist Dhond would surely object to that description! Lucky he, now he knows if there is a heaven or a hell or just nothingness.

ORIGINAL POST:-

Asian Age December 3, 2007 has a moving photo (see the picture of a woman holding baby at the end of this post):

"Mothers hold their children affected during the Bhopal gas tragedy...Hundreds of thousands of babies were borne in the years since a deadly gas billowed over Bhopal in 1984, but the survivors of that night say their children are forever stunted by that tragedy."

Frontline December 7, 2007 said:

"In June, activists working among the survivors of the 1984 Bhopal gas leak disaster obtained certain documents from the Prime Minister’s Office under the Right to Information Act. These documents suggest how keen the government is to relieve the Dow Chemical Company of any liability for the disaster and its toxic legacy.

...Dow has consistently denied inheriting any liability for the Bhopal legacy from UCC. However, back in the U.S., it set aside $2.2 billion to address future asbestos-related liabilities arising out of the Carbide acquisition. Activists of the International Campaign for Justice in Bhopal argue that if Dow can assume responsibility for asbestos-induced illnesses among victims in America, why then it should deny responsibility towards the victims of Bhopal and its continuing toxic legacy..."

93-year old M V Dhond म वा धोंड has written another brilliant article in Lalit Diwali 2007 (ललित दिवाळी ) lambasting our apathy towards poor and downtrodden, while appreciating poetry of Tukaram and B S Mardhekar (तुकाराम,बा. सी. मर्ढेकर) on the same subject.

In following Marathi poem, Mardhekar describes how Sharvari शर्वरी-young, hardworking, practical woman- while making cow-dung cakes, is telling Shabari शबरी-devotee of Ram- that Ram and Seeta are never going to return from Ayodhya to Dandakaranya to accept her offering.

खप्पड बसली फिक्कट गाल
तळभिंतीवर घेउन जख्खड
मातीची ही जुनी झोपडी
आंबट मिनिटें चाखित रद्दड.

मधेंच दचकुनि बघते वरती,
अष्टदिशांचा सासुरवास;
चंद्रमौळि परि बेढब शबरी
क्षण-बोरांची रचिते रास.

मातीवरती करीत मात;
मिनिटांमधुनी काढित व्याधि;
तापकिरि-पिवळ्या मउ सालीचें
बोर गवसतां जरा सुगंधी,

कुरवाळित तें बोटांनी मउ
मिनिट सुवासिक हसते शबरी;
माणुसकीच्या दंडकांत अन्
गौर्या थापित वदे शर्वरी:

येइल का कधि सीतापति ग
चुकून तरि पण ह्या वाटेला?
घेइल का अन् रुजू करूनी
ह्या बोरांच्या नैवेद्याला?

कुठली सीता, कुठला राघव?
पुसे खडीचा रस्ता फक्कड़;
आंणि ठेविते गाल झोपडी
तळभिंतीवर फिरून खप्पड.

(poem 11 "आणखी कांहीं कविता" "some more poems")




(double click on the image to get a larger view)
Ma Va Dhond's Letter in December 2001

Only Witches Wear Bikini in Hindi Films?

An Evening in Paris (1967) is my favourite movie. First time, I watched its matinee show (3 PM) at Kolhapur (Venus cinema?) by standing in an overwhelming queue to buy a ticket.

I thoroughly enjoyed it. What did I like?

Shammi Kapoor, Shammi Kapoor, Shammi Kapoor…music of Shankar - Jaikishan, Rajendranath and bikini clad Sharmila Tagore. In Hindi films, rarely a woman has looked as sensuous as her, without a touch of vulgarity.

And now her daughter says: Sharmila Tagore says that wearing a bikini in An Evening in Paris was “the biggest mistake of her life”.

Why Ms. Tagore? Why deny me my infatuation, my fantasies? If Zeenat Aman also joins you in regretting number of things she did, it would be like my adolescence spent in Stalin’s gulag. (See a related picture post on this subject here.)

Times of India November 26, 2007 thinks it knows the reason: “Why the bikini is badnaam”

“…The bikini in some form or the other has become an acceptable part of Bollywood’s grammar, but the bikini-wearer herself is still a pariah.

Women in the glamour industry won’t bat an eyelid while shooting in bikinis for international assignments, but will valiantly resist in India—or at least state their reservations loudly in public - acutely aware that such an act will amount to transgressing some unspoken cultural boundaries. In the eyes of the public, the bikini-wearer is often seen as having crossed the final frontier of Indian values and traditions, and becoming one of “those women” - sexually aggressive, “characterless”, out of control and endowed with all the qualities of Western female sexuality that the bikini symbolises.

… The message is that “only bad women wear bikinis”. The implication is that women who wear such clothes get sexually harassed, and have no one to blame but themselves. They ‘asked for it’.

A bikini has nothing to do with being good or bad and statistics on crimes against women show that what women wear has no bearing on sexual harassment faced by them. Yet the fear of being associated with bikinis only compounds these dangerous misconceptions, adding a greater burden to women to take responsibility for their own safety.

…Wearing a bikini is part of the performance alright. But at the end of the day, after pack up, they go back to real lives with real relationships built on the damning sexual moralities of Indian society in which women are always up for trial. “



Artist: Frank Modell The New Yorker 27 October 1962

Solving a Differential Equation to Get Madhubala’s Smile

Times of India November 28 2007: “Worth a million dollars: The formula for that perfect smile”

Report describes how to get a perfect smile.

“…right size and width of each tooth, right curve, colour and shape of the teeth, and the overall width of the mouth are the factors which together contribute to a lovable smile.

… whiteness of the teeth should match the whites of the eyes, else the smile will stand out too much and detract from the rest of the face.

…the ideal width of a smile should not be less than half the width of the face, and both upper and lower lips should be symmetrical each side of the mid-line of the face.

… the top row of teeth should be dominant, while very little should be seen of the bottom row.

… all the teeth on display should be straight, and there should not appear any signs of restoration work.

… the teeth’s size should decrease from front to back.

While the width of the central teeth should be 80 per cent of their height, the laterals should be 61.8 per cent the size of the bigger teeth.
The visibility of gums should be as little as possible to avoid a horsy smile...
“.

Now, these specs surely need a differential equation to be solved.

So can you create a great smile by solving an equation? Is it ever possible to re-create the most infectious smile of 20th century: Madhubala’s?


How silly!

Her smile was certainly not because of expensive cosmetic dentistry. Nor it was just a genetic lottery. It was in great measure due to her effort to get along with her difficult circumstances and sadness in her soul.

Unlike the gent below, we thank god that Madhubala,like Agatha, learned to smile at misfortune!


Artist: Perry Barlow The New Yorker 20 June 1936