सांगे गोविंदराव टेंबेंची किर्ती

Will Durant:
“Civilization exists by geologic consent, subject to change without notice"

As I mentioned earlier, 100 years ago today Sangeet Manapman (संगीत मानापमान) was staged for the first time.

Although its great subsequent succes was because of team effort, men-of-the-match were writer Krushnaji Prabhakar Khadilkar (कृष्णाजी प्रभाकर खाडिलकर), actors Bal Gandharva (बालगंधर्व) & Nanasaheb Joglekar (नानासाहेब जोगळेकर) and music composer Govindrao Tembe (गोविंदराव टेंबे).

I consider myself singularly lucky that on March 9 2011, I obtained a Marathi book on Govindrao Tembe's life: 'सांस्कृतिक महाराष्ट्राचे शिल्पकार : गोविंदराव टेंबे', 2006 लेखक: डॉ. सौ. चारुशीला दिवेकर ("Sanskritik Maharashtrache Shilpkar : Govindrao Tembe", 2006 by Dr. Mrs. Charusheela Divekar). The books comes with an audio CD. The book has detailed information on every song of Manapman.

I had been aware of its existence for a while now but then it was priced at Rs. 700. Now, it's available at Rs. 250/- from 'Granth Abhiman', Panaji (rajhaunsvitaran@dataone.in).

At that price it is a steal. When I ordered the book they sent it immediately wrapped in probably the best packing I have seen. The entire experience was a real pleasure.

I now have heard the CD and thumbed through the book, all 648 pages. I am in love with the book. I will keep reading it for many months to come.

Sheila, The Eternal Woman, dating back 4000 years, 2000 years, 1 year

Filmstar Akshay Kumar said, in a lighter vein, on TV program 'Jhalak Dikhla Jaa', that Sheila of 'Tees Maar Khan' is Sindhi because she herself says: "My name is Sheila, Sheila Ki Jawani"...S K Jawani!

(Surname ending with 'ni'...by that logic I, too, am Sindhi...after meeting me after many years a hostel-mate felt that I looked like an Iranian...So Sindhi is closer home!)


(bronze 'dancing girl' from Mohenjo-daro in Sind, Pakistan c 2000 BC)

She is Sindhi alright! Let us call her Sheila.

This is how- in one of the most moving pieces of prose- historian John Keay describes her in his book 'India: A History', 2000:

Although probably not dancing, the `dancing girl' is unquestionably `a pleasing little thing'. Naked save for a chunky necklace and an assortment of bangles, this minuscule statuette is not of the usual Indian sex symbol, full of breast and wide of hip, but of a slender nymphet happily flaunting puberty with delightful insouciance. Her pose is studiously casual, one spindly arm bent with the hand resting on a déhanché hip, the other dangling so as to brush a slightly raised knee. Slim and attenuated, the legs are slightly parted, and one foot — both are now missing- must have been pointed. She could be absent-mindedly surveying her wardrobe, except that her head is thrown back as if challenging a suitor, and her hair is somehow dressed into a heavy plaited chignon of perilous but intentionally dramatic construction. Decidedly, she wants to be admired; and she might be gratified to know that, four thousand years later, she still is.

[I trust only the late D G Godse (द ग गोडसे) to write stuff comparable to this, or even better than this, on such a subject, in Marathi.]

Here is an example of "the usual Indian sex symbol, full of breast and wide of hip":



(MITHUNAS, CAVE 3, Kanheri, 2nd century A.D. )

Does Ms. Katrina Kaif, below, too belong to the category of "...not of the usual Indian sex symbol, full of breast and wide of hip, but of a slender nymphet"?



They say, like history, fashion is cyclical.

There are three pictures above: 4000 year, 2000 year and 1 year.

Ladies in the first and the third have a lot in common. But I wonder when Ms. Kaif will get her own John Keay.

6010 CE?

वसंतराव आगाशे: "पिटातल्या प्रेक्षकांप्रमाणे शिट्या काय मारताय?"...Vasantrao Agashe of Vasant Vyakhyanmala, Miraj

Our teacher at Miraj High School (मिरज हाय स्कूल), Vasantrao Agashe (वसंतराव आगाशे) died at Pune on March 5 2011.

I am eternally grateful to Agashe-sir not for his teaching but for making "Vasant Vyakhyan Mala" (वसंत व्याख्यान माला), spring lecture series, happen every year at Miraj (मिरज). Agashe-sir worked tirelessly and selflessly for its success. He also motivated a number of young volunteers to work with him.

There was no ideological bias in the selection of speakers. Organisation of every evening used to be impeccable. I spent dozens of my evenings in the summers of 1970's there and later discussed the lecture passionately with my parents and willing friends.

Staunch Gandhian Narhar Kurundkar (नरहर कुरुंदकर), who often came calling, once told his majority Brahmin audience that he was now going to praise Mahatma Gandhi knowing fully well that a lot of his audience disliked, if not hated, Gandhi!

I also remember how Vitthalrao Gadgil (विठ्ठलराव गाडगीळ) regaled his audience with anecdotes from Indian and British parliaments.

Sadly, I never attended any of Setu Madhavrao Pagdi's (सेतु माधवराव पगडी) lectures there who too came for a number of years. I now realise the enormity of my loss.

But I did not like Agashe-sir's teaching. He taught us higher English in HSC first year. I did not like his speeches too. Particularly his flowery language. But he was very popular among certain types of students.

I remember those students- many studious girls among them- giving him a 'fishpond': "ज्ञानाच्या सागरातील राजहंस" ('Swan in the sea of knowledge') or something similar at our school social (aka gathering) in 1975. I was amused.

Once there was quite a bit of whistling at the back of our class. I was sitting there. He was not used to so much of commotion in his class. He reprimanded us with these words (he never beat a student):

"पिटातल्या प्रेक्षकांप्रमाणे शिट्या काय मारताय?"

("Why are you whistling like the spectators seated in the theatre pit?")

I liked the pun alright!

By the way, I never whistled at Vasant Vyakhyan Mala. There I behaved the way Agashe-sir wanted a student to behave in his class.

Thank you, Agashe-Sir. For many delightful spring evenings and the pun. And sorry for being a bit(?) of nuisance in the class.

 The building in the background is Miraj Vidyarthi Sangh aka Khare Mandir

Why some Cartoonists are More Equal

FT, March 1 2011:

"Rajat Gupta, who ran McKinsey for almost a decade, has been hit with civil insider trading charges for allegedly sharing secret information he learnt as a board member of Goldman Sachs and Procter & Gamble with Galleon Group founder Raj Rajaratnam...

...The insider trading charges against Mr Gupta are a stunning setback for the one-time global managing director of McKinsey, the consulting firm. It also marks one of the highest profile insider trading charges brought against a bank director..."

According to Wikipedia Mr. Gupta holds a bachelor of technology degree in Mechanical Engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi (IIT) and an M.B.A. from Harvard Business School.

More than a year ago, Feb 19 2010, for the rationale I still don't understand, Tiger Woods's apology was aired live in India on many news channels.

Or maybe I do after reading this:

Frank Rich:"...We’ve rarely questioned our assumption that 9/11, “the day that changed everything,” was the decade’s defining event. But in retrospect it may not have been. A con like Tiger’s may be more typical of our time than a one-off domestic terrorist attack, however devastating..."

(My father often used to wonder, in 1970's, why Marathi newspapers followed lawn tennis by dedicating vast amounts of column centimetres to it.

Then there was no tv and hence most people probably knew tennis only through cinema.)

But the channels never aired Mr. Woods's apology to his clubs.

Now this is where a cartoonist comes in, a very good one like Mike Luckovich.


Artist: Mike Luckovich

In Praise of Hunter-gatherer Kakaji / of Pu La's 'Tujhe Ahe Tujapashi'

Holly Brubach:

Bogart’s appeal was and remains completely adult — so adult that it’s hard to believe he was ever young. If men who take responsibility are hard to come by in films these days, it’s because they’re hard to come by, period, in an era when being a kid for life is the ultimate achievement, and “adult” as it pertains to film is just a euphemism for pornography.

(Feb 4 2011, WSJ)

I must have read P L Deshpande's (पु ल देशपांडे) 'Tujhe Ahe Tujapashi', 1957 (तुझें आहे तुजपाशीं) dozens of times. Once I knew all its dialogues by heart.

My favourite character from the play is that of Kakaji (काकाजी).

Read the following set of dialogues from the play:

"काकाजी: जाऊ द्या यार. जंगलात तर दोनच वेळा. दिवस आणि रात्र. भूक लागली की जेवायची वेळ आणि थकलो की झोपायची.

आचार्य : म्हणजे मी समजत होतो , की हा वाडा चोवीसच वर्षे मागे आहे. पण नाही , अगदी आदिमानवाच्याच काळात आहे. जंगलात राहणार्या आदिमानवानं त्यानंतर काही प्रगति केल्याचं ह्या वाड्याच्या कानावर आलेलं दिसत नाही.

काकाजी: कुणाला ठाऊक काय केलंय ते? प्रगति की अधोगति !"

(Kakaji: Let it be friend. In jungle there are just two times. When hungry it's eating time and when tired sleeping one.

Acharya: I was thinking this house was behind the times by twenty-four years. But no, it's in prehistorical period. Looks like it has not heard any progress the primitive man has made since.

Kakakji: Wonder what is it? Progress or degeneration!)

Now this must be one of the most scathing attacks, in 20th century Marathi literature, on the concept of progress, by one of the most popular and main-stream artists and not by an 'outsider' like Bhau Padhye (भाऊ पाध्ये)

Kakaji seems to be praising the life of a hunter-gatherer.

Jared Diamond concurs:

"… Thus with the advent of agriculture and elite became better off, but most people became worse off. Instead of swallowing the progressivist party line that we chose agriculture because it was good for us, we must ask how we got trapped by it despite its pitfalls...

...Forced to choose between limiting population or trying to increase food production, we chose the latter and ended up with starvation, warfare, and tyranny.

Hunter-gatherers practiced the most successful and longest-lasting life style in human history. In contrast, we're still struggling with the mess into which agriculture has tumbled us, and it's unclear whether we can solve it...
"
("The Worst Mistake in the History of the Human Race," Discover Magazine, May 1987, pp. 64-66.)

And on Kakaji's question of progress or degeneration, John Gray says:

"...Today liberal humanism has the pervasive power that was once possessed by revealed religion. Humanists like to think they have a rational view of the world; but their core belief in progress is a superstition, further from the truth about the human animal than any of the world’s religions.

Outside of science, progress is simply a myth."

('Straw Dogs: Thoughts on Humans and Other Animals', 2002)

People asked Pu La if the character of Kakaji was based on the real life figure of Ramubhaiya Date (रामुभैया दाते).

Pu La answered them in 'Gangot' (गणगोत): "Kakaji in the play keeps saying 'I am still young' ('अभी तो मैं जवान हूँ') but here (in case of Mr. Date) the childhood (शैशव ) itself is not over yet."

Today I am enthralled by 'adult' appeal of Humphrey Bogart and Balraj Sahni, the guys who always took responsibility, often beyond our expectations. It's hard to believe if they were ever young.

Kakaji too takes responsibility. A lot of it. Staying unmarried himself, he raises the two kids of his brother after he and his wife pass away.

But unlike Bogarat and Sahani, Kakaji is young forever, perhaps a kid for life. A loveable hunter-gatherer.


Kakaji on the left and Acharya on the right.

Good Bye, Anant Pai, thank you and btw- Why did you tone down?

Creator of the Amar Chitra Katha, Anant Pai passed away on February 24, 2011.

As a tribute to him, I am recycling my old post.

I was a voracious reader in my childhood. For recreation, I read only Marathi until I was almost 12 or 13. Magazine “Chandoba” (“Chandamama” in Hindi) was one of my favourite. We did not buy it every month because my father did not like it much. Amar Chitra Katha (ACK) was borne in 1967 but I could lay my hands on it much later.

I thought I liked only stories from “Chandoba” but realized later that I also liked accompanying pictures. Pictures of curvaceous women. I also read a lot of Indian mythology that of course has quite a bit of sex.

Recently ACK completed 40 years of its very successful existence-400 titles, 86 million copies sold.

Mr. Pai, ACK’s creator, admitted to The Times of India (June 29 2007) that imagery of early ACK issues was quite sexy. He said:”…….. our major influences were the sculptures of Ajanta, Ellora…..We may have been a bit over influenced by it….But forget the first 25 titles or so, we have toned it down.”

Pratap Mulick pioneering illustrator of ACK died recently. I hope he never regretted his following picture of Matsyakanya or Vasavadatta or Satyavati or Shakuntala or who ever she is...Even today she makes my knees go wobbly!

Why regret Mr. Pai? I wish to thank you and Mr. Pratap Mulick, particularly for first 25 titles, and to anonymous illustrators of “Chandoba” for giving me pleasure.

You saved me from porn.


Artist: Pratap Mulick
Artist: Robert Weber, The New Yorker, 9 Feb 1998

50 years later: Vijay Anand's "Apni to har aah ik toofan hai"

Today is 7th death anniversary of Vijay Anand.

Alyssa Rosenberg:

In a world where we have more options in entertainment in general and the movies in particular, why do we continue to need Humphrey Bogart? Rick never figured out why Ilsa ended up in his bar in Casablanca. But why isn't really the important part: All that matters is that she's there.

(The Atlantic, Feb 1 2011)

My eternal regret, expressed on this blog from time to time- for instance here, has been the neglect of Hindi cinema as an art form by the giants of art criticism writing in Marathi.

The critics I often quote M V Dhond (म वा धोंड), D G Godse (द ग गोडसे), Vilas Sarang (विलास सारंग) have scarcely written a line on the subject. [Ashok Shahane (अशोक शहाणे) who also belongs to that league is an exception.]

I have already expressed my deep displeasure about G A Kulkarni's (जी. ए. कुलकर्णी) comments on Shailendra here.

P L Deshpande (पु ल देशपांडे ) wrote about Bal Gandharva (बालगंधर्व), doyens of Hindustani classical music such as Kumar Gandharva, Bhimsen Joshi, Mallikarjun Mansur, Vasantrao Deshpande (वसंतराव देशपांडे) among others. But probably not a line on Hindi films and their music!

What a loss. Of ours! And sadly theirs even more!

(This lacuna is similar to this blog's silence on the fascinating world of video games where my son spends considerable amount of time every week.)

btw- Author N S Phadke (ना सी फडके), whose opinion as an art critic mattered a lot once upon a time in Maharashtra, seemingly to even Bal Gandharva, has written perceptively and without any condescension about Hindi film music. And there is Bhau Padhye (भाऊ पाध्ये) for whom Hindi films were as integral to our lives as Tukaram (तुकाराम).

There are a few Marathi books- a couple of them like 'GeetYatri' (गीतयात्री) by Madhav Moholkar (माधव मोहोळकर) very good- on the appreciation of music in Hindi films.

These books dwell upon various aspects of the music such as classical ragas that are deployed by the composer, singers, use of different musical instruments, lyrics, personal lives of the people associated etc but seldom on visual qualities of a song.

I have already argued that the majority of Hindi film songs of the past are worth only listening.

But not all. Some of them need to be appreciated with all our faculties and then some.

Like his fellow artists Raj Kapoor, Guru Dutt, Raj Khosla, and Hrishikesh Mukherjee, Vijay Anand was an absolute master of song picturisation in Hindi films.

For instance-

Aankho mein kyaa jee rupahalaa baadal (Nau Do Gyarah,1957),

Hothon mein aisi baat (Jewel Thief, 1967),

O mere raja (Johnny Mera Naam, 1970)...

The best one for me is "Apni To Har Aah Ek Toofan Hai" for "Kala Bazar", 1960.
(Music- Sachin Dev Burman, Sung by Mohammad Rafi, Lyrics-Shailendra.)

There are four of them in the song- Dev Anand (DA), Waheeda Rehman (WR), WR's father (played by ?) and WR's mother (played by Mumtaz Begum).

I have travelled a lot by long distance trains in India.

When you embark on a long journey with a group of strangers, it is always mildly exciting. For a next day or two, you are likely to open many aspects of your life- sleeping habits, eating habits, personal hygiene...- to them.

You maybe even called upon to tolerate their intruding questions and honour requests such as exchange of berths.

Therefore, in this case, I am quite impressed that WR's mother doesn't mind occupying upper berth. She doesn't request this handsome young man to exchange his lower berth with hers. (Is it because in that case he would be at the same level as WR?)

In any case if you have many such questions about the song situation, go to the quote at the top of this post: All that matters is that Ilsa is in Rick's bar in Casablanca..



Look at the picture above. WR is looking at her father. He is looking at his wife. She is looking at him. DA is looking at WR. What great fun!


Has she ever looked more divine than this? No wonder Imran Khan considers her the most beautiful woman in the world.

And finally the words of great Shailendra.

They are simple. But their impact on me is no less that of a very good poem and we all know how hard it is to write one.

Poet asks: "ये भी मुशकिल है तो क्या आसान है?"

Answer- Reading it here:

अपनी तो हर आह इक तूफ़ान है
क्या करे वो जान कर अंजान है -
ऊपर वाल जान कर अंजान है

अपनी तो हर आह इक तूफ़ान है
ऊपर वाल जानकर अंजान है
अपनी तो हर आह इक तूफ़ान है

अब तो हँसके अपनी भी क़िस्मत को चमका दे
कानों में कुछ कह दे जो इस दिल को बहला दे
ये भी मुशकिल है तो क्या आसान है
ऊपर वाल जान कर अन्जान है ...

सर पे मेरे तू जो अपना हाथ ही रख दे
फिर तो भटके राही को मिल जायेंगे रस्ते
दिल की बस्ती बिन तेरे वीरान है
ऊपर वाल जानकर अन्जान है ...

दिल ही तो है इस ने शायद भूल भी की है
ज़िंदगी है भूल कर ही राह मिलती है
माफ़ कर बन्दा भी इक इन्सान है
ऊपर वाल जान कर अंजान है
अपनी तो हर आह इक तूफ़ान है

Is Forward Short Leg an Entry Level Position?

Saad Bin Jung:

"...Today when cricket is no longer the same cricket as was played by the likes of Don Bradman and Vijay Manjrekar, the bowlers need all the assistance possible.
Surely after reading this, you will accept that benefit of doubt to the batsman must be changed to benefit of doubt to the bowler..." (The Asian Age, Feb 15 2011)

I am in desperate minority in today's middle-class India. I have zero interest in ODI Cricket world cup starting today. (Luckily at my home my wife doesn't much like cricket and my son is more fond of football and test cricket.)

This is such a far cry from 1983 where at IIT-Madras, I couldn't gather courage to watch final moments of India's famous victory over mighty WI on TV. I had to go out of common-room and stand on the balcony in front of my room, on the third floor of hostel BRAHMAPUTRA- (one of the best places I ever lived), waiting with bated breath, for the climax.

For me, Test Cricket becomes fascinating sport because of bouncers/ short-pitch bowling and forward short leg.

If you are not wearing protective equipment- and for most of part of cricket history you didn't- you could die facing the former or fielding at the latter.

Although the likes of legendary Eknath Solkar (एकनाथ सोलकर) and Brian Close made forward short leg their own piece of real estate, most times rookies are asked to field there.


The Wizard of Id, created by Brant Parker and Johnny Hart.

(open the picture in another browser window to enhance it.)

I can't help: 'हलो हलो' ला हलकट उत्तर

Telemarketers continue to bother me, after all that National Do Not Call Registry.

Therefore, I now have lost the patience and any pretense of civility.

Earlier, I used to reason with these pesky callers. Now, I am just rude. I bang the phone or plain lie or even abuse.

When I behave like this, are they reminded of:

"त्रुटित जीवनीं सुटी कल्पना,
ट्रिंग ट्रिंग जैसा खोटा नंबर
सलग जमेना एक भावना,
'हलो हलो' ला हलकट उत्तर."

Last two lines read:

“feelings are not aligned,
‘hello, hello’ is answered by an abuse.”

[B S Mardhekar (बा. सी. मर्ढेकर), poem number 28, “Mardhekaranchi Kavita” (“मर्ढेकरांची कविता”) , 1959]


Artist: Raymond Thayer, The New Yorker, 21 May 1932

The Three Wise Men on Egypt

Events in Egypt have given a field day to the cartoonists around the world.

I now have seen tens of cartoons on the subject. Most of them very funny.

But these are the three I liked most. They told me a lot while poking me in the rib.

I salute their creators.

The first one is about Mr. Mubarak's plans to continue in the office:


Artist: Steve Breen

The pun on The Nile...De nial!

(For my most favourite picture of Mr. Breen, click here.)

The second one is about the role of US in supporting despots around the world and the eternal conflict that is at the heart of America's foreign policy: Uncle Sam Vs. The Statue of Liberty.

Artist: R J Matson

And the thrid one is closest to my heart.

It reminded me of my hometown Miraj (मिरज). This is how the ordinary people of that town treated old structures that had fallen into disuse. And that is largely true of the rest of India.

These people help me understand how Mubarak's of the world turn into P B Shelley's 'Ozymandias':

“ My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings:
Look on my works, ye mighty, and despair!'
Nothing beside remains. Round the decay
Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare,
The lone and level sands stretch far away.”



Artist: Amr Okasha, Egyptian political cartoonist