Jaspal Bhatti, Have You Conned Even Wikipedia?

Mel Brook:

"Tragedy is when I cut my finger. Comedy is when you fall into an open sewer and die."

Homer Simpson:

“Aw, being a clown sucks.  You get kicked by kids, bit by dogs, and admired by the elderly.  Who am I clowning?  I have no business being a clown!  I've leaving the clowning business to all the other clowns in the clowning business.”

When I read about Mr. Bhatti's death in a road accident a few minutes ago I thought he was satirising traffic woes of India. So I went to Wikipedia to verify it...

Outside cinema, he was one of the best Indian comedians I saw. Sometimes Doordarshan was worth watching only for his program 'Ulta-Pulta'.

I should have written about his art on this blog when he was alive. He has made so much fun of corruption in India. He of course couldn't have imagined the monstrous proportions the evil has now reached.The joke is truly on us.

Mr. Bhatti exhibiting 'Corruption Devta' in April 2011

Photograph courtesy: Shiv Kumar Pushpakar, The Hindu


I always feel that Sikhs as a community get more than fair share of Indian society's affection. For me, the reason is they produce people like the late Mr. Bhatti and Mr. Khushwant Singh. 



Food Gets Z Category Security in India

Jaspal Bhatti’s wife Savita Bhatti, guarded by members of the Nonsense Club dressed as commandos, goes to deposit vegetables in a bank locker in Chandigarh on Tuesday April 1, 2008. (PTI)

Ok...ok...Mr. Bhatti...we get it...You have now read a lot of obituaries...Now please get up...The Flop-show must go on.

BJP & Congress have played the Ace of Spades simultaneously: An Illustrator Suggested

Today October 23 2012 is second death anniversary of Leo Cullum, the guy who keeps amusing

George Orwell:

"Many children begin to know his characters by sight before they can even read, for on the whole Dickens was lucky in his illustrators."

Alison Lurie:

"A brilliant illustrator can transform any story, revealing its possible meanings and sometimes changing them. Alice in Wonderland and Through the Looking-Glass would be less scary without John Tenniel’s drawings (especially those of the Duchess and the Jabberwocky), and Winnie-the-Pooh less lovable without the help of Ernest Shepard. Maurice Sendak brought his artistic talents to over seventy works by other writers, always making them more interesting."

Orwell, I feel, was never indifferent to illustrations in a book. He has sketched many small pictures himself.

But I haven't still seen Orwell's novels or reportage illustrated.

Now 'Animal Farm' can be a great book to illustrate and I know illustrated editions exist. But if I have to suggest one artist for the job, it would be the late Mr. Cullum.


Artist: Leo Cullum, The New Yorker

This is how the great book ends:

“The pigs and farmers return to their amiable card game, and the other animals creep away from the window. Soon the sounds of a quarrel draw them back to listen. Napoleon and Pilkington have played the ace of spades simultaneously, and each accuses the other of cheating. The animals, watching through the window, realize with a start that, as they look around the room of the farmhouse, they can no longer distinguish which of the cardplayers are pigs and which are human beings.”

Now, imagine how Mr. Cullum would have illustrated it...the way Napoleon and Pilkington, or BJP and Congress, are looking at each other, saying things and Mr. Cullum helping as interpreter for us like in the picture above...

Gajendra Moksha by Mohiuddin Khan मौजुद्दीनखां...हे गोविन्द ! राखो शरन ।।

Greetings of Dasara (Oct 24)  and Bakr-Id (Oct 26) !

One of the best  ever sung bhajans 'man tarpat hari darshan ko aaj'-  from Hindi film 'Baiju Bawra', 1952- is written by Shakeel Badayuni, composed by Naushad and sung by Mohammed Rafi.

 "सोऽन्तःसरस्युरुबलेन गृहीत आर्तो
दृष्ट्वा गरुत्मति हरिं ख उपात्तचक्रम
उत्क्षिप्य साम्बुजकरं गिरमाह कृच्छ्रान
नारायणाखिलगुरो भगवन्नमस्ते ||"

[ He (Gajendra) in the water with great force who was captured (by the crocodile) severely suffering on seeing Lord Vishnu on the back of Garuda with his discus ready  raising  his trunk along with a lotus flower  uttered the words with great difficulty  O Lord Narayana  O Universal Lord O Supreme person salutations to you.]

'Gajendra Moksha' by Artist: Unknown, Period: mid 18^th century,

Medium: Opaque watercolor and gold on paper

Courtesy: Collection of Kenneth and Joyce Robbins and Wikimedia Commons

As a kid when I first read the story of Gajendra Moksha from  Bhagavata Purana in Marathi, I  felt very anxious and then relieved...for me elephant then was 'good' and crocodile was 'bad'. I kept seeing its occasional depiction in Ganesh Chaturthi pandals. Probably I also saw the story in 'Chandoba' (चांदोबा).

Later in life, I would watch on TV channels crocodiles catching many hapless animals at watering holes of Africa. No Lord Vishnu came to their rescue!

I came to admire both caught animals and crocs.

For a long time, I did not know that the story of Gajendra Moksha was a metaphor. And even when I came to know little more about it, its spiritual beauty eluded me until I read Govindrao Tembe's (गोविंदराव टेंबे) book "माझा संगीत व्यासंग" (Majha Sangeet Vyasang), first published in 1939.

Tembe describes how Hindustani classical singer  Mohiuddin Khan (मौजुद्दीनखां)  (c1870- 1921) treated Gajendra Moksha. 

Mohiuddin Khan  once sang this Hindi Bhajan (by Surdas)  when Tembe was in the audience:

"अब तो जीवन हारे, हे गोविन्द ! राखो शरन  ।। ध्रु।।
नीर भरन हेत गए सिन्धुके किनारे ।
सिन्धु बीच बसत नक्र चरण धर पसारे ।। हे गोविन्द ! राखो शरन ।।"

(This is a not-so-good scan of a portion of the page from Tembe's book. I am not going to attempt translation of it.)

Tembe says how  poignantly Mohiuddin Khan expressed prayer, grief, frustration and helpless anger of the elephant in repeatedly singing 'हे गोविन्द !'. He sang the bhajan for 45 minutes. 

Surdas's written bhajan is great but that day, my guess is, it became even greater! And how lucky we are that because of Tembe we can partly receive it even today.
 

प्रभाते मलदर्शनम...Was Vinoba Bhave being Funny but Blasphemous?

"कराग्रे वसते लक्ष्मी:

करमूले सरस्वती ।

करमध्ये तु गोविंद:

प्रभाते करदर्शनम्।।"

[At the tip of the hand resides (goddess) Laxmi, 

At the root (goddess) Saraswati,

At the centre (god) Govinda, 

In the morning, catch sight of hand.]

The Hindu:

"Census 2011 threw up a malodorous statistic: people in 49.8 per cent of households have no toilet facilities and defecate in the open. In contrast, 63.2 per cent of households have a telephone connection, of which 52.3 per cent have cell phones; as for televisions, almost half of the country’s households possess one."

Jairam Ramesh: 

"toilets are more important than temples. No matter how many temples we go to, we are not going to get salvation. We need to give priority to the toilets and cleanliness" 

Economic & Political Weekly, October 20, 2012:

"But things will change only when Indians decide sanitation is not a dirty word; that
no one group of people is destined to clean up after other people; that toilets can be the temples of a modern, just and democratic country."

My father told us that  Vinoba Bhave (विनोबा भावे) used to say “प्रभाते मलदर्शनम” (In the morning, catch sight of your own feces). I thought it was very funny and very profound.

For me,  in 20th century, Vinoba was one of the greatest scholars of religion  in the world. His knowledge of all religions practised- yes including Islam and Christianity- in India was formidable. And his Marathi (मराठी) expression is so simple, beautiful and direct. I seldom read or hear such Marathi written in present times.

But by saying “प्रभाते मलदर्शनम”, was he- like Jairam Ramesh-  being blasphemous? Some religious fundamentalists would say so.


By building toilets, you will not have to sight somebody else's  feces!

Was Vinoba greeted by his creator in heaven like this:

Artist: Charles Barsotti, The New Yorker, 15 November 1993

Damsel in Distress? Well, I Suppose the Solution is Children

Tomorrow October 14 2012 is 59th Death Anniversary of Raghunath Dhondo Karve (रघुनाथ धोंडो कर्वे).

Camille Paglia:

Pharmaceutical companies will never find the holy grail of a female Viagra — not in this culture driven and drained by middle-class values. Inhibitions are stubbornly internal. And lust is too fiery to be left to the pharmacist.
 
(June 26, 2010, 'No Sex Please, We’re Middle Class', The New York Times)




Artist: Emiliano Ponzi, The New York Times, June 2010

(This graphic that accompanied Prof. Paglia's article)

Stephen Jay Gould:

"Why, in particular, does the existence of clitoral orgasm seem so problematic? Why, for example, did Freud label clitoral orgasm as infantile and define feminine maturity as the shifting to an unattainable vaginal site? Part of the reason, of course, must reside in simple male vanity. We (and I mean those of my sex, not the vague editorial pronoun) simply cannot abide the idea-though it flows from obvious biology-that a woman's sexual pleasure might not arise most reliably as a direct result of our own coital efforts." 

("Male Nipples and Clitoral Ripples" from 'Bully for Brontosaurus',1991)

म. वा. धोंड:

"विवाहसंस्थेची अनावश्यकता, स्वैरसमागमाची इष्टता, अप्राकृतिक संभोगाविषयी उदारता, इत्यादी (र धों )कर्वे यांची मते आजही भारतीयांना मान्य होणे कठीण. मग ४०-५० वर्षांपूर्वी या मतांबद्दल त्यांची कुचेष्टा झाली, तर ते स्वाभाविकच म्हटले पाहिजे. कामशास्त्र, संतातिनियमन व गुप्तरोगप्रतिबंध यांविषयीची माहिती कर्वे यांनी तत्कालीन समाजास दिली, हे त्यांचे कार्य मोठेच म्हटले पाहिजे; परंतु संततिनियमनाचा प्रचार त्यांनी ज्या भूमिकेवरून केला, ती कामस्वातंत्र्याची भूमिका त्यांच्या कार्याला मारकच ठरली."

(मार्च, 1982)

Alas no female Viagra yet but The Times of India June 24 2012 greeted us with a full page ad of 'i-sure'.

I wasn't sure what it was until I read the entire copy!



courtesy: The Times of India and Piramal Healthcare

[My first thought. There should be a tagline: "Woh Do Din" (Those 2 days) ].

The ad claims 99% accuracy. What about the anxiety and suffering due to 1%? Will the product encourage not using contraceptives on the other 28 days? Will it end up pressurizing women more?

If a religion believes that sex is only for procreation, will it recommend using "i-sure" to avoid recreational sex?

The lady in the ad is worried about delay in getting pregnant. What about the gentleman? Will he be ready when she is?

Imagine she declaring to him in the morning before they head out to work: "TONIGHT show me you are a man or wait until next month"... Won't he have performance anxiety? Will he too need some assistance?

Artist: Barbara Shermund (1988-1978), The New Yorker, 9 July 1932

(Liza Donnelly on Ms. Shermund: “Barbara Shermund was one of the more prolific cartoonists of the early New Yorker. Her breezy drawing style and humor reflected the new attitudes of urban women in the twenties and thirties, and she can be considered one of the early feminist cartoonists.”)

p.s.

The late R D Karve (र धों कर्वे), one of the greatest 20th century Indians, would have been most happy to see female Viagra being available to the women because he wanted them to have as much sexual freedom (कामस्वातंत्र्य) as men did. Family planning, in the way we understand today, was NOT his ONLY mission.

(Read essay 'Ra Dho Karve Ani Santati Niyaman' from 'Jalyatil Chandra', 1994 by M V Dhond, 'र धों कर्वे आणि संतति नियमन', 'जाळयातील चंद्र', लेखक: म. वा. धोंड)

Aujourd'hui maman est morte...

Today October 10 2012 is 75th Birth Anniversary of my Mother

I have 'liked' FB page of Albert Camus.

In August 2012 following was posted there:

"Mother died today. Or maybe yesterday; I can't be sure." [In French: "Aujourd'hui maman est morte. Ou peut-être hier, je ne sais pas."]  (from 'The Stranger' / 'L'Étranger', 1942)

A person had commented on FB:

"Difficult to say if the above statement " Mother died today......" symbolises nihilism,absurdism or plain foray into existentialism or all three. But it remains timeless. One of my favorite from the world of anguish and melancholy."

I wrote:

"is it just confusion on mother's death...because that's what happened to me."

It really was confusion first and foremost. Just about everything was same as before. Only she was hiding. Or hidden...

"It was noisy in the main marketplace; there were swings going up and down, barred organs playing, an accordion wheezing away, and drunken voices calling out. And then pony-rides began on the main street in the afternoon- it was all great fun, in a word; everything went well, just as it had the previous year, and as it probably would the following one." ('The Bishop', 1902 by Anton Chekhov)

 Artist: Hippolyte Delaroche commonly known as Paul Delaroche 

Name of the painting:  "Louise Vernet on her Deathbed", 1845-46

courtesy: Musée des Beaux-Arts de Nantes and SPIEGEL ONLINE

My father talked about Camus's book the day after my mother's death. I knew the author and the celebrated book but I had not read it.

Since then I have read it. Was I then- now I feel- like Meursault in some ways? (Or was it my father?)

Like my mother, the book has given me so much...

My Cricket Needs West Indies!

John Parker:

 “……It said a great deal for Smith that he did not allow the misfortune to throw him off balance. Bowling more carefully, he delivered the rest of the over to the order. Five balls went down, each of them swinging into the batsman. Three of them Troughton was able to leave alone, as they swung across his body and down the leg side, making Deacon leap and stretch to stop them from going for byes. True, Troughton played carefully, once going right up on his toes to bring the ball down on to the pitch in front of him with the straightest of the bats, dropping his wrists and slackening the fingers round the bat handle. The seventh, aimed straight at the middle stump had Troughton driving across the line trying to work it away to mid-wicket. It moved off the pitch again, but this time in the other direction, touching the outside edge of the bat as it went and winging its way chest high to Gauvinier at first slip- a straightforward, finger-tingling slip catch. He flung the ball high in delight- for himself, for Norman, for the ball, for the catch, for the score and for the sheer joy of cricket”

 

( “The Village Cricket Match”, 1977 from cricket anthology “The Joy of Cricket” Selected and Edited by John Bright-Holmes)

 
[In my imagination, all the players in the quote above- Smith, Troughton, Deacon, Gauvinier, Norman- are black West Indies players.]

Commerce keeps raising her unlovely head in this beautiful game but who am I to disparage illusions of their gold? 

But then the team like West Indies rescues the game of cricket once in a while from their clutches. I think many Sri Lankans were happy to see WI win the T20WC on the night of October 7 2012.

Batting of Chris Gayle and Marlon Samuels over the past week brought back memories of Vivian Richards, Clive Lloyd and the late Roy Fredericks.  


Thank you, West Indies once again for splendid, care-free cricket and,  even more, for Gangnam Style celebration after that.

Image courtesy: The Sun, UK

Blankets of Franz Kafka, Dasopant, G A Kulkarni and Warren Miller's Mr. Bromer

W H Auden:

"If we try
To ‘go southern’, we spoil in no time, we grow
Flabby, dingily lecherous, and
Forget to pay bills
Still, he will ‘go grateful’, he says, glad
To bless this region, its vendages, and those
Who call it home: though one cannot always
Remember exactly why one has been happy,
There is no forgetting that one was."

I came across the following by Franz Kafka on Facebook on his birth anniversary:

“Just think how many thoughts a blanket smothers while one lies alone in bed, and how many unhappy dreams it keeps warm.”

('The Complete Stories')

It's so true but little sad to read only about unhappy dreams.

Doesn't a blanket lead us to our happy dreams? I remember as a kid I was so fond of a white soft blanket called 'pasodi'(पासोडी) that I refused to give it up even when it was torn. I always felt very secure under it.

[Pasodi has rich literary connotations in Marathi.  Medieval saint-poet Dasopant (दासोपंत) wrote poetry on a piece of cloth- measuring 40 ft by 4 ft- called Dasopant's pasodi (दासोपंतांची पासोडी) . The writing is also illustrated richly. If you read Marathi, read an essay on this here.]

When my pasodi was taken away, I felt both sad and insecure. If I had a choice, I too would have taken up an AK-47, just like Mr. Bromer in the picture below!

Artist: Warren Miller, The New Yorker, April 6 1992

Here is a small passage from G A Kulkarni's story where his protagonist Swami- now treacherously entrapped in a forced solitude- is reflecting on the touch of love of many people in his past and comparing it to a clothing with small mirrors sewn into it. I believe that clothing is a blanket.

जी ए कुलकर्णी:

"...-ही सारी माणसे, त्यांनी आयुष्याला केलेले मायेचे स्पर्श, त्यांच्या या स्पर्शाचे लहान गोल आरसे बसवलेले वस्त्र पांघरून आपण येथपर्यंत निभावत आलो!"

('स्वामी',1973, 'पिंगळा वेळ', 1977)

What I like in G A's writing most is even when he is writing about utter hopelessness, he never ceases to be grateful.

Getting smothered, Swami too goes away grateful.