Where is Suttee in the Barchart?

This post is in memory of graceful Ms. Benazir Bhutto.

I hope her death will marginalise extremists in Pakistan the way Mahatma Gandhi's death marginalised Hindu extremists in India for 40 years.

Cherie Blair has brought up the subject of widows and “suttee — a widow burning herself alive on her husband’s funeral pyre” in The Mourning After : NYT December 18, 2007.

“…The centuries-old practice of suttee — a widow burning herself alive on her husband’s funeral pyre — has all but vanished. But the few cases of self-immolation that do occur are a reminder of how bleak the future is for many widows…

…In rural areas of Nepal and India, widows may still be expected to shave their heads, sleep on the floor and hide from men for the rest of their lives.

In Afghanistan, where two million women have lost their husbands in decades of fighting, widows are prevented from working and have no way to provide for their children. In Tanzania, among other countries, the legal system makes it difficult for widows to inherit their husband’s property...

…In India alone, there are estimated to be some 30 million widows struggling to bring up children. Across the developing world, there may be as many as 100 million in a perilous state. Conflict, ethnic cleansing and AIDS are increasing these numbers by the day and creating younger widows. In countries where disease or conflict are most rife, half of all women can be impoverished widows…”

Suttee in New York Times in 2007?

Not surprising.

This year Times of India published two reports on the subject of suttee in July 2007:

“The entire community will be held accountable for any incidence of sati under new amendments being brought into the Commission of Sati (Prevention) Act, 1987, which were cleared by a Group of Ministers on Friday.

The proposed changes seek to make the law act as a strong deterrent to the crime while protecting unwilling women who are forced into the funeral pyre. Under the amendments, proposed by the ministry for women and child development (WCD), the act of coercing a woman to commit sati has been made a non-bailable offence. Imprisonment under the law has been increased to a minimum of three years, going up to 10 years, and the fine has been enhanced from Rs 10,000 to Rs 50,000…”

And

“Devils among us- The latest amendment to the commission of Sati Prevention Act proves, yet again, that social evils are very difficult to eradicate.”

Frontline January 4, 2008 said: "There has been an escalation of all forms of violence against women in India in the past two decades...The violence against women takes many forms. They are killed in the womb; they are traded for sex and labour...Domestic and marital abuse is made more possible when women have fewer options for escape out of such oppressive relationships because of lack of assets or economic security in the form of gainful occupations... " (See barchart at the end of this post)

Suttee is just another form of violence against women. Indeed, it was.

“…particularly in Bengal, suttee was sordid and cruel…in nine cases out of ten, the woman in Bengal went to the flames in fear and horror…she was usually tied to the corpse, often already putrid; men stood by with poles to push her back in case the bonds should burn through and victim, scorched and maimed, should struggle free…”

(Source- The Men Who Ruled India by Philip Mason, 1953)

Have you read anything more barbaric than the above in entire human history?

But it was glorified in our culture quite a lot.

Vinayak Janardan Kirtane विनायक जनार्दन कीर्तने wrote a book “Elder Madhavrao’s Death थोरले माधवराव यांचा मृत्यु “ in 1861. It was staged in 1862. It was the first independent, literary and published Marathi play.

It had a scene of Madhavrao’s wife Ramabai रमाबाई going suttee on his funeral pyre.

A woman going suttee was considered almost a goddess. To create publicity stunt, theatre company who was staging the play started bringing few ladies from the audience on to the stage to worship Ramabai.

Soon the scene became so popular that it alone would last for a couple of hours! People forgot that the actor who was playing Ramabai was a male – Vishnu Vatave विष्णु वाटवे! They took home suttee’s prashad (like flowers, wheat/rice grains, vermillion/ turmeric etc.) from the stage!

(btw- This may sound familiar to those who know Hindi film "Jai Santoshi Maa" (1975) which used to convert cinema halls into temples.)

(Source- D G Godse द ग गोडसे, “नांगी असलेले फुलपाखरू Stinger Possessing Butterfly” 1989)

I wonder what Lord William Bentinck (1774-1839), who was responsible for banning the practice of suttee सती in 1829, would have made of this? After all he was the first Governor-General who was prepared to take the risk of provoking a general cry of religion in danger.

Even sensible and rational writer Vasudev Krishna Bhave वासुदेव कृष्ण भावे seemingly justified suttee in his classic "Maharashtra During Peshwa-times पेशवेकालीन महाराष्ट्र"(1936).

Not all widows landed up on funeral pyre.

They fought all odds to play significant roles in India's recent history upto 1829:

Jijabai (Shivaji's mother), Radhabai Bhat (wife/mother of Peshwa), Gopikabai Bhat (wife/mother of Peshwa), Ahilyabai Holkar, Kittur Rani Chennamma ...

Artist: James Thurber The New Yorker 12 February 1949


Causes of Death among rural women aged 15-44 in Maharashtra, 1996

Inflation Hurts Literature too! तानी मावशीचे दोन आणे.

Christian Lorentzen,

‘Fictitious Values/ Boom and bust in twenty-first-century lit’, Bookforum, June/July/August 2012:

"The banality of money may be a reason writers shy away from quoting dollar amounts. If we can’t escape prices in our daily lives, can’t we at least escape them in novels? Besides the risks of committing an embarrassing inaccuracy and alienating the reader, who may have completely different notions about what constitutes a living wage or a reasonable price for a sandwich, quoting actual numbers dates the work in a way that it didn’t in the relatively inflation-free bullion-backed nineteenth century."

Although it continues to be legal tender, 25-paisa coin (Hindi चवन्नी , Marathi पावली) is no longer accepted at Pune.

I have used 1-paisa, 2-paisa, 3-paisa, 5-paisa, 10-paisa and 20-paisa coins in the past. They all gave me tremendous pleasure because all of them once could buy me some favourite food- candy, peppermint, peanuts, puffed rice, biscuits etc.

Thanks to inflation, they are now dead as dodoes.

The Economist, December 8th 2007 confirmed: "The Economist's food-price index is higher today than at any time since it was created in 1845." (see chart at the bottom of this post).

Inflation kills poor and those who don't own assets.

SWAMINATHAN S ANKLESARIA AIYAR said in his essay ”Independence & the Bengal famine” of August 20, 2003:

“…(during the world war II) Massive inflation was the inevitable outcome, something that did not happen in Britain itself. The food price index (1937=100) shot up to 311 by 1949 in India...The data reflect the rationed price of food in India: the black market price was even higher.

Now, inflation is very good for producers and asset owners. All property owners saw property values skyrocket. Rising agricultural prices benefited all landowners, and even small ones got out of debt and bought fresh land. Many new salaried jobs were created by the war, and the problem of the educated unemployed disappeared. Above all, the business class flourished…

… The real wages of factory workers declined 30% between 1939 and 1943…

…The rural landless in India were the worst hit. They had neither access to the new urban jobs or rationed urban supplies. Ranging from a quarter of the rural population in Bengal to over half in Madras, they bore the brunt of spiralling prices..."

Inflation affects even literature.

Marathi literature, cinema contain many references to monetary aspects of everyday life- salary, loan, food, education, marriage, illness, land price- expressed in rupees and paise. Understanding them is very vital to appreciate the art.

Inflation makes us numb to them.

Here is an example.

तानी मावशी: “…अणि हे घे दोन आणे तुला, वाटेत फारच भूक लागली तर काहीतरी विकत घे …”

(Tanee Maternal-aunt: “..and take this two annas for you, if you feel very hungry during the journey, buy something…”)

[जी ए कुलकर्णी “कैरी” पिंगळावेळ G A Kulkarni “Raw Mango” Owl Time 1977]

Two annas meant 12 paise.

G A Kulkarni-sir, two annas won’t buy me anything today and worse, my son doesn’t even understand this currency.

I wonder if we need to print consumer price index of the year against each such reference!


‘A shilling? How long have you been drunk?’

The Spectator 2007

Why Ketkar-pedia (महाराष्ट्रीय ज्ञानकोश) Flopped but Wikipedia Booms?

Brad DeLong said on December 24, 2007:

"blogging evangelist Dave Winer made a long bet with New York Times executive Martin Nisenholtz: "In a Google search of five keywords or phrases representing the top five news stories of 2007, weblogs will rank higher than the New York Times' Web site."...

...In the five years since the bet was made, a clear winner did emerge, but it was neither blogs nor the Times.

Wikipedia, which was only one year old in 2002, ranks higher today on four of the five [top] news stories [of 2007]: 12th for Chinese exports, fifth for oil prices, first for the Iraq war, fourth for the mortgage crisis and first for the Virginia Tech killings..."

The Economist on April 20, 2006 said:

”… Wikipedia's promise is nothing less than the liberation of human knowledge—both by incorporating all of it through the collaborative process, and by freely sharing it with everybody who has access to the internet. This is a radically popular idea.

Wikipedia's English-language version doubled in size last year and now has over 1m articles. By this measure, it is almost 12 times larger than the print version of the Encyclopaedia Britannica. Taking in the other 200-odd languages in which it is published, Wikipedia has more than 3m articles. Over 100,000 people all over the world have contributed, with a total of almost 4m “edits” between them.

Wikipedia already has more “visitors” than the online New York Times, CNN and other mainstream sites. It has become a vital research tool for huge numbers of people. And Wikipedia is only five years old.

This success has made Wikipedia the most famous example of a wider wiki phenomenon. Wikis are web pages that allow anybody who is allowed to log into them to change them. In Wikipedia's case, that happens to be anybody at all. The word “wiki” comes from the Hawaiian word for “quick”, but also stands for “what I know is...”. Wikis are thus the purest form of participatory creativity and intellectual sharing, and represent “a socialisation of expertise”, as David Weinberger, who is currently writing a book on collaborative intelligence, puts it…”

Dr. Shridhar Venkatesh Ketkar श्रीधर व्यंकटेश केतकर (1884-1937) is a formidable name in the pre-independence history of India.

His reputation is based on his unique creation - a 23-volume encyclopedia in Marathi, called Maharashtreeya Dnyankosh महाराष्ट्रीय ज्ञानकोश. His work received no government funding and took 12 years of his life eventually killing his diabetic body.

He reminds me of great Don Quixote. We may all laugh at Don but we envy him deep down, for his capacity to dream and incessant efforts he puts in to pursue those dreams, against impossible odds.

T S Shejwakar त्र्यंबक शंकर शेजवलकर, Durga Bhagwat दुर्गा भागवत, Y D Phadke य दि फडके and many others have written very sensitively and perceptively on the life and work of Dr. Ketkar.

Phadke’s article informed me most. Shejwalkar's brought tears to my eyes.

Phadke argued that Ketkar shouldn’t have undertaken this project. He thought Ketkar was a very promising sociologist and should have stuck to his core skill. By doing so, he would have contributed more to India’s intellectual progress.

As Phadke demonstrated in his article, Ketkar was a highly opinionated person. He wasn’t ready to listen to any expert, let alone revising his work based on their views.

(“व्यक्ती आणि विचार” य दि फडके; “Persons and Thoughts” Y D Phadke, 1979

"निवडक लेखसंग्रह" त्र्यंबक शंकर शेजवलकर; "Selected Articles-collection" by Tryambak Shankar Shejwalkar 1977)

You can’t compile encyclopedia with this attitude.

The Economist on April 20, 2006 said:

“…Among the new media, wikis are the perfect complement to blogs. Whereas blogs contain the unedited, opinionated voice of one person, wikis explicitly and literally allow groups of people to get on the proverbial “same page”…”

Ketkar wasn’t ready to get on the same page with anyone who didn’t agree with him, he didn’t believe in collaborative intelligence!

For that reason, sadly, Maharashtreeya Dnyankosh महाराष्ट्रीय ज्ञानकोश is just a relic today.

Ketkar says to all of us:


‘I thought I had an encyclopedia inside me but it was just a blog.’

variation on The Spectator cartoon

Gods Are Us; A Scene from Our Heaven

Reading numerous Puranas in my childhood, I used to wonder how Lord Indra gets away so lightly with all kinds of crimes- including adultery- he commits.

Julian Gough: “…To have the gods laughing at us through our fictions is acceptable if the gods are multiple, and flawed like us.” (Prospect Magazine UK May 2007)

Now, I know better. Indra is flawed like me.

But I will die; Indra won’t.

Homer Simpson:
“If he's so smart, how come he's dead?” ("Guess Who's Coming to Criticize Dinner?" Production code: AABF21 Original Air-date on FOX: 24-Oct-1999)

Lord Indra is smart.

Author G A Kulkarni जी ए कुलकर्णी - influenced by Greek mythology and literature- had this take on the subject of our gods.

"...आपल्या अनेक देवता पाहा. त्यांना संतती तरी नसते किंवा झालीच तर ती त्यांच्या प्रणयक्रीडेचे अनिवार्य फळ म्हणूनच असते. एखादी देवता आपले मूल कडेवर घेवून त्याच्याकडे मातृप्रेमाने पाहात आहे, असे तुला कधी दिसले आहे?"

“…Look at many of our gods. They either have no children or if they do, it’s the inevitable fruit of their copulation. Any goddess holding her child atop her waist, looking at it with mother’s love, have you ever seen this?”

("ऑर्फियस" पिंगळावेळ) ("Orpheus" Owl-Time) 1977

So is following scene from our heaven?


The Spectator 2007

No Public Urinals? Then No Public Health, Colourful Graffiti & Free Medical Advice.

Times of India December 11, 2007 decries inadequate number of public urinals in Pune. Just 352 for 3 Million people, one public urinal per 9,000 people.

“…This is grossly inadequate as compared to the PMC's own public health norms which categorically state that one urinal should be available per 100 people. The main victims of the civic body's apathy are women and the disabled, who are completely deprived of the essential facility.

Same is the case with pay-and-use public toilets. The civic body has constructed about 772 such toilets with 11,319 seats — 5,731 for men and 5,588 for women. However, a majority of these toilet blocks have been encroached upon and many have turned into gambling dens. These urinals and toilets are stinking without regular cleaning.…”

Public urinal has already appeared on this blog before. See it here.

Given a choice Indians would build a small temple instead of a urinal. Why?
Aren’t both equally important to one’s health? For my health at any rate, urinal is more important.

Vinoba Bhave विनोबा भावे reportedly used to say “प्रभाते मलदर्शनम्” (In the morning sight feces) rephrasing following famous Sanskrit shloka's last line:

कराग्रे वसते लक्ष्मी:
करमूले सरस्वती ।
करमध्ये तु गोविंद:
प्रभाते करदर्शनम्।।

(At the tip of the hand resides Laxmi (Goddess of Wealth),
At the root Sarasvati (Goddess of knowledge),
At the centre Govinda (Lord Krishna),
In the morning sight hand.)

I use public urinals quite a bit.

Every road I go to in Pune, I first mark location of urinals on them. Many of them are poorly maintained.

But most of them carry interesting graffiti and posters of medical advice on venereal diseases, lack of sexual appetite and impotence. All done in very colourful language.

Artist: Peter C Vey The New Yorker January 5, 2004

Dyeing Our Nasal Hair To Look Vivid and Bright

For last few years, I have developed a strange habit. When I meet or see someone, I first look at his/ her hair to check if dye has been used.

On December 17, 2007, DD telecast live the ceremony- attended by the high and mighty of India- to release a postage stamp honouring the late S B Chavan.

The event was a sea of jet-black hair with very few grey islands!

India is young. And is younger if you discount hair colour!

My father often used to observe that poor people in India- portrayed in TV serials and cinema- almost always possess two things- huge house and black hair.

Full disclosures- My wife dyes her hair and so does my mother-in-law. Both of them won’t be reading this post though!

“The total organised hair colour market in India is about Rs 200 crore, 60 per cent (Rs 120 crore) of which is the mass-market colour segment. While the total market is growing at around 35 per cent, the mass market is growing at 40 per cent on a year-on-year basis. “ Business Line May 4, 2007.

Thanks to my DNA, I started turning grey very early. But so far I haven’t tried dyeing.

I agree with Edwina Ings-Chambers when she said:

” …I wonder about the effect that rising life expectancy has on our perceptions of age. I stopped caring about wrinkles when my father died, but friends who are 20 years older, but who still have their parents, happily obsess about those physical markers that signpost the route to death. I look at the ravages of time with interest - they are the visible terrain of our lives; they are, effectively, our memories.” (FT March 30, 2007)

But most people I meet at social functions want to look nice, smooth, glowing, untouched by woe and by time. They use what is called red-carpet dermatology.

Michael Crichton said: “..The media image is the reality, and by comparison day-to-day life seems to lack excitement. So now day-to-day life is false, and the media image is true. Sometimes I look around my living room, and the most real thing in the room is the television. It's bright and vivid, and the rest of my life looks drab..”


Don’t you think it’s a bit sad, dyeing your nasal hair?

The Spectator 2007

Tom and Jerry in Stone. At Mamallapuram, 1300 Years ago.

Frontline January 4, 2008 has a story on Mamallapuram (Mahabalipuram) as 10th part of a 25-part series on Indian art.

Three things I enjoyed most about my stay in Madras were- affordable and efficient Pallavan Transport Corporation, IIT campus and above all Mamallapuram.

I went to Mamallapuram a few times. Its beauty is ethereal because "In Indic vision, there is no marked division between the divine and the earthly. All that there is, is sacred. There is a grace that underlies all that there is. Our response to that grace when we see it is considered to be a moment when we get a glimpse of the Truth. Bringing this realisation to us is the purpose of Indian art. All forms and all deities are a means towards the realisation of the inherent unity of the whole of creation."

But this is true of many other places in India.

What stands out most for me there is the carving I call the original Tom & Jerry.

Frontline describes it as : "...On the opposite bank is a charming depiction of a cat performing penance. He has deluded some mice into believing that he is an ascetic. This could be a story from the Mahabharata in which a sad fate overtakes the trusting mice. It could also be a witty comment being made by the artists on hypocrisy in contemporary practices..."

I don't subscribe to this view.

I say : cat is performing penance, therefore it can't move and hence mice are pulling its leg. Just like Tom & Jerry.

I have often wondered what it must have been when architects and builders conceived this humour in hard grey granite. I wish I were at the table!

For me, it depicts the uncomplicated sense of humour of Tamil people- arguably the funniest people in India- who have a rare capacity to laugh at themselves and to discover humour in everyday mundane situations. It's no coincidence that much imitated Nagesh is probably the greatest comic actor India produced.

Who doesn't love Tom and Jerry? Tom and Jerry is an animated cartoon series of MGM produced from 1940 until 1957. It is widely considered one of the best animated cartoon series ever.

Here it is in stone, not in celluloid:


Mamallapuram, c A.D. 630 to A.D. 728

In right hand bottom quadrant, spot Tom performing penance and Jerry as usual bothering him

And after Tom's penance was over, this happened...

What is the Name of Your Stuffed Toy Tiger, Shoaib Akhtar?

"What is the Name of Your Stuffed Toy Tiger, Shoaib Akhtar? Shoaib Akhtar?"

Read above on lines of the famous dialogue from blockbuster Hindi film Sholay (1975):

“तुम्हारा नाम क्या है बसंती? What is your name, Basanti?”.

November 16, 2007, Hindustan Times reported: “Pakistani fast bowler Shoaib Akhtar has expressed a desire to meet Bollywood star Sanjay Dutt, who is in a jail in Pune.”

He may be interested in meeting Deepika Padukone too.

Cricket will increasingly meet Hindi film industry. Cricket will just be an entertainment, in not too distant future.

It’s hardly competitive anymore. Compared to the past, Pakistan, Wes Indies, England (81 all out against SL on Dec 20!), New Zealand cricket are in decline. It leaves only Australia, Sri Lanka, South Africa in South Africa and India in fray.

Rajan Bala lamented in Asian Age November 26, 2007: “So sad that Pak cricket has lost its competitive edge.”

“If one were to say that Pakistan cricket is going the West Indies way - into a sharp decline - it would certainly rankle across the border. But ask former captain, the magnificent Imran Khan, and he would tell you that it was always coming and that too because the country's domestic cricket has always been in the doldrums…”

In the past, playing Pakistan was next only to playing fiery West Indies.

I remember watching on television Pakistan –India test match played on December 23-28, 1982 at Karachi. In Indian second innings, Imran Khan bowled an unplayable spell. India were at 102 for 1 to be bowled out in 197. G R Viswanath and Sandip Patil- both out on ducks- looked as of they didn’t see Imran’s deliveries. Or think of "death in the afternoon" for Rahul Dravid and Sachin Tendulkar on Shoaib's deliveries at Kolkata in 1999...

But as an entertainment, cricket has a big role to play.

Michael Crichton (Timeline):
"In other centuries, human beings wanted to be saved, or improved, or freed, or educated. But in our century, they want to be entertained. The great fear is not of disease or death, but of boredom. A sense of time on our hands, a sense of nothing to do. A sense that we are not amused.”

As I write part of this post on December 12, 2007, Pakistan and India are playing a dreary test match at Bangalore on a “pata” (stone) wicket where so-called Rawalpindi Express Shoaib Akhtar has made no impression.

He is busy showing his soft side, a la Jack Nicholson in "As Good As It Gets".


courtesy: AFP; Shoaib Akhtar reveals his softer side, India v Pakistan, 3rd Test, Bangalore, 4th day, December 11, 2007

Yes, he is on cricket ground. Looks well-built like Keith Miller. But he doesn't bowl. He's stuffed.



Artist: Lee Lorenz The New Yorker 15 September 1980

Do We Use Hygiene to Make Caste Distinctions? Remembering Gadge Maharaj.

Times of India December 18, 2007: "70,000 Chitpavans (a Brahmin sect) to congregate in city (Pune)."

I was borne to Brahmin parents (mother Chitpavan) and am married to one. I didn't undergo a thread ceremony until a token one just before marriage. I always dreamt of marrying outside caste or religion but couldn't.
I often feel deep guilt about the way Brahmins in the past treated the Dalits. If ever I attend a Brahmin congregation, I will press for a resolution of expressing collective apology to the Dalits. Similar to what Indians want the British monarch to do for Jallianwala Bagh.

The one thing I have noticed since my childhood in Brahmin households is their preoccupation, bordering on fixation, with bathing. The most important job to be done on any day of the year is bathing. The exercise is not often elaborate; it may or may not involve sufficient water or toiletries but has to be done with.

No wonder Saint Samarth Ramdas समर्थ रामदास(1608-1681) ,a Brahmin, who has been credited by great historian and thinker T S Shejwakar त्र्यंबक शंकर शेजवलकर (1895-1963) to have instilled values of freedom among Marathi speaking people exclaimed with excitement:

During Shivaji’s reign

उदंड जाहालें पांणी। स्नान संध्या करावया।

Lots of Water Available / For bathing and praying.

(btw- Shejwalkar gives credit for values of brotherhood to Saint Tukaram तुकाराम (c.1608-c.1650) and for values of equality to Saint Eknath एकनाथ (1533-1599)).

Is bathing for Brahmins less about hygiene and more about virtue?

SARA IVRY wrote a review of “THE DIRT ON CLEAN / An Unsanitized History. By Katherine Ashenburg” in NYT December 16, 2007. The book focuses on Western Europe and the United States.

“…In her view, cleanliness has always been fundamentally about virtue, whether you’re an ancient Greek athlete scraping your skin with metal instruments after a workout or a modern consumer shelling out $50 for a toothbrush cover that emits germ-killing UV light. “The archetypal link between dirt and guilt, and cleanliness and innocence,” she writes, is “built into our language — perhaps into our psyches…

…while at least one 18th-century British doctor dismissed warm baths as a “luxury borrowed from the effeminate Asiatics.”

From the Renaissance until the Industrial Revolution, Ashenburg notes, the middle and upper classes generally feared water and washed as little as the poor, with monarchs perhaps being dirtiest of all. Only once the comfortable classes saw how quickly disease spread in urban tenements did they take to bathing more regularly…

… In the Middle Ages, the struggle between Christians and Muslims sometimes resembled a battle of the bathhouses…

… We use hygiene to make class distinctions, something already taken care of in less-fastidious Europe…

… In the end, Ashenburg argues, all our newfangled products haven’t taken us very far at all from our origin. We are still “as repulsed by our real bodies as were the medieval saints, although without their religious motivation.”
”

We observe Saint Gadge Baba’s संत गाडगे बाबा महाराज (1876-1956) 51st death anniversary today December 20, 2007. Baba's motto was: "Live clean and simple/ Shun intoxicants/ Care for the environment."

The man with the broom, Gadge Baba, a 20th century saint, was obsessed with cleanliness of our environment, our souls and not so much about his own appearance.

If at all heaven exists, Gadge Baba surely went there. And when god met Gadge Baba first time there, he admitted: "Well, you were right. (Personal)Neatness didn't count."


Artist: Mischa Richter The New Yorker February 25, 1980



Gadge Maharaj with his trademark broom.

Picture Courtesy: Pudhari December 16, 2007

White King Vs Red Queen: 1972 Regressed the Cause of Chess

1972 was an exciting year for Chess.

It was the first occasion in the 20th century when chess fired the public imagination. It surely did.

12 year old I caught the chess fever. It almost drove me crazy.

Great Shripad Krishna Kolhatkar श्रीपाद कृष्ण कोल्हटकर (1871-1934) has described what it's like to become insane, playing chess, in his essay: "Our Sitting Games आमचे बैठे खेळ" from his book "Sudamyache Pohe/ Literature's Thirty-two Teeth" (सुदाम्याचे पोहे/ साहित्य-बत्तिशी).

It's so easy to relate to antics of Bobby Fischer (described below) after reading Kolhatkar!

In 1972 at Reykjavík, Iceland, from July through September 1972, Bobby Fischer and Boris Spassky fought to become world chess champion.

The championship was covered in Marathi newspaper, Maharashtra Times महाराष्ट्र टाइम्स, extensively. That is to say as much as cricket. All the moves of every game were printed and commented on.

I haven’t seen such coverage of any chess tournament, save perhaps Kasparov-Anand PCA World Championship 1995, in any Marathi publication since then.

Daniel Johnson has written a new book on this: “White King and Red Queen: How the Cold War Was Fought on the Chessboard”.

Raymond Keene , The Spectator, December 8, 2007 says: “Daniel Johnson’s excellent new book agrees with me that Fischer’s victory in the World Championship in 1972 might actually have regressed the cause of chess, in spite of the great publicity achieved. Those in the know always suspected that the eccentric Fischer would virtually withdraw from chess were he to win the championship, and this is indeed what transpired.”

Kenan Malik says:

“…For Fischer the showdown at Reykjavik committed 'the free world against the lying, cheating, hypocritical Russians'. Richard Nixon agreed, sending Fisher his 'personal congratulations' and assuring him that 'I will be rooting for you'. Henry Kissinger also put in a call. 'America wants you to go over there to beat the Russians', he told Fischer.

Fischer did beat the Russians - though as much by gamesmanship as by genius. He failed to show up for more than week and then deliberately turned up late for the rescheduled opening match. He insisted that the chairs, the chessboard, and the lighting were all changed, that the TV cameras be banished, and that a game be played in a back room away from the spectators. At one point he started shouting in the middle of a match and had to be restrained. Fischer's antics, observed Garry Kasparov, who would, a decade later, be the greatest of all chess champions, 'broke Spassky'…

…'The Cold War was the first war caused and dominated by intellectuals and it was best symbolised by the game of the intellectuals'. Fischer-Spassky 'was the Cold War's supreme work of art', embodying 'abstract purism, incipient paranoia, sublimated homicide'…

…At the same time, in his headlong rush to convict Moscow, Johnson ignores the extent to which the West itself played the ideological game, manipulating everything from the space race to sports tournaments for political ends…

… Chess, as Johnson himself points out, 'makes a good allegory, but a bad teacher'.”

Indeed Fischer was a bad teacher as kids below prove!


Artist: Robert Weber The New Yorker 29 July 1972