മാർക്കേസ് ഇനിയില്ല... മേജിക്കും..

മാർക്കേസ് 

മാതൃഭൂമി ആഴ്ചപ്പതിപ്പായിരുന്നു ഒരു കാലത്ത് സാഹിത്യത്തിലേക്കുളള എന്റെ കിളിവാതിൽ. എന്റെ ചെറുപ്പത്തിൽ അതിൽ വന്നിരുന്ന കഥകളും ലേഖനങ്ങളും വായനാശീലത്തിൽ വലിയ സ്വാധീനം ചെലുത്തിയിരുന്നു. വിശ്വസാഹിത്യത്തെക്കുറിച്ച് ബോധവാനാക്കുന്നതിൽ - ക്ലാസ്സിക്കുകളെക്കുറിച്ച് ആയാലും, സമകാലീന സൃഷ്ടികളെക്കുറിച്ചായാലും, ആഴ്ചപ്പതിപ്പ് ഒരു സഹായമായിരുന്നു. (പിന്നീട് ഇത് പൊതുവാ
യനശാലയിൽ പോയി കലാകൌമുദിയിൽ വന്നിരുന്ന സാഹിത്യവാരഫലം വായിക്കുന്നതായി മാറി എന്നത് മറ്റൊരു കാര്യം.) കാഫ്കയും കമ്യുവും സാർത്രും മാർക്കേസുമൊക്കെ ചിരപരിചിതരായതങ്ങനെ. ഒരിക്കൽ മാർക്കേസിന്റെ ഏകാന്തതയുടെ നൂറു വർഷങ്ങളെക്കുറിച്ച് വായിച്ചു. ലൈബ്രറിയിൽ പോയപ്പോൾ അവിടെ ഒരു ഷെൽഫിൽ അതിന്റെ മലയാളം പരിഭാഷ! ഏകാന്തതയുടെ നൂറു വർഷങ്ങൾ എന്ന പേര് കേട്ടപ്പോൾ ഞാൻ കരുതിയത്‌ കുറച്ചു വിരസമായ ഒരു ട്രാജഡി ആയിരിക്കും എന്നാണ്. ഒരു കമ്യു സ്റ്റൈൽ. പക്ഷെ എടുത്തു വായിച്ചു നോക്കി. ജീവിതം വഴിമാറിയതു പോലെ!

ഏകാന്തതയുടെ നൂറു വർഷങ്ങൾ 

കാഫ്കയുടെ മെറ്റമോർഫോസിസ് വായിച്ച മാർക്കേസ് ഇങ്ങനെയും കഥ എഴുതാമോ എന്ന് ആശ്ചര്യപ്പെട്ടതായി കേട്ടിട്ടുണ്ട്. ഏകാന്തത വായിച്ച എന്റെ മനസ്സിലും ഉണ്ടായ ചിന്ത ഇത് തന്നെയായിരിക്കും.  മനസ്സിലെ എല്ലാ വികാരങ്ങളെയും കൊണ്ട് പാലാഴി മഥനം നടത്തുന്ന ഒരു റോളർ കോസ്റ്റർ റൈഡ്! ഇത്രയും വർണ്ണാഭമായ ഭാഷ, സ്ഫോടനാത്മകമായ രചനാശൈലി, വായിച്ചു തീരുമ്പോൾ വർഷങ്ങളോളം മനസ്സില് കിടന്നു ഓളം വെട്ടുന്ന കഥ... ഒരു മാസ്റ്റർ പീസ്‌.

തുടർന്ന്  വർഷങ്ങൾക്കു ശേഷമാണ് മാർക്കേസിന്റെ അടുത്ത പുസ്തകം വായിക്കാൻ കിട്ടുന്നത്- വംശാധികാരിയുടെ ശരത്ക്കാലം. വായനക്കാരന് നേരെ മാർക്കേസ് എറിയുന്ന ഒരു പ്രഹേളിക. ഞാൻ വായിച്ചിട്ടുള്ളതിൽ ഏറ്റവും കഠിനമായ നോവലായിരിക്കും അത്. ഓരോ വാചകവും പേജുകളോളം നീളും. പദ്യം പോലെയുള്ള ആഖ്യാനം. ഒരു അമ്പത് പേജു കഴിഞ്ഞിരിക്കും ആ ശൈലിയുമായി പൊരുത്തപ്പെടാൻ. തുടർന്ന് കാര്യമായി വിഷമിച്ചില്ല. പല ഭാഗങ്ങളും ഒരു രണ്ടാം വട്ട വായനയിലേ പൂർണ്ണമായും ഗ്രഹിക്കാൻ സാധിക്കൂ. ആ  പുസ്തകം ഒരു വായനക്കാരനെന്ന നിലയിൽ എനിക്ക് തന്ന ആത്മ വിശ്വാസം അപാരമായിരുന്നു. അതിനു ശേഷം  തേടിപ്പിടിച്ചുള്ള വായനയായിരുന്നു. മാർക്കേസിന്റെ പുസ്തകങ്ങൾ മാത്രമല്ല, മോഡേണും പോസ്റ്റ്‌ മോഡേണുമായ പല എഴുത്തുകാരുടെയും കൃതികൾ. ഒരു എഴുത്തുകാരന്റെ വിജയം  അതുതന്നെയായിരിക്കും.  തന്റെ സാഹിത്യത്തിലൂടെ വായനക്കാരനെ താനടങ്ങുന്ന ലോകത്തെ കൂടുതൽ പര്യവേഷണം ചെയ്യാൻ പ്രേരിപ്പിക്കുക.

വംശാധികാരിയുടെ ശരത്ക്കാലം 

സാഹിത്യ പ്രപഞ്ചം എന്ന വാക്ക്  വളരെ അധികം ഉപയോഗിച്ച്  പഴകിയ ഒരു വാക്കാണ്‌. യഥാർത്ഥത്തിൽ വളരെ കുറച്ചു സാഹിത്യകാരന്മാർക്ക് മാത്രമേ സ്വന്തമായി ഒരു പ്രപഞ്ചം സൃഷ്ടിക്കാൻ സാധിച്ചിട്ടുള്ളൂ. മാർക്കേസ് തന്റേതായ ഒരു പ്രപഞ്ചത്തിന്റെ അഥിപനാണ്. സ്വപ്നങ്ങളും മായാജാലവും കപ്പലും  കടലും യോദ്ധാക്കളും ജിപ്സികളും കരീബിയൻ ചൂടും പ്രണയും പ്രണയ ഭംഗവും മരണവും രതിയും ഫിലോസഫിയും- എല്ലാം അടങ്ങിയ അത്ഭുതലോകം. 

മാർക്കേസ് ഇങ്ങു കേരളത്തിൽ അറിയപ്പെടുന്നത് മലയാളത്തിലെ ഏറ്റവും വലിയ എഴുത്തുകാരൻ എന്നാണ്. അദ്ദേഹത്തിനും അദ്ദേഹത്തിന്റെ രചനകൾക്കും മേജിക്കൾ റിയലിസത്തിനും ഇവിടെ കിട്ടിയ സ്വീകാര്യത അത്രക്കുണ്ടായിരുന്നു. അദ്ദേഹത്തിന്റെ അനുകർത്താക്കളും ഇവിടെ കുറവല്ല. ഇന്നലെ ദിവംഗതനായ അദ്ദേഹത്തിനെ പറ്റി ഒരു കുറിപ്പെഴുതണമെന്നു തോന്നിയപ്പോൾ അത് മലയാളത്തിലാകാമെന്നു തീരുമാനിച്ചത് അത് കൊണ്ടാണ്. കഴിഞ്ഞ മാസമാണ് ഞാൻ  മാതൃഭൂമി പ്രസിദ്ധീകരിച്ച ആർ. വി. എം. ദിവാകരൻ രചിച്ച മാർക്കേസിന്റെ ജീവചരിത്രം പ്രിയപ്പെട്ട ഗാബോ വാങ്ങിയത്. മാർക്കേസിന്റെ മരണം അദ്ദേഹത്തിന്റെ  ജീവിതത്തെ കൂടുതൽ അറിയാൻ എന്നെ ഉത്സുകനാക്കുന്നു.

The Queen of Crime

As we observed International Women’s day on 8th of this month, I felt I have to write about one lady whose books I read with same enthusiasm whenever I lay my hands on them from the last 18 years. The lady is Agatha Christie who entered the scene of crime fiction that was considered as a stronghold of men till then and was successful in an enormous way. It may be argued that her writing started out as an imitation of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle or the quality of her writing stands just a notch below the creator of Sherlock Holmes. But in quantity and popularity-wise Agatha Christie stands tall.

All her books are best sellers and in sales stand third only to Shakespeare plays and Bible. She is the most translated individual writer and her play The Mouse Trap holds the record for the longest running play. It is still running continuously after 50 years and has played more than 25000 times. Audience is asked not to reveal its twist ending after the play. (Quite recently I happened to watch another play that parodies the plots of detective stories generally and of this play particularly. More on that on a future post.)

Two of the great characters which Agatha Christie gifted the readers are Miss Marple, an old lady who lives alone and solves crimes in her spare time, and Hercule Poirot, the ego centric Belgian private detective who uses his “little grey cells” to enter the dark alleys of the criminal minds and expose them. The first Agatha Christie novel I read was Thirteen Problems, a Miss Marple mystery translated in Malayalam. By that time I had read a few novels of Holmes like Sign of Four and Hound of Baskerville. There was an English series aired in Doordarshan based on certain Poirot stories that I started watching. Fascinated by his antics, I started reading the novels where Poirot appears as central character, like The Mysterious affairs of Styles and The Big Four.

Agatha Christie never liked Poirot, who she felt was a “detestable, bombastic, tiresome, ego-centric little creep”. But the public felt otherwise and wisely she never killed him off till her end unlike Doyle who bumped off Holmes to gain time for pursuing other interests and had to make him return from dead for the sake of public demand. Most of the Poirot books are strikingly similar to Holmes in their plotting. Like Dr Watson, there will be a narrator in majority of them who also serves as an assistant to the detective, the most repeated being Hastings. Another stock character is the police officer who starts investigation erroneously and later seeks help from him and finally takes the credit of the findings. If it is Lestrade in Holmes canon, here it is Inspector Japp.

But Mrs Marple was Agatha Christie’s favorite character. Her gentleness and other virtues may be the reason. Or it may be the stormy first marriage of Christie that caused her to like the solitary life of Miss Marple. Miss Marple novels are generally arm chair detective stories sans much action. She uses her huge experience of village life to see inside the minds of people and deduce their reasons for their deeds. There are stories which do not feature Marple or Poirot. One that I remember now is And Then There Were None. An Indian movie version (watered down) was made years before titled Gumnaam, famous for its haunting song Gumnaam hai koi… sung by Lata Mangeshkar. Recently I had one of the most comforting reading sessions in my life when, after months of reading several serious non- fiction books, I desperately wanted some light reads and found solace in an omnibus volume of four Poirot novels.

Osho: A Spiritually Incorrect Mystic

Long back I had read a book by Rajneesh Osho. Normally all of his books are versions taken from the discourses given by him. What I liked about that book was, the clarity with which he explains things. Language is simple, straight forward and laced with humor. And when every other person either embraces or denounces spirituality, Osho opens a new path. His spirituality is bound to the world, giving all the importance to meditation, without renouncing the world and on the contrary embracing all the comforts of it.  He was against poverty of any kind. 

Last week I happened to read his autobiography, aptly titled Autobiography of a Spiritually Incorrect Mystic. It is again not a written one, but collected parts from 5000 hours of his talks. The biography part is a bit less and more are his explanations of his seemingly insane philosophy. 

Osho is not for any religion. He is against all kind of conditioning, that comes with any religion. He continuously urges his disciples to stop being his followers. He is against the miracles and magical powers of so called prophets. He claims he got enlightened at a young age, but then he says you need not believe it. He spend his childhood with his grandparents without any friends and without attending an school. After years, his grand father died and then he returned to his father's home. By then his character was totally different. He shown good skill in arguing, rather profound self confidence, found pleasure in questioning any religious authority  and would never obey any one or do anything against his will. 

His book From Sex To Super consciousness that was released in the end of seventies, was the most controversial and well read book of that time. His complaint was that people were annoyed when he heard a mystic speaking openly praising sex, but totally ignored the part about super consciousness. Later he came to USA and started a community called Rajneeshpuram, but was later deported following allegations of several crimes. But he got a cult following due to the effectiveness of his meditation style that was a mix of West and East. In USA, he owned 90 Rolls Royce cars, which he claims made him famous, by shocking the American community. 

Parliamentary System and the cure it needs...

Picture courtesy: socialcause.org

In India, the largest democracy of the world, there is a very curious development going on. The business is booming like never before, many new entrepreneurs are entering and reaping huge benefits by efficiently managing their firms. At same time, the governance is depreciating in an equal rate. Our government, that is of, by and for the people, is day by day sinking to lower levels. Corruption and mis-governance is deep rooted in the psyche of an average politician. Arun Shourie's book The Parliamentary System, tries to uncover the reasons behind this phenomenon. 

Arun Shourie is one of the leading political commentator India has seen. He had shown his mettle in independent and powerful write ups that rips apart the hypocrisy of politicians and bureaucrats alike.  He had shined as the disinvestment minister in Vajpayee led NDA government and did some good work by selling off non profitable white elephants like Maruti and VSNL. 

Last week I had written a post on the book by Tavleen Singh, Political and incorrect. Many questions are asked in it about the poor state our country finds itself in. This book tries to answer them by analyzing the working of our Parliamentary and electoral system. 

The biggest advantage our system has, as per the makers of it and the leaders who came to forefront through it, is that it gives mandate to those who are favored by the people. Majority of the people decides who has to rule them, and how to rule them. But Shourie shows us this is not the case! By analyzing the election results from several years, it is visible that 99% of our Legislatures are elected by less than 50% of voters, and majority of them commands the favor of just 7-10% of total votes polled. Shourie dissolves the myth of majority representation in our parliament. Precisely this character of our system has given rise to much of the problems surrounding us like increasing corruption (the travelling dacoit concept), minority/regional favoritism and criminalization of politics.    

Picture courtesy: connect.in.com

When the electorate is splintered, as is the case now, getting the favor of a minority of voters can turn an aspiring politician victorious. This leads to over dependence on minority and regional politics and ultimate weakening of national parties. The final result is collective bargaining, as can be seen from the case of Tamil Nadu, where regional parties are strong enough to have a hand in decision making in center, even leading to the collapse of the Central government in many issues!    

The book also deals with the attempt to make the judiciary powerless by amending the constitution by Legislative to their convenience. Detail description is given about the times of Indira Gandhi, the government considering itself sovereign and curbing the power of judiciary to interfere in its proceedings, when the seat of Indira was threatened by a ruling by Allahabad High court. This sabotaging of the power of Judiciary, showing the paper tiger of people power (the truth of which we already saw)  caused much harm to the system. 

The book is not just complaining or lamenting on the situation we have made ourselves in. Arun Shourie also prescribes a cure, by changing the system, without harming the basic principles of constitution. By ensuring that the candidates in an election has capabilities to perform their real role, governance, and the winning person has the support of majority of voters (>51%), the system can be made efficient to some extent. Increasing the power of Executive and Judiciary and by reducing the bargaining power of minorities and regional political parties, corruption will curb down. 

I would recommend this book to every Indian who always feels, why we are the way we are. It is a tedious read, but worth at the end of the day... 

Happy reading... 

An introduction..

Yesterday my uncle, my mother's eldest brother, took to blogging. You can read it here. I would like to just give an introduction to my readers, (well, although I am very much inexperianced compared to him in worldly matters, I have a few intelligent readers with me, who are my strength) and I find it my duty not only as a devoted nephew, but also as a concerned human being, to give an introduction to this new blog from a very experianced veteran, so that every one can benefit from the pearls of wisdom shared in it. 

Mr A P Kesavan Namboodiri, a teacher in his early days, took to entrepreneurship and business. Two plus decades of successful business and conventional agriculture later, he literally struck gold with nature. A radical change in the paradigm shifted his attention to nature based agriculture and then into natural living. Now he spends his time succesfully tending to his acres of land which is just left in the hands of nature to be cultivated, livestock that supplements the mutually beneficial living and in giving awareness to the world about this one and only way left for human survival. He has given classes in places throughout Kerala, some of which are aired in radio and several television channels, on his green way of living. He gives as much importance to his action as his words and the result is to been seen in his life- a very healthy and wholesome physical, mental, family, social, economic and spiritual life, emphasising the importance of a balanced living.

Kindly lent an ear to the blog, and give the valuable suggestions, making it a bilateral conversation so that it becomes mutually beneficial.

Thanks...

The B king!

What will you call an Indian movie star:

a) who was the heart throb of masses for two decades,
b) who recieved 3 national awards for best actor, first one being his debut movie,
c) two film fare awards- one for best supporting actor and one for best villain, a star screen award and countless other awards
d) deemed as a great dancing star and action hero in his times,
e) who was the most popular star abroad in 1980s especially in Russia after Raj Kapoor
f) who is a successful entrepreneur
g) who was the higest tax payer nationally for five consecutive years
h) who was a strong naxalite in his early years
i) who actually IS a self made star with a rags to riches story to tell
j) who has acted in several popular romantic and family dramas of his times
k) who run a parallel hindi movie industry outside Bollywood succesfully for a decade
l) who still essays powerfull roles in both commercial and off beat movies, every one of them critically acclaimed regardless of the fate of the movie,
m) whose appearence in mini screen was also as successfull as his illustrious movie career.....

What would you call the guy ....

No, No ... all guesses are wrong...

He is regarded and known as the King of B grade movies....

He is Mithun Chakraborthy

Close encounter with a Star

Last day I went to watch a Malayalam movie, "Katha thudarum" (The story will continue), directed by Sathyan Anthikad. It is a nice movie, simple and one that has a story worth to be told, a rarity these days considering the cinematic excuses churned out of the movie industry in Kerala. I was in Thalassery waiting for an email and had to kill the time. The movie hall offered a good refuge from the hot climate as it was air conditioned.

The rush was minimal because two big movies where being screened in nearby theaters. When I entered the movie was started and I somehow found a comfortable seat scouting in pitch darkness. The movie was coming around beautifully.. It was the story of a Hindu girl marrying a Muslim guy without permission from parents and are ostracized from families, living independent. The guy is killed and the wife and their small kid comes to road... and as usual Jayaram, the good Samaritan rickshaw driver helps them out...

The person sitting next to me was quite a disturbance, unrest and mumbling something inaudibly, but eyes glued to the silver screen. A crowd scene was going on... suddenly the guy give a very small jump from his seat, turned to me and said, "I was in that scene...". Now I knew why he was acting like a dumb-ass.

"I had worked in this movie for about 20 days" he told me.

"Are you there in any more scenes?" I asked.

"Ya , I am there in some more".

Through out the whole movie he was searching for crowd scenes because only in such scenes he had a chance to appear. And other times he was showering movie trivia on me, about locations and co actors.

During Intermission he shown me the photos he had taken with Innocent, Jayaram and all. He was a man of around 50, lean, around 5'6", a beard trimmed neatly wearing a good looking shirt, a lined jeans and with a small hunch back... He had acted in other movies also, he did a bit scene in Pappi Appacha.. where he helps Innocent when the latter is stabbed by the villain. He has also done the English movie from which Thilakan was kicked out...

After the interval he was able to locate himself in the background of a scene... some serious, emotional stuff is going on and he walks in the background from one end of the frame to another end, half naked, with a Lungi on and a ladder in his hands, probably as a coconut tree climber. He was very happy that I could recognize him... and I was also happy .. it is not an every day occurrence, watching a movie sitting next to a 'star' even if it is a shooting star.

Where are the giants?

Do any of you remember the stars of yesterdays, the real men? I am talking about the guys like Dileep Kumar, Amitabh, Kamal, Rajni, Jayan, Sukumaran and the recent lot like Mohanlal, Mammootty, Suresh Gopi, Sanjay Dutt, Anil Kapoor, Ajay Devgan, Nana Patekar etc.

These figures used to look big and matured, even at the times when they started the career. Imagine Amitabh in Anand or Deewar, Dileep Kumar in Mughal E Azam, or Kamal in Sathya . They dont seem changed much even after years. But just look at the recent lot. All look like small kids or try to look so. Aamir, Akshay or Shahrukh being such talented actors never look or feel matured like the above said guys. All want themselves to be teen agers. Is it a trend of the times? or is it that its youngsters who come out to watch movies these days and they want to be appealing to them?

Think of Jayaram, when he came in Aparan, I dont think any one thought of him as a boy. He was like a grown up man. But think of Dileep, he still looks like a boy. You know what I mean. I had asked these to many guys to check whether I am just feeling that way because when these formers debuted I was a boy. But every one agrees with me.

What I feel is that there wont be actors like Suresh Gopi or Jayan or Amitabh any more. Or even female actors like Hema Malini or Shobhana. There wont be supporting actors like Thilakan, Venu, Murali or Nana Patekar. All we can see is polished good looking actors with chiselled looks. May be it is the modernisation.

An apology and a threatening

Karan Johar apologized to Raj Thackaray and Shiv Sena for referring Mumbai as Bombay in his movie Wake Up Sid. And what else can you expect from him. When eyes are only on cash register you cannot hurt any ones feeling. So beg their pardon and live the life of an asshole that you are.

Protests where also against Kaminey which refers to activities against non mumbaikars in city. Shows were stalled for days in Mumbai, but Director Vishal Bharadwaj went on with the release in other parts of India and movie did reasonably well too. So for a movie to work well you need not butter the arses of politicians.

Latest news is that Anurag Kashyap refused to changed his movie's title from Bombay Velvet to Mumbai Velvet. He says the movie is set at a time when Raj Thakaray was not even born and city was called Bombay and if any thing bad happens he will resort to legal action. Now thats a real man talking.

Tear jerker

I had to visit a friend last week who was admitted in a hospital after a severe road accident.... I knew it will be awful, and it turned out more than that.

I should say we had become very close friends in a short while of time, in course of three months to be precise. He works in the same place where I works. When I joined there he was on a long leave and then he used to come on two wheeler for work. I travels in company cab, so we never used to meet often, just were aware of each others existence.

Then one day when we were returning in the cab he was there, sitting in front of me with another friend, and they were talking about old Hindi songs, which was my weakness too. Slowly I joined the conversation.In the end we had a wonderful time together...

After that three of us used to meet together at a nearby Dhaba, used to have a great time discussing and singing Kishore, Rafi , Mukesh and Yesudas. We became great friends in course of time. He had a great talent of mimicking singers especially Kishore and Yesudas. We were stunned by the quality by which he can sing in Yesudas voice. When we tell Yesudas he starts "Sarade..." an old Kannada song sung by the master singer.

When my mother was there with me he had come a couple of times. We had dinner together, once he brought sweets after coming from an on duty.

All was going fine, when I received a call on a sunday afternoon... ' V had a serious accident just a few moments back... heard it is serious'. He was coming back after doing overtime in company, when a truck hit his bike very badly... truck was overtaking another vehicle and came to the wrong side. He tried to avoid, but couldn't help getting hit on his right thigh. Truck sped away with out stopping. He was rushed to hospital immediatly.

Barring some minor wounds on his arms, nothing had happened any where on his body except on right leg, right thigh bone was crushed to powder, other bones also severely cracked and deformed. Doctors were recommending amputation, but later tried surgery. All bones replaced by steel rods and waiting for a major plastic surgery.

I had went to see him... Due to heavy medication and less food he has gone totally weak. Heavy pain prevents his voice from coming out, and when I saw his leg I was dumb, I didnt knew what to sayall flesh and blood. I just muttered a get well soon and rushed out. Tears were gushing down the eyes... Just wiped them out because his parents were there. Told them my condolences and came out...

Wish I will sit with him soon and he will sing with the same mood and spirit.... " Sarade"....

Magical dilemma

"Haree... tumse kuch baat karna hein..."
I had just returned from office and heading to my room when our watch man called from behind.

He is a poor Muslim guy whom every one in the PG despises... even I too know he is an asshole.. but I also know that he cannot help being one.... any one in his position will eventually become one...

I was seeing him for the first time when I was searching for a paying guest (PG) accommodation some where near Banashankari. I had seen an advertisement and contacted a guy who offered me one for Rs 2000 per month in a very good locality. He told me that he will send the watch man to a spot... So I was waiting near the place when this short, shabby guy about 50 years appeared to pick me up.

He talked in crude Urdu, and took me to the place. The place was ok and I agreed to stay there giving some advance. Watchman offered to provide me with dinner for Rs 20 daily and he promised that quantity will be sufficient. I gave him advance for that too...

So I started living there from next day. He lives in a small portion with his family of a wife and a girl. It was a very noisy family, quarreling and making commotions daily. Food was fine at starting, but quality was getting worse by day and finally I left eating from there. He was disappointed because it was an extra income for him..

Then I came to know that he was marrying off the girl after Ramzan, quarrelling was getting frequent and even some times I could hear abusive words flung at each other from their home...
And last month marriage was over. I was also planning to leave the place and move near to the office by a month and I had mentioned it to him....

So yesterday when he called me personally I was wondering what may be the reason. He called me to a secluded place and asked whether I know any Malayalee guy who is good in doing any Mantric deeds....I remembered him saying some time back about malayalee mantrics are the best in business and they can do some real scary stuff with lemon... so I was in a fix and was wondering what to respond... It was about his girl. Seems she is refusing to talk to him and to his wife after marriage. He suspects her father in law has brainwashed her and made her to hate them. He desperately wants to inquire what went wrong and what to do with the help of some "Mantram".

Now how can I help him? I myself don't believe in such stuff, but the paternal feeling that was oozing from his words made me to take him seriously. I tried to calm him down as he was in the verge of tears. There is no use talking sense into him so I felt it better to comfort him and told to give the details of the girl so that I can show it to some astrologer when I go home.

He was even ready to bear the bus fare to my town but I told its not required and I am ready to help him any way possible by me.

I dont really know whether I will do some thing regarding this, but I would like to note it down here just to make myself remember later that it is difficult to know when or from where a distress call comes....

The Class

Last day evening I was sitting with two gentlemen much senior to me. It was a very accidental meeting. I was in darkroom when they entered. There was no space for them and I was sitting alone. Waiter made them sit next to me. They were two aged guys talking in Kannada. When they asked me from where I was I responded that I am a Malayalee in Kannada. They were impressed and appreciated the fact that I learned the local language in so less a time. Then we started conversing. About life in general, career, their views about world and stuff like that. The kind of conversation that you will die for but seldom manage to do.

They were two senior advocates- contented advocates if I borrow their words. They earns what I earns in a month as just 3 hours consultation fee. Still they considered me as a mate. The elder person was speaking of the class. He told we belonged to a class, although we were different age, profession, earning or community. I could identify it immediately- it was the class of refined, content, emotionally matured people who are brought up with a cultured parentage.... That was the thing that connected us... We are a minority. But no one can miss us.

The Stranger.....

Mahendra Kapoor is no more....

His demise happened couple of days back. I am surprised I am late to mention it in this blog.... Because he is one of those singers who has sung such a gem of songs- especially sad and patriotic numbers, that I really love to hear repeatedly..

I am used to hearing hindi songs from a long time... I started watching Rangoli program in DD when I was around 10 years. But I started hearing them seriously from when I was 15, when I bought an audio cassette of Kishore Kumar songs sung by Abhijeet. I started collecting cassettes of Kishore, Rafi and Mukesh which where available in plenty. I was not aware of Mahendra Kapoor then. After 5 more years when I was working at Bangalore my room mate bought an old cassette of a collection of sad songs, of which many I had heard before. I thought they were sung by Rafi. My friend corrected me and explained about Mahendra Kapoor.

After repeatedly hearing them I really started loving those soulful, melodious numbers. Some of those songs were 'Andhere mein jo baithe hain', 'Mere desh ki dharti', 'Cahlo ek baar phirse', 'Tum agar satth dene ka' etc. He was the voice of Manoj Kumar as Mukesh was to Raj Kapoor.

After some more years I happened to read an article about poet Sahir Ludhiyaanvi who had written the lyrics of the song ' Chalo ek baar'. In it was the circumstances that led him to write the song. After reading that I started loving the song much more. I was more humbled by the singing of Mahendra Kapoor, because he was able to portray the true emotion that may be felt by Sahir while penning the poem.

'Chalo ek baar' Video

Gandhi Jayanthi thoughts

Its October 2nd today... The day in which nation celebrates the birthday of a father figure.... Of such a personality about whom much is told and written...

Last day I was chatting with a friend of mine when I casually remarked on Gandhiji... It seems he hates him, he told me Gandhi was responsible for deaths of thousands of Indians and for the partition of India into India and Pakistan. He told all he did was drive Indians towards the lathis and other weapons of soldiers and made them suffer torture... He himself never undergone any sufferings. And Gandhi was responsible for the hanging of Bhagat singh and his comrades. As per his opinion we gained independence due to the fear in the mind of Britishers of revolutionaries like Bose and Azad...

This I believe is the opinion of a whole generation. In Orkut and other forums there is lot of Gandhi bashing going on... making him responsible for all troubles India has now. Some even blames him for putting his family to suffer and not providing enough care for his children...

How much of this is true? Of course every mortal in this world are bound to make mistakes, every one will be in some sort of cross roads or dilemma in some point of their life time, where they are forced to take a decision, which may be painful or proved wrong in future... We dont know at that point whether the step that we take are right or a blunder but the strength of a person, I believe is in taking the decision. And if you have a set of strong fundamental principles that are evolved and tested with time, which is always a reference point while deciding, the chance of a wrong decision is minimal. Still if you made a wrong choice, there is no way but to bear the responsibility for that, do every corrective actions possible and amend your principles in order to prevent any future mishaps....

This I believe was Gandhiji's modus operandi... It is a hard way to follow, and that is precisely the reason why we have very less people following the path.. we have one Buddha, one Asoka, one Gandhi or one Jesus at any point in history...

I would like to paint a picture of Gandhi if he was like you and me or like those numerous barristers trained in England at that period...

After completing his studies he reaches back to Gujarat and starts a practice there, in due course of time he will attend many cases make a huge bank balance, provide a princely life for his children who will attend colleges abroad. Ba lives the life of a queen. Then Gandhiji realizes that money is not every thing and slowly turns into politics. Moment is ripe, nationalism is spreading its roots. With his enterprising skills reaching the positions of Congress will be a cakewalk for him. By pulling threads inside some how he reaches the positions of Congress President... Second world war is going on... Britain is slowly turning poor due to all war expenditure and heavy losses. They are bent, some negotiation will surely make them to break. Nation gets its independence, Gandhi is the first President. All powers to President... an autocratic rule follows, where every one against the power is oppressed and silenced. Following years of tyranny some other leader or common people or military decides to put an end to it. He is assassinated and some other autocrat or oppressor takes the role.

Sounds familiar? This is the story similar to many other countries in Asia, Africa and Latin America that gained freedom along with India... Ever thought why this has not happened in India?.... Due to the rigourus training course through which Indian common man was put through in four or five decades before gaining freedom.. A course designed by Gandhi and put into practise by other eminent leaders of the time. Even at the verge of attaining freedom Gandhiji knew that freedom was not ripe enough and Indians are not still prepared for it. The course was still not over... But the pressure from other leaders where enormous. British offered freedom but kept a choice of partition along with it. Power hungry leaders struck to it. History says Gandhi consented with partition. And whole world blames him for it. But any layman who has some ability to read between lines can find what is the truth..... It is that he was sidelined. Dirty politics had entered the arena.... Our first Prime Minister and Home Minister had stitched their new coats ready and they were impatient to wear it... Along with them the new Wazir-i-azam of our new brother country Pakistan....

Do you know the real story during partition?

Lord Mount Batten was expecting troubles and riots during partition... two regions prone for violence were Bengal and Punjab.... As per Mount Batten's analysis hot headed Bengal was more explosive and Punjab he was confident that he could manage. He devised a plan to contain violence by sorting the help from Gandhiji. He requested the presence of Gandhiji at Bengal after partition. The presence of Gandhiji made sure that after partition the violence in Bengal was minimal. But Punjab proved to be a failure. All of Mount Batten's force couldn't stop the loss of lives of a million people...

Instead of resigning to a life of luxuary and content this guy abandoned every thing and clad only in a single cloth with the help of a staff toured the villages in India mobilising people and making each of them desire freedom just like if not more than the elite in cities... He lived the life of a sanyasi practicing any thing that he preached on himself first. Most of his time he spent in British Jails.... He served the poor like one among them. And he was not power crazy, other wise with his kind of public support none could stop him from reching the top power centres...

Ever read any part of his literature? In it contains every planning, that too from root level of building up a strong nation, not military strong but one that is strong fundamentaly, one laid on the strong foundations of truth.... You can call him unpractical, you can disagree with him, but I feel accusing him of all the above said crime is an injustice...