At The Edge

Recently finished reading a slim booklet  based on a series of lectures given in 1989 by K.R. Srinivasa Iyengar titled 'The Man of Letters and The Doomsday Clock'. The thing that I found interesting is that while the words from west presented on this subject had all kind of emotions like indignation, guilt and almost paranoidal fear, the only corresponding Indian voice on the subjects offered is that of Sri Aurobindo. And lines from his poem 'A Dream of Surreal Science' kind of sums his opinion on the subject: "Thus wagged on the surreal world till A scientist played with atoms and blew out The universe before God had time to shout" It seems that while writers in west people were almost loosing their mind thinking about the bomb, mystics in India were predicting doom that was in any case was foretold. While the influence of Aurobindo on Iyengar is known, still it all sounds dubious and all these words m...

"It is understood, too, that while Hélène's subliminal self can safely give itself up to the creation of a definite language in the freedom which the planet Mars affords, where there is no pre-existing system to be conformed to nor any objective control to fear, it would be very imprudent and absurd to repeat the process in connection with India: the few words of pure Sanscrit which were at its disposal kept it from inventing others, the falseness of which would be evident at the first attempt at a literal and verbatim translation. It, therefore, contented itself with these veridical elements, insufficient in themselves alone for the construction of complete sentences, being a jargon devoid of meaning, but in harmony through their dominant vowels with the authentic fragments." ~ 'From India to the planet Mars; a study of a case of somnambulism with glossolalia' by Th. Flournoy. Tr. by Daniel B. Vermilye , 1901. 

The following verdict on present state of Indian film Industry is from 'Verdict on India' (1944) by  Beverley Nichols .  Hindu Hollywood LET us go to the pictures, and see an Indian film. It was the first thing I did, when I was well enough to hobble about again, and it would seem that no other Englishman has ever had such a wild idea before. 'What are Indian films like?' one used to ask. 'Good heavens, how should I know?' 'But haven't you ever seen one?' 'Seen one? An Indian film? Really!' Blank amazement greeted the suggestion that it might be interesting to see an Indian picture. And yet, the films are a living mirror of a nation's life; even if one did not understand everything that the mirror showed, it would surely repay a few hours of study. I was particularly anxious to visit the studios themselves, and after a little wire-pulling obtained permission to witness the shooting of a big historical picture which ...

The Eye in Art by Dr. Rajendra Bajpai (1991) Publication Division Rs. 360 "The Eye could never have beheld the beautiful had it not been made beautiful itself first" -Plotinus As we see them today As it was rendered in old days As it was rendered in various schools  in old days Perhaps the best known - eyes of  (Radha) Bani-Thani drawn by Samant Singh's  best painter Nihalchand. Bani-Thani, the courtesan consort of prince Samant Singh of Krishangarh is believed to be the fabled inspiration of an entire style of drawing eyes in Indian painting- the eyes of Radha in Kishangarh School of Rajasthan. It is believed that the prince met her in Delhi, enamored, brought her to his kingdom, took on a poet name, nagri Das and wrote songs about her eyes: मद भरी, अखिय लाल तिहारी, तिनसौ  तकि-तकि तीर चलावति, वधति छतिया आनि  हमारी | -0- Some pop-trivia: among other things, her eyes were also the i...

Rupa Publications Pages 375 Rs 395 ' Isak ki baat to besua jaane/ hum bahu beti hain, hum ka jaanein ' (The art of making love is known only to the prostitute/ we women of the household, what do we know of it.) A book that starts with a quote like that plucked from the back of a truck has to be great. First 100 pages are filled with quotes after quotes after quotes after quotes from every 'thinking' man or woman (but mostly man) ever born, right from Xenophon to our own Tarun Tejpal, with Derridas, Foucaults,  Sartres, Mae Wests, Enslers thrown somewhere in between and even our own Gandhi ji drops in a line or two. Basically anyone who ever thought about sex and  wrote about it, pictured it and then wrote about it, is present in this book all to make a case for 'A History of Female Sexuality in Indian Films'. So by page 103 you tell yourself it would have been just as fine if the writer (a professor of  Political Science at Allaha...

Rita Ray  (1924-1983) was a regular cinephile, someone who certainly understood the art of it, someone who could interpret the things she saw on screen, someone who had strong views on cinema and what it ought to stand for. But her views underwent some drastic changes after she agreed to be on the advisory Panel of Censor Board. All of a sudden she found herself on the evil side, a side much cursed and secretly envied. Rita began to see things from the other side, the other side of the argument. Now she too asked herself the question, the rallying cry of that side, ‘What about the average person? Would he/she be able to handle it?’ At the same time she did wonder how to go about defining the ‘average’. She did note the rather unintentionally comic manner in which the serious business of Censoring was conducted. She took note of her fellow panelists, bored middle-aged women who had never seen a film in life, pretentious intellectuals who only wanted to be bothered abo...

"It is a strange paradox that the historian, who is concerned professionally with the past, plays a crucial role, in the future of the society which he is studying. The historian's interest lies in trying to understand the emergence and the evolution of a society in a historical perspective, where the term society includes every aspect of a people's life. As a result of his investigations, the historian creates a picture of the society. In his handling of the evidence from the past, he is often influenced by his own contemporary setting. Historical interpretation can therefore become a two-way process - where, the needs of the present are read into the past, and where the image of the past is sought to be imposed upon the present. The image of the past is the historian's contribution to the future. For, this image can be used by his contemporaries for political myth-making. Such political projections of a society seek intel...

Finally got myself a book with lots of pictures. And some readable lines, here and there. 'Bollywood Posters' (2008) is a meditation on things like significance of gun in a heroine's hand, so obvious: reversal of phallic symbolism and castration, the birth of 'A frame', the poor man's practice of 'optimum' use of space in a hand-painted movie poster where the directions seem to be simple: never leave a curve out, create one where there is none, never leave a knife, a gun, a gun-thing-like-knife, a train, a plane, a gorilla, anything that moves the audience out, squeeze it all in even if it distorts the whole picture, the significance of hero showing his back in a poster, he is standing up against the society, the value of 'action' in North India, the runs, the mills, the coming of photoshop generation, the death of poster art, an art now economically inviable. Here it would be fair to say, given the cost of these fat arty books in India, even ...

Called T'chandram among Kashmiri Pandits. It is supposed to keep the mind calm. It was supposed to cure me of books.  A 'Janara' or the Moon amulet from Naples. From the chapter 'The evil eye and allied Notions', in a work mostly written in Kashmir, 'The Symbolism of the East and West' (1900) by Mrs Murray Aynsley. According to author, 'the lower orders in Naples' thought of Janara or Moon as the wife of Janus, the Sun. And if one Neapolitan 'lower order' woman called another woman a 'Janara', the word implied a 'witch'. -0- "Super Moon". 20/3/11. Using Nikon D3100 with 18-55mm lens at 1/200s, f/22.0, ISO:400. Not bad considering I wasn't expecting much. -0- "Super Moon". 6/5/12. Using Nikon D3100 with 55-300 mm lens at 1/160s, f/5.6 ISO:100.

Manmadin (Kamadev) by Pierre Sonnerat "The Hindus, unlike any other religious sect, say that every one can get to heaven in their own way, at the same time maintaining that theirs is the most expeditious method. In the time of Akbar their Vedas, or sacred writings, had not been translated from the Sanscrit; accordingly, Akbar's secretary and great friend, Abul Fusl, the historian, tried by a ruse to investigate the principles of their faith, and sent his young brother Feizi, then a mere boy, to Benares to the Brahmins, in the character of a poor orphan of their tribe. This fraud was practised upon a learned Brahmin, who received him into his house, and brought him up as his own son. When, after ten years of study, Feizi had perfected himself in Sanscrit, Akbar took measures to ensure his safe return. Feizi, it seems, on attaining manhood, had fallen in love with the Brahmin's only daughter, and her father, seeing the mutual affection of the young pair, offered him...

While tracing the family history of Nehru Clan, Dom Moraes in his book Mrs. Gandhi (1980) gives the reader an account of Nadir Shah's saking of Delhi. He tells us that on May 16 1738 when Nadir Shah finally left Delhi, along with the famous Kohinoor and the famous Peacock throne his soldiers, after having killed Thirty thousand people in five hours, also carried along with them to Persia more that thirty million pounds sterling in cash, jewels plate...and other valuable property...also... thousand elephants, seven thousand horses, ten thousand camels, a hundred eunuchs, a hundred and thirty writers, two hundred builders, a hundred mason and anticlimactically two carpenters". The pathos of this section from the book ( which Moraes based on Sir Wolsely Haig's Cambridge History of India Vol. IV, 1922) is built upon realization that Nadir Shah's great campaign ended anticlimactically with enslavement of two carpenters. In wars and related matters hundreds, thousands, mis...

' Kyonki main Kali Hu !' Smita Patil in Badle Ki Aag (1982) Flawless Snowlike Complexion Ther's nothing so radiant, so soft, so pure as a complexion made lovely with AFGHAN SNOW. This famous beauty product protects the skin against sun, wind and dust. Asia's most famous Beauty Aid. From FilmIndia magazine, 1941 -0- If you look at the newspapers, you see advertisements for some cream called Afghan Snow or Fair and Lovely. And all these while women in Bollywood films! Ninety percent of the women in India are black. But, according to Bollywood, if yoou're not white, you're not beautiful. The risisng international popularity of Bollywood films worries me. Most of them reinforce some terrible, some very disempowering values. poor people, the Dalits and the Adivasis, are mostly black. There's an apartheid system at work here, for anyone who cares to notice. - The checkbook and the cruise missile: conversations with Arundhati Roy By David Barsami...

  The Shape of the Beast: Conversations with Arundhati Roy( New Delhi: Penguin, Viking, 2008)  Songs have refrains.

Thus pour the stars down plagues for perjury. Can any face of brass hold longer out? Here stand I, lady- dart thy skill at me, Bruise me with scorn, confound me with a flout, Thrust thy sharp wit quite through my ignorance, Cut me to pieces with thy keen conceit; And I will wish thee never more to dance, Nor never more in Russian habit wait. O, never will I trust to speeches penn'd, Nor to the motion of a school-boy's tongue, Nor never come in vizard to my friend, Nor woo in rhyme, like a blind harper's song. Taffeta phrases, silken terms precise, Three-pil'd hyperboles, spruce affectation, Figures pedantical- these summer-flies Have blown me full of maggot ostentation. I do forswear them; and I here protest, By this white glove- how white the hand, God knows!- Henceforth my wooing mind shall be express'd In russet yeas, and honest kersey noes. And, to begin, wench- so God help me, law!- My love to thee is sound, sans crack or flaw. - from ...

The image comes with every book from Sahitya Akademi and always has the note: The sculpture reproduced on the endpaper depicts a scene where three soothsayers are interpreting to King Suddhodana the dream of Queen Maya, mother of Lord Buddha. Below them is seated a scribe recording the interpretation. This is perhaps the earliest available pictorial record of the art of writing in India. From Nagarjunakonda, 2nd Century A.D. Courtesy: National Museum, New Delhi.

The courtier is perturbed by what he hears. What type of a song is this. Vulgar. He asks the girl singing the song to explain. It a good kind of song. It's a love song of Radha-Krishan. Listen. Radha says to her friend: More angana mein aye aali, main chaal chalun matwali angana mein aye aali Jab aanchal hamra pakday, Hum has has unsay Jhagday Choli pay nazariya jaye, mori chunari lipat mosay jaye ' Bas! Bas! You will destroy the truth of daughter-in-laws and daughters of Mithila. Choli pay...uff!' Courtier walks away fuming. Mocking him, the girl continues singing. Courtier listens some more. Woh aur Bhay, morey paihya paray, Kahay mano baat hamari Woh aur Bhay, morey paihya paray, Kahay mano baat hamari Main aah baro mukh pher kahu, Main aah baro mukh pher kahu Nahi manugi baat tihari, Nahi manugi baat tihari Nahi manugi baat tihari Nahi manugi baat tihari Courtier walks out saying, 'Now I know. Now I know. Now I know why our women sing this s...

"Gandhi landed in Bombay just in time for Queen Victoria's Diamond Jubilee. He was extremely loyal to Britain. British rule in India was not perfect but it did India much good. He took part in the celebrations, proudly singing ""God Save the Queen", and waving the Union Jack." - opening lines of Chapter 8 titled 'To India and Back'. Gandhi was visiting India after his first trip to South Africa where he had already started defending the 'Coolies'. After a short stay he sailed back to South Africa, this time with family. On reaching Durban, after not being allowed to get off the ship for days and with whites demanding that he be deported back, bravely walks out with an English friend but gets mobbed, passes out and is saved by the wife of a white Inspector of Police who takes him to her house. The crowd soon descends on the house asking that Gandhi be handed over to them. Realizing that the situation can get riotous, Gandhi put on the uni...

Dream Merchants, Politicians & Partition: Memoirs of an Indian Muslim (1997, Harper Collins, Pages: 152; Rs:95) by Iqbal Masud Born F G Jilani in late 1920s into a South Indian Muslim family, his father a officer in education department under British government and his mother a burqa wearing Khilafat activist puritan Muslim woman, the contradictions, as he recounts it, were present in his life from the very beginning. The memoir starts in early thirties with an eight year old Iqbal Masud, seated between his burqa clad mother and aunt, in the balcony of a theatre, and him almos t managing to catch Sulochana and Dinshaw Billimoria kiss on the screen ( in year 1935 talkie film 'Anarkali'). But the scene, at the last moment, gets censored out as his aunt clamps her hand down upon his eager eyes.    F G Jilani became critic-writer Iqbal Masud - Iqbal for his favorite poet and Masud his urf , a name 'adopted for various administrative and self-preservatory reason (the ...

Jumping Wells at Delhi, Frontispiece of 'Letters from India and Kashmir' by J. Duguid, 1870. The illustration is by Mr. H.R. Robertson, and engraved by Mr. W.J. Palmer, principally from the writer's Sketches. At the Kutub, and near Delhi, there are wells of various sizes, but on an average twenty yards square, surrounded by brick walls sixty feet high, of which forty are above the surface of the water. For a backsheesh men and boys - old men down to young boys - collected on the parapet, leap one after another into the air and descend in all kinds of positions. A moment, however, before they touch the water they quickly bring their feet together and their arms over their heads, pointed upwards, so that they enter the water in a reversed attitude to that of a header. The sensation caused by the sight of these men, with their arms and legs outspread and their features distorted by wild grimaces as they leap from the walls, surpasses any produced by Blondin or Leotard, ...

The Baital-Pachisi, or Twenty-five Tales of a Baital is the history of a huge Bat, Vampire, or Evil Spirit which inhabited and animated dead bodies. It is an old, and thoroughly Hindu, Legend composed in Sanskrit, and is the germ which culminated in the Arabian Nights, and which inspired the "Golden Ass" of Apuleius, Boccacio's "Decamerone," the "Pentamerone," and all that class of facetious fictitious literature. The story turns chiefly on a great king named Vikram, the King Arthur of the East, who in pursuance of his promise to a Jogi or Magician, brings to him the Baital (Vampire), who is hanging on a tree. The difficulties King Vikram and his son have in bringing the Vampire into the presence of the Jogi are truly laughable; and on this thread is strung a series of Hindu fairy stories, which contain much interesting information on Indian customs and manners. It also alludes to that state, which induces Hindu devotees to allow themselves to be bur...