Friday, May 24, 2019

Julian Barnes l The Only Story.



The Only Story by Julian Barnes is a tragic love story of a 19-year-old Paul, son of a policing mother and a milder father less given to judgment and, 48-year-old Mrs Susan Macleod, who is is married with two daughters both older than Paul. 

The plot is almost similar to Mario Vargas Llosa's Aunt Julia And The Scriptwriter. But unlike Aunt Julia, this one is bleak as it tries to delve into Susan's sufferings.

The story is recalled from memory by Paul in his old age well following the death of Susan after being treated in a psychiatric institution for depression and related problems. 

Paul-- Casey for Susan since she says he 'is a case' --and Susan meet in a tennis court, fall in love and move on to live together. Susan's husband Macleod is a 'Short, fat guy' who while playing golf 'hits the ball as if he hates it,' and is given to a querulous temperament.


The first time Paul goes to Macleod house, is as Susan advises him, through the garden in the back way.

In passing we're informed that Susan ('She laughs at life, this is part of her essence') was a victim of sexual and domestic abuse. When she (her mother dies of cancer when she was 10)  used to go and stay with Uncle Humph and Aunt Florence) one night in a drunken mood Humph rams his tongue into her mouth and thrashes it around like a live fish. 'I wish I'd bitten it off,' she says. Every summer he did it till she was about sixteen. 'Oh, it wasn't as bad as for some, I know, but maybe that's what made me frigid.'

When her husband smashes Susan's face into the closed door Paul muses: "One thing I never swerved from was the certainty that Gordon Macleod's behaviour was a crime of absolute liability. And his responsibility was also absolute. 
A man hits a woman; a husband hits a wife;  a drunkard hits a sober spouse. There was no defence, and no possible mitigation. The fact that it would never come to court, the middle-class England had a thousand ways of avoiding the truth, that respectability was no more shed in public than clothes, the fact that Susan would never accuse him to any authority, not even a dentist -all this had no relevance to me, except sociologically. The man was as guilty as hell, and I would hate him until the end of his days. This much I knew."

He and Susan talk about everything: the state of the world  (not good), the state of her marriage (not good), the general character and moral standards of the Village (not good) and even Death (not good).
He takes her to a consultant psychiatrist at a local hospital after she staggers beneath the weight of extreme, unbearable and incompatible emotions. She starts taking alcohol. Her health deteriorates that finally Paul has to hand back Susan to her daughter Martha.

As the narrator recalls, "Handing back Susan had been an act of self-protection on his part. There was no doubt about that; and no doubt in his mind that he had to do it. But beyond this, was it an act of courage, or of cowardice?." 

Joan, surviving sister of Gerald, "who donkey's years previously had been sweet on Susan, but then has died suddenly from leukaemia" is an interesting character.

The Only Story is a meditation on love and the tragedy told sans sentiments  ("It was as if he viewed, and lived, his life in the third person. Which allowed him to assess it  more accurately, he believed") It is not however the best of Barnes' works for it lacks the intensity and magic of say, A History of the World in 10 1/2 Chapters.

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Tuesday, May 21, 2019

Kamal & Rajini





"I can’t figure this debate. Was Nathuram Godse an assassin? Yes. Would you call him a terrorist in today’s terminology? Yes. Did he kill the Mahatma because he thought he was being unfair to Hindus? Yes. Was he a member of the Hindu Mahasabha? Yes."

--Pritish Nandy.



Self-aggrandisement, self-delusion and exaggerated ambitions could wreak havoc on your life and work. This is the message actor-politician Kamal Haasan conveys to me. 
He was once, when he used to work under renown directors, an excellent actor. 
Later on, when he started playing the Sakalakala Vallavan (virtuoso of all arts) in reel and real life,  the colossal over-excessiveness of him drove one sick.

Currently the Makkal Needhi Maiam (MNM) founder seems to be maintaining a low profile in the wake of the controversy that has erupted over his Hindu extremist remark. It should have taken its toll on him. He appears to have decided to wait till May 23, when Lok Sabha poll results would be out, to speak to the media or, so says his spokesperson.
  
In politics things are not working for him as he would have wished is my guess. If he had expected to capitalize on his 'star value' to succeed in politics he should be disappointed by now. 

He is an also -ran in the election. But the results would throw light on--MNM's symbol is torchlight-- what is in store for Kamal Haasan the politician in the near future.   

Haasan and T.T.V.Dinakaran are apparently running for third position in the polls. If Dinakaran is a savvy politician Haasan is a novice who is struggling to gain a foothold in politics.  

The fact that Kamal Haasan is new to politics and non-corrupt has endeared a section of neutral voters to vote for him. But stalked by controversies and isolation how long Haasan would succeed in keeping up the momentum in politics remains a moot point.  

He calls himself an atheist. His 'Hey Ram' left many liberal friends fuming. They dubbed him an RSS propagandist. His Vishwaroopam was seen as 'anti-Muslim.' In politics, he didn't hesitate to criticise the BJP and AIADMK. But harping on 'corruption' distanced him from the DMK. He rather failed to recognize that this election was not about corruption but about ousting a pro-Hindutva nationalist government from power.

At the zenith of the controversy over his movie Vishwaroopam in January 2013--it was banned by then chief minister J.Jayalalithaa after Muslim outfits took offence to some scenes in the movie-- Kamal Haasan declared he would leave the country. 
This time round, it is the Hindu outfits led by the BJP and its ally AIADMK which were after Kamal Haasan for his assertion during an election rally in Aravakurichi that an Hindu, Nathuram Godse, was the first extremist of independent India. 
There is no love lost for him among many of my friends. Not me yet.  But one thing is sure: the so-called 'superstars' Kamal Haasan and Rajinikanth live (just like their movies) in self-delusion and they drive their fans to the same pit.


ENDS

Monday, May 20, 2019

Rahul Gandhi disappoints



Rahul Gandhi should find a suitable hand to helm the party.


The exit poll results released on Sunday evening favours BJP-led NDA to retain power at the Centre.

Will  the exit poll results come true?

If it does BJP would only have to thank the opposition particularly, Rahul Gandhi for gifting BJP another five years to rule the country.

For the government -led by Narendra Modi was in an unenviable  situation when Election Commission announced dates for the polls in March. The fallout of demonetisation, GST, the monumental neglect of farmers and marginalized sections etc, had turned the masses against the government. Thereon, all that the opposition had to do was to capitalize on it;  come together to form a formidable front and step up an aggressive campaign against the BJP to topple it. It was on this aspect that Rahul Gandhi miserably failed.

In U.P, in Delhi (how wrong was Rahul on relying on leaders like 81-year-old Sheila Dixit and sidelining Mani Shankar Aiyars') and in some other states he bungled by failing to align with potential allies. He then chose to contest from Wayanad thereby annoying the left parties.

The master strategist Amit Shah took care of the rest.

In Tamil Nadu, there need be no qualm in reiterating that DMK scion M.K.Stalin is more or less similar to Rahul Gandhi in the bungling game. He failed to strengthen the front, for instance by failing to rope in parties like Vijayakanth's DMDK into its fold.

Whether BJP wins or losses the Hindu nationalist party has changed the politics into a notoriously  shrewd game. And the saffron party's victory doesn't augur well for our democracy.

Whether Congress manages to form a government or not it's  time that Rahul Gandhi found a senior hand to helm the party till it is time for him to lead it.  It appears that Rahul like his father Rajiv Gandhi is not made for politics. It was his mother Sonia Gandhi who is an adept politician. We don't know much about Priyanka Gandhi Vadra yet.
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Saturday, May 18, 2019

Brian Murphy



We didn't meet as he wished.

Brian Murphy, a Facebook friend, passed away recently. What is given below is from his FB conversations. Over to him —



I find over and over again that there's nothing on gods green earth which can get unreasonable people to see reason...It's very true that any nationalist movement peppered with religious fervor like the RSS is fascist to the core. Don't feel bad, brother...Listen to some D.Gilmore...Relax. Oh, the article I read was written by Pankaj Mishra on Modi...Very well written. Very close to the bone...Modi is a dangerous maniac - megalomaniac whohas really gotten the taste for power. Very disturbing.
----------------------
Brother...Can't say if you're seriously busy these days...If not? Fuck that! Or, even if you are - let's write a story together...I have a cool idea...Did work - a lot, actually...Like 23,000 words....Fucking lost it all this last time when laptop crashed in Manila. Nothing was left on the hard drive! What kind of fuckery is that? I was kicked in the jaw...Because I am a Knucklehead - not at all techo-savy - even about back ups...Or worse - when i know, I still don't do shit to change things anyways. Big problem I've got...I lost the first version when I dropped that laptop off a table...They tell me the hard drive was cracked - Fuck me....Never mind.
I have an interesting India story - pretty far-out, actually - it would be awesome to work with an Indian writer who could assume characters...Give them the proper voices.
Anyway...Think about this. Should be a fun thing. Maybe, just the sort of thing I need now, here, in this place...
So....
Suss this over, my guy...

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Brother...I thought it would be smart to exchange phone numbers - in case for whatever reason we lose touch here at FB...Mine is, 9640506926...It's a cell phone...I most definitely will make it to Chenai one fine sunny day.

--------------------


'Glory and loveliness have passed away'*
You're gone, times have changed
the trees are being felled, woods destroyed. There is no rain.
Drought of feeling and felicity.
The rivers are going dry
What was green once
fast growing grey.
The bird calls sounds like laments,
as ruthlessness rules
in the absence of mercy
and grace.

*from John Keats, Dedication, to Leigh Hunt.

ENDS

Friday, May 17, 2019

Sisyphus...








What else can Sisyphus do but to roll the immense boulder up a hill and roll it down. 

A life of repetition. 

But then as Camus suggests there may be a moment  when Sisyphus is walking down the hill when he is free, though briefly. When he is 'superior to his fate. He is stronger than his rock.' 

As Milan Kundera writes about Kafka's The Trial, the writer says that though K, completely absorbed by the predicament of the trial that has been imposed upon him cannot  escape through the windows that open suddenly, for a brief instant, but, for a flash at least, he can see the poetry of the world outside, "the poetry that, despite everything, exists as an ever present possibility and sends a small silvery glint into his life as a hunted man."

Though bound to a life of tragedy and repetition Mankind can find their `small silvery glint' in their own way. 

Perhaps a parallel universe can exist in imagination even as one undergoes through the trial of reality. 

The reassuring thing then is, in life, such 'brief opening of windows' and `poetry' are possible. Flashes of imagination which, though entirely different from what is real, but in perfect  harmony with it.

--------------------------

Gandhi isn't turning in his grave.




The knives are out still  for the toothless old man decades after his death.
No end to postmortems as to find out what the pacifist stood for, his rights and wrongs, his oddities and eccentricities.
Upon him the curse of being judged by each generation. It has to be so since his devotees have bestowed upon him the title 'Mahatma'.
The stooping, bare-bodied wiry frame of a man who spearheaded the freedom struggle is revered and reviled understood and misread...
The younger generation find him outdated and boring.
The Hindu supramacits consider him a traitor for advocating Hindu-Muslim unity. The reason why they are currently involved in a bid to salvage his assassin Nathuram Godse from History's landfill and sanitize him. The refrain is Godse killed Gandhi out of his love for the country.  They are fabricating History. They are turning the tables on Gandhi. But Gandhi isn't turning in his grave. It would be so unlike of him. We aren't losing sleep over what is taking place around us. The right wing is having their way. We seem to have lost our way.

Tuesday, May 14, 2019

A Missionary of Tamil



Constanzo Giuseppe Beschi or Veeramamunivar is today a life size statue at Marina hardly noticed by a majority of pleasure-seekers who frequent the popular beach. He stands there gazing at the traffic along the Kamarajar  Salai. 

He should be sick of the new generation's preoccupation with the English language at the cost of their mother tongue. He should be anguished over  how some political leaders make a living dividing people on linguistic lines... 
Veeramamunivar- missionary of Tamil, taught us that with devotion we can easily cross the choppy seas of mastering a distant tongue. 


(It was through friend Lena​kumar when I was working in Tirunelveli that I came to know about this missionary).​

ENDS.

Brainwash





The word 'Brainwash' has gained currency lately particularly in discourses relating to radical elements, quite often, in the aftermath of their misdemeanours or terror strikes in some parts of the world.

I'm of the view that such a 'wash' could work only on people who lack a brain (encephalon), 'that portion of the cerebro-spinal axis that is contained in the cranial cavity' (Gray's Anatomy). In such skulls, that resemble the archaeological findings of prehistoric times and filled with hogwash the embers of resentment for 'others'  is lit and kept  smouldering. Many such brains, that contain explosive ideas meant for detonation,  are appallingly difficult to understand.

These brainwashed patients believe that the disease they are inflicted with was a blessing bestowed by God and that they will be rewarded with a paradise once they leave this earth. But earliest concept of the disease they are inflicted with, understood by the patient and the healer, according to Pathology, Quick Review and MCQs, is said to be the religious belief that the disease was an outcome of 'curse from God' or the belief in magic that the affliction had supernatural origin from 'evil eye of spirits.

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Monday, May 13, 2019

Haasan & Controversies



Kamal Haasan has this trait of raising the bar whether it be movies or his new- found passion, politics. (though these days all his shows are flop shows). This along with his outspokenness quite frequently lands him in controversies.  
This time round he has landed in trouble with his Hindu terrorist utterance.

The BJP -led right wing is up in arms against the actor-turned-politician's statement that free India's first terrorist was a Hindu and his name was Nathuram Godse.

Haasan, who heads Makkal Needhi Maiam (MNM) was campaigning for his party candidate S.Mohanraj at Aravakuruchi where bypoll is due on May 19 when he went hammer and tongs saying the firsts terrorist of independent India was a Hindu. 

"I'm not saying because this happens to be a Muslim-dominated area. I say this in front of Gandhi statue. The first terrorist of independent India was a Hindu. His name was Nathuram Godse," the actor declared.

Describing himself as the spiritual great- grandson of Mahatma Gandhi, Haasan said that he has come to seek answer for the murder. 

"All good Indians want an India where equality and all the three colours of national flag were upheld. In that sense, I am a good Indian," Kamal Haasan claimed.

The right -wing took exception to the remarks with BJP state president Tamilisai Soundararajan vehemently condemning.
"In addition to using the term 'Hindu terrorism' in a Muslim-dominated area, Kamal Haasan has also said that Hindu terrorism was the first in Independent India. This is vehemently condemnable," Tamilisai said.

Vivek Oberoi, who portrayed the role of Modi in PM Narendra Modi took to twitter to react.
 "Dear Kamal sir, you are a great artist. Just like art has no religion, terror has no religion either! You can say Godse was a terrorist, why would you specify 'Hindu'? Is it because you were in a Muslim dominated area looking for votes?"

The actor urged Haasan not to divide the country.
"Please sir, from a much smaller artist to a great one, let's not divide this country, we are one."

Being on the receiving end is not something new for Kamal Haasan. In 2013 Muslim outfits raised a banner of revolt against the actor's Vishwaroopam. Finally, the movie was released after some controversial scenes were edited out. He has also drawn the ire of Hindu outfits several times in the recent past.

When he launched his political outfit on February last year it appeared, for his strident criticism of Narendra Modi, that he could be a natural ally of the DMK-led front. But Stalin apparently was not much inclined to accommodate him. A section of the voters identify MNM as a B-team of the BJP, which it is not. Thus, Kamal Haasan's is an ambiguous presence in Tamil Nadu politics.


ENDS

KCR





It will be the regional parties which will actually defeat Modi :Arundhati Roy





Kalvakuntla Chandrashekar Rao aka KCR, Telangana chief minister, appears to be a Machiavellian by nature and aptly known as a 'canny politician'. He began his political career with the Congress. 

KCR's audacity in meeting regional leaders --he met DMK president M.K.Stalin here today--when the liberals are keeping their fingers crossed over the outcome of the polls on May 23, is quite repelling. For he is touring the country, meeting potential alternative front leaders to explore the possibility of forming a non-BJP, non-Congress government. That  he is eyeing a plump post for himself foreseeing the role regional parties could play if BJP and Congress fail to get clear majority in the post -poll scenario is indeed premature and self-centered. 


What I have come to say is that KCR will go any extent to accomplish what he desires. According to some reports he is aiming for a deputy prime minister's post.
Hope Congress and its allies would deal with him cautiously even while upholding federalism by bestowing such roles to leaders like KCR so that it does not harm the coalition.


Arundhati Roy, in fact, feels that it will be the regional political parties which will actually, eventually defeat Modi--since Congress has no presence in U.P --and that there will be a coalition which will be held together by the Congress. The Congress will be the glue that holds together a whole lot of regional political parties specially in UP which sends most members to parliament and which would be crucial to any party to win..., she told Democracy Now. 


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Sunday, May 12, 2019

On Fanaticism






First of all I'm not a believer. To be more precise, I'm an agnostic.  Hence I rubbish theories relating to after- death scenarios in which heaven and hell play a  pivotal role.
I believe that even for people with faith- whatever be the religion- paradise
could no longer be a sought-after destination.  The reason; chances are that paradise is now teeming with suicide bombers, scoundrels. dogmatic religious preachers and conversionists.

I have no qualms nor an inclination to contend with claims of  belief systems which thrive on after-life, nor am I bothered about how many women suicide -bombers and their likes sleep with in paradise or nether world.

But what could never be tolerated is the  barbarities unleashed on innocent people in the name of faith. All religions have blood on their hands. (Let us remember Gauri Lankesh, Dabholkar, Pansare, Kalburgi and their likes)

I would wish fanatic killers are put in a mad house or handed out strict punitive action, though it is easier said than done. Also,  to be kept in mind is that these people don’t emerge just like that one fine day. They are products of the society they grow up in; family, institutions, peer group and, above all, the political ideology embraced by them- all contribute to the creation of fanatic elements.

Unfortunately, there is no easy way out of the quagmire.

But a few small things we can do to alter the situation, I believe, includes, stop admiring aggressiveness, retribution and one-upmanship, etc as virtues and, last but not least, denounce Wars!



ENDS

Ha, Ha, Ha.




Laughter club members go somewhat like: Ha Ha, Ha Ha.
Children skate. 
Lost in yoga a middle-aged couple.
A woman worship the rising sun.
Joggers, walkers, beggars...
Without any grand schemes and issues, 
pigeons and crows fly around Marina.


ENDS

Saturday, May 11, 2019

Snake & Ladder



We slip down the squares, either, back to square one, or, some lower place like the pieces in snakes and ladders game; let down by 'destiny' which takes the form of serpent, akin to the one which, the Bible says, deceived Eve.
It's a ceaseless struggle for us, the pieces, to find our way up as we get pulled down time and again.
The destinations, anyway, are illusions.

ENDS.

Destruction



As Consumers,​
What we behold are cause of concern.
What we breath and what we eat are poisoned...
We're wrong to hold over-exploitation of nature synonymous with progress.
"Things are bad, really. What our children and their children have to undergo would be worse," rues a friend,  M S Haridasan Manamel.
The woods
are robbed of trees.
The rivers' are licked dry
The air is polluted,
water and soil are poisoned...
The rapes...rape of nature goes on
as part of mortal man's
fatal deeds.
The outcome of mankind's exploitation of the whole lot is a woeful existence,
instead of ​peaceful ​coexistence.

ENDS