Sthal, a Marathi movie

 I saw this movie yesterday by actually going to a movie theatre. It is located in a big mall and the entire ambience of the place makes you believe that you are in Singapore or US.

The theme of the movie was totally at odds with the surroundings.

The movie deals with Savita, a final year B.A. student in a college in Varora/ Varoda in Vidarbha where Baba Amte's Anandvan is located. Savita hopes to appear for her MPSC examination and become a deputy collector but her parents are anxious to get her married. The school teacher in Varora keeps bringing a number of 'sthal's or proposals. (The movie has English subtitles and sthal is translated as a match. I think a proposal is a better word.)

There is a set formula for looking over the girl. Four persons including the bridegroom to be come over to her house and are treated to tea and 'kandapohe'. The eldest relative asks the girl the same set of 5 or 6 questions and she touches their feet before withdrawing. The elderly relative of the groom hands over to her Rs. 100 or 200 to return the hospitality. Then they take leave, saying they would consult others in the family and then communicate their decision. It has been a rejection so far for Savita while one of her friends makes it to be chosen by a state electricity lineman, a coveted position because it is semi-government and permanent. Another friend decides to elope with her boy friend.

 Savita remains and because she is not chosen, her younger brother cannot offer for his sweet heart who is also married off.

Savita is more keen on her examination but one more sthal comes on the day of the examination and her mother forces her to give up her examination. Then a lecturer in her college who is sweet on her comes to see her but his father demands a dowry of Rs. 5 lakh. His reasoning is simple: he had to offer Rs. 10 lakh to secure the teaching post for his son. The son is powerless before his father.

Savita's father is not poor. He owns and cultivates a few acres of land and grows cotton, a cash crop on it. He also wants his daughter to appear for the examination. He tries all the means at his disposal but is unable to raise the amount of dowry and consumes an insecticide. The continuous fall in the market price of cotton adds to his woes. He does not die and Savita's ordeal continues.

The mechanics of the examination and the commercial give and take lead to complete disillusionment of Savita and she rebels in one ceremony. The details are not shown. She raises her fist and the movie ends.

What is extraordinary about this movie is that there are no established actors in it. It is shot in the place and real people act in it. They do not act but live their life before the camera. The locale, the village atmosphere, other people - everything is hundred percent genuine. Most remarkable is the person who has played the role of Savita's father.

The movie unfolds slowly and viewers become a part of the story.

The shortcoming is its weak, obscure ending. It leaves viewers frustrated.

Farmers' distress and suicides is a theme that has been explored in a number of Marathi films. Sadanand Deshmukh's novel 'Baromas' is on the same theme and it has been compared with John Steinbeck's Grapes of wrath. With so much in the background, the movie's ending is not justified. Surely, some indication of a rebellion, protest, change could have been shown.

What change is possible for distressed farmers? There is no future in farming. Their sons must come to cities and become delivery boys for Zomato and Swiggy. Some could take up ITI courses and become plumbers, electricians, carpenters. They have to leave their stereotyped thinking of going for permanent jobs behind. Even Savita must forget about her MPSC examination and be ready to give tuitions in a city.

These are changes which are happening all around us. Newspapers are reporting them everyday.

Then why is the artist community still celebrating the loss of an outdated way of life?

A good old mystery

 Set in England in the post world war 2 period and on the lines of Agatha Christie but far more cerebral, An English Murder by Cyril Hare is an absorbing book. It uses her favourite plot: characters gather together for a special occasion and then start falling dead one by one. Who is the killer and what is the motive?

The occasion here is Christmas. Relatives and friends, five in all, of Viscount Warbeck gather at his country estate. One of them, Sir Julius Warbeck, Chancellor of the Exchequer comes with a police+ sergeant tasked to keep him safe. There are two ladies and there is a historian, Prof. Bottwink who is a Hungarian and a Jew. He helps to shed light on the mystery. There is no sleuth.

The style of speech and writing is very didactic and much is made of 'Englishness'. The long winded sentences put me to sleep several times because I read it as an audio book. Nonetheless, it is an interesting book.

Its tone is intellectual because its author was an English barrister and judge. He was Alfred Alexander Gordon Clark (1900 - 1958) who used the pseudonym Cyril Hare for his writings. His Tragedy at law, 1937 is better known than the present book published in 1951. Tragedy at Law is often described as the best mystery novel with a legal background and it is also reputed to have never gone out of print so far.

Cyril Hare has created two famous detectives: Inspector Mallett and Francis Pettigrew. He wrote non- detective short stories some of which have been acclaimed and a collection of his detective stories, Best detective stories of Cyril Hare is available.

A Russian film, A very English murder was made in 1974 based on An English Murder.

I know that there are some fans of detective stories and novels among my readers. They could certainly give the book a once over.

Cultural difference

Up sluggard, and waste not life;

in the grave will be sleeping enough.

Benjamin Franklin

Who will argue with the above? However, Hindus burn their dead and believe that the soul is immortal. So the idea of sleep in the coffin is alien to Hindus.

The above quote about the peace of death reminded me of a famous 'shloka' by the Sanskrit poet Bhartruhari. He uses exaggeration to make the point of indignities of poverty being worse than death.

The shloka has a poor man requesting a dead body in a burning ground for the dead to get up and exchange their places. Allow me to lie down and enjoy your peace for just a little while as poverty has robbed me of it, he says. The dead person listens, ponders and says that poverty is a fate worse than death and so it does not respond; continues to lie down as before.

Keep the aspidistra flying, part two

 It was the first English novel I read, fifty five years ago. Well, I had struggled with E.M. Forster's A passage to India before that, without success. I understood and was mesmerized by Aspidistra. It gave a peek into an alien world, alien because I had presumed it to have endless prosperity for everybody. That it had poverty and that people struggled with it, was a powerful revelation.

The strong, honest writing caught me by my throat. Words, phrases in the book became etched in my mind. It also set the bar high.

There are gradations among artists. Only a few are as honest in their writing as is Orwell. His life is clearly reflected in the novel. Because he showed promise at an early age, his father, a policeman in British India sent him to a reputed public school in England. It was difficult to adjust to its world. He worked hard but acutely felt the difference in background as compared to other students.

He decided to be a writer and lack of money was a big problem. He went back to Burma - part of British India. He was in Paris for two years and then he came to England and worked as a private tutor, school teacher and bookshop assistant, all the while contributing articles and reviews to periodicals.

He published Down and out in Paris and London, a reportage in 1933. He passionately believed in socialism - an alternative society where an even, need-based distribution of resources would remove the indignities of poverty. He fought in the Spanish war in 1937.

Later of course, he became disillusioned with the totalitarianism associated with socialism in Russia and that brought out The animal farm and 1984 - his best-known novels. He was a great essayist too, throughout his life.

To me however, Burmese days and Aspidistra (Orwell himself was not too fond of them and had ridiculed the plot twists he had designed in the former) remain abiding favourites and they are my answer to why Orwell was one of the greater writers of 20th century.

Keep the aspidistra flying, George Orwell, 1936, part one

 Orwell published his first novel, Burmese days in 1934. In this second novel (title above) the aspidistra, a common house decor plant becomes the symbol of middle class conformity and obeisance to Money God.

Gordon Comstock, a classics scholar and poet in his late twenties finds that the lack of money and the need to earn it, hamper his desire to write poetry. He has to work as a copy writer in an ad agency but he loathes his work of whipping up desires and making people buy the sponsored products.

He starts his private rebellion of saying no to money. He chucks his job and becomes a salesman in a bookshop. The job is even more loathsome to him and the pay is barely adequate for his food and board.

He works on his writing in the spare time: London Pleasures, a collection of poems. With inadequate money, writing becomes more and more difficult. Most of his poems are returned by publishers.

His public school education (which meant privation to his parents and sister) has given him a code of honour. He knows the rules: never let other people buy your drink for you, for one. He walks miles and goes hungry but does not let his girl friend buy things for him. He is very careful not to be seen as sponging off his rich friend, the only one he has.

The girl friend is an honest soul and dearly loves Gordon. She does not understand his rebellion and the bitterness that enters his soul. Gordon is sure that money vitiates everything, creeps into and spoils every relationship. His despair leads him to descend further into poverty. The girl friend wants to marry but is afraid to say so as he cannot support them both. She becomes pregnant but says heroically that she would not force him to marry but raise the baby on her own.

That and the grudging realization that the lower classes comprise decent people who do their best to keep their values and raise families while struggling for money, that they are not senseless, witless morons thrust hither and thither by Money God finally convince Gordon that his embrace of poverty for two years has been a fruitless journey. He realizes that there is nothing positive or redeeming about poverty; it deadens the body, mind and spirit.

He goes back to his first job, sets up home and marries the girl friend. He chucks out London Pleasures and decides to grow an aspidistra plant. His rebellion is over.

Chronicle of a working life

It is an omnibus publication, 672 pages, of 3 of our favourite books in young age.

The 3 books are: A pair of hands, A pair of feet and My turn to make the tea.

Monica Dickens (1915 - 1992) was a prolific writer who has written more than 80 novels and autobiographical accounts.

In my college days, a trip to the British library invariably yielded a thick novel of hers. My father's personal collection boasted of two of her titles:

Thursday afternoons and

A pair of hands.

The former had a well meaning but muddled lady, Cybil as the protagonist and the latter was highly recommended by Baba and so was sacrosanct in our eyes. It is a highly entertaining account by MD of her experiences when she worked in different houses as a cook. After her finishing school, she desperately wanted to work but was not trained for anything. So, on the basis of very limited experience - there was an old cook in her house who did not allow anybody in the kitchen - she embarked on her working journey with many hilarious experiences on the way. She learnt cooking by trial and error on the job and she worked also as a house manager.

MD belonged to a well heeled family and her mother had accounts with the big departmental stores in London. By working as a cook, MD broke the class barrier and joined the ranks of the plebian. This led to many funny encounters. For example, in one of the houses she worked, the man of the house would talk to his wife in German whenever MD was around. He took it for granted that she would not understand a word. On another occasion, two guests in the house party fumbled at the name of a railway station near Paddington and unwittingly, MD provided it. "They were taken aback but being perfect gentlemen, thanked her."

MD has a witty style and her tongue in cheek humour is refreshing.

A pair of feet is about her days as a nurse in a few big hospitals in war time Britain. My turn to make the tea is about her career as a journalist in one small, provincial newspaper.

She writes with verve and gives us an inside account of what happens in these jobs. When she wrote these books, better jobs were simply out of the reach of most women. However, even now, I cannot think of any similar accounts by women. Women have been teachers and governesses for a century or more but they did not write about their working life as MD does here.

Sutton Publishing, UK brought out the omnibus in 2004. A pair of hands can be opened at any page and can be read with relish. The other two do not quite attain the same level of excellence but the collection can be safely recommended for your library.

An index card-a-day

 It was a stray message on Pinterest. It asked to practice drawing, painting, doodling etc. on an index card every day, for a month or two.

I had a pack of blank index cards with me. It had lain unused for years. I had bought it in USA and I had a research project going. My own project, no external funding but I had hopes of getting a fellowship on its basis after my retirement. These cards, like those in library catalogues, come handy for bibliography research. One card for one author or book or article. Notes can be made on the cards to juggle memory and the cards can be arranged in different combinations.

Stationery shops in India do not carry these card sets but in USA, they are easily available and are popular right up to school students.

Alas! My research proposal for the fellowship did not make the cut. I drew a blank when I tried to get my writing published. Academic publishing, never easy, has now become almost impossible. I was disappointed but had to accept it.

So the card-stack remained with me.

I remembered it when I saw the Pinterest message. Why not have a stab at it?

I began with enthusiasm which turned to a drag which became an eagerly awaited work in the end.

There were no restrictions on images to be created on cards. Decorative designs, line work, landscapes, floral studies, portraits and simple play with lines and colors. Drawing pencils, water color pencils, water colors, acrylic and oil paints, marker pens - anything was permitted.

I began with atrocious designs and colors. Later I found myself thinking about this challenge during the day and I started scanning newspaper ads, photos and Google search images with interest.

The freedom and the small size of the card were real boons.

Yesterday, my card stack got over. I missed only on a few occasions. Otherwise, I drew and painted through July, August, September and eleven days of October after having started on 27 June 2024.

Outcome?

Nothing much but a sense of satisfaction.

Take a look at the blog to see some images I created.