J B Priestley's 'Bright Day'

 Priestley (1894 -1984) was a prolific English author who was very popular and well-known in the post- world war II period. He could write on anything and turn anything into writing with literary worth - that was his reputation.

Bright Day is his famous novel.

Plot: Gregory Dawson, an orphaned young man comes to stay with uncle and aunt in Bruddersford (an imaginary town fashioned after Bradford in northern England by Priestley). He takes up a job as a junior assistant in a wool factory there but his passion is writing.

Mr. Alington is the chief of the wool factory and his large family, particularly his three daughters, cast a spell on young Dawson. He is invited to their house and the acquaintance grows. There are parties, music, conversation and outings.

War clouds are gathering on the horizon and soon that idyllic world is to be shattered. But even before that, misfortune strikes and the most beautiful Alington daughter is killed.

Dawson migrates to USA and eventually becomes a successful script writer in Hollywood. After a long time he decides to visit Bruddersford. Its influence on his subconscious is so great that he has not been able to marry, to settle down. At Bruddersford, he meets some old acquaintances, pieces together what transpired on that fateful day (Eva Alington's death is no accident but a murder) and gets, in today's parlance, a closure.

Novel: The plot unfolds in an unhurried, leisurely fashion over 350 odd pages with detailed descriptions of various characters and places. Many a time, the sketching of characters feels like a flight of fancy. The descriptions are not too great either. There is backward, forward movement as Dawson's memories are awakened. Real action comes towards the end of the novel.

Readers not familiar with the period of 1950s are apt to find the novel boring.

I read its Marathi translation recently. A big book priced at Rs. 400. It does not do justice to the novel as the translator has not worked hard enough to re-create that era for Marathi readers. Many local details, food items and drinks etc. are just written in Devanagari script. Marathi words are used in the place of English words but many a time, the meaning of sentences is lost. There is no introduction to Priestley's world, the era save two sentences in the blurb. Evidently no editing has taken place.

I bought this Marathi book because I had translated a small extract from this novel a few months ago. However, I did not know the plot of the novel. I have a tattered copy of Priestley companion which has his own selection of extracts from his varied writings.

My enthusiasm however, turned to dismay.

I naturally compared my translation of the extract with this book's and must say, with humility, that mine, barring two mistakes, is better.

The underbelly

 That India is doing well and is registering good economic growth is well-known. The new-age technology sectors and urban middle classes have done well but agriculture, rural economy and women have not. Labour force participation rate of women has actually declined.

The country has self-sufficiency in food but otherwise agriculture has declined in a significant way. Climate change has made matters worse. Subsidized inputs and credit, loan waivers, administered minimum prices for many crops, diversification into horticulture, dairy industry - everything has been tried out but there is widespread distress resulting into farmers' suicides.

Sadanand Deshmukh, a young Marathi writer has captured the ruined rural economy in his Sahitya Academy winner novel 'Baromas'. Call it the Indian 'Grapes of wrath'.

All this ran in my mind while I was reading Jaideep Hardikar's lead article in the Times of India on 23 May 2024. He has described in it the totally hopeless future that young men in Beed and Yavatmal districts of Maharashtra and in Vidarbha, Marathwada regions of Maharashtra have staring at them. Most of these young men are post graduates (in social sciences and commerce, subsidized degrees available in small towns) and have been to big cities in search of employment. Many have wasted a number of years preparing for civil services examinations. They have worked as contract and casual labourers but could not sustain themselves because of the low earnings. They have been forced to come back home to till the family land and have found that farming is just not viable.

They cannot get married because they do not earn enough. Last year, these forced bachelors had taken out a march in Solapur to highlight their plight.

This is the situation in the prosperous state of Maharashtra. Matters are worse in Bihar, UP, Bengal and Orissa.

Migrate to cities, somehow make do with abysmal living, working conditions and take to self employment - is that the only way out? 

Letting go!

 

Subtracting

·       Unending flow of people in our cities, roads full, more roads, asphalting and widening of roads, footpaths, traffic signals and policemen, flyovers – two/three storey high! – train and metro service, hyperloop, public and private transport jostling together,

·       Traffic signals on main roads driving traffic in by lanes,

·       Serene hill stations and picnic spots ruined by overcrowding,

·       New luxury homes resembling museums because they are so full of beautiful objects.

There is ever more of everything. 

Add! Add! Add! Make things more complicated! Addition is rampant, mindless. This is the modern life style.

Dr. Laurence Peter of Peter principle fame gave an example of this trend taken to its extreme. He wrote of a hydraulic butter box inside a huge refrigerator for keeping butter warm, hailed as a major improvement when all that is required is to take out the butter first thing in the morning. At room temperature, it easily spreads on toast and bread.

We all of us have a basic instinct to add and to hoard. It is easy to visualize additions. Plus, there is our tendency for loss aversion. Losing what we have affects us much more than gaining something new. So, we keep merrily increasing our pile of worldly goods.

How about moving in the reverse direction? Deduct. Delete. Edit. Parse. Simplify. Minimize. Declutter. Forget. Withdraw. Disengage.

Difficult to visualize and takes the same effort as addition. May be more. But it is a way of thinking which yields beautiful results: space, emptiness, freedom and spiritual awakening. Less is indeed more.

Kurt Lewin (1890 – 1947) has talked of driving and restraining forces leading to an equilibrium or ‘freeze’ in his field theory of human behaviour. Loss of equilibrium leads to tension till refreezing takes place. The obvious way is to add to the driving forces for this purpose but reducing restraining forces works even better.

A lady was visiting her parental house. She saw that both her brother and his wife were continuously exhorting their teenage son who was due to appear for the 12 standard and competitive examinations to work harder. The lady remembered her own Physics textbook when she had appeared for the examination decades ago. It was her favourite book because it had very good examples, explanation, a witty style and a logical flow of ideas. She searched for it, found it and offered it to the boy. He did not want to look at it at first as he did not have time. Soon however, he was hooked. She could feel an almost visual lessening of the tension he was labouring under. He applied himself to his studies with renewed zeal and went on to crack, not the board but JEE Main examination.What had happened here was that a restraining force of a dull textbook was taken away. An interesting book was given to the student. Instead of adding to the driving force, a restraint was taken away, a new equilibrium was created and it did the trick.

Everyone has heard the adage: The whole is greater than the sum of its parts. It is attributed to Kurt Koffka (1886 – 1941), a psychologist who also, like Lewin, belonged to the Gestalt school of psychology. What Koffka had actually said was that the whole was something else than the sum of its parts. He clarified repeatedly that he was not talking of a principle of addition as the whole could be less than the sum of its parts. But our common fondness for addition has resulted into the misinterpretation passing into received wisdom today.

Thus, subtraction does not come naturally to us. Whenever it has been done consciously, it yields great results. Urban planners and architects, political scientists  (NOTA option in voting) and self-help gurus like Marie Kondo will all agree.

(Musings based on the reading of Subtract, the untapped science of less by Leidy Klotz, Flatiron Books, N.Y. 2021)

Moving house

After nearly 29 years, shifting to a new house was a major job.

Actually the old house was ideal: compact with a spectacular view of surroundings from the terrace and the kitchen window. These made up for the isolation of the house. Its terrace was facing West. I have found that the wind always blows from the West. So just sitting on the terrace every evening, taking in the breeze and drinking the vistas were an important part of everyday routine. Every tile, every bit of the walls in the house had become a part of me. And leave it all behind?

Well, reasons both within and without made the move necessary. Older residents had left one by one and the society had been hollowed out. Others were talking of redevelopment which would have necessitated a move anyway. So why not move on my own, at my convenience?

Outer factors included the 24 by 7 traffic. 11/13/17/26 storey tall towers are in demand and small, cozy societies are a matter of the past. Distant interpersonal relations have become the norm. And there is no going back. So I must make mental adjustments to be with the times and that is better done now rather than sometime later.

Thus I decided to look for a new house. In the same locality. Going somewhere else with everything different would have been too much to take. I spent unquiet, anxious moments to reach this decision. I also realized that I required help in both reaching a decision and then executing it. I asked family members just once and good advice and all the practical help just poured in.

House hunting began in real earnest and then in order not to lose the momentum, we decided to act and a flat for resale was booked. For the same reason, shifting also began soon.

For me, it meant bringing down all the stuff in the lofts of the old house, sort it out and then discard it or pack it in cardboard boxes. Believe me, for one month, I was doing the job. A reverse and easier process had to be carried out at the new house.

So much of our old stuff was useless or redundant. It was out of sight and so was forgotten year after year. I hesitated before discarding things. Soon however, it became a familiar matter and I gaily gave up books, greeting cards, buckets, shoes, files and diaries, mattresses, clothes, woolens, glass and plastic bottles, utensils, earthen lamps et al.

The new house became familiar and started feeling like home after paintings and framed art works were put up on the walls. It took a few days to remember the places of things in the kitchen - my own arrangement but still!

At last, now a routine has developed and memories of the old house are receding.

I lost 2 kgs. of body weight in the process!

Honouring our family and elderly relatives

 A festschrift is a serious work: a collection of writings in honour of a deceased scholar. The writings include personal memories and experiences too. Festschrifts make for absorbing, enlightening reading. But who really knows another person fully? We all know that we have to be charitable with the deceased; they cannot defend themselves. When objectivity demands that critical, unfavourable aspects be mentioned, controversies erupt invariably.

The practice of preparing a collection of writings in memory of departed family members is now well established. These collections throw light on many past happenings and decisions and inform young people about the past. They are of course invaluable as family history.

Many families prepare these collections now-a-days for their living elderly members. The writings serve to educate younger members who often do not know the intricacies of their mother tongue because of their English medium schooling. I know of quite a few of such collections put together with the specific objective of informing the young generations.

With the advance in communication technology, putting together such a collection and beautifying it has become easy. Pretty images, designs and colours can adorn them and make them very attractive.

I have two such 'Memory Books' in front of me right now. The older one is a printed booklet of 40 pages with due credits to the printer, publisher and a Contents page, published in 1988. The other one is brand new, prepared in February 2024. It has 24 pages but no list of contents or index. It is self-published, primarily as a soft copy. Unlike the first book, it is only for private circulation.

The first major difference is that the older booklet has only one image: the photo of the deceased person on the front page. The written word took over from there. The new book has 90 photos of family members. Plus there are artistic designs and shapes in colours on very good quality paper.

Looking at the two books together, made me realize how far the language of images has progressed. There is a corresponding decline in the use of the written word. Will it soon be confined to a small, shrinking circle of old people?

The only consolation is that the old book packs a lot of information and it remains with the reader. The new book attracts instantaneously and alas! is soon forgotten. Its writing merely scratches the surface; there is no attempt to delve deeper.

That is the difference! The written word forces us to be serious and to think and reflect. The image does not and so we are not involved in it very much.

In praise of routine, repetitive work

 Deadlines to be met, reports to be submitted, meetings to be attended, presentations made, the team must be hustled, targets met - yes, corporate life is full of pressure. Other fields too, have their own compulsions.

Then how about?

1. cooking
2. drawing and painting
3. exercising
4. deep breathing
5. meditating
6. writing a diary
7. keeping a journal
8. embroidery
9. knitting
10. sewing
11. wiping and putting away utensils in their place
12. folding and ironing clothes
13. dusting furniture
14. hanging washed clothes for drying
15. changing curtains and bedspreads

I could go on. This is non-glamorous but essential work which actually keeps our surroundings and our mind clear. Only the clear mind can ruminate, connect the dots and offer new insights, new ideas. Otherwise it quickly becomes jaded and falls into a rut. It works but is devoid of joy and satisfaction.

So never underestimate routine work. It is good.

Ironical

 There was a recent news item which stated that Amitabh Bachchan had handed over one of his many properties in Mumbai, named Prateeksha to his daughter Shweta Nanda. The news went on to say that the name of the house was taken from the following lines from Harivanshrai Bachchan’s poem:

Swagat sabke liye yahan par

Nahin kisike liye prateeksha.

The simple lines are powerful. They indicate the autonomy and own rhythm of a house.

I thought a little more. Given their meaning, Swagat would have been an appropriate name for the house. Choosing Prateeksha and quoting the 2 lines don’t go together.

What do you say?

P.S. Swagat = Welcome 

Prateeksha =Waiting 

The above two lines mean: Everybody is welcome here but the house does not wait for anyone.