Category — Culture

Some time back, I had the opportunity of hearing Kumar Ketkar (currently chief editor of Loksatta and formerly editor of Maharashtra Times and other leading newspapers) speak at a private function. It was a freewheeling talk without structure but a lot of relevance. I usually don’t agree with his political views, but his talk that day was not political. He spoke of the genesis of his leftist leanings and the part played by his school, teachers, friends, etc. in his life. An important point that he stressed quite elaborately was the manner in which Marathi was fast losing relevance in contemporary times in Maharashtra in general and Mumbai in particular. He was quite saddened by the fact that not a lot of people could articulate effectively in Marathi. Most of the people present there nodded in silent agreement… Marathi has indeed been reduced to a second-grade language, they thought.

Cut to yesterday…

I was commuting home after a long day at work when I saw a huge billboard exhorting people to take their pick. On choice were two newspapers, ‘Mumbai Mirror’ and ‘Maharashtra Times’. The offer was to choose either one of these dailies as a complimentary accompaniment to a subscription of ‘The Times of India’.

I could not help but cringe at the thought of pairing up an institution like ‘Maharashtra Times’ (true it has lost a lot of its sheen in recent times, but it remains a Maharashtrian institution in spirit) with a sensational tabloid like ‘Mumbai Mirror’.

I know this isn’t fully representative of a general apathy towards Marathi, but it does go a long way towards that! And I couldn’t help but nod silently as I thought back to Kumar Ketkar’s words while staring at the hoarding before the traffic lights turned green and the bus lurched headlong into the rush hour traffic.

True to its style, Maharashtra government is trying to address issues it has no business interfering in! Vilasrao Deshmukh has apparently decided to frame a code of conduct and set restrictions on the height of the dahi handis. This was after a few hundred injuries, including broken bones, were reported in Mumbai hospitals during dahi handi celebrations.

“There is a need to have a height restriction for the dahi handis,” Deshmukh said at a media briefing after a meeting with other Cabinet members.

“There is absolutely no restriction at all right now,” he admitted, adding: “The competition is intense as festival organisers are increasing the height of dahi handis and matching it with larger cash prizes.”

The state government would convene a meeting with all the Govinda groups of the city to formulate a code of conduct before next year’s festival, Deshmukh said on Wednesday.
[Source: ToI ]

They actually had a cabinet meeting about this. Is this an issue that warrants a cabinet meeting? Is this an issue that warrants state intervention at all?!

[Read more →]

It was supposed to be an exhibit depicting the moral decline in today’s society. And as it turned out, it became the target of the moral police who swooped down on it, citing pretty much the same reason for their action as the topic of the exhibit!

Apparently, the police acted on a complaint by a Mumbai psychologist, Pushpa Vitula who was apparently outraged by the exhibit imaginatively titled, “Tits, clits n Elephant dicks” and had this to say,

“I agree that this may be art. But there is art that comes from heaven, and then there is art that comes from hell. It’s obscene to even utter the title of the exhibition”

Err… if this is what an educated person (I am assuming she really is a psychologist) thinks like, there is something seriously lacking in the education we receive! Education, they say, opens the mind, broadens one’s horizons and all that jazz. Surely they who say this are terribly wrong!

If this Pushpa Vitula was outraged by even the title of the exhibition, why on earth did she make the conscious choice to enter a private gallery and view the exhibit? Even then, she could’ve conveyed her distress to the artists. Apparently, the artist was apparently not averse to putting up a signboard, restricting the entry to above-18s. But according to the artist, the lady wasn’t too interested in this.

If everyone thought like this lady, most of our classical art (from the erotic sculptures of Khajuraho to Michaelangelo’s David) would have to be covered by a black cloth to prevent the corruption of ‘gullible’ minds!

In a 1954 case involving artist, Akbar Padamsee, the courts had passed a law which stated that an artist’s work cannot be deemed obscene or pornographic if it was exhibited within the walls of a gallery. The police who acted on Pushpa Vitula’s complaint should have known this. Now they face a possible contempt of court lawsuit. Moreover, even if we discount the 1954 ruling, Jehangir Art Gallery is a private property and the state (acting through the police) has no business interfering with anything that happens within the confines of a private property. A private space with free entry/access to public surely does not become a public place. By going against this principle, we will set a dangerous precedent. Tomorrow, we may get a case where a person catching a glimpse, through a window, of a couple having sex inside their own bedroom, may complain that his/her modesty has been outraged by seeing the act of copulation!!

Having said that, I think artists and the gallery should be responsible for putting up a signboard clearly informing about the mature content of the exhibit and barring entry to minors. It did not happen in this case and this calls for a slap on the wrists of the gallery and the artists in question. Going on a tangent, I would not even think it beyond the realms of possibility that the artists, in this case, may have stage-managed the controversy to extract maximum publicity for an exhibit that would’ve gone unnoticed had it not been for the complaint by Pushpa Vitula.

However, the spirit of censorship is alive and kicking in India. Rights defined within the constitution are not sacrosanct if one goes by the ‘mai-baap sarkar‘ attitude shown by the state on numerous occasions in trying to decide what’s right or wrong for the people.

A recent Boing Boing post discovers the ‘delicacy’ that is paan. Tha author of the post waxes eloquent about the dual delights that a paan has to offer… as a digestion enhancer and a breath freshner.

The Mitha Paan (I didn’t try the tobacco variety) usually has betel nut, lime paste, almond powder, grated coconut, pistachio powder, and sometime a very sweet cherry jam or chutney. The combination of all these ingredients makes for a very tasty and refreshing after dinner treat; the plant enzymes, lime paste, and mild stimulant from the betel nut acts as a digestion enhancer and breath freshener.

Makes the mouth water, doesn’t it?! Aah the joys of chewing a Mitha paan after a heavy meal!! … delightful!!

But if the westerners are going to be lured by this sweet Indian after-meal fixation, then are we going to see them painting their cities red?! ;-)