Friday, June 5, 2015

A day? A night!

In October of 2009, I painted one night.  

I didn't know what I wanted to paint.  But I knew I wanted to paint. And this got madeI don't remember if the set of words mentioned along with the painting flowed out as I painted or they came some other time. I put them together on this blog and the two accompany each other ever since.

Today, doing one of the things I love doing in the evenings, that is reading Gulzar, I found a poem he wrote.  It describes what happened that night, well, almost!  

I painted a red sun in a red sky, and titled it, "A Day".  Gulzar's poetry about a similar painting, is called, well, "Painting."  

I think both, the painting and his poem "Painting", while about the day / the sun, are actually about a night :-)  And a restless one at that.

रात जब गहरी नींद में थी कल 
एक ताजा सफ़ेद कैनवस पर,
आतिशीं लाल सुर्ख़ रंगों से,
मैंने रोशन किया था इक सूरज!

सुबह तक जल चूका था वो कैनवस,
रख बिखरी हुई थी कमरे में !

- गुलज़ार 

The painting

October 2009.

Wednesday, April 29, 2015

Momo Chitte Niti Nritye

There have been times when I have had a strong urge to dance. Run. Unstopped and unhindered, except by my own limited stamina. I  could have run pretty much anywhere today.  And I did. While I ideally imagine running on a narrow stretch of wet land, preferably where the sea meets the sand, I went running in some by lanes, off the main road.  They are pretty lanes, lined with bungalows and flanked by trees that, in several spots form canopies overhead.  It is only fortunate that the city continues to be in bloom.  The sprinkling of loose petals and cool water droplets from the branches above, on cheeks flushed and hot with all the running.... Does nature ever stop giving?

The urge to run and dance for hours must be listened to. It must get its outlet and gloriously at that.  Dance and run until the legs hurt, the body sweats, a beautiful rhythm takes over and moves your body long after you think you are too tired to move another step.  And when you stop, you want to feed your body, hydrate it, respect it, marvel at it, love it and yet know that you glimpsed something more, beyond and bigger than you or your body, that was working its magic on you.  A stillness settles, sometimes visible as the radiance on your face.

And I look to Tagore who writes and puts to tune very elegantly what only noisily flutters in my mind.

For the words and English translation, see here.

To listen:



Friday, March 6, 2015

Mrityunjay


I attempted to read Mrityunjaya in the late 90s, while still in school, and was unsuccessful.  

In retrospect, that doesn't matter. 

That failed attempt, not so failed after all, had managed to kindle a strong fascination and curiosity about that book which only grew within me. I remembered even as years passed, the author's style of expression that I had found so interesting and beautiful as a child. 

A chance conversation with a friend about Karna, a trip to Pune just about then, the customary visit to the airport bookstore on my way out of Pune, spotting Mrityunjaya on the bookshelf.... Voila! It was time for the second attempt! 

It has been easier to read it now, so many years later. 

There is an ample lot that can be said about Mrityunjaya but this post, on this blog, has a very specific purpose. It is being written especially to highlight the long lists, of names, of people, places, rivers, weapons, birds, trees, gems, kingdoms, kings, queens etc. that Shivaji Sawant generously fills the book with and in doing so, introduces readers to the vast richness of language and also to the geographical, cultural, environmental, historical richness of a world that was and in small or different ways, still is maybe. The reader will also realize, in a manner that leaves one short of words in order to appreciate, the depth of the author's research. 

The idea of this post is to present the variety of beautiful names with which things used to be called and named but no longer are as much! At present we are losing both, the variety of natural things in our physical world and consequently the language for it.  Of course, we have 'enriched' our world and language by having things and having names for those things that never existed centuries before.

Here they are, the lists from Mrityunjaya:


Trees 


Page 11:  जवळ बसलेला शोण, धावणारे  घोडे, मागं पडणारे अशोक, ताल, किंशुक, मधुक, पाटल, तमाल, कदंब शाल, सांत्वण यांचे उंच-उंच  गर्द पानावालीनचे वृक्ष यांपैकी कशाचाच मला भान नसे.  

Page 238:  वारणावताच्या अरण्यात तो ताग,राळ,बल्वज,भुंज आणि लाक्ष यांच्या घ्रुतात मळलेल्या चुनाच्या भिंतींच एक ज्वालाग्राही घरकुल बांधणार होता.  


Page 332: त्यांच्या हाताला सहज लागतील, अशा बेतानं औदुम्बर,बल्वज,पिप्पल,वट,आम्र,चंपक,चंदन अशा विविध वृक्षांच्या समिधांचे ढीग दिसले. 


Page 480: कांचन,किंशुक,कण्हेर,हेळा,हिरड,अशोक,पुन्नग,ताल,तमाल,खदीर,औदुम्बर,शिवण,सांत्वन,दंडदणी,पाटल,मोह,मधुक,पलाश,शिरस,पिप्पल,किंजल असे अनेक वृक्ष कडकडत खाली कोसळू लागले. 


Page 501:  कण्हेर,करंज,नंदी,धावडा,धामणी,जांभूळ अशा विविध वृक्षांना पायथ्याशी आश्रय देणारी ती उदारहृदयी शिखरं… 

Page 691:  नेहमी सूर्यदेवाबरोबर चित्रविचित्र आवाजांचा कलकलाट करणारे, कुरुक्षेत्राभोवती उभ्या असलेल्या कदंब,किकर,मधुक,किंशुक या हिरव्या डेरेदार वृक्षांवारचे पक्षीगण  उगाच चोचीतल्या चोचीत  घुमत होते.

Animals and Birds


Page 372, Karna's Horses:  ढगाळलेलं आकाश माथ्यावर घेउन भराभर राजमार्ग मागं टाकीत माझा वायुजित,हिमांग,अनन्तपुष्प, शशांक,गजदन्त,हंसवर्ण या सहा शुभ्र घोड्यांचा जैत्ररथ राजवाड्याच्या प्राकारातून आत घुसला.  


Page 435:  सारंग,चित्ररथ,क्रौंच,कपोत,श्येन,कोकीळ,पत्ररथ अशा विविध पक्ष्यांचे थवेच्या थवे अरण्याबाहेर जाण्यासाठी चित्कारत झेपावताना आम्हाला टेकडीवरून दिसू लागले. 


Page 477:  श्येन,सारंग,धनछ्डी,चित्ररथ,चंडोल,भारद्वाज,पत्ररथ,कोकीळ असे अनेक पक्षी एकदमच कलकलू लागले.  


Page 678: तित्तिर,चक्रवाक,सारंग,धनछडी,रानराघू आणि चकोर पक्ष्यांनी त्याच स्वागत करण्यासाठी घरटी सोडून आकाशात झेपा घेतल्या. 

Emotions / States of Mind / Qualities

Page 29:  भीती, कुतूहल, आदर, संकोच नि श्रद्धा  अशा अनेक विचित्र भावनांनी माझं मन भरून येउ लागलं. 

Page 202: मग क्रौर्य,द्वेष,असूया,सूड हे सगळे त्या अंतर्गत आत्म्याचे आविष्कार आहेत का?

Page 202: प्रेम,द्वेष,त्याग,लोभ,स्नेह,तिरस्कार,ममता,क्रोध सगळ्या सगळ्या त्या मनाच्या नांग्या.  

Page 396:  सगळा दिवस म्हणजे आश्चर्य,संभ्रम,रहस्य,अवास्तवता,अधःपतन,मूढता,क्रौर्य आणि अविवेक याशिवाय दुसरं काय होतं?


Page 425: द्वेष,तिरस्कार,स्वार्थ,असूया,हव्यास,दंभ,ढोंग,क्रौर्य,क्रोध,किंकर्तव्यता,अज्ञान,अहंभाव,आसक्ती,स्तुती,आत्मस्तुती,कारुण्य,वात्सल्य,भक्ती,सार्थकता,ममता,प्रेम, काम,अगतिकता,उद्वेग,आत्मपीडन, मत्सर,मोह,असहाय्यता,नैराश्य आणि वैफल्य. किती अगणित सुरकुत्या या.  व्यक्तिव्यक्तीच्या जीवनवसानाला घेरून राहिलेल्या. 


Page 636:  दुर्योधनाची राजनीती,अश्वत्थाम्याच आत्म्याचं सखोल तत्त्वज्ञान, मामांच कपट, दुःशासनाचा अविचार,पितामहांची विवश तटस्थता, गुरु द्रोणांची सामाजिक आदर्शांची भ्रांत कल्पना,महाराज धृतराष्ट्रांच्या अंध डोळ्यांआड लपलेला डोळस स्वार्थ,विदुरांचा अयशस्वी सन्यास,माझा जीवनभरचा संभ्रम,पांडवांच माझ्याविषयीच अज्ञान, कुंतीमातेचं हृदय पिळवटणार दुःख, गान्धारीदेविंचे ठरवून मिटलेले नेत्र, राधामातेची पाशाणालाही पाझर फोडेल अशी अबोल, मूक ममता, शोणाचा निरलस प्रेमभाव,वृषाली-सुप्रियेची शालीन स्त्री हृदय, माझ्या पुत्रांचा आज्ञाधारकपणा,कुरुंच्या आणि पांडवांच्या सेनांतून शास्त्र हाती घेउन उभ्या ठाकलेल्या प्रत्येक सैनिकाची असीम राजनिष्ठा, मित्रनिष्ठा व तत्त्वनिष्ठा, श्रीकृष्णातून प्रकट पावलेलं अद्वितीय क्षात्रतेज हे सर्व सर्व या मातीतूनच निर्माण होउन वाढलं नव्हतं काय?

Weapons

Page 48:  एका मासातच मी शूल, तोमर , परीघ, प्रास, शतघ्नी, खड्ग, पट्टे, भृशुंडी, गदा आणी चक्र अशा अनेक शास्त्रांची माहिती करून घेतली. 

दिवसभर युद्धशालेत शूल, तोमर , शतघ्नी, प्रास, परीघ, भृशुंडी, खड्ग, गदा, पट्टे, अशी निरनिराळी शस्त्र फिरवणं (…)

Page 467:  वर्षाऋतूच्या आगमनामुळे सैनिकांचे उघड्या पटांगणावरचे शूल,तोमर,परिघ,चक्र,गदा आणि खड्ग यांचे व्यायाम आपोआप  बंद झाले.


लोहागारात शेकडो लोह्कार बाण, परशू,भाले,खड्ग यांची धारधार पती घडविण्यासाठी भट्ट्या पेटवून रात्रंदिवस घणावर घण घालीत होते.  


Page 691: मनगटात निशिगंधाच्या टपोर्या कळ्यांच्या माल करकचून बांधलेला कर्ण, शूल,तोमर,पट्टे,गदा,दिव्यास्त्र,खड्ग,चक्र,भीदिपाल, शतघ्नी आणि असंख्य प्रकारच्या बाणांच्या भात्यानी ज्याचा पार्श्वभाग ठासून भरला आहे अशा (…) आपल्या जैत्ररथात आपला उजवा पाय पायदंडीवर ठेवून चढला. 

Arrows

Page 48:  केवळ बाणच कितीतरी प्रकारचे होते.  दोन शूलाग्रे असलेला कर्णी बाण.  पोटात घुसला की, बाहेर काढताना आतडी बाहेर पडत.  नालीक बाण जाड पत्याचा असून त्याला वाकडे दात होते.  त्यामुळे शरीरात घुसलेला तो बाण काढताना आपल्या आसपासच्या धमन्या तोडूनच बाहेर पडे.  लिप्त या बाणाच्या अग्राला वनस्पती रस लावल्यामुळे तो अतिशय दाहक असे.  बस्तिक हा बाण शरीरात घुसे, पण बाहेर खेचला की, त्याचा केवळ दंडच हातात येई आणि सगळं पातं तसाच लक्ष्याच्या शरीरात राही.  सूची  या बाणाची शेपटी निमुळती आणी टोकदार असल्यामुळे अगदी बारीक अशा लक्ष्याचासुद्धा त्याने अचूक वेध घेत येई.  विषेशतः डोळ्याचे भूबूळ याने अचूक टिपता येई.  जिद्म  हा बाण जाताना वाकडा तिकडा जाई, पण लक्ष्यात मात्र बरोबर घुसे.  याशिवाय गवास्थी म्हणजे बैलाच्या हाडाचा, गजास्थी म्हणजे हत्तीच्या हाडाचा, कपीश म्हणजे काळ्या रंगाचा, पूती म्हणजे उग्र गंधाचा, कंकमुख, सुवर्णपंख, नाराच, अश्वास्थी, उष्ट्रास्थी, अन्जलिक, सन्नत्पर्व, सर्पमुखी असे बाणांचे कितीतरी प्रकार होते.  

Page 663:  "अंधकाराला जाळणार्या तुमच्या किरणशलाकेसारखेच माझे अमोघ असे नराच,सर्पमुख,सुवर्णपंख,सूची,जिद्म,बस्तिक,गजास्थी,गोमुख,चंद्रपत्ती,गृधपत्र असे विविध बाण आज अर्जुनाला त्याच्या सेनेसह दग्ध करतील.  

Rivers


Page 322:  त्या कुंभातून त्यांनी वितस्ता,पुरुष्णी,गंगा,यमुना,सिंधू,मंदाकिनी,अलकनंदा,इरावती,शरयू,चर्मण्वती,लोहिता अशा अनेक पवित्र नद्याचं जल इंद्रप्रस्थात आणलं.  


Page 516:  कारण हिमालयातून उगम पावून पश्चिमसागराला भेटणाऱ्या शतद्रू,इरावती,चंद्रभागा,वितस्ता आणि व्यास या पाच नद्यांच्या विपुल पाण्यानं हा प्रदेश वैभवाला नेला होता.  

People

Page 52:  किती प्रकारची माणसे या नगरात रहात होती!  गायक, नर्तक,योद्धे,व्यापारी,कृशीजन,कलाकार,पंडित; शिवाय चर्मकार, लोह्कार,उपलेपक, कुंभकार, महार असे अठरापगड कष्टकरीसुद्धा इथं होते.  

Page 319:  आसपासच्या राज्यातले मल्ल, योद्धे,कुशल कामगार, गायक, नर्तक, गज व अश्वपार्खी आणि कृषिजन आता इंद्रप्रस्थात दाटी करू लागले.  


Page 618:  अनश्व्स,अनुशाल्व,अपराजित,अचल,अरीष्टसेन, विंद,अनुविंद, अंगद,अच्युतायू, अशोक,अश्व्केतू, आषाढ,आर्जव,इंद्रवर्मन,ईश्वर,उग्रतीर्थ, उग्रमन्यू, उलूक हे निष्णात अश्वतद्न्य …. 

Page 631:  क्षेमधूर्ती, लक्ष्मण,विंद,अनुविंद,अपराजित,उलूक,सहदेव,भगदत्त हे अतिरथी…. 
कुहर,करकाक्ष,अम्ब्ष्टक, आर्जव,क्रथ,गवाक्ष आणि कर्ण हे अर्धरथी आहेत. 

Page 639:  पंधरा लक्ष सेना पांडू महाराजांचा जयघोष करीत होती.  तीत अमितौजस, विक्रांत,द्रुपद,कुंतिभोज,वार्धक्षेमी,दंडधार,बृह्त्क्षत्र, धृष्टद्युम्न, सात्यकी,अभिमन्यू,काशिराज,क्षत्रांजय, चेकितान,विराट,युधामन्यू,श्येनजीत आणि युयुधान हे महारथी होते. बभ्रू,अदिन,प्रतिविन्ध्य, पुरुजित,श्रेणीमान,शतानिक हे अतिरथी होते. सिंहचंद्र,सुक्षत्र,शैब्य,रोचमान,रथसेन,युगंधर,मणिमान, महाओजस, मित्रवर्मन,ब्रम्हदेव,तपन,सुपाश्च,जन्मेजोय, सुदामा,सुतेजस, चित्रकेतू, उग्रसेन असे कितीतरी राजे त्यांच्या मागून सरसावत होते.  

Page 637: पत्ती, सेनामुख,गुल्म,गण,वाहिनी,पृतना,चमू, अनाकिनी आणि अक्षौहिणी साकार होत राजदंडाच्या आकाराची सैन्यरचना करू लागल्या.  

645:  पण घडीभरात पुन्हा उठलेल्या भीमानं शुक्रदेव,केतुमान,सत्य,सत्यदेव,सेनापती,भानुमान,जलसंध,उग्र,वीरबाहू,दुर्लोचन या दुर्योधन बंधूना विदीर्ण केलं.  

Page 665: अचल,उग्रमन्यू,दीर्घायू,वष्ट,सौश्रुती हे विख्यात रथी अर्जुनाने कोसळविले. 


Rakshas

Page 618:  अंग,अंगारक,अलब्ध,अम्बष्ट्क, अलम्बुस,आश्चर्यऋन्गी हे राक्षस राजे आपले  सावरीत… 

Page 663:  (…) व बकासूर,हिडींब,किरमिर,जरासंध यांसारख्या धिप्पाडांना वधणारा बलाढ्य मल्ल भीम एकमेकांसमोर उभे ठाकले. 

Musical Instruments

Page 119:  नगरात सगळीकडे शंख, दुंदुभी, रणभेरी घुमू लागल्या.  

Page 149:  नगारे, तंतुवीणा, तुतार्या वाजू लागल्या.  

Page 638:  रणभेरी,आनक,गोमुख,दुंदुभी,मृदंग,नगारे आणि डिंडिम या रणवाद्द्यांचा गगनभेदी संमिश्र कल्लोळ उठताच…. 

Kingdoms

Page 142:  मगध,कोसल,मद्र,चेदी, पांचाल,विदेह,काशी आदी सर्व देशांचे राजेश्वर स्वयंवरासाठी आले. 

Page 353:  याशिवाय दक्षिणेला शाल्व,चेदी,कुरुष,दशार्ण,अवंती,निषाद,मेकल,दक्षिण कोसल,वैणिक,विदर्भ,महारट्ट, आनर्त आणि मालव, मत्स्य अशी राज्य होती. 


यांखेरीज वातधान,सौभीर,सिंधू,पंचनद,अम्बष्ठ,त्रिगर्त,कैकेय,शिबी,काम्बोज आणि गांधार अशी राज्य होती. 



पश्चिम दिशेला बलशाली अशी मात्र दोन राज्य होती.  एक ऋतायन्पुत्र शल्याचं मद्र आणि दुसरं बाल्हिक. 
उत्तर दिशेला कुलिंद,राक्षस,तंगण,खश आणि किरात ही राज्य होती.   

Page 639:  बाल्हिक, सिंध, कुलिंद,मद्र,कांबोज,गांधार,मत्स्य,आवंती,दरद,आनर्त,दशार्ण,चेदी,द्वारका,काशी,पांचाल,मगध,विदेह,कोसल,अंग,कलिंग,वंग कोणत्या देशाचा राजध्व्ज कुरुक्षेत्राला मंडल देउन त्याला मानवंदना द्यायला आला नव्हता?

Page 644:  कोसल,केकय,गांधार,संश्प्त्क,त्रिगर्त यांच्या सेनापथाकातील शेकडो अश्व्साद, रथी आणि पदाती निपटले.  

Page 691:
मद्र,मगध,मत्स्य,मथुरा,मालव,वत्स,वंग,विदेह,विदर्भ,कुलिंद,किरात,काशी,कोसल,कांबोज,कामरूप,निशाध,आभिर,गांधार - आर्यावर्तातील सर्व-सर्व देशांचे युद्धोत्सुक योद्धे युद्धाचा शेवट काय होणार या साशंकतेने कुरुक्षेत्राभोवती दाटले होते. 

शाकल,गिरिव्रज,विराटनगर,अवंती,प्रयाग,ताम्रनगर,कुसुमपूर,कुंदिनपूर,चंदनावती,काष्ठमंडप,वाराणसी,अयोध्या,चंपावती,महिष्मती,पुष्करावती सर्व  राजनगरांचे, विविध रंगांचे वेगवेगळ्या आकारांचे सर्व राजध्व्ज रणक्षेत्राला मानवंदना देत डोलू लाग्ले.

Queens

Page 144:  हे नगर (हस्तिनापुर) महाराणी शकुंतला,सुवर्णा,यशोधरा,तपती,शुभांगी,संप्रिया, अमृता,सुयशा आणि सत्यवती या महाराण्यांचं नगर होतं. 

Page 390:  दुःशासना, पांचालीच्या शरीराला स्पर्शही करू नकोस!  सर्वजण लक्ष्यात ठेवा की, महाराणी तपती,नलिनी,भूमिनी, सुदक्षिणा,विरजा,देवयानी,गंगा आणि सत्यवती यांनी भूषविलेली राज्यसभा आहे ही.  

Kings

Page 212:  विवस्वान,मनू, पुरुरवा,नहुष,ययाती,पुरू,अहंयाती, देवतिथी, अंत्यनार, इलील, दुष्यंत, भारत,सुहोत्र,हस्ती,अजमीढ, संविरण,कुरू, अनश्वन,परिश्रवस आणी विख्यात शंतनू.  

Page 256:  "महाराज भोज,सौबल,सहदेव,शल्य,शिशुपाल,विराट,सुकेतू,चित्रायुध, जरासंध,चेकितान, भगदत्त आलेत.  तसेच भूरिश्रवा,सुषेण,द्रुढधनवा, सोमदत्त,वृषक, बृहद्बल, ब्रुहन्त, मणिमान, दंडधार, मेघसंधी, शंक, सुशर्मा,शिवाय सेनाबिंदू, सत्यधृती, सूर्यध्वज, रोचमान,सुदक्षिण, रुक्मरथ, शिबी,श्रीकृष्ण पुत्र प्रद्युम्न, सात्यकी, सिंधुअधिपती जयद्रथ, असे अनेक देशांचे  अनेक वीर राजे महाराजे आले आहेत. "


Page 322:  द्रौपदीला युवराज युधिष्ठिरानपासून प्रतिविन्ध्य, भीमसेनांपासून सुतसोम, अर्जुनांपासून श्रुतकीर्ती, नकुलांपासून शतानिक आणि सह्देवांपासून श्रुतकर्मा असे पाच देखणे पुत्र झाले होते. 


Page 332:  नरेशांच्या बैठकीच्या विभागात अनेक देशांचे राजे आसनस्थ  झाले होते. त्यात कर्कायू,कुंकड,कनकध्व्ज, द्रुढधनवा, जयद्रथ, भोज,नंदक,रोचमान,द्रुपद,सेनाबिंदू,कृतवर्मा आणि शिशुपाल यांसारखे विख्यात राजे होते.  


Page 343:  इथं हे पितामह भीष्म, महाराज धृतराष्ट्र, युवराज दुर्योधन, दुःशासन,मद्रराज शल्य, सिंधुराज जयद्रथ, सुबलराज शकुनी, पांचालश्रेष्ठ द्रुपद,यांसारखे महाप्रतापी वीर असताना, ब्राम्ह्तेजाने तळपणारे पैल,धौम्य,द्रोण,कृप,विदुर आणि अश्वत्थामा यांसारखे पूजनीय विद्वान असताना एका काळ्या गवळ्याची अग्रपूजा करून कुरुंच्या धवल कीर्तीला काळिमा फास्ताना तुला काहीच कसं वाटत नाही?


Page 390:  आपण महाराज आयू,नहुष,ययाती,पुरू,हस्ती,अजमीढ,संवर्ण, कुरू,जन्हू,प्रतीप,आणि शंतनू यांचे वंशज आहोत याची एकाला तरी आज जाणीव उरली आहे का?


Page 477:  अरिष्टसेन,संघमित्र,हिरण्यवर्मा,व्याघ्र्शर्मा, वीरद्त्त कुणालाच काही उपाय सापडे ना.  


Page 665:  द्रोणांनी शंखाच्या आकाराची सैन्यरचना करून पहिल्या प्रहरापर्यन्तच चेकितान,द्रुढसेन,पुरुजित,ध्वजकेतू, वीरकेतू, वृक,शंख,मणिमान,सुचित्र,अंशुमत आणि विख्यात द्रुपदराजाला कंठस्नान घातलं.  


Karna's Children

त्यांच्या मागोमाग (वृषकेतू),वृषसेन, प्रसेन,भानुसेन,सुशर्मा,सुषेण,चित्रसेन सर्वच आले. 


Rishis 


Page 376: पितमः भीष्म,गुरुदेव द्रोण,महामंत्री विदुर,अश्वत्थामा,अमात्य वृषवर्मा, सेनापती यांच्या उपस्थितीत याज्ञाविधीसाठी दाही दिशांकडून आलेले शौनक, भृगू,च्यवन,असित,पैल,याज्ञवल्क्य, सुसाम, वालखिल्य, सह्स्त्रपाक, शंपाक यांसारखे ज्येष्ठ ऋषिजन बसलेले मला दिसले.  


Krishna 


Page 392:  कंसाला वधण्याऱ्या केशवा, शिशुपालाचा कंठनाळ छेद्णाऱ्या श्रीकृष्णा, गोवर्धन उचलणाऱ्या गोपाला, शतधनव्याचा शिरच्छेद करणाऱ्या शामसुंदरा, विदूररथाचा विकोश करणाऱ्या वासुदेवा, दंतवक्राला दग्ध करणाऱ्या द्वारकाधीशा,नरकासुराला नष्ट करणाऱ्या नन्द्किशोरा, बाणासुराचे बाहू तोडणाऱ्या ब्रम्हांडनायका, पौंड्रकाला पाणी पाजणाऱ्या पुरुषोत्तमा, शृगालाचा शेवट करणाऱ्या शशिकिशोरा, धाव … 

(वस्त्रहरणाच्या वेळी द्रौपदी ने कृष्णाला घातलेली साद)

Loot

Page 146: विजयी  सैन्य रत्न, मोती,पोवळी,सोनं,वैदूर्य,माणक,रूपं, गायी,घोडे,हत्ती,धान्य यांची खंडणी घेत पुढं चाललं होतं. 

Page 352: जिताकडून सुवर्ण,रूपं,चांदी,हिरे,माणकं,प्रवाल,पाचू,मोती,वैदूर्य,पुष्कराज,नीलमणी,गायी,गज,अश्व आणि दास गाडयांनी नि तांड्यान्नी भरून आपल्या भांडारात आणून ओतली होती.  


Page 408:  रत्नं,माणकं,मोती,प्रवाल,पाचू,पुष्कराज,हिरे,नीलमणी,गोमेद,लसण्या,वैदूर्य,सुवर्ण,गायी व सेवकसेविका यापैकी त्यांनी काहीच समवेत घेतलं नाही.   



Places

Page 235:  विहार,प्रार्थनागृह,मद्यपानगृह, रस्ते,तीर्थ,चव्हाटे, व्यापारपेठा, अड्डे, वाळवन्ट या सर्व ठिकाणी राज्याशी प्रामाणिक राहणारे धाडसी गुप्तचर सदैव वावरत असावेत. 


Page 585:  धर्मारण्य, नैमिषारण्य, वारणावत सर्व अरण्य पालथी घालण्यात आली.  सोम,पारियात्र,विन्ध्य,निशाध,गोवर्धन,शुक्तिमत, मेकल,ऋक्ष,मल्ल,गन्धमादन सर्व पर्वतांवर भटकून दूत थकले.  गौतम,जनू,दुर्वास,वाल्मीकी, वसिष्ठ, घोर आंगिरस,कश्यप,भृगू,च्यवन,हरित आणि ऋषयशृंग या ऋषींच्या नावावर चाललेल्या आश्रमात, शिष्यगणात कुठतरी पांडव लपले असतील या कल्पनेनं ते आश्रम कसून धुंडाळण्यात आले.  

Pastimes


Page 355:  त्याला (दुर्योधनाला) आनंदी ठेवण्यासाठी मृगया,जलविहार,रथांच्या, कुक्कुटांच्या शर्यती, द्यूत अशा अवलंब अटळ होता.  


Food


Page 430-31: कधी ती (वृषाली)अपूप,परिवाप, पत्त्की, क्षीरौदन असे पदार्थ करवून घेई.  कधी कधी गो रसात तयार केलेले प्लाशुक,मुगदौदन असे.  याशिवाय आमिक्षा, दधी,नवनीत,पयस्य,पियूष,फाष्ट असे गायीच्या दुधाचे विविध पदार्थ असत.  


- Above content is from Mrityunjaya (Epic, 1967), Shivaji Sawant. Mehta Publication House

I may not have covered here in this post all such lists that appeared throughout the book.  I have tried my best.  





Monday, October 6, 2014

Water Colors

In Ladakh,

There is beauty

In the beautiful.

In the harsh.

In Ladakh,

Both are one,

At once.



I was so happy

When I saw

The mountains,

Or blue waters

Of Kiagar Tso,

I couldn't even cry

I was so sad.

In ladakh,

It is all one.

At once.



Let's say,

It is all very moving.

Difficult to wrap one's head around.

So take pictures. 

Say wow! Talk.

But in moments of silence,

Watch and be watched.

It is all so moving, that

It makes you still.

Both at once.




Similar things happen,

When I paint,

With Watercolors.

Sunday, January 5, 2014

Eat.Pray.Love.

(Page 121) - It was in a bathtub back in New York, reading Italian words aloud from a dictionary, that i first started mending my soul.  My life had gone to bits and I was so unrecognizable to myself that I probably couldn't have picked me up out of a police lineup. But I felt glimmer of happiness when I started studying Italian, and when you sense a faint potentiality for happiness after such dark times you must grab onto the ankles of that happiness and not let go until it drags you face-first out of the dirt - this is not selfishness, but obligation.  You were given life; it is your duty (and also your entitlement as a human being)  to find something beautiful within life, no  matter how slight.
I came to Italy pinched and thin.  I did not know yet what I deserved.  I still maybe don't fully know what I deserve.  But I do know that I have collected myself of late - through the enjoyment of harmless pleasures - into somebody much more intact.  The easiest, most fundamentally humans way to say it is that I have put on weight.  I exist more now than I did four months ago.  I will leave Italy noticeably bigger than when I arrived here.  And I will leave with the hope that the expansion of one person - the magnification of one life - is indeed an act of worth in this world.  Even if that life, just this one time, happens to be nobody's but my own.  

Sunday, October 13, 2013

This is Water!


If you want to use this doodle, you can by all means.  Do let me know if you plan to at jamuna.inamdar@gmail.com :)
Inspired by David Foster Wallace's commencement address to Graduate students of Kenyon College in 2005

Some Snippets:

There are these two young fish swimming along and they happen to meet an older fish swimming the other way, who nods at them and says "Morning, boys. How's the water?" And the two young fish swim on for a bit, and then eventually one of them looks over at the other and goes "What the hell is water?" The point of the fish story is merely that the most obvious, important realities are often the ones that are hardest to see and talk about. Stated as an English sentence, of course, this is just a banal platitude, but the fact is that in the day to day trenches of adult existence, banal platitudes can have a life or death importance, or so I wish to suggest to you on this dry and lovely morning.

....he really significant education in thinking that we're supposed to get in a place like this isn't really about the capacity to think, but rather about the choice of what to think about. If your total freedom of choice regarding what to think about seems too obvious to waste time discussing, I'd ask you to think about fish and water, and to bracket for just a few minutes your scepticism about the value of the totally obvious.

The point here is that I think this is one part of what teaching me how to think is really supposed to mean. To be just a little less arrogant. To have just a little critical awareness about myself and my certainties. Because a huge percentage of the stuff that I tend to be automatically certain of is, it turns out, totally wrong and deluded. I have learned this the hard way, as I predict you graduates will, too.

Here is just one example of the total wrongness of something I tend to be automatically sure of: everything in my own immediate experience supports my deep belief that I am the absolute centre of the universe; the realest, most vivid and important person in existence.

Please don't worry that I'm getting ready to lecture you about compassion or other-directedness or all the so-called virtues. This is not a matter of virtue. It's a matter of my choosing to do the work of somehow altering or getting free of my natural, hard-wired default setting which is to be deeply and literally self-centered and to see and interpret everything through this lens of self. People who can adjust their natural default setting this way are often described as being "well-adjusted", which I suggest to you is not an accidental term.

Twenty years after my own graduation, I have come gradually to understand that the liberal arts cliché about teaching you how to think is actually shorthand for a much deeper, more serious idea: learning how to think really means learning how to exercise some control over how and what you think. It means being conscious and aware enough to choose what you pay attention to and to choose how you construct meaning from experience. Because if you cannot exercise this kind of choice in adult life, you will be totally hosed.

.....Except thinking this way tends to be so easy and automatic that it doesn't have to be a choice. It is my natural default setting. It's the automatic way that I experience the boring, frustrating, crowded parts of adult life when I'm operating on the automatic, unconscious belief that I am the centre of the world, and that my immediate needs and feelings are what should determine the world's priorities.

If you're automatically sure that you know what reality is, and you are operating on your default setting, then you, like me, probably won't consider possibilities that aren't annoying and miserable. But if you really learn how to pay attention, then you will know there are other options. It will actually be within your power to experience a crowded, hot, slow, consumer-hell type situation as not only meaningful, but sacred, on fire with the same force that made the stars: love, fellowship, the mystical oneness of all things deep down.

The really important kind of freedom involves attention and awareness and discipline, and being able truly to care about other people and to sacrifice for them over and over in myriad petty, unsexy ways every day.That is real freedom. That is being educated, and understanding how to think. The alternative is unconsciousness, the default setting, the rat race, the constant gnawing sense of having had, and lost, some infinite thing.
It is about the real value of a real education, which has almost nothing to do with knowledge, and everything to do with simple awareness; awareness of what is so real and essential, so hidden in plain sight all around us, all the time, that we have to keep reminding ourselves over and over:
"This is water."
"This is water."
It is unimaginably hard to do this, to stay conscious and alive in the adult world day in and day out. Which means yet another grand cliché turns out to be true: your education really IS the job of a lifetime. And it commences: now.
I wish you way more than luck.


Tuesday, September 10, 2013

Eat Pray Love

Last evening when I was thinking about hope, fear, faith, freedom, search, patterns, love (Whoa, all that!)
I picked up for the nth time Elizabeth Gilbert's Eat Pray Love. 
And It became all OK. 
As far as I am concerned, answers to some of my gravest questions clearly lie in this piece of what some have called "chick-lit."


As I flipped through...I read:


Karma is a notion I have always liked. Not so much literally. Not necessarily because I believe that I used to be Cleopatra's bartender -  but more metaphorically. The Karmic philosophy appeals to me on a more metaphorical level because even in one lifetime it's obvious how we must repeat our same mistakes, banging our heads against the same old addictions and compulsions, generating the same old miserable and often catastrophic consequences, until we can finally stop and fix it. This is the supreme lesson of Karma (and also  of Western Psychology,by the way) - take care of the problems now or else you'll just have to suffer again later when you screw everything up the next time.  And that repetition of suffering - that's hell. Moving out of that endless repetition to a new level of understanding - there's where you'll find heaven. - Page 274


But how can I accept bliss when it comes with this dark crushing underside - bone-crushing isolation, corrosive insecurity, insidious resentment and, of course, the complete dismantling of self that inevitably occurs when David ceases to giveth, and commences to taketh away.  I can't do it anymore.  Something about my recent joy in Naples has made me certain that I not only can find happiness without David, but must.  I have to say good-bye to David now. - Page 88


I can't remember the last time I got dressed up, but this evening I dug out my one fancy spaghetti-strap dress from the bottom of my backpack and slithered it on.  I even wore lipstick. I can't remember the last time I wore lipstick - Page 279


We were talking the other evening about the phrases one uses when trying to comfort someone who is in distress.  I told him that in English we sometimes say, "I've been there".  This was unclear to him at first - I have been where?  But I explained that deep grief sometimes is almost like a specific location, a coordinate on a map of time. When you are standing in that forest of sorrow, you cannot imagine that you can ever find your way to a better place. But if someone can assure you that they themselves have stood in that same place,and now have moved on, sometimes this will bring hope.  "So sadness is a place?" Giovanni asked. "Sometimes people live there for years," I said. In return, Giovanni told me, empathizing Italians say L'ho provato sulla mia pelle, which means "I have experienced that on my own skin".  - Page 75


Richard from Texas is not a guy who worries about a lot of stuff. I wouldn't call him a neurotic person, no sir. But I am a bit neurotic, and that is why I have come to adore him. Richard's presence at the Ashram becomes my great and amusing sense of security. His giant ambling confidence hushes down all my inherent nervousness and reminds me that everything is going to be OK. (And if not OK, then at least comic.) In Richard's own words: "Me and Groceries, we steady be laughin' the whole damn time".  - Page 146




Monday, June 10, 2013



If you want to use this doodle, you can by all means.  If you want a high res version, do ask at jamuna.inamdar@gmail.com :)

Find the Floodgates within.
Know when to Shut.
Know when to Open.

Or in Other words,

ताब लाये हि बनेगी ग़ालिब 
के वाक़या सक्त है 
और जाँ अजीज़ 

Monday, July 2, 2012

The Seed Shop

If you want to use this image, you can by all means.  Do let me know if you plan to at jamuna.inamdar@gmail.com :)
At Devappa's Nursery, Opp Mtr, Lalbaugh, Bangalore
On a beautiful breezy Bangalore day, we turned away from the main road....
And these words are meant for where I found myself...

The Seed Shop

Here in a quiet and dusty room they lie,
Faded as crumbled stone or shifting sand,
Forlorn as ashes, shrivelled, scentless, dry -
Meadows and gardens running through my hand.


In this brown husk a dale of hawthorn dreams;
A cedar in this narrow cell is thrust
That will drink deeply of a century's streams;
These lilies shall make summer on my dust.


Here in their safe and simple house of death,
Sealed in their shells, a million roses leap;
Here I can blow a garden with my breath,
And in my hand a forest lies asleep. 

- Muriel Stewart 



Thursday, February 9, 2012

Life with Books...


Inspired by a stop-motion animation film, I decided to colour code my books...
While this makes it tough to find a book if I do not remember what colour spine it had.
I am also judging my books from their cover, which after all is not that bad a thing to do!

Wednesday, January 11, 2012

Magic Tree

If you want to use this doodle, you can by all means.  Do let me know if you want a high res image at jamuna.inamdar@gmail.com :)



Rapunzel Rapunzel....let down....

Monday, January 9, 2012

Shelf-life




If you want to use this painting, you can by all means.  Do let me know if you plan to at jamuna.inamdar@gmail.com  and if you want a high res image :)
I love colored Glass bottles...
Their sound is sticky sweet.
They hold light, hence look alive...
They are graceful.
Some are empty and can be filled.
Some can be emptied for lightness is good...
Whether full or empty, glass bottles will remain glass bottles.
I love them.

Tuesday, November 23, 2010

Bookstore romances are a kind of storybook romance...

Friday, November 19, 2010

Andaaz-e Bayaan



If you want to use this doodle, you can by all means.  Do let me know if you plan to at jamuna.inamdar@gmail.com and if you wish to have a high res image :)
Bah Qadr-e-shauq nahin zarf-e tangnae ghazal,
Kucch aur chahiye vusat mere bayaan ke liye

In porportion to my fancy, the tight alleys of a Ghazal are too narrow...
I need something more spacious for my expression...

-Asadullah Khan Ghalib.

Who reads our thoughts really...
More than we read his.

Friday, October 22, 2010

Great Expectations

It was never Pip!  It was the convict first and then it was Miss Havisham who had me rattled into a curiosity that will never be satisfied. Great Expectations speaks about what became of them. I want Charles Dickens to tell me who they used to be...


Especially this shriveled old fruit of a lady still clad in her wedding gown increasingly getting cocooned by the growing cobwebs around her... 
She sits in a room in Satis House, a room boarded up to not allow sunlight nor the passage of time to show.  With all the clocks stopped at that hour when she was abandoned by her lover at their wedding altar, Miss Havisham stopped the passage of her life and remained... 


I have referred to another sketch for this one and hence will not claim it to be entirely original.
Or maybe I will to the extent that its originality goes only as far as the fact that i can claim to have stroked every stroke of black ink herein.




A tribute to Miss Havisham and how she left me rattled...
I sm still wondering Who she used to be...?






Monday, September 27, 2010

Rapunzel Rapunzel let down....
And let not a fear amply feed
The dark waters that already run deep.
Nor stretch it too wide and thickly so
That it eclipses all of life.
As worse will be to stoke its embers wild
For until we breed the fear....we have the fear defied...

Friday, September 3, 2010

If you want to use this doodle, you can by all means.  Do let me know if you plan to at jamuna.inamdar@gmail.com and if you wish to have a high res image :)



A ball cracked bat shaped holes in a window

Wednesday, August 25, 2010

Ronger Rabindranath

I have been searching for a few days for articles and essays written by Tagore especially those elaborating more on the nature and importance of art for man and the world which he inhabits.



While at that I happened to stumble across an interesting article that took me into a unique and as yet unknown aspect of Tagore; his vision and his private world of colours triggered by a “partial colour vision deficiency” he had since childhood.

In the book: ‘Tagore of Colours/ A Study of the Use of Colour in the Writings and Art of Rabindranath Tagore’ Ketaki Kushari Dyson and Sushobhan Adhikary (Ronger Rabindranath/ Rabindranather Sahitye o Chitrakalay Ronger Byabahar) explore the impact of this colour deficiency on Tagore’s paintings, on his language and also provide beautiful evidences of how the man wove his “deficiency” into unique perceptions that manifest into fabulous words and poetry that evoked an imagery like none other…


You can read the complete article here:


Some excerpts:

If Tagore was a protanope, then he was arguably the greatest protanopic creative genius the world has ever seen.
I learned for the first time in my life that Tagore had probably had a partial colour vision deficiency, the kind known as protanopia, in which the wavelengths of light that we see as the colour red are lost to the eye, and there is confusion between red and green in perception. It is not an illness, just a genetically inherited condition. There is no ‘cure’ for it.

It seemed obvious to us, however, that a colour vision deficiency was bound to ‘colour’ a person’s entire psychology of perception, and if that person was a poet, a writer, an artist, it would surely have important consequences in his writings and art. Perception is indeed a private process, each person being his or her own processor, but when the perceiver is also a compulsive communicator, we are inevitably allowed innumerable glimpses into that private chamber.


He tends to refer to reds in a roundabout, often anomalous, manner. When describing sunsets and sunrises, he frequently feels frustrated and helpless, and concentrates on the colour golden. He talks about the leaves of the krishnachura (the gulmor, about rain on them, sunlight through them, their branches at night, but never about the dazzling beauty of their red flowers. Red, which he probably perceived as a darkness, as an absence of colour, is used by him regularly in negative associations and contexts.
In Tagore’s colour symbolism blue is existence, blue is rup,blue is lavanya,blue is ananda.Red is often unknown, unseen, a-jana, a-dekha,associated with duhkha and vyatha.Indeed, once we delve into the depths of his mature texts we realize that Tagore is often acknowledging his problematic vision of red, but only obliquely. “Tomar ashoke kingshuke/ alakshyo rong laglo amar akaroner sukhe” - “In your ashok and kingshuk an invisible colour touches my happiness without reason” - so he says to Phagun, the first month of spring.
My purpose here is to whet your appetite for the details, which will enable you to look at Tagore’s themes and images (both verbal and visual) in a new light. If you allow us to take you on a conducted tour of the colour-world of the man who wrote: “Aaj shobar ronge rong mishate hobe”- “Today I must blend my colours with everyone else’s colours”, many lines of Tagore with which you are already familiar will reveal new vistas of meaning.

Thursday, August 5, 2010

A trotolla spinned it all...

I wish for life in satin, ribbons of living greens.  
I wish for a cool lump of clay, dug out of the brown earth.
I wish for a glass melody, water breaking into a thousand shards. 
I wish for an oily darkness, dancing around my flickering lamp.
I wish for living glass bottles,in the sun on the sill.
I wish for a flutter of worlds, in books lying open.
I wish for glowing skin, from the burning mettle within.
I wish for soft tresses, spewed by a smiling mind.
I wish for scents and a bath, merging in vaporous trails.
I wish for melting meat, mouthfuls of tender joy.
I wish for dressed up toe nails, brazen in glossy red.
I wish for goldfish streaks, vibrant in my head.
I wish for a wall screening of the dreams I will dream
I wish for glowing butterflies to paper from my ceiling.


I wish for a child who will plant a future with me...






Thursday, May 6, 2010

बिन्नी

सारा शहर परेशान ही कि बिन्नी, बिन्नी क्यू है...
सारा शहर दुबला जा रहा है कि बिन्नी, बिन्नी क्यू है

जहा महात्मा गांधी रोड पर बिकती शराब है...
वहा सिर्फ मेरी बिन्नी कि वजहसे इस शहर का आसमा खराब है?

बिन्नी जैसी भी है, बिन्नी है, वो मेरी है!
उसमे कोई खोट नाही, वो पूरी है!

अरे जिस शहर को इन्सान होने की तमीज नही
उस शहर को शिकायत है बिन्नी के बारे मे?

अब मै शहर की उम्मीदोन के हिसाब से बिन्नी को काट छाट कर छोटा कैसे कर दू?
बिन्नी आखिर मेरी बेटी है, कोई कमीज नही...


कमलेश पांडे I think
थोडा सा रुमानी हो जाये...1990