78 replies to this topic

[Mukta Sunit]

Likely.

[indiego]

vAtraT: That might have to do something with "Vratyastoma" ritual.

One meaning of vrAtya is "brāhmaṇas who have fallen from the brahminical standard, and other disqualified men"..:-) . However, Britannica explanation is here.

From what I remember vrAtyas were exceptionally intelligent and innovative brahmins.  

By the way, Me. Pu. Rege calls Socrates a "VrAtya Sophist". So your name has a great lineage. :-)

[vAtraT]

"brāhmaṇas who have fallen from the brahminical standard, and other disqualified men" -- fits me to a T!

"exceptionally intelligent and innovative brahmins" -- this is more problematic, but then there are exceptions to every rule.

Enough.  Let's keep this digression from the thread's topic a laghu one.  tumche udAtta vichAr chAlU asU dyAt.

[indiego]

UdAtta vichar chAlU ThevaNe yApekshA chAlU vichAr UdAtta paNE vyakta karANe mahatvAche!

vAtraT , udAtta vichArAnche kAhi khare nAhI. You are getting bored by them.  

[ajit]

indiego, all udAtta and no chAlu makes vAtraT the dull boy that he is.

[indiego]

Ajit, I was thinking about it.. All udAtta and no chAlU is no good. I would like to believe that VAtraT’s dullness is just a pretext before his udAtta-vAtraT intervention!

[frangipani]

i thought of this in the "scary stories" thread, but am posting it here: anybody remember a story by Da Ma Mirasdar called "Bhamacha Bhoot"? He came to our school when I was very young and narrated it to us. I don't remember anything about the story, but can still see him standing in front of the mike saying "bhoooooot". Lots of people laughing too, so it was probably funny, but I remember being quite scared for a while after that.

[ajit]

You had duh. mah. do a live reading ? wow! what was he like ?

He is/was a hero to me. He had all these great characters. Something master, Rama ChengaT, there was a lohaar... I forget the rest.

[frangipani]

ajit, i was seven, maybe eight years old. it's a very andhuk andhuk memory, of a white kurta pyjama, big person and loud voice saying "bhoooot" and the general atmosphere of the packed audience laughing and clapping. i wish i could remember more, but beyond the title, nothing. i suddenly want to read that story right now.

[Mukta Sunit]

Quote

He is/was a hero to me. He had all these great characters. Something master, Rama ChengaT, there was a lohaar... I forget the rest.

These stories come under the category of "Bhokarwadichya Goshtee". By the way it is "Nana Chengat"

[Mukta Sunit]

Quote

a story by Da Ma Mirasdar called "Bhamacha Bhoot"?

Frangi ,
In all the likelihood this sounds like his famous story "Bhootacha janma" , surely a hillarious one....

[seajay]

link to article featuring Meghana Pethe now has its own thread, since non-Marathi readers may be interested in the overall topic of gender-neutral vs avowedly female writing, subcontinental style.

[ajit]

Bhootacha janma was hilarious.
But now I think about it it was written to a certain theme of Mirasdar's that I remember echoed in at least one other story (and more if I think hard).

This theme was how a small incident gets built into a big thing thanks to the dishonesty and fecklessness of human beings and the noise that communication adds.

Has anyone (MS ?) read "ekA kugrAmAtil vijayastambha" ? It was the same theme in action and absolutely bloody hilarious.

[Mukta Sunit]

Yes. Have read that one too... And yeh , Ajit you have pretty much captured some important ethos of Da Maa.'s writing ...He has written a nice write-up about his  "bhoomika" (approach towards his own writing) in "Miraas-dari" , the compilation made by Vaa. La. Kulkarni of a few of his nice stories.

Very often Mirasdar is accused of being very peripheral, shallow when it comes to the humor he utilizes in his story-telling. Much of that criticism makes sense. But there are those rare stories where his humor takes dark shades ; and he employs it to bring about some tragic ironies. "Kone ek kaali" is one such story. The narrator is a state jester, who wins a beautiful lady's heart by the show of his wits ; although the entire credit (and the lady-love) ultimately goes to the rather thick-headed master , the King...

[ajit]

Yes, I remember that story.

I liked best the R K Narayan aspect of his stories where a small group of people in some nondescript village became the microcosm of the world at large. I never found him shallow. (Maybe because I am that way too.)

[Pratibha]

Mukta Sunit, on Mar 7 2006, 09:35 PM, said:

Quote

a story by Da Ma Mirasdar called "Bhamacha Bhoot"?

Frangi ,
In all the likelihood this sounds like his famous story "Bhootacha janma" , surely a hillarious one....

Yes, yes, remember that one vaguely. Mirasdar was a grand fixture in the many 'maasiks' in my days. what fun!

[twwc]

ajit, your description sounds a little wodehouse-ian.

[ajit]

twwc, did you mean about the RKN aspect ? It is an interesting comparison. Yes, there were the same familiar characters (not always but often) and humour at the foibles of human beings in which you saw yourself too. There was an element of deadpan (rather than riotous) humour. Lots of similarities.

But it was also different because Mirasdar only wrote short stories.

[twwc]

i hadn't seen your RKN post while composing mine and was alluding to your previous post. but i understand what you're referring to in your last post.