"i see the majority of us as extras", a conversation with kiran nagarkar Options

[arnab]

another subcontinent presents our latest feature: "i see the majority of us as extras", a conversation with kiran nagarkar. this feature is now live on our home site. we invite your thoughts and feedback on it here. kiran nagarkar will join in the discussion.

[Anjali]

I said a loud "hallelujah" when I saw this wonderful interview on AS this morning.

You have asked some wonderful questions, Arnab, and Mr Nagarkar does full justice to those complex questions. I of course have enough to ask/discuss here that would add a several pages to this thread. But I will desist and begin with just one for the writer (with the threat of coming back with more!):

Mr Nagarkar, many many thanks for this wonderful and detailed interview. On page 4 of the interview, you began talking about the introduction written by Kamal Desai to the Marathi translation of his book, Cuckold, but then you move on to other topics:

"I don't know if I set out to be a Marathi writer or not, but one of the very fine Marathi authors called Kamal Desai wrote in the introduction to the Marathi translation of Cuckold--which no one is buying, by the way, in the sense that no publisher wants to touch it, though it has been around for 3 years in Marathi and the book won a national award etc. etc.... "

Can I request you to complete that thought, since it was poised at such a fascinating point of discussion? You do talk about your Marathi/Indian/anglophone writer's identity later and earlier in the interview but I was just curious about what Kamal Desai wrote about this and what you thought about it.

[arnab]

[Anjali]

Oh, I see. I didn't realise that that was the quote he was referring to. Thanks Arnab.

[indiego]

Thanks for this dilkhulaas interview! I have a longish response to the interview

All that Mr. Nagarkar said in the interview is very close to my heart and thus cuts the aching nerve very close to the aching point. In order to respond to his peeve, I am raising a few points here. I would appreciate if Mr. Nagarkar could respond.

----

There are Marathi readers who love Nagarkar’s “Saat Sakkam..” and who genuinely have problems reading anything in English ( which can be sad and tragic for various reasons!) So if they bother Mr. Nagarkar about his choice of language—I would think compassion would be the only expected response. However, if those who have a part-time job as literary critics (and fulltime as lecturers in some colleges and also circulate as journalists) and if they say the same thing to Mr. Nagarkar about his choice of language for writing—one has to dig into the politics of literary culture in Maharashtra.

As a Marathi reader, I saw Nagarkar as a great novelist—who paid immense attention to the innovation of form that accompanied a radically new content. Kamal Desai and Kiran Nagarkar are the two great prose writers who came out of Satyakatha movement. The third one he rightly evoked, Bedekar’s “Ranaangan” . (Nemade would have evoked Saane Guruji’s “Shaamchi Aai”, I guess!) “Saat Sakkam…” is a milestone after “Ranaangan.” It’s a matter of tragic coincidence that Satyakatha movement died in no time soon after “Saat Sakkam...” and the cultural tone changed radically after “Kosalaa”.

Though Nagarkar’s friendships and coalitions are with some little-magazinewallahs (who were partly responsible for Satyakatha’s end!) —his Marathi expression pays more attention to the formal innovations that Satyakatha nurtured over decades. Poets such as early Chitre, Dahake and prose writers like Sarang would fall in the same category.

It was in late 70s, Popular Prakashan and Shivaji Vidyapeeth organized a seminar on Marathi criticism in Kolhapur. I think Nemade came to the center-state as a nativist critic after that event. Nemade’s commitment to a nativist, deshi style and his axiological choice to privilege Marathi language and style dominated Marathi criticism. So yes, Nagarkar’s peeve is very valid—as Marathi critics did not pay attention to him—but rather ignored him, under the deshi-dominated worldview that was shaped under Nemade’s leadership.

But Nagarkar is not alone in that place—Sham Manohar suffers the same plight and he doesn’t even write in English. Wie schade!! As a reader, I have observed this politics of commission and omission in several places.

I did not understand Nagarkar’s anger though as a response. Knowing the context—I thought he would not be angry. The choice of language of expression brings different trade-offs. Just to ask a rhetorical question, can any Marathi writer be upset for being minimized/ ignored by Western critics?

No one so far has written very critically about any English author in Marathi. Chandrakant Patil and a few others wrote about some authors but that is quite introductory in nature. So Again on that front, Nagarkar is not the only English author that Marathi critics have ignored—the tradition is ancient and as they say in Marathi—dukhanaa Juna aahe! (Disease is very old!).

Now having said all and sundry things—about Marathi literature and daadaagiri of deshivaadi writers..I want to let Nagarkar know that I am his ardent fan. “Saat Sakkam Trechalis” . It is a great Marathi novel. It made such an impact for me, for months I could not read anything else. The intensity and flow is exceptional. Rarely—very rarely one comes across such an intense text. And yes, I always eagerly wait for anything that bears his signature as a writer--langauge is a coincedence in his case.

I think, Arun Kolatkar, Kiran Nagarkar are pioneers in the tradition of bilingual writers. And Marathi and English both languages will have to evolve a critical idiom to understand such writers and poets. I think both languages are inadequate at the moment in that respect and those are also the limits of critics who privilege one langauge over the other.

---
Thanks a lot for sharing your thoughts with us so candidly. Also many thanks to Arnab for insightful questions.

Dnyanada

Edited: for minor changes

This post has been edited by indiego: Mar 3 2006, 09:54 AM

[ajit]

In person as well as in his writings (the ones I have read) there is such a sense of alienation, a sense of being an outsider.

I was a little confused by what seemed like a change in tone in the interview towards the end. In the beginning Nagarkar says it is not necessary to write *in* Marathi to write *about* the Marathi world. Then why rue the dying of Marathi ? No matter what language we write in and how we place ourselves we will still be writing about the same thing, isn't this what he said in the beginning ?

[arnab]

i think you can rue the state of language relations despite not believing that a particular language is the only carrier of an identity.

[arnab]

i should add that i have only just set up an account for kiran and sent him the instructions on how to log into and use the forums. i hope everyone will be patient and give kiran some time to respond. he is also very busy with his new book.

[ajit]

It'll be very nice to have Kiran here in person. He has a great sense of humour and, despite the black humour of some of his writings, a very compassionate person.

[Jai Malhar]

ajit, are you trying to tell us that you have met Mr Nagarkar

Mr Nagarkar, i would like to say how much i enjoyed saat sakkam and ravan and eddie (i havent read cuckold yet). i like your writing very much, especially for its honesty and what seems to me a great affection for your characters.

[hibiscus]

Arnab, and Mr Nagarkar, that is a great conversation. Thank you very much!

Nice pics, both Arnab and Ajit.

[frangipani]

Arnab and Mr. Nagarkar, thank you so much for a wonderful conversation. Arnab, congratulations for asking some very searching and important questions. Thoroughly enjoyed it!

I have a question about the novel Cuckold for Mr. Nagarkar. Could you speak a little bit about the ways in which you approached the idea of "historical truth" when crafting the story of historical figures and events? I understand the departure from the known stories of Mewar and Mira in the exploration of the principal character, but am curious about the creation of the context and how important the question of "fidelity to sources" is to you as a historical novelist, in creating this context.

[arnab]

[ajit]

[arnab]

[Sue Darlow]

[ajit]

[arnab]

[Kiran Nagarkar]

hello,

if i have not written in resonse to the many queries, it is not because i am playing hard to get or pretending to be the aloof and hoity-toity author ( a bit difficult that, with such woefully little to show for myself in terms of my work), but as arnab has pointed out i am up to my eyeballs in correcting proofs, working on the cover-design and trying to fix launching dates and sites for my new novel 'god's little soldier' and generally going round the bend while simultaneously driving my few friends up the wall.

now why can't i come across as suave and urbane and polished and impress all of you with my self-assurance and quick wit. must have a photo-session soon. but first priority is to have seven plastic surgeries on my eyes, the huge pouches under them, get a nose job done and pump in daily doses of botox.

one serious comment : if you are unlucky to buy ' god's little soldier', then you are about to discover that ( to quote one of my readers) i've had the temerity, or is it plain and simple foolishness, of imagining perhaps one of the most negative characters in recent literature. i can already see my limited constituency disappearing. all i can say is that without taking genuine and deadly risks, why bother to write?

come on guys, cough up the emoney, or borrow the book. it should be out by the 7th of april and read it and let's have a free-for all.

warm regards,

kiran nagarkar

ps i will try to answer the questions raised as and when i can. but i beg you to be patient with me for another month because i am also travelling and trying to give key-note addresses without knowing what kind of literary lock i am supposed to open. add to all that, as you have guessed by now, i am also totally computer-illiterate.

[seajay]

Thanks so much for taking time to stop by in the midst of your whirl, Mr. Nagarkar!

I'm sure there are going to be many eager cougher-uppers awaiting the launch of your new book, so wish you safe passage through the maelstrom of the last few weeks till publication, & look forward to your return when things calm down a bit.

cj

[ajit]

I shall be standing in line April 7 with my two ten dollar bills (or whatever) in hand.

[Pratibha]

[Pratibha]

[arnab]

folks, as kiran said in his post, the novel is not out yet--the 7th of april is the release date. i urge you all to recommend to independent bookstores you may have contacts with that they carry the novel. at the very least, indiaclub and southasiabooks should have it within a few days of its release in india.

[moazzam]

kiran,
welcome to AS. look forward to the moment when you return for a brief exchange.

arnab,
it is very difficult to carry books for most independent bookstores in the US if an established vendor doesn't carry the title. i will look into it though with one of my co-workers.

- moazzam

[shyama]

It's really exciting for us that you're here Mr.Nagarkar. I'm looking forward to having you back here when you're at leisure. I've just begun on Cuckold and am charmed at the contemporariness of the narrative while still giving the reader a feel of the historical past.

------------------

Here's the feature"The Artful Storyteller" from this month's The Literary Review (The Hindu).

On God's Little Soldier, the author says

[lekha]

such an interesting conversation, arnab and mr nagarkar - thanks !!

this pic is much nicer than the one in the hindu lit review, IMO.

[hibiscus]

I'm feeling increasingly exhilarated on re-reading the conversation, and anticipating more from Mr Nagarkar.

[Kiran Nagarkar]

Anjali:

You said you had one thousand and one questions about my work. I am better at asking questions than answering them, but for once let me stop my preambling and preluding and get down to work. So go ahead Anjali with the first five or six queries and we'll take it from there.

This post has been edited by Kiran Nagarkar: Mar 24 2006, 08:37 AM

[Kiran Nagarkar]