‘Saraswatichandra’ – experiencing a supernovel – II Tuesday, May 30 2006

Plot

Finally, to the basic plot itself. The focus of the novel is on two Gujarati Brahmin families. The family of Lakshminandan is settled in Bombay, has a roaring business, and is very wealthy. Saraswatichandra, the brilliant scholar-to-be, is born to Lakshminandan and Chandralakshmi. He has a dazzling career to look forward to as he is steeped in Sanskrit and English classics, is a barrister by qualification and has tried his hand successfully at his father's business. The other family is that of Vidyachatur, the highly knowledgeable prime minister of the court of King Maniraj of (the fictional) kingdom of Ratnanagari. To him and his wife, Gunasundari, the lady of tremendous qualities, are born two daughters, Kumudsundari (the elder) and Kusumsundari. Saraswatichandra's mother dies, and Lakshminandan remarries. The step-mother, Guman, is a typical specimen, and treats her step-son with suspicion and dislike. Meanwhile, Saraswatichandra and Kumudsundari are engaged to be married, subsequent to which they exchange letters and fall in love without having seen each other; he, charmed with Kumud's tenderness and similar likes and she, taken in by his vast knowledge and excellent qualities.

Things reach a head in Saraswatichandra's home when he realizes that even his father suspects him of having an interest only in the family wealth and he decides to renounce his home. His best friend, Chandrakant, tries his best to use every argument he can think of to prevent his friend from carrying out this terrible vow. But Saraswatichandra is not amenable to argument, and he leaves, thus not only renouncing home and wealth, but also leaving young Kumud in the lurch. He proceeds by sea to (the fictional) Suvarnapur. By the time he reaches there, Kumud has already been married off to Pramad-dhan, the wayward son of Buddhidhan, the man who is slated to become prime minister of Suvarnapur.

And thus, we come to the third family. Buddhidhan is a Bania (vaaNiyaa) and has a sharp intelligence and political sense, by which he manages to overturn the reign of Suvarnapur's ruler, Jadsinh, and his administrators, Dushtrai and Shathrai. His own Rajput friend, Bhoopsinh, becomes king and Buddhidhan, his prime minister. Saraswatichandra stays at Buddhidhan's place calling himself Navinchandra, and watches all this political activity with interest. Inevitably, he comes into contact a few times with Kumud, the daughter-in-law of the house. Love for each other ignites again, and a lowly companion of the daughter of the house takes advantage of this and incites Pramad-dhan against his wife.

On the day Buddhidhan gets the prime minister's post, Saraswatichandra leaves his house due to the tensions that contact with Kumud is causing them both and leaves without a destination in mind. He steps into a cart going towards Manoharpuri in Ratnanagari. Meanwhile, Kumud is also on her way in a palanquin and accompanied by guards, to see her mother in Manoharpuri. Saraswatichandra's is attacked by bandits and they leave him injured in a forest. An attack on Kumud is also planned by the bandits, and knowing this, Kumud's grandfather, Maanchatur, leads a team to counter the bandits. They manage to foil the bandits' plans, capture their leader, but then, Kumud, fearing shame and infamy, tries to commit suicide by jumping into the Subhadra river. Despairing for her life, Maanchatur returns and everybody assumes her dead.

Saraswatichandra, meanwhile, is rescued by a group of ascetics and taken to their ashram on the nearby mountains of Sundargiri. Here, Saraswatichandra impresses the head monk, Vishnudas, by his breadth of knowledge and eventually makes him name him as his successor to the post of head monk. Kumud also survives and her unconscious body is caught by a lady ascetic, Chandraavali, and her companions. This group takes Kumud to Vishnudas' ashram and both she and Saraswatichandra come to know of each other's presence there.

The ashram ascetics realize the facts of the past life of these two, and try their best to reunite them. In this attempt, they take them both to an isolated cave on the peak of Chiranjeevshrung. Here, spending four days and nights together, they undergo a mystical experience which convinces them to reunite. The major impediment is how the society will view this reunion. This is a complex problem, and they think of three different alternatives.

All this time, Lakshminandan has almost lost his mind in his son's absence, and Chandrakant vows to find his friend and is lodged at Vidyachatur's place for a long time. Ratnanagari's police and detectives find out where Saraswatichandra and Kumud are, and eventually, his entire family, as well as Lakshminandan and Guman, decide to visit Sundargiri, talk to Vishnudas about getting the two 'back into the world', and convince the two about the same. However, there is no consensus on the marriage of Kumud to Saraswatichandra. Ultimately, the only alternative possible without anyone getting outcast by society is this: Saraswatichandra must marry Kusum, Kumud's younger sister, Kumud must live an ascetic life with Chandraavali, although while visiting her relatives often, and Saraswatichandra must return to Bombay and manage his family business again.

This is the plot of the novel described in the briefest possible manner, without conveying even an iota of the emotions, the tension, the idealism of some characters and the pragmatism of others, the sheer vicissitudes of life in these three families after Saraswatichandra renounced home.
(continued…)

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‘Saraswatichandra’ – experiencing a supernovel – I Tuesday, May 30 2006

Background

I fulfilled a long-standing dream of mine when I completed a reading of ‘Saraswatichandra’, the great Gujarati supernovel (mahaanaval) written by Govardhanram Madhavram Tripathi (popularly known as Go.Ma.Tri.) a month ago. It took me twenty-odd days to read through its four volumes, totalling more than 1,350 pages.

The supernovel was written over a period of 15 years, with the first volume being published in 1887 and the fourth one in 1902. The author, a lawyer by qualification, dedicated his later life to the service of literature, and the service of the lay people through literature. GoMaTri had scholarly command of Gujarati, Sanskrit as well as English, as is evident from the frequent use of the latter two languages in the work. He was also very well-versed in the Sanskrit classics and English poetry, both of which he freely quotes from throughout the work.

In terms of its place in world literature, ‘Saraswatichandra’ has been compared with such other supernovels as Goethe’s ‘Wilhelm Meister’ and Hugo’s ‘Les Miserables’. Another great Gujarati literatteur and philosopher, Manubhai Pancholi, has said that the two greatest contributions by Gujarat to the festival that is India are, one, Mahatma Gandhi, and two, this gem among books, ‘Saraswatichandra’.

‘Mission statement’

With this background, let us proceed to see what the novel is all about. In an introduction to the first volume, the author states that he has a mission to accomplish through the book, that of addressing the burning social issues of the day as well as bringing to light long-standing social evils and comparing them to modern ideas that have come in thanks to the interaction with the British. Throughout the novel, incidents involving conflicts between tradition and modernity in thought and action, as well as in social interaction, occur continually. The author’s aim of sowing the seeds of change by educating people of the necessity of change is conveyed by such situations. That the novel succeeded in achieving its aim to a large extent is conveyed by the tremendous response to it in Gujarat and the great influence it had on social life, according to the great Gujarati poet Umashankar Joshi.

The author’s methodical approach is borne out by the fact that he starts out with a preface to the first volume defining what a novel is, and is not. Much like a marketer, he segments the readers of a novel based on their aim: just reading a good and ‘interesting’ story; enjoying the literary finesse of the author and the form of the novel; or, gaining psychological insight into the human mind through the novel’s characters. The author is careful to state that his ultimate target audience is of the third kind mentioned above, while those of the second kind will also have a lot to enjoy.

The author paints a huge canvas, which goes beyond just revolving around the protagonist – Saraswatichandra. As well as being the story of Saraswatichandra’s life, it is also a story of changing family and social life in Gujarat, changing political life with the establishment of the British Raj, and the traditions of the Hindu way of life. It is also about philosophy, worldliness vs. renunciation, about how best a person can utilise his abilities and resources for the good of society, etc. So how can one summarise the essence of the novel? It is really difficult. Mahatma Gandhi himself attempted it, in parts, when he said: “the character development in the first volume is unparalleled, the second describes the Hindu household very well, in the third, his (the author’s) art went deep, and in writing the fourth, he thought, whatever I have to give to this world, why not give it all in this very volume?” And this is why I have said that I experienced the novel, and did not simply read it.

(continued…)

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Quota Quarrels Sunday, May 28 2006

In the face of a government that consists of people who are either extremely (perhaps, foolishly) selfish, and therefore callous (like Arjun S., of interview-with-Karan-Thapar fame), or too weak-kneed and hapless (like Manmohan S.), it is quite useless to present reasonable arguments on achieving social justice through appropriate means. And then there are the Left parties, who reject reasonableness every single time, in every important issue, whether it is airport modernization or demerger of SEBs or pursuit of social justice. Idiocy of the highest order is visible in our Left parties (except, maybe, Buddhadeb B.).

Two people (in collaboration with others) have, however, thought of a means by which the goal of social justice can be achieved, or at least, pursued, without harming anyone's interests. Prof. Satish Deshpande and Yogendra Yadav resented their scheme in two parts in The Hindu (links: Part I, Part II). They recognize a few fundamental things about the objective and the problem before proceeding towards a solution. As with any such nationwide scheme in a country like India, there might be numerous operational difficulties with this scheme as well, but in principle, it looked quite easonable to me.

What is our objective? The Constitutional objective is to strive towards social justice. In my mind, what this means is basically equality of opportunity in every legitimate sphere of life. What are the problems that cause social injustice today? Is it just caste or community? No, as the authors rightly point out, there are multiple, overlapping sources of disadvantage to many of our countrymen (& women) today. Apart from caste, the region of domicile and gender are two other important sources of disadvantage.

The authors argue that some form of 'affirmative action' is indeed required to ensure the Constitutional objective of equality of opportunity. But they err in saying that one should not read purely vote-bank-ish reasons behind the government's quota move. By introducing a fixed quota for designated castes, and also not including any subtleties like the 'creamy layer', the government is definitely indulging in short-term, vote-bank politics.

Their scheme includes three major sources of disadvantage, as mentioned above, and assign 'disadvantage scores' to each person, with suitable weightages to each level of disadvantage on each of the three axes. In principle, this scheme seemed comprehensive enough to me. However, the operational problems here will be in terms of segmenting and combining castes and religious communities into categories, designating different states or regions to particular categories, etc. Politicians from each region will want to categorize their region as backward as possible, to get points for their constituents and hopefully, votes for themselves, and so will quibble about the parameters used for categorization. The authors also say that a specific national survey for collecting data to be utilised in the scheme would be a good idea. But then, how long will that take (including field data collection, collation and analysis)? At least as long as the Census, or the NSSO sample surveys? The government, on the other hand, would want to do something now, not at an uncertain time in the future, for their own selfish reasons. Sociological configurations change over time, and the authors have not considered, or not mentioned, how revisions to the weightages will occur over time to reflect such changes.

Next comes the question of combining merit score with disadvantage score to arrive at a single score for each person seeking admission to any educational institution. In the first part, the authors blast our concept of merit and the style of exams like the IIT-JEE. Then, in the second part, they dismiss the question of merit as 'less controversial' and leave it at that. But  the question of how best to 'measure' merit and combine it with disadvantage scores remains.

So, the problems are many. But the authors have the germ of a good idea. At least, it's an idea based on reason. Perhaps, it will never be implemented precisely for that reason.

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Reservations – a perspective Sunday, May 28 2006

The following are views of my friend Vikas Vashishtha on the larger issue of reservation, not just in education but beyond.

"I am sure that Bombay is about to witness a great boom in Global Financial Services. It has already started with Global I-banks shifting their back and middle offices to Bombay (Apart from the their IT department already outsourced). The factors are the same old ones: Low-cost, English and Education. The next in line could be higher end services (fund management, trading, product R&D) not only from these banks but Global Funds (Mutual, Pension even Hedge funds), commercial banks, accounting and tax consultings. This could definitely be lot more prominent and beneficialthan the 'Bangalore process'.

This depends by and large on 2 factors:
- India's economic stability and growth (full-convertibility of INR being the most important sub-factor.. should be possible in next 5 years)
and
- Size and Quality of talent pool (More importantly, the quality perceived by the foreign investors and decision makers)

Looks sad, that so many 'meritorious' (by the way, 'merit' is not as pure a word as it sounds… depends largely on and is highly correlated to seemingly opposite 'ancestory') candidates would be left out of certifications from noble universities, which provide an easy entry to noble careers. Where they gonna go?

While reading the reservation debate on rediff.com, I noticed 2-3 ads by Ivy-League schools like Yale. Nice new cutomer segment for them! But, whatever they say it costs like hell. We would definitely witness more of the leftouts with deep pockets, moving to the US. But, I see a bigger opportunity coming in the form of foreign certifications: CFA and CPA. CFA costs around 50k and takes 2-3 years to complete. But the exams can be done along with your usual college studies.

For foreign recruiters, a guy with MSc in Maths from Pune Univ and a CFA would pretty much be equal to an average IIM grad in finance and definitely above the MBAs from other universities. Same holds good for for CPA vs. CA, when PwC or EnY are recruiting for their global operations.

Do you see a business opportunity for someone starting something like NIIT of late 90s; coaching college students for these certifications. It is not going to be any less than the NIIT or Aptech for late 90s. Moreover, this time the entrepreneur would have the chance to learn from the mistakes of these 2 companies (dont expand to non-core areas and dont expand randomly).

I would end by coming back to the original issue. Reservation in private sector can have some prominent and not-so-visible effects. If the government, brings it in Big-bang way: "50% flat and make sure you have good distribution across the hierarchy"… stock market would definitely crash… but this artificial barrier would also change the scale and scope of overall Indian industry. There would be a boom in small service businesses and frachise. After all, the Govt. can not say to an Invidual consultant/accountant/analyst, "where's the other person you are supposed to employ". Corporations will outsource great deal of work to these boutiques. This may lead to an unprecedented boom in entrepreneuship.

However, there will be terrible efficiency losses in the scale oriented industries. This, I guess, would be the sadest part. Because, the scale oriented businesses have the greatest potential to enlarge the job market. Providing higher-end jobs to socially backward sector.So, there is a need to weigh these factors while formulating with a reservation policy. There is a political need to satisfy populism and I am not against it. A good govt should first try to win the next election and then worry about the overall good of the country. Just dont ignore the second one. Managed smartly, reservation has potential to serve both the objectives in an optimal manner. "

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On Naushad Tuesday, May 23 2006

Two weeks ago, the last man alive to have the great K. L. Saigal sing for him passed away. With Naushad's passing away, no man who gave music in Hindi films in the 1940's or earlier remains alive now, as far as I know. Only O. P. Nayyar and Khayyam live on (and may they live on), representing those who started out in the '50s.

Thus, it becomes necessary to repeat a cliche, that with Naushad's passing, an era in Hindi film music has ended. And what great music belonged to that era! Giants roamed the film music scene of the time when Naushad debuted with 'Prem Nagar' in 1940. The first half-decade of his career remains less explored and I possess practically no knowledge of it. So his music, for me, begins with 'Shah Jehan' and 'Anmol Ghadi' around 1946. Evergreen songs, and Saigal's most popularly known songs, came from the former film, which was also the first hurrah of a player of a long innings in Hindi films – Majrooh Sultanpuri. Similarly, Noorjehan's most popular songs in India are those from the latter film.

Some knowledgeable people claim that Anil Biswas and Sajjad Hussain were the more brilliant composers, both as tunesmiths and orchestra-arrangers. I am in no position to either corroborate or dispute that. But Naushad's music remains as dear to me as that of the other two. The classical base of so many of his songs is perhaps the prime reason for this, the next most important reason being his initial mentoring of and subsequent collaboration with Mohammed Rafi.

Two genres of songs that Naushad can best be remembered for are: songs consciously based on a classical raag or bandish, and folk songs (typically, UP folk songs, thanks also to his long-time collaborator in the lyrics department – Shakeel Badayuni). Some top-of-the-mind examples of the former are: 'man tarapat hari darshan ko aaj' and 'mohe bhuul ga_e saa.Nvariyaa' from 'Baiju Bawra'; 'suhaanii raat Dhal chukii' from 'Dulari'; 'aa_e na baalam' and 'man kii biin matavaarii baaje' from 'Shabab'; 'madhuban me.n raadhikaa naache re' from 'Kohinoor' et al. Some examples of the latter are: 'mohe panaghaT pe na.ndalaal' from 'Mughal-e-Azam', 'dukh bhare din biite re bhaiyaa' from 'Mother India', 'do ha.nso.n kaa jo.Daa' from 'Ganga Jumna', 'mere pairo.n me.n ghu.Ngharuu ba.Ndhaa de' from 'Sangharsh', etc.

His collaboration with both Rafi and Lata is legendary and would require another post by itself. His use of other singers was relatively sparing. After initial films like 'Babul', Talat gave way almost completely to Rafi in Naushad's work. Mukesh had got some wonderful songs with Naushad, until he too, mysteriously disappeared from Naushad's view, to reappear in a much-toned-down partnership in 'Saathi' in the late '60s. Naushad's use of Rafi for Raj Kapoor and Mukesh for Dilip Kumar in 'Andaz' has become enduring trivia. He did have two excellent songs with Hemant Kumar – the deep-voiced lullaby 'cha.ndan kaa palanaa' from 'Shabab' and the inspiring 'i.nsaaf kii Dagar pe, bachcho.n dikhaao chalake' from 'Ganga Jumna'. Kishore reportedly sang only one song for Naushad, and was as such, a non-entity in his work. Nor was much favour done to Manna Dey. Mahendra Kapoor sang a really high-pitched song for him in 'Sohni Mahiwal', but that was about all.

Though Lata dominated on the female side, Naushad's songs with other singers are notable. His use of Shamshad Begum sounds better (sweeter) to me than O. P. Nayyar's, with songs like 'naa bol pii pii more a.nganaa' and 'chaa.Ndanii aa_ii banake pyaar'. While Geeta Dutt is, I think, entirely absent, Asha's most notable work with him came only in the '60s, in 'Dil Diya Dard Liya'. While Noorjehan's 'Anmol Ghadi' songs have been mentioned, Suraiyya got some really good songs from him as well.

Naushad's later music, including in 'Mughal-e-Azam', tended to aim toward the grandiose and not quite match up to his earlier work, with certain notable exceptions. In his style, he was a perfectionist, not resting (and not letting the singers and the musicians rest) until he had finally got every little detail to his liking, and until dozens of rehearsals were done, before finally recording the song. Farewell, then, to this man of music whose work is a landmark in Hindi cinema…

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‘Aaranyak’ & ‘Samudraantike’ Monday, May 22 2006

About a month ago, I read two books in succession which were quite similar to each other. The first one was a Gujarati translation by Chandrakant Mehta of the Bengali work 'Aaranyak' by the great Bibhutibhushan Bandyopadhyay and the second was 'Samudraantike', a Gujarati work by author Dhruv Bhatt.

The 'plots' are extremely similar, with only the backdrop and the characters different. The term 'plots' is inappropriate, however, since neither book is a novel. Both works are fictional, but have arisen from some personal experiences that the respective authors have had, Bibhutibhushan in the forests near Purnea in Bihar, and Dhruv Bhatt on the south Gujarat coastline. Both are a series of vignettes and incidents that take place in the life of protagonists who have accepted jobs in wild environs, in the former case, as a forest manager for a Calcutta-based zamindar in Luvtulia Baihar near Purnea in Bihar, and in the latter case, in an unnamed coastal village on the shores of the Arabian Sea in south Gujarat.

I found 'Aaranyak' more compelling because of its nearly equal emphasis on two 'players' -Nature and the human characters, while 'Samudraantike's emphasis was slightly more on the human aspect. The protagonist in 'Aaranyak' – Satyacharan (incidentally, his name is mentioned only once in the entire book) – overcomes his initial apprehensions and comes to love riding the horse given to him through numerous jungle tracks. He describes, in the first person, various characters indigenous to the region as well as those nomadic ones who travel from place to place to work as labourers during the harvest seasons. All the characters make an impression, due to the sheer simplicity and non-ambition of one, or of the single-mindedness of purpose of another, or of the stoicism and quiet resilience of yet another, or of the simple affection of yet another. Nature makes an equal impression, with its rich plant life and flora, its fauna (and stories related to them), its nighttime beauty, its ponds and lakes. Incident after incident makes the protagonist belong more and more to that place and less and less a Calcuttan. Yet, ironically, the very aim behind his appointment is to 'develop' the place by allocating the vast tracts of land to various farmers, thus increasing the landlord's income by way of tax collections. Despite himself, he does it, and after years of eventful existence in the forests, leaves the place a non-forest, teeming with people when once it teemed with great trees, beautiful flowers and wild animals. The tension between his love for the forest and his duty becomes very palpable near the end.

'Samudraantike' is a hundred pages shorter, and consequently, this tension is not quite conveyed as well there. Also, although several characters abound in this sea-side story, a lot of focus gets centred on a mystery woman called Aval, who is quiet and stoic at most times, yet firm and determined when the need arises. The protagonist puts the pieces of her story together as his stay progresses. Unlike Satyacharan, he does not stay till his beloved area is settled in. He creates a feasibility report for setting up a chemical industrial zone there, and leaves. Some parts are described exhilaratingly, though, including when an expert sailor dives into the sea leaving the steering of his boat to the novice protagonist, the stories associated with a certain island in the sea, the coming of the storm in the sea, and so on. For me, the book fell just a little bit short in that I could not feel as empathetic toward the protagonist here as much as toward Satyacharan.

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Hiatus Sunday, May 21 2006

My blog has moved in here from elsewhere and I haved moved to a different city (again, from elsewhere ). Opportunities to blog have not been forthcoming, though there is some material I want to write. I am not sure anyone is reading this blog, but in case you are, I will post something soon.

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