I
have nothing against Mythli Sharan Gupt, a rather well known Hindi poet whose
poetry we were taught in school, indeed some of the lines are quite endearing
that I recall putting in this blog. So here
I was in Delhi on a sunny hot afternoon with nothing much on the schedule, a cursory
shuffle through the net pointed to a talk on Mythli Sharan Gupt at IIC. Now before
I go further into this let me point to those who may not know much about IIC,
it is a pretentious place were Delhi’s retired and retiring powerful people with big egos hobnob on
lighter aspects of life and generally catch up on each other. There is general bonhomie
and hilarity in the atmosphere as they negotiate crucial issues plaguing the
nation with characteristic ease over multiflavoured cakes and pastries. You could
glimpse the patron saints of media and vicious gatekeepers of cultures tied in ethereal
conversation, the pause and the nuance, the drinks and the tarts. The chelas, the punds and gudhi punds in
hierarchical patronising selves of propriety and conventions, fiercely
defending their turf. Peace be upon him, them and everyone.
IHC
across the road is another of such holes, but it places itself in chic. Though I
must add when you are in your 20s these places do open up the mind and does
create inquisitiveness into areas I was not even aware of. Quite coincidentally
IHC was inaugurated about the time I landed up in Delhi. These places became my
favorite haunt, and dropped in quite often, as I returned from work from CP to
south Delhi and so on, a rather delicious free coffee sealed the matter. So here
I was at IIC to listen to Gupt’s Yashodhara,
expecting something interesting. I must add, one must not attend poetry readings or anything related to it, it is amazingly trivial affair unless it is
about some new poet on the block. Talks about a poem or a particular book could be interesting. Poetry is something that is dealt in privacy,
that involves rereading and long pauses or maybe some sleeping over!! The worst are literary meets. A writer must be
read not met. I would rather prefer to meet a magician, some of these sleight
of hand tricks are terrific.
One
of the speaker mentioned Mythli Sharan Gupt being favourite of Gandhi, my antennas
were up (one can easily conjecture that Gandhi had no poetic sensibility). The speaker
who was introduced as veteran poet (a father like figure to some, I am not referring
his name here since he doesn’t measure up) revealed something that had me straighten
up and glimpse the degraded nature of Indian creativity, tethered as it is to
the primitive framework. Gupt chose Yashodhara (wife of Buddha) as his protagonist
of poem to bring out feminine angst, he proposed, he couldn’t choose Sita since he was a devotee
of Ram. This was revelation into the depraved nature of these people. Hence, Buddha
was a fair game, putting that into social realities you realize the intent. As angst
of Yashodhara was carefully hyperboled and interpretation herein further sought
to contemporize the neglect (there was one woman speaker who tried to work out Yashodhara
with gandhian disobedience!!, and woman’s emancipation so on…that she too was
very much part of the primitive world was quite clear. These elite women
therefore try to associate with international feminist angst and position for
lick. That they are perpetrators of horrendous reality is conveniently hidden
or presented with gandhian ease as ‘unity in diversity’). The old man even
ventured further to point out that Yashodhara never converted to Buddhism “mujhe tumhare sharnam gachami se kuch nehi
lena dena”. Our man’s fertile imagination conjured these lines to bring out
his sarcasm, the impact of these to the contemporary reality is rather telling.
He further ventured to assert that Buddhism did not contribute anything much to
Indian society!
The
Gandhi hugging old man (also moonwalking as revered poet, with ‘books of poems’…no
wonder Indians rarely measure up to world standards or anywhere near subtleties
of understanding nor awareness of existential truths) is right in a way. Buddhism is too subtle and nuanced thought, the
reason why it didn’t fit into the scheme of things. Buddha was never bothered
about god, but squatter’s sought to create god out of him, an attempt was made
to appropriate him as incarnation of "Lord Vishnu"!! As Kasturi&Sons will
vouch a man has to be god to be able to interact with common people. "Lord Krishna" is an incarnation since he lived with common people and understood philosophies
of life and so on. It needs a miracle. And since likes of Kasturi&Sons are
not incarnations but representatives of higher scheme they needn’t mingle with
common people. That needs a miracle. One fellow even tried experimenting with
truth, he is henceforth mahatma! Such depravity. It is not surprising that the
best thoughts were evicted out by the devious squatters. Best of thoughts (Buddhism) left Indian
society, meanwhile percolated in the thoughts of great souls that continue to have
space in lives of common people. The highly nuanced and enlightened framework
of societies of east asia have definitive influence of Buddhism, the wonderful
world’s haikus, zen and simplicity of being. The other day I was watching NHK
channel (probably one of the best, and I really don’t expect Indian media to
follow this. The cultural gaps are too wide!), a Buddhist monk of the temple told
the lady over tea ceremony ‘to live like a single flower’. I found that amazing.
This the squatter in the Indian (Hinduism, if you may) temple probably will
never even be able to decipher let alone utter. They will ofcourse have prescription
on how to bring peace to the universe. This you will also see spilling out from
the gudhi punds in the media. The all-encompassing
universe and one’s grander illusions of ordained self.
Post script: the other day I was taking interviews for
Civil service aspirants. A senior retired bureaucrat was the co panellist. He was
also the board member at UPSC many times. He quite vehemently suggested everyone
to read ‘Hindu’ newspaper and so on. He asked
this question to a candidate “What is Sanskritisation and who gave this theory?”.
Having got the appropriate answer he was looking for, about ‘great MN Srinivas’,
he ventured further to ask “What is de-sanskritisation?”. Not getting an answer
he explained “When higher class people start behaving like lower class”, he guffawed
and looked around for appreciation. I maintained a grievous face. Few decades
back his ‘jokes’ would have resonated across the room. A general mirth would
have instigated talks on ideas of India. Ditto, we are told is in danger now.
