Charles Dickens, the celebrated 19th century novelist, earned good money through public reading of his works in England and the U.S.to wipe out his father’s and his own debt. His parents and younger brothers had been carted off to debtors’ jail. Only 12-year-old Charles stayed behind, working in a blacking factory to pay their bills. Those long miserable months,an obsever has said, “made him a passionate advocate of the poor and defenseless. As he told friends, the tale of Scrooge’s journey to redemption took shape during his nightly walks through London. It was his custom to walk 15, maybe 20 miles.
One recalled this in view of some critical comments directed at popular Marathi poet Ashok Naigaonkar whose 75th birthday was celebrated at a large gathering in Mumbai on December 29. Some people are not too pleased that he attracts crowds of thousands of people with his satire and wit and he nets a good income. A section of elite poetry circles has a lot of talent but some of the writing is obscure and lacks popular support.
Arun Kolatkar, poet, got a lot of international renown but not much popular response in India. He was a big name in both English and Marathi poetry but was a recluse, never sought publicity, made no compromises, lived in small house in Worli. His memory was recalled at the release of the fourth edition of his poetry collection a week earlier.
Coming back to Dickens, the debt prison laws against the poor were very harsh in England. They had to remain in prison until they paid all the debts. How appropriate it would be to apply such law in India against wealthy wilful defaultes who have duped the country of lakhs of crores of rupees and whose debts have been written off by the government. The sad treatment of the poor in England turned into Dickens into a major critic of the system and reformer.
Ashok Naigaonkar has directed his satire at vested interests. In one poem he refers to Mahatma Gandhi remarking in heaven that now he is spinning in three shifts as there is a big demand for cloth for coffins, a reference to deaths due to atrocities. In another a politician is asked by his doctor what is wrong with him and he says all the time he wants to join the BJP, a reference to the exodus to that party from leaders of the Congress and Nationalist congress parties.
In another poem he says he government is building latrines for people , but does not care for their subsistence.
Naigaonkar grew up in the Brahmin dominated holy town of Wai in Maharashtra but was influenced by the teaching of secular scholar Laxmanshastri Joshi and leaders of the non Brahmin movement. In Joshi’s research institution Pradnya Pathshala and other organisations he avidly read a lot of books and periodicals not easily available even in big cities.
He and other poets like Arun Mhatre, Ashok Bagwe, Satish Kalsekar and Mahesh Keluskar entertained and enlightened large gatherings in all parts of Maharashtra with the initiative of Ramdas Phutane, producer of the acclaimed Marathi film Samnaa featuring Shreeram Lagoo and Nilu Phule.
Coming back to Kolatkar now.
Dissident poet Allen Ginsberg’s poem “September on Jessore Road” is about millions of refugees fleeing in the wake of the then East Pakistan army atrocities. It first appeared in Mumbai, published by Ashok Shahane. When the Bangladesh War began in 1971 and Ginsberg wrote the poem, Shahane printed and distributed copies of it and gave the proceeds to Bangladesh aid committee set up in Bombay.
Shahane is a major phenomenon in cultural life in Maharashtra and is also well known in West Bengal because of his many translations into Marathi from Bangla.
By the 1960s, a portal had been established between the Bombay and Beat poets. Arun Kolatkar translated Ginsberg’s “Kaddish” into Marathi for Ashok Shahane’s magazine, Aso. Kolatkar’s Bhijaki Vahi reads as a poetic philippic that draws from Ginsberg, as scholar Nerlekar points out.
Noted all this in the context of the release of the fourth edition of Kolatkar’s well known poetry collection Bhijki Wahi on December 21 at Keshav Gore Smarak in Goregaon in Mumbai.
It is published by Pras run by Shahane. He is also a well recognised figure as a writer, publisher, printer. He is a frail man but but huge talent, now 88, with valuable support from his wife Rekha.
She exudes much energy despite her very long battle with cancer and keeps pursuing many interests including butterflies and plants.
The edition was released by Bhalchandra Nemade, Jnanpith award winner, who has collaborated with Shahane and Kolatkar.
Apart from also publishing Orlovsky in English, Shahane also wrote a poem for the magazine Timba, which mocked overzealous religious personalities by comparing the Beats and Hollywood: “the world is a dream / the Shankaracharya has said / as Allen reported / Arjun was the last man / and maybe also Burt Lancaster.’” Ginsberg acknowledged Ashok Shahane in The Fall of America, published by City Lights .
Shahane also formed friendships with some of the prominent young Bengali poets of the time including Shakti Chattopadhyay and Sunil Gangopadhyay. Ginsberg had several political connections in India; most notably Pupul Jayakar who helped him extend his stay in India when the authorities wanted to expel him
Speaking Tiger Asia has brought out an edition of Anjali Nerlekar’s Bombay Modern: Arun Kolatkar and bilingual literary culture . In the long term it will prove to be a seminal book for its analysis of not only Kolatkar’s contribution to modern Indian literature but also for its context of Indian publishing. Marathi publishing has been a vibrant space for a long time. In fact Bombay Modern discusses at length about the importance of little magazines and their critical influence upon writers by providing a new space for literary writing. Significantly Anjali Narlekar points out:
The writers and editors of little magazines in Marathi and English not only moved in a shared cultural and literary space but were aware of the work done ni the other Indian literatures by the little magazines. One way to examine these interlinks is to look at the network of pathways at the core of regional, national, and international influences.
Thanks are due to Sunil Tambe, Saranya Subramanian, Jaya Bhattacharjee ,Anjali Nerelekar for some of the references here.
One also needs to note Zecchini, Laetitia’s Arun Kolatkar and Literary Modernism in India : Moving Lines, Bloomsbury Publishing.
Ashok Rajwade, literature lover and analyst of Latin American politics, feels that Kolatkar hailed from Kolhapur and the people there should acknowledge him better.
I first met Ashok Shahane more than forty years ago at a press conference organised by Indian National Theatre for launch of is production of Ibsen’s play Enemy of the People translated into Marathi as Kondi by Shahane. It was directed by veteran Sombhu Mitra who was present at the venue, West End hotel at Marine Lines.
It was perhaps the only theatre group to afford the fairly posh hotel as it was run mainly by Damu Jhaveri, a theatre lover and director of Camphor and Allied company.
Later I met Shahane several times in Asiatic society library, mainly during his conversations with Durga bai Bhagwat, Raghu Dandavate, writer and brother of the former railway minister and socialist Madhu.
The programme was compered by senior journalist and writer Ambarish Mishra with a good deal of humour and knowledge.
Rekha Shahne did well to recall the book’s printer Sujit Patwardhan, prominent environmentalist and founder of Pune based Parisar and public transport campaigner who passed away a few weeks ago. Amod Bhoite of Patwardhan’s printing press Mudra recalled his long association with Sujit.
Vidydhar Date is a senior journalist, culture critic and author of a book on public transport
