Sunday, May 29, 2005

Extract from "Kaaryarat"....

Dr. Abhay Bang and his wife Dr. RaNi Bang have been working in and around the villages of Gadchiroli district near Chandrapur, Nagpur for a very long time. I was reading a chapter based on the work of these two in the book "Kaaryarat" written by Dr. Anil Avachat, a famous litterateur. This blog is an extract from the same.

Dr. Abhay and Dr. RaNi have been carrying out research in this part of the world in their research institute SEARCH - Society for Education, Action and Research in Community Health. During their research work they came across a couple who was unable to produce a child. The family had belief that the problem was with the lady and not with the man. With this belief, the man used to hit his wife and harass her. These two doctors carried out tests of the couple and found out that the problem was not with the lady but with the man himself. His sperm count was zero! When the reports were produced in front of the couple the lady stood dumfounded. She looked silent for a while, then rushed to her man and said - aata tula maaru kaa ? (shall I hit you know ?). These two doctors were surprised to hear that. After a few months the same lady came to them for checkup. Again they were astonished to find her pregnant. They asked her "how was this possible?”. She replied, "after that incident of getting reports from you, I called up my brothers and said that I need a child by any means. My husband started murmuring, but I asked him to be quiet about this thing otherwise I would disclose his incapability to produce a child by distributing the copies of the report in the entire village." After a few months Abhay and RaNi witnessed a very uncommon scene - the same man was distributing sweets in the village for being gifted with a baby child.

Another disturbing report from their research was that around 42 percent of the girls in the village had premarital affairs. Such was the scene in this small village, what to say about the towns or cities we live in?

Friday, May 13, 2005

Literally Illiterates….

A few weeks back I had been to SajjanGad with my friend. The speciality of this trip was we had marched from Pune on his bike. We left early morning with garam cutting chaha and nice pohas in one of the “tapris” at Aundh, where my dear friend has found accommodation. Even though it was summer, the journey at 90-100 kmph on the Mumbai – Bangalore highway was chilly. It was too cold and one could hardly believe that it was summer season. We crossed the Katraj ghat and were rashing towards Satara. After we had covered about 50 kms we had a break with wada paav, kaanda bhaji and garma garam chaha ! Since those were also the days of India-Pakistan Test cricket we rushed to one of the tapris where a TV was placed on a decorated table.

The journey was too comfortable with serene beauty around – lush green farms, neatly structured hays, small canals flowing through the maze – everything that could be dreamed of while reading a nature poem. The atmosphere was pleasant with no stains of pollution. Every scene was very clear - as clear as what we see in Lonely Planet trails of some clean foreign countries.

Now with the Satara city in our visual range, we had to divert from the national highway to head towards the destination. Our destination was 12 kms from the city and we found our way passing through a tunnel and then going up and down upon the small hills around. It was almost three and a half hour travel and both of us were totally exhausted.

We were in the Ram mandir and also experienced the silence in the dhyaan kaksha (the meditation centre below the mandir gaabhaara). We had the opportunity to see the living room of Samarth Ramdas. His kamandalu, kubdi, which has a sword embedded in it, huge vessels used to fill water from the village at the base – Kalyan Swami used to do this job for Samarth- and many more antique pieces worth seeing. Then we moved to the Hanuman temple at the other end of the fort. Even though it was hot outside, it was cool inside the temple made of black stones. We had a peaceful sleep of about half an hour and regained strength. The silence was disturbed by a group of visitors to the temple who marked their presence by ringing bells.

Then it was time to have lunch what is called as prasad. Even though the food offered was free, it was tasty and far better than what is being offered in the glittering and posh hotels of the city with sky-scrapper prices being charged for small dishes too! The sitting arrangement, called as ‘pangat’ in marathi, was well designed with the serving arrangements being made with proper discipline. Everyone was chanting “Shree Ram Jay Ram Jay Jay Ram” while the food was being served at the beginning. We had a nice lunch of, usal, dal-bhaat and kheer with taak being served later. There were strict instructions of which line should get up first, when the second would get up and so on, so as not to mess up at the wash basin and the dish collector vessel. My friend and me were waiting to get a call for our line 3. First line 1 was asked to leave. Even though strict instructions were given, a person seeming literate to me and from our line, got up and started to move. It was a shameful act and he proved his illiteracy and indiscipline. Literally illiterates! No body shouted at him, as we generally don’t, except one administrator maintaining the tempo of the atmosphere. Why people behave so undisciplined was a question for me. There was no reason for that guy to get up and later for me to think of it, but still the issue lingers around my mind – what a pity it was!

We started our return journey and reached Pune enjoying our ride through the clean roads.

Thursday, May 05, 2005

Devrai

Last weekend I had an opportunity to see a marathi movie in theatre after a long time. The movie was "DevrAi" with a stunning performance from Atul Kulkarni. Many of us know him for his appearance as a crime reporter in "Page 3". I had seen his performance in one of the marathi movies long back, the movie was "Dahavi fa" - 10 F!

The story of DevrAi, a movie based on split personality, lingers around a patient suffering from a disease called "schizophrenia". The patient's existence switches between two worlds - our world and his own created world. Being disturbed in his own created world how the patient becomes violent in our world and later how he is treated to overcome this trouble is worth watching. Excellent performances from Sonali Kulkarni, Tushar Dalvi and Mohan Agashe. Especially the way Mohan Agashe, doctor in the movie, explains Atul Kulkarni's illnes to Sonali Kulkarni, Atul's sister, is mind blowing, you just can't afford to miss a single dialogue. In the later half Atul's performance is simply amazing - the way his expressions convey what’s going on in his mind, later how he puts goggle on the eyes and begin to believe that his own created world is not true and that he lives in this the so called our world.

The entire movie without background music has some meaningful poems muttered in the background, especially the one sung towards the end of the movie which is worth listening, adding value to the theme.

The cinematography is too good with scenes from konkan - typical AmrAi and sea shores with the remaining part shoot in and around Pune.

Had a good time watching a quality movie.

My first blog on blogger.com

I am currently reading a marathi book titled "Daas dongari rahato", a biography of Samarth Ramdas, by a famous litterateur and a sahyadri lover Go.Ni. Dandekar.

The book is a fine tale of how a very common man, Narayan Thosar, turned to Samarth Ramdas, enlightening the lives of the then suppressed marathi people in search of a strong spiritual and social guru.

One of the lines that stuck to a lukkha person like me was "be complacent with complacency to fight it". Much more to learn from the book.

A must read book for all marathi readers.