Three Bombay Poems

re: Harish

Yaar, where were you? Need to establish hailing frequencies with you. Contact me at ferozk@las.edu.pk and we can catch up on the missed fun and games!

Writing poems, are you? Hope all is well with ``R`` and please send my salaams and best wishes that way.

Ciao

Harish,

Not exactly...even Dali`s prose is a great deal more restrained than this piece. My suggestion remains the same-less is more-the effect might surprise you.

Puyu,

Thanks for liking them. I read Malayalam ...just about...three initial years was at a village school...i cannot read enough to appreciate Chullikad. I read most Malayalam stalwarts in English only. Bahseer/Vijayan Anand etc...

t,

Have sent one more...sometime back...should make it eventually.

Samina,

You have raised a very clearcut, and obvious point. I really do not disagree with you...it is specially true of the first poem. However, it is some of the exact things that you point out that were the salient features of Dali`s work...sceraming, loud, lurid, scatological...etc. In fact some of the words I have used, felatinuous, succulent...etc are also his refrains. For a sampler...try his Diary of a Genius... or some of his statements...here`s one of my fav ones...

``Every morning, upon awakening, I am filled by the supreme pleasure, the supreme pleasure of being Salvadore Dali. And I ask myself, wonderstruck, what act of genius is he going to accomplish today....this Salvadore Dali.`

does it not clearly accomplish... lurid gleeful judgement, repulsion, and in fact, in some readers...sanctimonious acceptance.

After he was thrown out by Andre Breton from the Surealist movement...his response.

``The only difference between me and the surrealists...is that I am the integral surealist``

The fallout happened because Dali painted Hitler...though in a surreal mode. Breton and his friends thought that it was political...not surrealist...there was a fight...and i do not remember too many details...but it ended with Dali saying...``If my Hitler has four balls and something similalry disgusting...who is Breton to demand I paint him any differently...etc...


Thanks for the critique. I appreciate it.

Harish

Where these poems fail are the use of overwrought adjectives and verbs; i.e. sadistic, ugly, blood red...these words are considered cliche-it takes a special effort to lift a word like ``beautiful`` or ``ugly`` of its common usage and defamiliarize it.

Also, I dontunserstand how the lurid -and I think that lurid best describes the gleeful judgement in this poem-narratives are supposed to have any effect on the reader besides repulsion or sanctimonious agreement. There are some good lines here:

Ten million scavenger ants dream

Their delirious dream

Of feasting on the chief minister`s

Succulent ,gelatinous body

but then, why do you have two words that require four syllables each with different stressors? Where is the flow? Those two adjectives should have been edited out. And the rest should be revised.

Harish:

...think it is about time you submit a few more poems?

...t

dear harish,
loved every bit of it!!
Some of the images reminded me of Chullikkad.
Do you read/write in malayalam?
regards
p

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A Fine Balance by Rohinton Mistry on OPRAH show

Jan. 24, 2001

http://www.oprah.com/tows/pastshows/tows_2002/tows_past_20020124.jhtml?promocode=002

http://www.oprah.com/obc/pastbooks/rohinton_mistry/obc_pb_20011130.jhtml

http://www.oprah.com/obc/pastbooks/rohinton_mistry/obc_20020124_discussion.jhtml

A Fine Balance Discussion

Rohinton Mistry took an unflinching look inside India during The Emergency and brought a new cultural awareness to our lives. Read the highlights from our on-air discussion.

A Fine Balance

by Rohinton Mistry Announced November 30, 2001

The time is 1975; the place is India, in an unnamed city by the sea. The corrupt and brutal government has just declared a State of Emergency, and the country is on the edge of chaos. In these precarious circumstances, four strangers are forced to share one cramped apartment and an uncertain future.

Interview with the Author

Rohinton Mistry

``I`ve been asked why I keep writing about India, and specifically Bombay even though I left 26 years ago. It remains my focus and makes it all worthwhile because of the people…their capacity for laughter, their capacity to endure.``

``Perhaps my main intention in writing this novel was to look at history from the bottom up, from the point of view of people like Ishvar and Om. The dispossessed. The hungry. The homeless. [I wanted to] see what it meant to them to live during this time of The Emergency.``

An Unflinching Look Inside Bombay

``I suppose anyone from the West landing in Bombay would first be hit by the crowds. The density of the population—14 million people in a small city and half of them living on the streets or in slums.

The next thing might perhaps be the great contract between wealth and poverty.

The problem of homelessness is worse now than in 1975, because the population has almost doubled. There must be twice as many people living on pavements, in slums and in rudimentary dwellings. People keep coming every day from villages because there is no prospect, they feel.

The street is controlled by the local gang leader who might extract some kind of token payment from a beggar or a pavement dweller. People lay claims to corners and pieces of the pavements just as they would to a sturdier dwelling.

Traffic in the streets of Bombay is chaotic at best. Riding a bicycle is a dangerous occupation. However, there are hundreds of them on the streets competing with the cars and buses and lorries because it is the poor man`s mode of transport.

The train stations in Bombay are crowded…One needs to be physically fit to do the daily commute by train. People travel hanging out of trains, sitting on top of trains, and there are casualties every day.``

A Fine Balance

by Rohinton Mistry

Announced November 30, 2001

About The Author

Born in Bombay in 1952, Rohinton Mistry immigrated to Canada in 1975 and was employed in a Toronto bank. He began writing stories in 1983 while attending the University of Toronto. He won two Hart House literary prizes and Canadian Fiction Magazine`s annual Contributor`s Prize in 1985. In 1987 he published a collection of 11 short stories, Swimming Lessons, and Other Stories from Firozsha Baag (1987), which describes the daily lives of the inhabitants of a Bombay apartment complex.

Rohinton Mistry`s first novel, Such a Long Journey, creates a vivid picture of Indian family life and culture as well as tells a story rich in subject matter, characterization and symbolism. It is set in 1971 Bombay, when India went to war over what was later to become Bangladesh. Mistry skillfully parallels public events involving Indira Gandhi with the misfortunes of the novel`s principal characters. When Such a Long Journey was published in 1991, it won the Governor General`s Award, the Commonwealth Writers Prize for Best Book, and the W.H. Smith/Books in Canada First Novel Award. It was short listed for the prestigious Booker Prize, and for the Trillium Award. It has been translated into German, Swedish, Norwegian, Danish and Japanese. Such a Long Journey was made into a movie in 2000, starring Om Puri and Roshan Seth.

A Fine Balance won the L.A. Times Book Award for Fiction, the Commonwealth Writer`s Prize, Canada`s prestigious Giller Prize and was a 1996 Booker Prize Finalist.

Mistry lives with his wife in Toronto. His new novel Family Matters, will be released by Knopf in 2002.

I must confess I read and reread this as a travelogue, surreal Lonely Planet-like, full of tantalizing references.

Speaking of surrealism as a tool of `antiestablishment` activism, hope the all-powerful M`bai filmy glitz and glamour gets its due share of this, someday.

Sadhana

Well, if any of you has any intentions of pleasing your Bengali friends give him your good wishes today `coz today is Anjali, one of the most important day of Durga Pooja.(And not me, I am not a Bengali).

Cheers

Well, if any of you has any intentions of pleasing your Bengali friend give him your good wishes today `coz today is Anjali, one of the most important day of Durga Pooja.(And not me, I am not a Bengali).

Cheers

Dear T,

Looks like:

1. You (and by extension the ISI) know more about Mumbai that I do.

2. You (and by extension the ISI) have been to Mumbai more recently than I.

So I (and by extension the RAW) hereby humbly surrender.

As they say in Bombaiya, ``Tu Shivaji``.

And I concur with your opinion of the city.... the squalor is intimidating and the apparent misery of the sheep like droves far more pervasive than those few and far between for whom the pipe dream bears fruition.

Harish:

Attribute this to the best traditions of covert co-operation between the oxy-moronish ISI & RAW.

the happy one #28:

Had an old edition of ISI`s Bombay Handbook. Thanks. Will have it updated :)

Sad for Shankar dada. Though happy for his `marial tattoos.`

Badhshah still there?

It wasn`t Julie.

Was there recently. Planned a stay of five days. Rushed out in two. Couldn`t hack it. Have the same problems with NYC. Find both too over whelming now.


shankar #27:

Thanks. Will check them out when ISI sends me on an errand. Or RAW. Am an equal opportunity employee.

zerozerosevenish,

temporal

Dear Temporal,

You have got it all wrong! Have you ever been to Bombay? How can you make such baseless assumptions?

Firstly, that Faluda place has no branches whatsoever! It says so on big bold red letters right on the stall!

Secondly, Shankar dada (Shankar Vitthalrao Apte) no longer circles ponies around the Bandstand. Uskoo bhot shantee se samjayela tha ki jiyadaa shanpatti nai chodne ka our Shakeel bhai ko hafta dena ka ... lekeen buddha saala sathiya gaya our Shakeel bhai se lafda le liya... abhi voheej bandstand pe baith ke bheekh mangtela hey! Bola tha salle ku!

Thirdly, Qayyum Bhai the Kababwala passed away many years ago... his eldest Maqbool now runs the show.

Fourthly, Julie (The Bolshoi Beaver) who used to practice her ballet in the buff lived on the seventeenth floor and not the third/ fourth!! And she wasn`t that cute either... in fact the sight of bouncing flesh with awkward ballet moves was quite grotesque!

So dear Temporal... as you can well see, you are wrong on all counts!

If you visit Bombay you will see it is nothing like you accuse it of being.

Artlessly yours,

The `Appy One

P.S: You have to excuse Aakar and I for going off on nostalgic trips. Aakar used to be a dear friend in school and I still cant get over the fact that we ran into each other again here on Chowk!

temporal,

If you ever visit Bombay, try the kebabs from the street hawker on the rocky Breach Candy beach. Its to die for.

aakar and `appy:

To help harish, I suppose I can ask if that faluda/ice cream place across from Crawford Market and later a branch probably at the far end of Marine Drive is still there?

Or the full name of Shankar dada who used to rent ponies circling the Band Stand traffic island for the kids on Sundays.

Or the name of the Kebabwala who sets up his pavement kiosk behind the Taj late into the evening.

Or the cute one from behind the third floor window (fourth if you are in North America) on Marine Drive who used to..........

innocently,

temporal

Re: Aakar,

Ah yes... Ideal Cafe! Thanks! Its been a while. :)

the happy one #22

``P.S: Anybody remember the name of the Iranian Cafe I`m talking about?``

ya, that`s Ideal Cafe.

regards

aakar patel

t #21:

thanks - i`ll keep that in mind. but why does it change around? do they have a different calender or something - the way we have a lunar one?

Re: Harish:

I agree with some others here who have compared this to an image/ experience/ sense collage more than a Dali. To me Dali was more deliberately symbolic. The constant organic metamorphic references to ants & grasshoppers & bats & cows & lapdogs reminded me of the animated sequences from The Wall & Natural Born Killers. All in all, like Aakar said, it was grotesquely overdone & cool at the same time!

To answer your question about whether your piece reminded one of Bombay I have to say that you did a great job. In fact I think that the dark perspective you provide is more akin to that of an outsider`s. As somebody who does not belong to the city but has been there enough, I would have to say that the dark underbelly of the city is omni-pervasive. Only Mumbaikars swear by the city.... visitors tend to find it quite gruesome and your poems paint a gruesome picture.

Ever since I read Midnight`s Children I have been fascinated by the tetra pods.... a walk on the marine drive parapet to that Iranian Cafe under the over-bridge and munch on chilly cheese toast with Hayward`s 1000! That`s a memory that came flashing back!

Thanks.

P.S: Anybody remember the name of the Iranian Cafe I`m talking about?

Lubna #12:

[hey, what`s with those `?` in my previous interact?]
---I suspect when you transfer the comments the program changed (‘) into (?)

[thank you for the info on Durga Puja - very interesting, didn`t know about it. i am now in a better position to wish some of my Bengali friends on this occasion.]
---The SweetOne informs me “... I will make a small correction at your post. This year the starts on 3 October...it is not fixed on particular days... it comes on different days ranging from 3rd week of September to 3 week of October...This year it is on October 3....”

So wait till October 3 before wishing your Bengali friends.

love,

temporal

RE: Scout # 10

Oh! That was helpful, THANKS A LOT:)

temporal #14

``...is Karanjia still alive? Is Blitz?``

r k karanjia is alive (his brother bk is a mid-day columnist). met rkk in `97, was a little out of it because of his age which is a pity.

mr a and vijay mallya leased out blitz for five years from the karanjias two years ago. it`s a total rag and mercifully hasn`t been brought out in the last six weeks for lack of funds. i`m preparing its obit for mid-day -- what a legendary paper it was!

``either... (a) Ansari is a hands-off boss or (b) he {aakar}is lazy.``

guilty as charged.

tariq ansari is an exceptionally cool boss, god bless him, and gives me way more rope than he should or i deserve.

regards

aakar patel

You are one of the better writers here.

That said, I found the poems strained - especially the first one. The images were weird (perhaps that

was the idea) and the metaphores did not really succeed (IMHO). Too many difficult words. All in all I came away with no fresh perspective on Bombay.

Harish:

The address you were looking for is www.monsoonmag.com. Her name is Shikha Malavia. A labour of love for her: not very regular though.

I mentioned another address in a post to aakar below. Check it out as well.

You have not been to Karachi. It is probably closest to Bombay in many ways. It was once a part of the Bombay Presidency in RajTimes.

If you want a feel for it, visit these sites:

http://www.angelfire.com/il/sheher
http://home.uchicago.edu/

temporal:

Thank you for the kind words. And plead guilty for the unforgivable typos. Hope previous record will bail me out back into your mailing list.

scout

thank you for your kind words.

veeresh

sorry for the oversight...

rehanhasanansari

feel good to hear that from you...gone are the days of poetry as editorials...

sac

glad your patience was rewarded. The first poem has had similar responses earlier too...

Lubna

Thank you for your encouragement to post more. Maybe I`ll manage the courage. This itself was after much wrangling...and temporal`s encouragement.

aakar

before you jump in to chide me about crowding the reponses...please to note..i have clubbed them in one...and devoted one exclusively to you.

cheers

PS: temporal can you send me the url of a SA literary site you had sent me earlier. thanks in advance.

aakar patel #14

[i`m not sure. i do know that writing that makes people think is not popular for obvious reasons. mr akbar started a poetry page in the asian age, and that didn`t last too long for lack of response (apart from the bengalis).]

Arvind Passey invited me to send in contributions to Poetry Splash at http://www.poetrysplash.com
You may check it out.

Ofcourse I seldom respond to un-addressed, unsolicited mail ;)

Which means I have to offer you an apology and explanation for your kind invite to write for Mid-day. Apologise: am lazy ;)

Hey, is Karanjia still alive? Is Blitz?

[ya, india probably has the worst stylesheets on earth. mix of cliche and corn.]

You want me to mention the nightmare scenario from the other side and start a war?

[btw, mid-day`s desk is way too young to have a formatted stylesheet in place.]

Helpful Hint: Gentle reader, and those not familiar with what is being said here and those who scan the newspapers daily --- you must learn the Art of Reading between the Lines. What aakar is saying here is that (a) Ansari is a hands-off boss or (b) he {aakar}is lazy.

regards,

temporal

I spent a several hours at night in Bombay a couple of years ago. Trouble is it was at the airport lounge between connecting flights, and from your poems I see that I missed out on all the weird stuff going on outside in Bombay.

dear harish

i cannot remember the last time everybody praised a writer on chowk in such unison.

``I would love to know if you smelled...if not saw...our city in the threesome.``

of course, i did -- but made no mention because your description is so obviously excellent.

``Deskwise...does it explain why so little poetry gets published in... Mumbai or... bharat.``

i`m not sure. i do know that writing that makes people think is not popular for obvious reasons. mr akbar started a poetry page in the asian age, and that didn`t last too long for lack of response (apart from the bengalis).

``I think too many indian desks do suffer from a chronic...disease called a Uniform Civil Code of style. Wonder if you ever thought about it.``

ya, india probably has the worst stylesheets on earth. mix of cliche and corn.

and yes, india today HAS become totally unreadable, though i refer to the stories/story ideas as much as the writing itself. they have the most dreary covers imaginable.

btw, mid-day`s desk is way too young to have a formatted stylesheet in place.

regards

aakar patel

ps: chowk editors, i would like to protest against this unilateral americanisation of writers` spelling. it`s totally unaesthetic.

hey, what`s with those `?` in my previous interact?

anyway.....

t:

thank you for the info on Durga Puja - very interesting, didn`t know about it. i am now in a better position to wish some of my Bengali friends on this occasion.

Harish:

Thank you so much for the poems - really enjoyed them. You said the FIRST one was an ?attempt to do in verse what Salvadore Dali did in painting?. To me there was surrealism in all three of them. Maybe not as intense as in the first poem, but definitely there.

`Bombay: A Paranoic Critical Landscape`:

I wish I were familiar with Bombay so that the references made more sense but nevertheless the images you used were very pungently vivid (does that make sense? don?t know how else to describe the impression I was left with). I thought the verse ?At the Worli seaface...... to substitute their two-inch complexes? was amazing. Again, I wish I were more familiar with the Bombay landscape. I liked the way you ended the poem on such a buoyant note after all that heavy stuff. The poem seemed somewhat erratic, disjointed in its content to me. As if you were that fruit fly and the poem was a collection of snapshots from your mind of different areas of Bombay. Oh, of course, Dali...

`Colored bats`:

This one I liked the most. The imagery was very original. It had a smoother flow. More controlled compared to the first one.

`Street Sepulchre`:

I found this one to be the most poignant one compared to the others. One single image was left etched in my mind:

?Street death has a peculiar habit

Of squeezing out grace

From ugly worn torn bodies.?

How come you don`t contribute more poetry? Think you should.

-Lubna

To me a form of expression different from the usual textual narrative is meaningful only if it conveys some thought or message more forcefully or effectively. Initially my reaction was the same as aakar`s - too much verbiage and stylistic pretension without much substance but then a little more reflection and second reading and I kind of enjoyed it. For lack of more explicit parallels(after all I am a prude at least on Chowk!!) the experience was akin to drinking some really strong capuccino the third time round. Refreshingly different from the usual mushy(decaffeinated) stuff that passes off for poetry on Chowk.

Harish: Thanks for an enjoyable read.

later

-sac

ali1 #83 Thanks for the congratulations. I also have similar kinships with urdu-speaking people too, so dont feel too bad. Since this brotherhood is based on a certain way of thinking, and not on the sexual activity of ancestors, I think you will have some trouble figuring it out.

Urstruly #7,

You don`t have to ``get`` every poem that you read.

The interpretation and understanding of poetry is different for different individuals. I know you know that, and if you don`t, you ARE an idiot.

So don`t feel bad.

I feel like a village idiot- I didn`t get any part of it :(

aakar,

Thanks for the read aakar. Your first para is directed to chowk editors. Yours truly does not spell that way.

The second...is a fairly valid point. However, I had hoped the explanatory note i had in the end had taken care of it...when i read it again...i notice I did not use the word excess...also a part of it all.

I would love to know if you smelled...if not saw...our city in the threesome. If you notice...verbal profligacy is not a favourite weakness in the other poems.

Deskwise...does it explain why so little poetry gets published in aamchi Mumbai or hamaara bharat.

I think too many indian desks do suffer from a chronic...disease called a Uniform Civil Code of style. Wonder if you ever thought about it. India Today...was overtaken by the sheer uniformity of its style. It was Dilip Bobb all around. Therefore...if anybody switched the bylines...no general reader would notice the difference. Though to Mid Day`s credit...its pages remain fairly unaffected by this general substandard.

cheers from mumbai

harish

How could you forget masturbation?

CONFESSION

(This must appear today. Since I have three or four articles already in the pipeline I think it will be unfair to ask the Editor [She is smiling, and nodding appreciatively, I can feel it;)] to let this supersede them. Besides this needs some whipping up to shape it into a decent article. Hence I seek forgivance in advance from all, specially Harish for using this space.)

DURGA PUJA

(reproduced and condensed from several sites on the net)

Origin of Durga - the mythology

In the ancient times, a demon called `Mahishasura` earned the favour of `Lord Shiva` after a long meditation. Shiva, pleased with the devotion of the demon, blessed him with a boon that no man or Deity would be able to kill him. Empowered with the boon, Mahishasura started his reign of terror over the World. People were killed mercilessly and even the Gods were driven out from heaven.


The Gods scared and unable to combat him, requested Lord Shiva, Lord Bramha, Lord Vishnu to stop Mahishasura`s tyranny. In answer, the three Gods combined their devine energy and summoned up a feminine form so brilliantly glaring that it illuminated the heavens. From the glow emerged Devi Durga, a beautiful yellow woman with ten arms riding a lion. Despite her grace she bore a menancing expression, for Durga was born to kill. Fully grown and beautiful Durga was immediately armed by the gods and sent forth against Mahishasura bearing in each of her ten hands, symbols of their divine power. Vishnu`s discus; Shiva`s trident; Varuna`s conchshell; Agni`s flaming dart; Vayu`s bow; Surya`s quiver and arrow; Yama`s iron rod; Indra`s thunderbolt; Kubera`s club and a garland of snakes from Shesha and a lion as a charger from Himalayas.


Riding a lion, she attacked Mahishasura. After a fierce battle, Durga transformed into Devi Chandika, the most ferocious form of the Goddess, and beheaded Mahishasura.

Bengalis worship Durga as the mother goddess, the epitome of `Shakti`(divine power), to deliver us from the evil and bring peace and prosperity in our lives. But the most interesting part of Durga Puja is that, instead of placing Durga on a high alter and worshipping her from a distance the Bengalis embrace her in their hearts and make her an inseperable member of the family. We welcome Durga to the earth as our daughter who comes at her parents` home for her annual visits. Durga stays for four days-Shashti, Saptami, Ashtami and Nabami along with her children, Ganesha, Laxmi, Kartik and Saraswati and sets for her husband`s abode on Vijaya Dashami.

_______________________________

Why this intro about Durga Puja?

Well, it is the most important festival for Bengalis. And the beginning of this festival is also the birthday of my sister M, whom I met a second time through Chowk. (How did we meet? That’s another long story!)

It seems the letter M has acquired an undue significance in my personal life.

Today is the first day of Durga Puja, an auspicious occasion according to M. She was born this day. I wish her peace, health and happiness. (A and R, take good care of her. Love you all.)

Dear fellow Chowkies, since you have allowed me this intrusion, let me share one related thought. May I?

On other boards we are bludgeoning each other to death over seemingly meaningless and irreconcilable differences. Who is a Muslim who is not one. Who is a greater leader who isn’t. All the while the poor live in denial of basic necessities of life. Roti, Kapra, Makaan and DIGNITY.

I find these pissing matches distasteful and generally avoid them But lately I have found fresh infusion of concerned thinking here. Inter-actors who advocate doing something anything positive to alleviate the conditions --- be they environmental or people related. More power to you, folks.

And a Happy Birthay, dear M, once again. And Happy Durga Puja.

May our gods bless us all with health and inner happiness.

---t

Harish:

Wonderful. Not ONLY Dali. Capotish as well!

I had to check with three Bombayites to get most of the references.

The first one was eclectic, frenzied, colourful, pulsating.

Seems you set the pace for the quiet to follow in second and third.

Street Sepulchre haunted me most -- squeezing out grace/from ugly ...worn bodies.

But I loved the Colored bats most. Whirling. Voyeurs of law, rust genitalled, universal pimp.

___________________

Would love to read the Happy One. That does not exclude views of other poetry lovers.

___________________

Welcome back. Hope you had a good time in Goa and Kerala, you beach bum.

___________________

(...and ... excuse me while I don the other cap....)

___________________

‘Bombay..’ is marred by formatting inconsistency, contemptuous disregard for commas and periods and two unforgivable spelling mistakes. If this was the ‘riposte’ you could have revised them.

How could they have escaped you? Must remove you from my mailing list ;)

regards,

temporal

WOW!

Excellent!

``Ten million scavenger ants dream

Their delirious dream

Of feasting on the chief minister`s

Succulent ,gelatinous body.``

Soooooooooooooooooooooo Dali :)

One of my favorite painters.

i`m a little irritated by the ease with which americanisms -- colored, millimeter -- cohabit with standard english spellings.

i also think far too many words may have been used -- not enough time or space to chew over lines or paragraphs: not enough white space, as we say on the desk.

i`m not sure if that makes sense.

i wish i could offer more constructive criticism, especially since i`m a mumbaikar, but i don`t have the bandwidth.

regards

aakar patel