Bill Gates did say: "My kids will have
computers of course, but they will have books first”. I am blessed to
have been born in a family that had a very large library. All kinds of books
and all kinds of music too. I grew up on a diet of books and music. It was
probably one of the largest private libraries around my neighbourhood. From
Indian classics to western ones, from politics to drama, from serious novels to
the Panchatantra. As a youngster I read Swami Vivekananda, western classics,
Panchatantra and, of course, Asterix too. I firmly believe my education would
have been incomplete without the Panchatantra and Asterix. Then we had music.
From Chitti Babu’s Veena to George Harrison’s guitar riff. From Lalgudi
Jayaraman to Yehudi Menuhin. From Bollywood soundtracks to western rock and
classic. Music has always remained with me. Why am I telling you all this? I
just want to warn you for the record: I am not “Tone-Deaf”. Not that Girish
Karnad (GK) has a problem with me.
Somewhere in that large crowd of books was also V.S. Naipaul’s (VSN) “Area of darkness”. It also had Girish
Karnad’s “Hayavadana”. I’ve read neither of them but I know what Hayavadana is
about and through reviews and news reports I’m also aware a bit about what
Naipaul writes. In short, I know a litter bit about both. I don’t read as many
books now except for some quick reads during travel. I have a good excuse for
this. After all didn’t Albert Einstein
say: “Reading, after a certain age, diverts the mind
too much from its creative pursuits. Any man who reads too much and uses his
own brain too little falls into lazy habits of thinking”. You see? I’ve
taken Einstein seriously but not everyone has; especially not GK. His thinking
has been lazy for 10 long years as good old Einstein suggests. So GK comes out
with an ugly burst of anger and diatribe against VSN in a Litterfest that was
also meant to honour the latter with a lifetime award. And his problem? Its VSN
got this award, is anti-Muslim or not secular like him. Er.. make that a “professional secularist” as GK likes to
call himself. Also that VSN got a Nobel
Prize in 2001.
The accusation GK makes against VSN is that in all his books he has
never mentioned Indian music. Then the other one is that VSN is anti-Muslim,
that VSN blames Muslims for destroying Hindu culture. Okay! Now whether a
writer chooses to mention music or not is really no big deal. So I’ll just
throw that nonsense back into GK. The second point is that VSN is probably one
of those writers who has challenged and annoyed the glorious Commie writers of
Indian history. Our school text books will tell you how glorious those Mughal
rulers were and how much they contributed to Hindu culture. VSN just started
talking about what those school books didn’t tell people. Nowhere in the world
has an invasion by an alien culture and religion invaded a part of the world
and caused so much death, havoc and destruction of everything that the locals
valued. The problem for GK is that more people are openly talking about it than
ever before. It threatens the very survival of people like him and those who
follow a political ideology similar to his. I had predicted on Saturday,
November 3 that our TV channels, particularly NDTV and CNN-IBN, will
try to wash the sins of GK. And they didn’t fail.
To even suggest that because we speak of and lampoon the crimes of
Muslim invaders and that is hate for muslims is something only extra-ordinary
idiots can conjure up. Fact is nobody is holding present day Muslims in anyway
responsible for any of those historical crimes. And did those violent invaders
manage to destroy Hindu culture? It’s probably the only culture that Islamic invasion
has never managed to wipe out; not even by a sensible measure. If they had
managed that India today would be an Islamic republic. We would have been a
Pakistan. The true problem lies with “fake
secularism”. Secularists like GK and many others have militantly advocated
that muslim crimes must be covered up or muslims should be treated with a
higher priority than others. Even MMS has stated that they have the “first
right” to resources. This indeed is the present day problem with Muslim
appeasement. If you protest this appeasement, if you seek uniform civil code,
if you seek equal treatment of all Indians you are likely to be branded “Communal, fascist, hater”. This is the
political trick that GK plays on everyone.
Instead of discussing his political trickery our TV channels are
foolishly discussing a battle between GK Vs VSN when VSN has not even joined
the battle. Like a wise man VSN has simply ignored the idiotic outburst of GK.
The other important thing to note that is our Litterfests are no different from
our Page 3 characters. There’s jealousy, there’s back-biting, there’s bitching
and, in more soapy cases, open slandering. That VSN got the Nobel Prize is
probably bothering and upsetting GK. It’s a prize that is recognised and valued
across the world. What about GK? Well, he is mostly decorated with awards from
the establishment and the govt of India. He should be happy. He’s got the Padma awards and that places him in the
august company of the likes of Teesta
Setalvad; so why crib about some LitterFest award? Even Anil Dharker, a small time writer and
director of the Litterfest, claims he’s “secular” because he fights 200 cases
against Narendra Modi. Wow! I guess we can now have ‘secular justice’ and
‘communal justice’.
There is absolutely no problem with whatever GK had to say about VSN or
his writings. He can spew as much hatred as he wants. Of course, it doesn’t fool
anybody but the commie media morons are thrilled. Make no mistake, humiliating a
person in a function where he or she is to be presented an award not only
reflects poor professional culture but also smacks of a serious lack of
character. My mind goes back to Stephen
King’s horror movie “Carrie”.
Being an odd one out, her jealous and bitchy college friends don’t want Carrie
to win the ‘prom queen’ award as she had bagged the best boyfriend around.
Predictably, Carrie wins the award but the bitches have already set their
revenge in place. As she stands on the stage with her prize, a huge bucket full
of pig’s blood is rained on Carrie, drenching her from head to toe in red
filthy blood. In the horror that follows Carrie uses her telekinetic skills to
set the whole hall on fire and burns everybody to death. Fortunately, in GK’s case
no such horror befell him but he was no different from the bitches in Carrie
and has as much pig’s blood on his hands. The only consequence GK faces is that
he is now looked down upon as a very petty, pathetic figure and will not
command the same respect as before. He may possibly not care.
The other reason why many are so worked up over VSN appears to be the
international acclaim he has achieved, at least GK does. In slamming VSN,
Karnad even quotes Salman Rushdie
commenting on VSN winning the Nobel prize: “A fellow
traveller of fascism who disgraces the Nobel prize”. And GK is quoting
him because he calls VSN anti-Muslim. Where can you really find a moron like
him? Muslims world-wide have actually called
Rushdie a muslim-hater, anti-Islamic and have put a bounty on his head. No Muslim
anywhere in the world has called VSN a muslim-hater or Islam-hater or put a
bounty on his head except probably our very own “professional secularists”.
Now, the typical secularist will argue that the bounty on Rushdie has no merit.
Well dear secularists such hatred and bounty on VSN’s head, particularly in a
function honouring him has no merit either. If he writes crap, you speak crap
and maybe write crap too. So save the crap exchange!
I had long back thought that these petty literary figures are nothing
more than those petty bitches in Carrie. They hate anyone else being successful
or applauded. Does that explain why they look down on someone like Chetan Bhagat? I haven’t read a single
book of Chetan Bhagat but I have to say that he is an extraordinarily
successful writer. Forget that he may never win a Nobel or any award at all. In
an interview with Arnab Goswami
prior to the release of his book on Revolution, if that’s the name, there is
one stunning fact that CB revealed. The
first print run for that book was 5 lakh copies. Have you ever heard of
that in India? 5 lakh copies? At the very least CB has taken the reading habit
farther than any pompous litterer like GK or VSN. Increasingly, these so called Litterfests seem to be becoming more and
more a gather of littering minds, not literary minds. The garbage they
leave behind takes a lot of cleaning up.
