A person whom you love the most, a person who is your companion so much so that you both are seamlessly bound to each others' lives....such a person, if, is dying, then what do you feel? Does one feel bad and sad because...
1) ...you feel sorry that such a wonderful person will cease to exist?
or
2)... you feel sad for yourself...sad thinking of what are you going to do and how difficult life would be once that person goes out of your life?
What is the reason we all cry when that love of our life dies? Is it selfishness reflected in our sense of loss? or is it the projection of the dying person's pain in your own self due to the closeness of the relationship? or is it the shattering of one's deeply desired dreams and aspirations that were intricately woven around the other person?
What is the real reason behind grief in the face of death of the love of your life?
Showing posts with label Of note. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Of note. Show all posts
Sunday, May 1, 2011
Monday, March 24, 2008
Where is Malgudi?
We all love R K Narayan and his Malgudi...don't we? For those who have not yet read his works, I strongly recommend it. Once in 1982, he was awarded with a fellowship of the American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters. I am reproducing an excerpt of his accepatance speech where he tells us where Malgudi actually is or rather where it actually isn't !!
" You (Mr. Ambassador) have spoken of my writing with warmth and understanding. I am glad you have felt drawn to my characters and their environment. I am often questioned, ' Where is Malgudi?' which is the background of my novels and short stories. I'd like to take this occassion to answer it. I didn't consider too long when I invented this little town. It had just occurred to me when I started on my first nove, Swami and Friends, about fifty years ago, to be exact in September 1930, that it would be safer to have a fictitious name for the background of the novel, which would leave one free to meddle with its geography and details as I pleased without incurring the wrath of any city-father of any actual town or city. I wanted to be able to put in whatever I like, and whereever I liked - a little street or school or temple or a bungalow or even a slum, a railway line, at any spot, a minor despot in a little world. I began to like my role, and I began to be fascinated by its possibilities; its river, market place, and the far-off mountain roads and forests acquired a concrete quality, and have imprisoned me within their boundaries, with the result that I am unable to escape from Malgudi, even if I wished to ...."
What a vision !! His simplicity baffles me still .. R K Narayan never uses hi-fi words or complex sentences.. his writings are full of understanding of the daily human life in the queer old town of Malgudi. Malgudi, the over-used word that describes a gamut of things... Malgudi..( sigh )
" You (Mr. Ambassador) have spoken of my writing with warmth and understanding. I am glad you have felt drawn to my characters and their environment. I am often questioned, ' Where is Malgudi?' which is the background of my novels and short stories. I'd like to take this occassion to answer it. I didn't consider too long when I invented this little town. It had just occurred to me when I started on my first nove, Swami and Friends, about fifty years ago, to be exact in September 1930, that it would be safer to have a fictitious name for the background of the novel, which would leave one free to meddle with its geography and details as I pleased without incurring the wrath of any city-father of any actual town or city. I wanted to be able to put in whatever I like, and whereever I liked - a little street or school or temple or a bungalow or even a slum, a railway line, at any spot, a minor despot in a little world. I began to like my role, and I began to be fascinated by its possibilities; its river, market place, and the far-off mountain roads and forests acquired a concrete quality, and have imprisoned me within their boundaries, with the result that I am unable to escape from Malgudi, even if I wished to ...."
What a vision !! His simplicity baffles me still .. R K Narayan never uses hi-fi words or complex sentences.. his writings are full of understanding of the daily human life in the queer old town of Malgudi. Malgudi, the over-used word that describes a gamut of things... Malgudi..( sigh )
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