काळे व.पु., संवादिनी

काळे व.पु., संवादिनी, विश्वकर्मा साहित्यालय, पुणे, १९७२ (पृष्ठ संख्या ११३)

गुण: ७/१०

'संवादिनी' वेगळे आहे. हा व.पुं.नी केलेला प्रयोग आहे. आणि तो यशस्वी झालाय म्हणायला हरकत नाही. पुस्तकाच्या सुरुवातीला त्यांनी म्हटल्याप्रमाणे त्यांना एकदा कथा, लघुकथा, त्यांच्यामधली नॅरेशन लिहायचा कंटाळा आला. वर्णने, बारीक सारीक तपशील लिहिण्याचा उबग आला. मग त्यांनी विचार केला की कथा संपूर्ण संवादात का लिहू नये? स्वतःच्याच सहा कथा निवडून त्यांनी त्या कथांचे संवादात रुपांतर केले. शिवाय कुठेही नावे नाहीत, प्रस्तावनेला शीर्षक नाही, तसेच कथांनाही. एक कथा संपली की एक कोरे पान आणि मग पुढची कथा.

मग यात आणि नाटकात तो फरक काय? फरक असा की नाटकाच्या संहितेत पात्रांची नावे असतात. कोण कुठली वाक्ये बोलतेय ते लिहिलेले असते. प्रसंगी कंसांत सेटवर काय आहे, संवाद चालू असताना पाठी काय चालू आहे वगैरे वर्णन असू शकते. संवादिनी पुस्तकात असले काही नाही. नुसते संवाद. पण त्यातून आपल्याला कळते की कुठले वाक्य कुणाच्या तोंडी आहे. मराठीत पुरुष 'मी करतो' तर स्त्री 'मी करते' म्हणते. अशा वाक्यांवरून आपल्याला बोलणारा तो आहे का ती हे कळू शकते. (जे इंग्लिशमध्ये कठीण जाईल.) नुसती संवादातून कथा उभी करायला कौशल्य लागते. ते व.पुं.नी दाखवले आहे. हा प्रयोग वेगळा आनंद देऊन जातो. शिवाय पाने झरझर पुढे सरकतात. ओघाने वाहणाऱ्या संवादांमध्ये वर्णनाचे अडथळे नाहीत.

बहुतेक कथा त्या काळाच्या द्योतक आहेत. 'एका मिठीची कथा' हलकी फुलकी आहे. 'धरले तर चावते' या कथेत कामावर जाणाऱ्या बायकांचा विषय आहे. 'आज तरी भांडशील ना' ही चांगल्यापैकी विनोदी कथा. 'आत्मनस्तु कामाय' अभिमान आणि नवरा बायको यांच्यातले संबंध याबद्दल बरेच काही सांगते. 'निरंजन मला उत्तर हवेय' मध्ये टेस्ट ट्यूब बेबी चा उल्लेख आहे. आणि 'दिवस उद्याचा' ही  ज्योतिष विद्येवरची विनोदी गोष्ट. 'निरंजन....' सारख्या गोष्टींत व.पुं.ची भाषा मधेच कमालीची नाटकी, कृत्रिम होते. ते थोडे खटकते. कायम बोली भाषा ठेवणे त्यांना सहज जमले असते. या प्रयोगात तरी त्यांनी नाटक आणायचे नाही.

तात्पर्य: प्रयोग म्हणून अवश्य वाचण्याजोगे. मी वाचनालया तून आणलेली आवृत्ती पहिलीच, किंमत पाच रुपये! आता नव्या आवृत्तीत आणि नव्या प्रकाशकाचे पुस्तक उपलब्ध आहे.

Boo, Catherine. Behind the Beautiful Forevers. Hamish Hamilton (imprint of Penguin), New Delhi, 2012 (Pages 254, Hardback)

Rating: 8.5/10

Catherine Boo’s book with a strange sounding title is a serious journalistic accomplishment. She has focussed on one small Bombay slum located close to the airport. Over a period of four years she documented the experiences of its residents with written notes, video recordings, audiotapes and photographs. A Pulitzer winning New Yorker journalist, Ms Boo took great pains to establish an accurate factual account of the stories unfolding in the little slum. The account of Fatima’s self immolation, one of the key subplots, is based on repeated interviews of 168 people and records from the police department, the hospital, the morgue and the courts.

As a Bombay resident who has witnessed the birth of slums in this city, I thought it is difficult for a book telling real life slum stories to shock me. But this book does that. The details of scavenging, petty thievery, corruption as a way of life made me feel frustrated and helpless. If this is what goes on a few miles from my house, I truly feel depressed and ashamed about my city, my country and life in general.

Every person in the Annawadi slum is struggling for survival. The thievery and corruption stem from economics rather than morality. Ms Boo has not changed any names. One can go and meet the characters any day. Indeed one of our friends immediately went to the slum. He said it was small enough not to be found easily. But once there, he could identify the locations in the book and meet the key persona. Most of them would never be able to read this book, but the slum dwellers enthusiastically talked about Ms Boo (Katrina to them) and her able assistant (Unnati Tripathi).

In an otherwise neutral reporting style, Ms Boo employs subtle sarcasm that adds spice to the well written book. Enjoying is not the right term for reading this book, but it is pacy despite being an outright non-fiction.

‘Beautiful forevers’ is a lavish billboard advertising Italian tiles. Annawadi, the slum described in the book, is located behind that advertising. Hence the title.

Some people have compared this book to the Oscar winning movie ‘Slumdog Millionaire.’ Having consumed both the products, I resent such comparison. Slumdog, for me, was a dishonest film – made with an eye on the Oscar – whereas Ms Boo’s book is extremely honest, reporting everything exactly as it happened, and not prescribing any remedy or policy. It may not win any awards, but it disturbs and breaks readers’ hearts.

Verdict: Worth buying and reading despite the depression such reading is likely to cause.

Gyan Prakash. Mumbai Fables

Gyan Prakash. Mumbai Fables, Harper Collins publisher India, Noida, India, 2011 (Pages 396, paperback)

Rating: 8/10

Anyone who loves or ever has loved Bombay/Mumbai will enjoy this book immensely. I did. 

While doing research on something else, I stumbled on this book in the net. Google Books offer an extensive preview of the book. Without leaving my computer screen, I must have read more than fifty pages. Captivated by the book, and disappointed that Google had not made the entire book available, I immediately ordered it online. 

On one hand, Mumbai Fables offers Bombay’s history from the Portuguese times till today, but the book is structured differently than a history book. It chooses certain defining highlights in Bombay’s history and devotes a chapter to each. You have chapters on the Gothic Parade in the south of Bombay, the Nanawati case and Blitz’s role in influencing the outcome, city’s shifting dominance from communists to Shiv Sena, and the planning and frustrations of building a twin city. All of them provide insights into the respective times. 

The book is extremely well written. The author is the professor of history at Princeton University. The language of the book is that of an outsider (not Indian English), but Gyan Prakash has worked with passion of an insider when researching and writing the book.

Did you know that Sir Jamshedji Jejeebhoy (whose name graces a school of art, a hospital and a flyover) was the king of the opium trade? That Bombay was a kind of ghetto city with Europeans living to the south of Churchgate and mill workers cramped in the Girangaon tenements? In fact the distribution of different languages and religions that existed 100 years ago (as mentioned in the book) still holds true: Parsis:Colaba,Taddeo, Dadar; Maharashtrian middle class: Girgaon, Thakurdwar, Shivaji Park; Gujratis, Jains: Kalbadevi, Bhuleshwar, Ghatkopar, Borivli; Muslims: Mohammad Ali Road, Bhendi Bazaar, Abdul Rehman street; south Indians: Matunga. We are all deeply connected to our roots. 

The story of Maharashtra’s chief minister clandestinely selling the Marine Drive land to a gang of builders: Dr Maker, Jolly group, Mittals, Tulsiani, Dalamal, Somani, and Raheja bring alive the skyscrapers on Nariman point. The plots were sold without tenders and without an auction. The court passed strictures and the chief minister resigned. Is this what would happen with current scams like 2G? History seems to repeat itself. 

If a fault must be found with the book, I would point to the chapter ‘Avenger on the Street’. It is devoted to Doga, Bombay’s fictitious superhero. I must admit I had not read those comics, not even heard about them. A long chapter with colour reproduction of the comics talking about Doga as seriously as if he were a historical figure seems out of place for an otherwise excellent book.

Verdict: Bombay residents and Bombay lovers must read this. If you wish to read the book without paying, read the hundred or so pages here. I am sure, like me, you will be tempted to order the book online after that.