Aandhi by Gulzar

Aandhi is a novel by Gulzar. The foreword to the novel explains that it is a screenplay or a scenario that is presented to the readers. This is a movie directed by Gulzar starring Sanjeev Kumar and Suchitra Sen.

It is about how J.K. a hotel manager and Aarti Devi, an establish politician, meet after years of being separated from their marriage. Flashbacks narrate their story, and a few events in the present bring alive the tensions and the affection that is still alive between them.

An easy read, this scenario, as he chooses to call it, is moving and thought provoking. I have not seen the movie, but it is almost there in my head- the descriptions are so real that I feel I have a movie running in my head, probably my own version of Aandhi, and till I see the director's version of it, this is what remains as Aandhi for me.

Which brings me to, is it better to make movies of books? Or the other way round? For me reading a book gives a very different experience than watching a movie. And not even a single book I have read and loved has been the same when made into a movie. Probably because, while I am reading, I create my own characters, fall in love with them, cry with them and laugh with them, and suddenly when I see them in a movie it is someone else who has imagined them and given them life. This someone else's imagination is most often jarring, as it is dissonant from my imagination. So I prefer the books. And if it is a movie, I prefer a movie which does not exist as a book.

Basheer

Went for a Blossom Book Fair in Cochin and bought 19 books for 1000 bucks! And part of that steal was a whole lot of novels by Vaikom Mohammad Basheer. Malayalam novels. I had read a few Basheer novels many years back, now I have gotten hooked to it. He has a distinct style. A conversational way of telling stories. And each story unfolds beautifully while you flip through the pages, and while you reach the end, you become witness to a stark reality. An almost disturbing metaphor to certain events or feelings in life. The metaphors are what make his novels endearing.

I read Mathilukal (meaning 'Walls'), a story about a person who is in the Central Jail. A person who gets renewed hope and energy in his boring life when he starts interacting with a female voice from across the walls, from the women's jail. Finally when he is free to go to the world outside the walls, and he wonders if that world outside is a bigger prison. This novel was later made into an award winning movie by Adoor Gopalakrishnan starring Mammootty.

Ente Uppappakku Orana Undayirunnu (meaning 'my grandfather had an elephant') is another novel about living in the past glory and wealth which is now lost and long gone by. The ridiculing of past glory, and of changing times has been brought alive by Basheer in this novel which is told in the north Kerala/ Muslim dialect of Malayalam.

I have about 8 more of his novels to read...

Introduction to Sangam literature and Tamil religious beliefs

After Sanskrit, Tamil is the next oldest language and it is still in use.

The Sangam period literature can be summarised as below:
Ettuthokai (8 compilations) 3rd Cent A.D.
Pathupattu (10 songs) 3rd Cent A.D.
Tolkappiyam (work on grammar) 1st Cent B.C. to 1st Cent A.D.
Pathinenkeezhkanakku (18 classics) 5th Cent A.D.
Silappadikaram 5th Cent A.D.
Manimekalai 5th Cent A.D.

The Ainperumkappiyam refers to the Five Great works

Silappadikaram
Manimekalai
Valayapathi
Kundalakesi
Tolkappiyam

The Ettuthokai talks about Aham and Puram.
The 5 Thinais or types of landscapes are much talked about here. Palai, kurinji, marutham, mullai and neythal referring to wasteland, mountains, agricultural land, sylvan tracts and littoral tracts respectively. There is a god associated with each thinai, a season, a time of day and so on. The heroines of poetries are also to follow these thinais, each thinai rules over a type of heroine or love-behaviour- separation, union, variance, patient endurance, pining, etc.

The primordial Tamil religious beliefs included spirits, ghosts, nature worship, ancestor worship, divinity being inherent to a specific place, descent of the divine into humans (possession), etc.

The prominent Gods were Maal or Mayon identified with Vishnu.
Shiva gained importance later on from the earlier nomenclature of Rudra.

These two gave rise to Vaishnavism and Shaivism much later on.

From Fire Worship to Temple Worship

Though the lecture came a little too late in our course, precisely 4 days before it was getting over, this was a session we really found interesting.

Starting from 'Animism' (attributing soul to inanimate objects and worshipping them), to 'Anthropomorphism' (visualising the inanimate objects with souls in a human form), to 'Henotheism' (atrributing creation, preservation and destruction to one God) the religious beliefs came a long long way.

The Vedic pantheon of Gods were different from those that are worshipped today. Indra, Agni, Rudra, Surya, Varuna, etc., most of these Gods were formed from elements of nature. Rudra later was given soumyata aspects and came to be known as Shiva. Fire worship was popular at this time and ritual sacrifices were often carried out. The head of the people was known as Narapati, and later a person called Bhupati became the head of the land (property was not a determinant earlier).

The Rig Veda dates back to 1200 B.C. Each Veda has a Samhita section, a Brahmana section (800 B.C.) Aaranyaka section and Upanishads (600 B.C.)

The priests appointed the Kings to be the rulers of the people, and thus they were above the kings themselves technically. and this was also the reason for a nexus between the Brahmins and the Kshatriyas. By around 500 B.C. the priests fade in importance when the kings emerge stronger and doubts were cast on the efficacy of the rituals and sacrifices. More important was atmayajna, and this was the emergence of the Upanishadic thoughts. The questioning of the fire sacrifices came from the Kshatriya caste. Kings built huge temples as places of worship, and thus the shift from fire worship to temple worship.

It was during the Period of the Epics that talk of temples or tirthas (place associated with water for prayers and offerings) first emerged. kshetra was also a new term which referred to 'potent spaces'. As opposed to this Vedic literature has no mention of a public place of worship and there was no sanctity attached to a specific place.

Between 1st cent B.C. and 1st centurey A.D., acculturisation processes resulted in the Gods being given totem symbols and tribal symbols- like the cobra, turtle, lion, etc. These became vehicles of Gods, or symbols associated with Gods.

The priestly clan found new roles for themselves within the temples. there were hotirs who culled out verses from the Rg Veda, udgatirs who were specialists in the Samaveda and sang and chanted during rituals, advaris physically handles the ritual processes, and brahmanas were the experts in all the vedas and they supervised the entire ritual processes.

The other interesting point made was about how with improved connectivity, opening up of trade routes and newly acquired wealth, Vaishyas and Sudras also had money, but no status in society. They found solace in newer heterodox religions like Jainism and Buddhism.

The Bhagavad Gita itself was a later addition to the Mahabharata, for the common people. It was to help the common people battle out the Kurukshetras in their daily lives. As Jainism and Buddhism was about renouncing the world, Bhagavad Gita was pitched at another group, those common people who might not want to renounce, but want to carry on with the simply daily lives.