Lost Causes

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"Home of lost causes, and forsaken beliefs, and unpopular names, and impossible loyalties" 

That was Mathew Arnold speaking of Oxford a century and half ago.

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RK Narayan once talked  about his literary uncle. Apparently our Freedom Movement was ripe with commoners' lost causes. This uncle launched a 'weekly' with the name: "Indian Thought". And was writing all its seven odd essays and  stories and jokes; and even drawing its cartoons all by himself; under different names. And continued doing so till it came to be joshed: "Indian Thoughtless".

It was this uncle who, on his death bed, asked RKN to read Kamba Ramayan. To please a dying uncle, RKN said 'yes'; laughing inwardly how a busy English author of immensely popular Malgudi stories for his countless British and American readers  could find the time to read a tough Tamil Classic.

But in his own old age, when his Malgudi became a lost cause, and his creativity diminished exponentially, RKN found the time not only to read that tome but also to translate it into somewhat readable English prose.

And then he stooped to write: "Gods, Demons & Others"; not very readable...

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Talking of lost causes, I am told that our First War of Independence (dubbed "Sepoy Mutiny" by our oppressors) was a prime example of a lost cause.

Once I had to write an essay on this topic, unfortunately.

In 1957-58 our Pre-University Course, started that very year as a novelty, forced us science students to choose an 'arts' subject.

In our mofussil college at Nidubrole, it was a Hobson's Choice: only one arts subject was offered: "Indian History, Civics & Indian Administration"...lousy to the core :)

Our Civics Book started with the sentence: "Man is a social animal"; and I was told that its companion Politics Book started with: "Man is a political animal".

So are their lecturers...weird animals :)

That was how my 'academic career' started becoming a lost cause....for, none could hope to score more than 60% in that arts paper...I scored 49%.

On the other hand, our city slickers got to choose "Accountancy" and scored nothing less than 90%...our "University First", 100%.

Fortunately marks in that arts subject didn't count for admission into our BSc(Hons) in Physics at Andhra University, Waltair; and I squeezed myself in. 

And had the good fortune of spending all of 5 years there to get my MSc.

I say 'good fortune' despite whining all the time that we never learned any physics there...that was as far as theory went. But we had the most wonderful UG labs in which we sauntered endlessly and lost the fear of experiments once for all.

And the ambience of that university was swell...we had this "Erskine Square" which was a gorgeous Open Air Theater where we once watched a British Troupe called "Shakespeareana" perform half a dozen of Shakespeare Plays...couldn't follow a word though.

Recently I saw a picture of that theater in complete ruins...replete with tress and shrubs growing haphazardly on its floor...a "Lost Cause Supreme"

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Another lost cause is English Spelling Reform:

Bernard Shaw was one of its pioneers. He said:

'ghoti' spelled 'fish'

Asked how, he said:

'gh' as in 'laugh'; 'o' as in 'women'; and 'ti' as in 'action'

His successors in America succeeded in condensing:

'omelette' into 'omelet'

but not:

'cigarette' into 'cigaret' (there are red lines under 'omelette' and  'cigaret' in my American Spellcheck)

:)

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Many, including a few Bengali 'intellectuals', consider, with hind sight, Netaji's effort to win Hitler over a lost cause...Germans lacking a sense of humor.

But here are a couple of  jokes Germans cracked at their own Fuhrer's expense (apart from the "Heil Hitler! The pig is dead!")

1. Hitler and Goering are standing atop the Berlin Television Tower. 

Hitler says, "I’d like to do something to cheer up the Berliners" 

Goering: "Then jump" 

(A munitions worker who told this joke was executed after being denounced by her colleague)

2. Hitler visits a lunatic asylum. The patients give him the Hitler Salute. 

As he passes down the line he comes across a man who isn’t saluting. 

‘Why aren’t you saluting like the others?’ Hitler barks. 

‘Mein Füehrer, I’m the nurse, I’m not crazy!’ comes the answer. 

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What about our Mahatma Gandhi?

He was a staunch advocate of "Truth" & "Non-Violence", with renowned adherents like Martin Luther King Jr.

And his own countryman shot him dead...that was as far as "non-violence" went.

And about his "truth" he himself wrote charmingly...

Once I was traveling from Jalgaon to Kharagpur by the crawling Bombay Express. To stretch my legs I got down at the Wardha Station and found a Gandhi Sevagram Book Stall. And bought his "My Experiments with Truth"...his secretary Mahadev Desai had translated it from Gurjerati into English beautifully. And I finished reading it by when the train duly reached KGP.

There was one chapter in that book: "Third Class Travel". It is about his journey in third class from Howrah to Madras (?) along with Kasturba and a few of his followers. And the train ultimately reached Madras after a punishing journey of 36 odd hours...all of his entourage covered with grime and soot all over their bodies.

Gandhiji led his wife and chelas to the public tap for their baths. But his followers told him:

"We will have your bath here...but we are taking Kasturba to the Upper Class Waiting Room for her private bath"

Gandhiji demurred for a second and agreed with their proposal.

And he writes:

"Partiality to my wife won over my partiality to truth"

The Chapter ends with the famous shloka from the Ishopanishad, saying "the face of truth is covered with a golden disk"

https://gpsastry.blogspot.com/2021/02/greed-is-good.html

I thought Gandhiji's "Truth & Non-Violence" were lost causes.

But no! Another Gandhi (no relative of his, thankfully) came up with them the other day with a slight modification: "truth' replaced by "love":

Rahul Gandhi in Tamil Nadu: "PM is a 'formidable enemy', will defeat him with love and non-violence, vows Congress leader"

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Finally here is the latest announcement:

Karan Johar says romance is now a 'long forgotten' genre in Bollywood: We don't make love stories anymore.

Good riddance for bad rubbish :)

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