“Nemade is honoured with Jnanpith
Award” I told Lulu, my parrot.
“People say he authored ‘Kosla’
which still is a talked about book. Must be a great author.” Lulu responded as
he looked at me and my collection of books.
“And Salman Rushdie has called him
a ‘bastard’ in his tweet….”
“Well, Salman Rushdie must
understand that there are no bastards in the avian world. I don’t like this offensive
language in the tweets. We parrots do not tweet anything offensive.” Lulu
picked up a red chilly for chewing. The read chilly looked as if it was
extension of his red beak. “Men must distinguish between dissenting and abusive
language. But nobody pays attention to what they speak, people just blurt it
out without thinking.”
"Just as muscles must be
developed for good health," I said, "good language too must be
carefully cultivated.”
“Oh yes, Good muscles without good
language produce likes of Mike Tysons" Lulu said with a smile.
“You said it.”
“Salman’s case is interesting. In spite
of being a British Indian he has not got the subtle British humour.”
“Sense of humour requires a
certain ‘developed’ taste and broad outlook” I responded as I moved near the
window. Lulu was perched on a branch of Mango tree which extended close to my
window.
“And having that means ‘being sophisticated
and cultured’ Lulu moved closer to me and continued, “But being educated does
not mean having broader view or the developed taste as you call it.”
“Yup”
“For there is a difference in
being educated and being learned. Like Raj Thakare, Ajit Pawar are educated, or
for that matter all Indian political leaders on the scene today. But Khandekar
and Kusumagraj were learned. Have you read what they have written? Good
thoughts, good language. Oh, I have put effect before cause, it should have
been good language because of good thoughts!”
“Salman is blameworthy, Nemade’s
past is catching up. Marathi newspapers carried an article which said that
Nemade used very foul and unprintable language in his novel against Khandekar,
Kusumagraj and Vinda Karandikar, the trio which has earned Jnanpith Award
earlier.”
“Well, well! Every saint has a
past and every sinner a future….” Lulu said dejectedly and flew away.
Vivek S Patwardhan
"What you leave behind is not what is engraved in stone monuments, but what is woven into the lives of others."