96.DIAMONDS IN THE DUNG HEAP

LITERATURE-LIGHT AND DELIGHT
96. DIAMONDS IN THE DUNG HEAP

According to available statistics, over 22 lakh books are published annually in the world. The country wise figures according to UNESCO are:

China                  : 4,40,000
US                      : 3,00,000  (new and reissue)
UK                      : 1,50,000  (new)
Germany, Japan}
India                } :    85,000  

One can imagine what a heap is growing year upon year! It is like our Sanchita Karma!

At the same time we are also told that book sales are falling. There is a debate about the state of reading habits, due to the onslaught of the visual media, especially among youngsters. At one time it was felt that reading books in the electronic form would drastically reduce the demand for hard copies, at least the paper backs. But this has not happened. Actually, the demand for hard bound editions has grown, while the paperback has held its ground- mainly because the same copy can go round and round, either by sharing or second hand sales.The electronic version can never be shared.

Such immense numbers pose a problem for serious readers. Even in fiction, it is not easy to select a good author or book. We go by so called best-seller lists,or reviews in newspapers, but these are so few. Nor are they sure guides, and tastes do differ. The more conservative among us may like to stay with the tried and trusted Classics, though any number of writers try to smuggle in new authors or books into the hallowed company, according to their fancy. My own criteria for something to be considered a Classic is:

• does the author have a vision or a universal or lasting message?
• does he have a style?
• does he avoid sensation and vulgarity, naked description of unwanted details?
• does the writing elevate us as human beings? Does it have that extra, unnameable element which contributes to making us realise our own humanity- its weaknesses and strengths, and ever aspire to become better?

By this yardstick, most of current writing should only be considered the dung heap.

But there are diamonds in it- real gems. And merely because  so much is added each year to the heap, the gems get buried deeper.  I would like to talk of two real gems. 

Nevil Shute Norway (1899-1960) was an English aeronautical engineer who saw service in World War II and later started an aircraft construction company. He started writing in the twenties  under the pen name 'Nevil Shute' and his last novel, 'Trustee From The Tool Room'  came out in 1960. He rode these two horses without any conflict. His novels reflect the background of his life and work- the pre-war (II) years, the war years and the later years. Like him, his heroes were drawn from the middle class, practising the professions like engineers, doctors, lawyers, soldiers, accountants, bankers. But The Trustee could be regarded as celebrating the virtues of the conscientious artisan, who has a thing or two to teach the men who have been to the university. His style is simple and direct, his plots well drawn, his prose flows gently. There is absolutely no vulgarity or cheapness in his descriptions and he is not the one to confuse  romance with sex. Reading his works is like having a conversation with a man of dignity, who does not have to 'seek' cheap popularity.

 Amidst all the action that his novels cover or portray, he explores some deeper aspects of our life on earth, the human condition: the effect of science on society, the connections between rationality and belief, the mystical elements of life such as rebirth, prophecy or astrology, the psychical elements, such as the powers of aboriginal tribes, etc.Being a scientifically trained engineer did not make him blind or insensitive to these aspects of life which we all encounter sometime or other in our lives but we cannot articulate and for which science does not have an answer, except an arrogant outright denial or more dignified agnosticism.

Some of his characters and situations are so thrilling. As when a scientist in the middle of a flight suddenly discovers that the aircraft is reaching the point of metal fatigue! (No Highway);  As when a man wounded in the war with a bullet lodged in his head but inoperable is told he has but a few months to live. On a sudden impulse, he tries to trace out three old comrades who were in the hospital along with him and to find out how they have fared ( The Chequer Board); As in the gentle romance of 'A Town Like Alice' where two prisoners in Malaya search to find each other after the War; As when a pilot on a photographic mission over Greenland  recalls his former life as an ancient Viking.( An Old Captivity); As when an old man smuggles  seven  trapped children out of Nazi-occupied France ( Pied Piper); As when an ordinary worker-mechanic has to trace out a legacy of diamonds in a wrecked boat which takes him across the Atlantic and to the US Northwest!

After the war, Nevil Shute did not like the socialist dispensation in England and left the UK to settle in Australia, which too spoke English, like England! This is the backdrop for his novel, The Far Country. But he did not like the pro-white racial policy of Australia , to which sentiment too he gave expression in 'Round the Bend' which Shute considered his best novel. His novel "On The Beach" deals with the after-effects of a nuclear war, when the population simply waits for death. 

Through all his 24 books, Nevil Shute reveals himself as a fine representative of the enlightened human race- reflecting its  sensitivity and upholding the basic human 'goodness'. It reinforces my belief that only a good person can write good fiction- fiction which endures. It is a shame and sad reflection on our publishing industry that hard bound editions of his books are priced outrageously, and the paper backs are too cheap- in quality.What a way to insult a great author.

  

  

If Nevil Shute left England unable to stand its socialist turn, the other novelist I wish to talk about is indirectly responsible for this very turn- especially its health services! It is A.J.Cronin, (1896-1981) the Scottish doctor-turned writer. Diagnosed in 1931with a medical condition which required complete rest for six months on a diet of milk, he wrote his first novel 'Hatter's Castle' in three months, it was accepted by the first publisher it was sent to and became an instant success. Cronin never looked back- adding a string of excellent novels over the years:  Stars Look Down, The Citadel, The Keys of The Kingdom, Shannon's Way, The Judas Tree, A Song of Sixpence etc . ( I have included only those which were available in India in the 60s and 70s.) There are many more.

Cronin  gave up his medical practice after ten years, but made use of his medical knowledge and experiences in his novels. His characters are colourful and the result of acute observation. His narrative is detailed, but there is a dignified, but smooth flow , combining witty dialogues. His heroes display a social conscience, out stepping their own backgrounds. The best example is The Citadel,published in 1937, which captures the way the medical profession played with the miners, making money in the process, in unconscionable ways. It exposed their incompetence as well as greed. This was based on his own experience as a doctor among the miners. This created a great uproar among the medical profession who tried all they could to get the book banned! It also created lot of enmity for Cronin in the profession.

But the authorities took note! Like in the case of Dickens, his gentle social criticism had more effect than a frontal attack on a revolutionary platform. The result was the institution of the National Health Service ( Which , ironically Nevil Shute did not like.) The British socialist party fully subscribed to his line and this is considered one of the factors contributing to the Labour victory in 1945. Aneurin Bevan, the labour leader had also worked among the miners.

Personally, his novel 'The Judas Tree' somehow disturbed me, and I gave up reading novels for more than 25 years after that!  His articles used to appear occasionally in the Readers' Digest and I remember one or two which were of the Self-improvement type, giving practical advice, which were helpful. Somehow, his books too have not been available in good, affordable editions in India. Like Gresham's law says for money, the bad novels drive the good ones out of sight, if not circulation!

Cronin with his family, c.1938.

It is only a happy family man (or woman) who can write a healthy novel. 

LITERATURE-LIGHT AND DELIGHT. 71.LITERARY GREATS: SUNLIGHT AND SHADOW

LITERATURE- LIGHT AND DELIGHT

71. LITERARY GREATS: SUNLIGHT AND SHADOW

There is a saying with us that one should not enquire into the origins of rivers and great figures. Perhaps what it conveys is the popular English saying that every saint has a past, every sinner a future.

Saints condemn themselves!

In the Hindu tradition, most poet-saints condemn themselves as great sinners, comparing themselves to dogs which are considered  lowly creatures, often giving a whole list of unworthy things they had done. Superficial commentators take such things literally and conclude that they had indeed been morally bad before they were rescued by God out of his mercy.Arunagirinatha is perhaps the most glaring example in Tamil literature.

Serious students know that this is not the way to take matters. The saints are usually imputing to themselves all the bad things happening in society- the five kinds of deadly sins, the three kinds of dire attachments, womanising, drinking, murder,etc. This is just a literary style,  not to be taken literally.

Lives transformed


Through legend and history, some events are recorded as the turning point: Valmiki's encounter with the rishis before he was imparted the name of Rama, Purandaradasa's excessive attachment to wealth and God opening his eyes through his wife's devotion, Tulsidas being snubbed by his wife about his excessive attachment to her physical form, etc.

But such transformation need not necessarily be after a period of immoral conduct. In  Kalidasa's case, it was a village idiot become a great poet through the grace of the Goddess. In modern days, the great Indian mathematical genius Ramanujam said that the Goddess revealed to him the mathematical formulae in his dreams.As the poet sang, 'God moves in a mysterious way his wonders to perform'. Yes, mysterious, but not arbitrary or capricious. There is surely a method- a reason, justification but we do not know.

Old idols and fallen angels

In our younger days, the leaders of the freedom movement were our idols- Sri Aurobindo,Tilak, Gandhi, Nehru, Patel, Bose, Rajaji etc. But as we grew up, and read more about them, we saw that the public image, created, magnified and spread by the popular press did not reflect the whole truth.

Take Gandhi, for instance. What I learned about Gandhi did not match the image. I understood him in four main roles: as a political leader, religious experimenter, social reformer and economic thinker. He began as an advocate of the Indian genius as the foundation of his political thinking in the Hind Swaraj, but this idea evaporated or got diluted on the way.As he plunged deeper into practical politics, he became an advocate of parliamentary democracy. He developed ideas of Satyagraha, Non-violence, etc but they did not work. We finally got Independence in spite of Gandhi, not because of him.In the process the country got divided, something I can never forgive the Congress for. They had no mandate from the people to divide the country. This was betrayal, and Gandhi's greatest failure. Gandhi as a political leader failed at crucial times-all crucial times. As a political leader,  he was plain Mr.Gandhi, not the Mahatma he is taken to be.

As a religious experimenter, Gandhi is great, though his ideas were not based on a proper or deep understanding of any formal religion. He interpreted Hinduism in terms of his superficial idea of Christianity, and he had no understanding of Islam as a religious faith or historical force. "Iswar-Allah Tere Naam" is the most idiotic formula I have heard. God is one, no doubt but that One is beyond name and form. The Muslim will never say Iswar and Allah, or its variations Ram and Rahim, Krishna and Karim are the same! It is just a fancy, and only idiotic Hindus chant such nonsense formulae.

But there is another aspect to Gandhi's religion- his spiritual quest. He was a follower of Advaita, and a sincere devotee of Rama though his Rama was not necessarily the Rama of Ayodhya, son of Dasaratha.In the 20s he had stated that Ram had occupied his heart and if any one cut it open, he would find only Ram there! Twenty years later , in the thick of public life, some one put bullets right into his heart, and he died with the name of Rama on his lips!  This one act makes him Gandhiji, the Mahatma! I fall at his feet.

His social reforms were mixed. But he was reacting to too many things, a bit more than he could chew, swallowed more than he could digest.

But as an economic thinker, he was superb! He was far ahead of his times.  At one level, he gave and implemented practical ideas of a parallel economy and showed that things could be done positively, constructively  even without political power. This aspect has not been appreciated in this country. 

But the thoughts he gave against modern civilisation,and its absurd economic base make him one of the foremost economic thinkers of modern times. People like Schumacher understood it, and developed further. Today, it has become the very foundation of alternative economics with fancy names such as: steady-state economy, sustainable economics, economy of permanence, humanistic economics, etc. This again is not understood by Indians yet. Nehru himself is the chief villain here.

The net result is that I admire Gandhi in parts. I feel that on the whole, he has been a failure. This has been a great personal disappoint for me. My mother considered Mahatma an avatar of Rama and formally worshipped him, especially on Fridays, the day of his martyrdom!

Greatness thrust upon
Greatness overlooked

Nehru was an early idol- some one we learned to adore without knowing anything about him! As I studied more, and in detail, I feel he is a thoroughly useless leader- in fact not a leader at all, but one on whom greatness has been thrust. He is totally out of my reckoning. All the ills of Independent India are wholly due to the Gandhi-Nehru duo.

Netaji Bose was good but sadly mistaken in the method he adopted to fight the British.

Sardar Patel was a giant, a man with a strong character, solid leadership qualities, sound judgement. He was always wrong when he supported Gandhi, and right when he thought and acted independently. He was giant. If India is still one nation it is due to Sardar Patel alone. He is the real father of the nation, the architect of free India. It is our misfortune that Gandhi did him injustice and made Nehru PM. It was Patel's misfortune that he had to serve under someone like Nehru, who did not have sound economic or political ideas, suffering great humiliation and insult. A kind Providence released him through death. India will remember him as along as it remains one nation.

Rajaji is a very great leader, but born in the wrong place, wrong community. The idea of the first non-cooperation movement was born in his house in Madras , when he had hosted Gandhi. Gandhi decided to  wear his typical minimum outfit when he travelled with Rajaji between Trichy and Madurai. Rajaji is the only congress leader who proved  his mettle in administration, eliciting admiration even from the British. He was the one to introduce Prohibition in India first. He was the one to introduce sales tax to compensate for the consequential revenue loss. He was the one to introduce land reform in India, favouring the tenants as against the landlords. There are so many things he did silently.  Perhaps his greatest contribution was to understand the totalitarian trends of Nehru,warn the country against the evils of the permit -licence-quota raj, and take up the cudgels against disastrous socialist policies of Nehru,and float the Swatantra Party as the true opposition, when he was at the ripe young age of 80!   Unfortunately, people feared his intellect, and forgot his heart! He was not understood fully or properly in his time, or later. It is his his ideas which are followed in a distorted, deformed, diluted dose, without due acknowledgement!

My estimation of Patel and Rajaji has grown with the years, though I still cannot digest the fact that they too had to support partition- Gandhi had pushed every one to that corner.

The point in writing this is to show that with increasing access to information and knowledge, our childhood idols fall from their pedestals. Heroes turn villains, if we keep our heads steady.

This has happened in the case of our other international leaders also- Churchill, Kennedy, for instance. It has happened in the case of sports persons too.

Golden hearts in tinsel town

I have never been an admirer of any cine-star. I used to like the great film music of the golden 50s, but was not a fan of any star, nor had seen many films: I stopped seeing films 40 years ago! Even so, the world is such that you do get some information and get to like and dislike people. I liked that Kishore Kumar defied Sanjay Gandhi, and refused to meet him in the days of the emergency. I liked that Dev Anand even floated a political outfit to oppose the Emergency! I liked that Bimal Roy ascended the platform in his native dhoti-kurta to accept the Filmfare award, when the audience of fashionable filmi people indulged in derisive laughter! I liked that Talat Mohammad gave up his own chances and asked the music directors to take Mukesh  for playback singing in Madhumati, when Mukesh was struggling! I liked when one song composed by Roshan- Rahen na rahen hum- became a big hit, and S.D.Burman rang up to congratulate him, Roshan said that  he had merely copied an old tune of Dada Burman himself- from the song 'Thandi Hawayen, lehraake aayen'- from Naujawan! And I liked even more that Burmanda replied: Arre bhai, we all copy. After all there are only 7  swaras and we always keep copying! What  examples of personal courage,humility, camaraderie, in a  known  dog-eat-dog world!

I have noticed such instances in Hollywood too. Charlton Heston said that his entire outlook and character changed after he played Moses in The Ten Commandments: he could not play normal hero roles. I liked when the following incident was reported about Clark Gable: He had longed to get a child, but his son was born posthumously. One day it seems that his spirit appeared to his son and warned him: 'My son, my son, let not Hollywood fool thee, let not Hollywood deceive thee!' ( So, Hamlet being advised by the ghost of his father is not pure fiction, after all!) I liked when actors were careful to play positive roles, to send moral messages to the audience: when Gregory Peck chose to play a cowboy to show that violence does not pay in the end, or when he played Atticus Finch, to defend a black when wrongly accused by the white residents of rape. And Peck was married to his wife for 50 years- in that fickle minded Hollywood. I liked when people questioned James Stewart how he agreed to play the role of a person prying into others' residences, in Rear Window, which violated personal privacy! And they also questioned Alfred Hitchcock how he could direct such a movie! I liked when 7 famed stars decided to work together without ego problems in The Magnificent Seven! I liked it when Clint Eastwood the hero of many Spaghetti Westerns portraying violence  decided to make amends, by producing, directing and acting in the Unforgiven to show that violence is not the right way! I liked it when it was reported that Tom Hanks is particular to play positive roles with neat messages. I liked it when Sophia Loren showed that she was not a play thing when she just stared at Marlon Brando when he was up to some mischief and made him back out! So, there are silver lines every where!

Big names- great people?

But alas! The literary world is not always good, and many authors are not men of character. It is said that if we know the detailed life of many philosophers we would not care to read their works! Bertrand Russell was one of them. I did not read Byron for a long time, knowing his life. On the contrary it moved me when I read that  Longfellow rushed to rescue his wife whose dress had caught fire, but himself got disfigured, while his wife died. Thomas Hardy had married out of love but was disappointed later. Yet when he died, he wanted his heart to be buried near the grave of his wife, who had pre-deceased him! What we read of Dickens is not always pleasing.Peter Drucker married his wife in 1934  when he was 25 and they remained married till his death at 95, 70 years later, in 2005, while his wife died at 103 in 2014! It is great when great authors and writers are also great in personal life. It is difficult to stomach when things are otherwise.

I often wonder how writers can describe bad things in such detail, with a clear conscience. They say some gory details are required by the story- but why write such a story at all? Unless your mind is already gory! And it cannot think of anything clean or good!

Sri Ramakrishna used to say that one should not act as bad characters in dramas even for fun.

 When a modern writer like Nevil Shute writes clean novels, and good novels, we feel so happy. One reason why I like the writings of Louis L'Amour is that though they are described as Westerns, they are not pulp fiction. He never advocates or glorifies violence. His heroes never resort to shooting for the fun of it, and they always feel sorry that they had to use their gun at all! And just read his nature descriptions! Show me another author who had written so much on nature over so many years in so many books, almost never repeating  them! L'Amour himself is the greatest hero of his writings. Unless the man was himself great, he could not produce such stuff, so much of such stuff! If you want to open a book and read openly in front of your children and spend an entire evening or even day, choose L'Amour without hesitation. With L'Amour, children will always want to be good, better than they are!

When unsavoury aspects of the life of so called great or famous figures are revealed, we wonder what is the use of education and knowledge, when they do not result or reflect in right conduct. Are money and fame everything? Is any method right to get them? Can good people write bad stories ?

LITERATURE-LIGHT AND DELIGHT. 24..NOVELS.

LITERATURE-LIGHT AND DELIGHT

24. NOVELS

The novel is a literary form which has developed in the last three centuries. Not that there were no stories earlier- the epics and so called medieval romances were essentially stories, but they are not the long sustained narratives that modern novels are.Today it is the most popular aspect of literature, commanding an immensely wide readership all over the world. A popular English novel has really no boundaries. It is really amazing to think that most people in the world uniformly like a good novel, though some of them may have a specific locale or situation or incident as the background. Whatever the outward situation, the inner feelings evoked are the same. This may be the result of the present educational system, which is getting uniform across countries, and in its wake breeds some common attitudes and values; or due to innate human nature; whatever it is, it is a factor which unites humanity across cultures, continents and languages! We can easily think of single novels like 'Gone with the Wind' (Margaret Mitchell), 'To Kill a Mocking Bird' (Harper Lee) 'To Sir With Love' (Braithwaite) which have stormed the whole world apart from the works of Agatha Christie, Alistair Maclean, Arthur Hailey, Wodehouse, and the current rage,J.K.Rowling. This is quite apart from the standard authors.

Romance, social, historical- these are broadly three strands of popular novels. Adventure  and detective fiction form a distinct category, though it is doubtful how far they can be counted as truly literary.

Romances have survived in two incarnations: in the medieval period, they related to the royalty or nobles, and were more or less like fairy tales. But early in the 19th century some English writers took to it seriously, making the heroine, and not the hero, the centre of action and attraction. Jane Austen wrote 6 novels in this genre in about 8 years (1811-1818) and achieved great fame. These are still popular, though they are based on the mores of a specific class in early Victorian England. There is really something universal about the emotions dealt with. In fact it was mostly women writers who wrote these; at that time, it was felt that such stories were not truly literary, that it was too easy to read them and hence did not attract serious readers,or male writers. But once they became popular, men too took to it, developing women characters. They continue to be written today, but for a junior audience.

The social novel deals with family and social themes, while historical novel takes some actual historical incident and character and make them central to the story. Walter Scott's 'Ivanhoe' (1820) is the first historical novel in modern times and its popularity led to the growth of this genre. But really, a social novel may also have a historical grounding: the outstanding example is 'Tale of Two Cities' by Charles Dickens  which takes place between London and Paris during the French Revolution; and 'Gone with the Wind' which takes place during the American Civil War and its aftermath. Even in the 'Barnaby Rudge' of Dickens there is an actual historical incident woven into it.

A novel can be considered historical even if has a general historical atmosphere, and not a specific incident or character.'A Farewell to Arms', Grapes of Wrath, 'For Whom The Bell Tolls' fall into this category.In the so called Westerns written by Louis L'Amour, the opening up and development of the great American West is captured in delightful prose narrative, where the language reaches poetic heights at times! He was himself a cowboy, and adventurer, had travelled to all the places mentioned and described, had even survived  in a desert; every place that he writes of exists; every mountain, hill, valley, waterhole,river and creek exists; he had done great research on some reported and recorded incidents and had drawn from their actual lives. And he writes with a great sense of historical responsibility- he knows he is dealing with a phase of a local culture, whose exact nature and even details and authenticity were questioned. To some extent, we may say he not only chronicled the West, but even helped create it! His descriptions of nature are outstanding and would stand comparison with the best in the recognised canon, say like  the works of Hardy. I must admit that I admire him, next only to Dickens and Hardy among the old writers, and Nevil Shute and A.J.Cronin among the more recent ones.

When we talk of research, I remember one more incident. Arthur Hailey became famous in the 70s for a series of high-drama novels: Airport, Wheels, Money Changers, Overload, Final Diagnosis, etc. In the 'Airport' he depicted the devious ways of the airline pilots-  how for instance they would resist the 'regulation shirt'- what we would call the uniform. In the 'Wheels', he wrote about how the employees in the car manufacturing plants were not quite attentive in their work on Fridays and Mondays- the former because they were eagerly awaiting the week-end get away, and the latter because of the hangover from the week-end exertions! After this, car buyers in the US started demanding that they be not supplied cars assembled on Fridays and Mondays! This observation of Hailey was correct. He would actually visit the factory or plant and do his research for some time before writing and he had done it in this case.Such observations were also made in the case of Final Diagnosis (hospitals) and  'Overload' (powerplants). His novels came to be called "faction" because they were based on facts, though it was fiction!

This is one genre in which India, and Tamil Nad does not lag behind- in fact we excel. In this we have followed the English model: great writers reaching out to big readership through periodical magazines. Kalki and Devan became our foremost novelists in Tamilin the 40s and 50s. If Dickens's novels ran for months, Kalki's ran for years! He became the master of the historical novel, having three big serials to his credit.These are being rerun periodically even now, after 60 years! His social novel "Alai Osai" can also be considered historical as it has the fredom movement as the backdrop. Devan's novels capture the ethos of the educated middle class with great wit and wisdom and sensitivity. After Kalki, there has been no writer of historical novels of comparable calibre; some people mention Sandilyan , Vikraman, Kovi Manisekaran; personally, I feel  their works lack genuine literary merit /quality and a certain finesse or refinement and I would not take their names along with Kalki's.. Readership number is not the real yardstick. Today, there are more readers than in Kalki's days and the standard of assessment was much higher then.

About standards of assessment, I know an incident in the music world. Govt. of India used to extend scholarships for junior/budding Carnatic musicians to pursue intensive studies and training under a senior Vidwan. A committee of musicians used to select them. In one year Palghat Mani Iyer was on the committee. After examining all the candidates, he felt no one was suitable and said so. The authorities pleaded with him that he might select one among the lot, for they feared that if the selection was not made and the grant availed of that year, it might not be offered  the next year and it might lapse. But Mani Iyer said that he was there to  judge and pick the suitable one and in his judgement no one was suitable and so he would not select any one! Such were the standards observed by our elders those days! Today they will pick some one just because the grant had to be availed of! We see how the quality of our Phds has declined once it became a regular requirement under UGC! As in music, so in literature!

In the area of social novels, we have been extremely fortunate. There has been an almost unbroken line of good novelists: from the old stalwarts like Lakshmi, Rajam Krishnan, Anuthama, Mayavi, Na.Parthasarathi Jayakanthan, Akilan,Indira Parthasarathi, Ra.Ki.Rangarajan, Aarvi, A.S.P, etc.  (There are of course many others, but I feel most of them write without restraint or a sense of social responsibility, especially in writing for mass circulation. Some of their themes and treatment appear to cross the bounds of good taste- at least my taste.)

India is extremely lucky in the variety of its languages and their richness in literary matters. There are great novelists and writers in all languages. But because of the bane of linguistic states, there is no flow of material across states. Even the most well-known writers in a language are not known outside their states. In the 50s and 60s we used to have a Tamil magazine named 'Manjari'. It used to mainly carry articles of academic interest but each issue would contain a  translation ( condensation, like in the Readers' Digest) of novels from other Indian languages: I remember reading the stories of V.Sa.Khandekar (Marathi), Masti Venkatesa Iyengar (Kannada) Vaikom Mohammad Basheer (Malayalam) and Hindi and other writers. I do not know whether the magazine is still published and it does carry such translations. In the absence of such arrangements, I wonder how many would have heard of even a Munshi Premchand or Sarat Chandra Chatterjee. (An earlier generation would know: Munshi Premchand's novel "Sevasadan" was made into a Tamil film "Sevasadanam" in 1938 under the direction of the legendary K.Subramaniam; it was the first film of M.S.Subbulakshmi, and starred a mainly Brahmin cast, though it was against orthodoxy! Similarly, Sarat Chandra's novel Devadas was made into a very popular tear jerker in the early 50; some other stories of his were also filmed; so he was more widely known. Whether cinema led to greater awareness and readership of literature is a different matter.At least the names of the writers were known.

 The linguistic division of states has actully proved a strong though invisible barrier to the free flow of literature across states. The booksellers in Bengaluru are reluctant to display Tamil books or magazines prominently; the names of even Tamil films are prominently displayed in Kannada! But I find the publishers are now churning out translations of English novels. (I could not find a good translation of Purandaradasa's songs, but I found translations of Bhyrappa's books! These local language enthusiasts do not understand a simple fact: the world appreciates good work and it needs to be translated into English and other languages. Can we think of Gitanjali getting the Nobel Prize if it had not been translated into English?) There are some good anthologies of English translations of short stories  from Indian languages, though we cannot be sure to what extent they reflect the correct trends, as selections in anthologies depend on the editor's and publisher's taste and prejudices or preferences. Eye on rewards and consequently political correctness are important considerations.

Whatever it may be, we can surely be proud of our record in respect of novels, in almost all Indian languages. That is something to cheer about.