Laughing For Fifty Years And Still Laughing!

Cheeniya · May 30, 2017

How I became a fan of Wodehouse

Looks like I am really stuck this time. I tried to write on ten different subjects for my next post but nothing proceeded beyond two or three sentences. My daughter told me ‘Dad, why don’t you collate all the aborted blogs into one and post it? It will be novel. Further your dear fans will lap up whatever you write!’ I pointed out to her that it was quite a cruel statement. I further told her that my fans no doubt had a soft corner for me but that did not mean that they would stand any nonsense from me. A senior member of my club once told me that one must have a solid subject to write about. Writers cannot fool around their readers without a subject for long, he would always caution us. I would retaliate saying that I had been writing for a decade without a subject and it was no big deal. He looked at me as if it was something that the cat had brought in. ‘I am talking about some serious writing please, not your kind of muck’ he snubbed me. He looked at others and said that he was talking about serious writers who were keen to produce something worthwhile. I knew that he was indirectly having a dig at me.

As I was returning from the club, I felt bad for my feeling of animosity towards the senior member. There was certainly some substance in his stand. Every writer, however small he may be, dreams of striking it rich someday in his life. I am not an aspiring writer. Whenever I see the bulky maiden works of some authors, I realise that it is not my cup of tea. My dad was a great lover of classic English novels and he would often discuss about them with the hope that I would take a liking for them eventually. Emily Bronte and her only novel Wuthering Heights which she wrote when she was in her twenties was his great favourite. He had a veritable collection of famous English novels. My mother used them to balance the wooden gallery on which she displayed her mud dolls during Navarathri! As a young child, I found use them as a convenient pillow for my afternoon siesta. My elder brother read some of them out of sheer respect for my father. Whenever I asked him to tell me the story in ten sentences, he would say that I would not understand it even if he narrated it in thousand sentences!

As I grew up, I wanted to convey to my dad that days had changed and nobody read stuff like Wuthering Heights and The Vicar of Wakefield. Story telling had undergone a sea change and now people looked for fast-paced novels like ‘The Vulture is a patient bird’ by James Hadley Chase, I pointed out to him. He winced as if a vicious scorpion had stung him. In a choked voice, he mumbled James Hadley Chase and washed his hands off me. I knew that it would be hard to take if your life’s dreams lay in shambles around your feet. Then commenced the next phase in my literary adventure when I became an officer in the Bank. I saw some of my senior colleagues who would have a say in my career advancement carrying in their hands books like Humboldt’s Gift by Saul Bellow and The Age of Reason by Jean-Paul Sartre. I was happy to have discovered the route to my career advancement and got hold of other books by these authors and paraded in front of my bosses with the books in my hands. Mind you, I did not waste my hard earned money buying these books and I got them from ‘lending libraries’. Once my boss told me that he did not like Sartre very much as he tended to put on airs. I replied saying, ‘Not airs Sir, he puts on winds’. When my boss threw me a peculiar look on hearing my statement, I knew I had committed a faux pas.

In the meanwhile, I had already become a crazy fan of PG Wodehouse and I felt silly hiding his books behind me and walking with Jean-Paul Sartre in my hands. I like Wodehouse and I’ll carry around his novels happily, I told myself. If people liked Saul Bellow and the like, let them carry their books on their heads! I bow my head to the man who made me laugh for over fifty years with his joyful humour. He never got a Nobel Prize for his works but he continues to keep millions laughing day in and day out. Is that not more honourable than Nobel?

satchitananda · May 30, 2017

Dear CS, your love for PGW shows in your style of writing. I see the influence of so many of his expressions in your sentences. That is one of the reasons I love reading your ramblings. Am an avid fan of PGW too. I have never seen what a Jean Sartre book looks like and if that makes me ignorant and uneducated, so be it! I remember an elderly friend who once visited us when I had just finished my Xth std. While talking he asked if I had read Shakespeare. We had read extracts in short story form (normal English - not the original versions) at school. To which he replied "What you have never read Shakespeare? And you call yourself educated?" I felt so ashamed, I borrowed one book from the library - I forget which one it was. Like many books the story began halfway through the first page (the top being blank) and started reading. I read a paragraph. I endured a second. I realised I had not understood a word. That is when I decided that if reading Shakespeare was the sign of a proper education, then I was not educated and I could live with that! I never ventured near the bard ever again.

Nonya · May 30, 2017

Have a break.... Here is Hugh Laurie ( Bertie Wooster) singing "Minnie the Moocher".

shyamala1234 · May 30, 2017

Cheeniya said: ↑

Looks like I am really stuck this time. I tried to write on ten different subjects for my rambling but nothing proceeded beyond two or three sentences. My daughter told me ‘Dad, why don’t you collate all the abortive blogs into one and post it? It will be novel. Further your dear fans will lap up whatever you write!’ I pointed out to her that it was quite a ruel statement. I further told her that my fans no doubt had a soft corner for me but that did not mean that they would stand any nonsense from me. A senior member of my club once told me that one must have a solid subject to write about. Writers cannot fool around their readers without a subject for long, he would always caution us. I would retaliate saying that I had been writing for a decade without a subject and it was no big deal. He looked at me as if it was something that the cat had brought in. ‘I am talking about some serious writing please, not your kind of muck’ he snubbed me. He looked at others and said that he was talking about serious writers who were keen to produce something worthwhile. I knew that he was indirectly having a dig at me.

As I was returning from the club, I felt bad for feeling animosity towards the senior member. There was certainly some substance in his stand. Every writer, however small he may be, dreams of striking it rich someday in his life. I am not an aspiring writer. Whenever I see the bulky maiden works of some authors, I realise that it is not my cup of tea. My dad was a great lover of classic English novels and he would often discuss about them with the hope that I would take a liking for them eventually. Emily Bronte and her only novel Wuthering Heights which she wrote when she was in her twenties was his great favourite. He had a veritable collection of famous English novels. My mother used them to balance the wooden gallery on which she displayed her mud dolls during Navarathri! As a young child, I found them as a convenient pillow for my afternoon siesta. My elder brother read some of them out of sheer respect for my father. Whenever I asked him to tell me the story in ten sentences, he would say that I would not understand it even if he narrated it in thousand sentences!

As I grew up, I wanted to convey to my dad that days had changed and nobody read stuff like Wuthering Heights and The Vicar of Wakefield. Story telling had undergone a sea change and now people looked for fast-paced novels like ‘The Vulture is a patient bird’ by James Hadley Chase, I pointed out to him. He winced as if a vicious scorpion had stung him. In a choked voice, he mumbled James Hadley Chase’s and washed his hands off me. I knew that it would be hard to take if your life’s dreams lay in shambles around your feet. Then commenced the next phase in my literary adventure when I became an officer in the Bank. I saw some of my senior colleagues who would have a say in my career advancement carrying in their hands books like Humboldt’s Gift by Saul Bellow and The Age of Reason by Jean-Paul Sartre. I was happy to have discovered the route to my career advancement and got hold other books by these authors and paraded in front of my bosses with the books in my hands. Mind you, I did not waste my hard earned money buying these books and I got them from ‘lending libraries’. Once my boss told me that he did not like Sartre very much as he tended to put on airs. I replied saying, ‘Not airs Sir, he puts on winds’. When my boss threw me a peculiar look on hearing my statement, I knew I had committed a faux pas.

In the meanwhile, I had already become a crazy fan of PG Wodehouse and I felt silly hiding his books behind me and walking with Jean-Paul Sartre in my hands. I like Wodehouse and I’ll carry around his novels happily, I told myself. If people liked Saul Bellow and the like, let them carry their books on their heads! I bow my head to the man who made me laugh for over fifty years with his joyful humour. He never got a Nobel Prize for his works but he continues to keep millions laughing day in and day out. Is that not more honourable than Nobel?[/QUOTE
Dear Cheeniya sir,
Yes sir, who cares if PGW did not get a Nobel Prize?For years together he entertained people and he would always be the reason for smiles on people's faces.
He also has a solid subject....making people laugh forever!!!!!! Isn't that solid enough?
Whenever I go to Piccadilly Ccircus in London first thing that comes to mind is PGW.....not the charming shops.
I am not intelligent enough to understand Nobel Prize books. Could not go beyond first 50 pages of any book.
I am happy with PGW and Mullapudi Venkataramana in Telugu (equivalent to PGW).
Syamala
Click to expand...

Agatha83 · May 30, 2017

Dear Cheeniya Sir,

During my growing years I did not have the privilege to read English books, not even the kid stuff like grims fairy tales. But those were the times when Tamil magazines carried stuff which was readable by the entire family. Be it Manian's serials in Ananda Vikatan , Tamilvaanan's murder mysteries in his Kalkandu magazine or Javar Seetharaman's thrillers in Kumudam like Minnal Mazhai Mohini, there was always something worth reading, thus satiating our hunger for books.
Only a few years back I got an entire collection of PGW books courtesy a gift coupon worth Rs500 offered by a leading newspaper for my funny blog published in their columns. But more than me it is my DD who enjoys those books thoroughly, whenever she comes here on a vacation. Your ramblings reminds me of her loud laughter, enjoying PGW, as much as I did, while reading ' Washingtonil Thirumanam' in Ananda Vikatan or Bakkiyam Ramaswamy's Appuswamiyum Seethapaaatyum in kumudam those days.

Cheers,
Agatha83

Cheeniya · May 30, 2017

@satchitananda
My dear Satchi
I should say that you are extremely bold to express such a dislike for the Bard! A cousin of mine was teaching Shakespeare in the Presidency College, Chennai. If you wished him Good Morning, he would respond to it in Shakespearean lingo. He also looked stiff as if he was about to break into a soliloquy! I have seen students looking very uncomfortable in his presence. If my cousin could cause such reactions among his students, I would often wondered how would they react if Shakespeare himself came before them. Once a student of my cousin jovially quoted 'Foul is fair and fair is foul' as 'Foul is fair and vice versa' and my cousin literally suffered a stroke! A friend of mine would often say that if a hundred page book of any other author weighed 100 gm, the same of Shakespeare would weigh a kilo!
If I take an account of the jolly moments of my life, 90% of them would have been caused by Wodehouse. There are others too but Wodehouse was special. Tell me how many could write sentences like 'I always advise people never to give advice'? I must stop here as my eyes are brimming with tears of joy and ecstasy and making my vision blurred!
Sri

Cheeniya · May 30, 2017

@Nonya
Thank you Nonya for that delightful selection. It made my day. I feel happy that I rambled on Wodehouse!
Sri

Cheeniya · May 30, 2017

@shyamala1234
"Yes sir, who cares if PGW did not get a Nobel Prize?For years together he entertained people and he would always be the reason for smiles on people's faces.
He also has a solid subject....making people laugh forever!!!!!! Isn't that solid enough?
Whenever I go to Piccadilly Ccircus in London first thing that comes to mind is PGW.....not the charming shops.
I am not intelligent enough to understand Nobel Prize books. Could not go beyond first 50 pages of any book.
I am happy with PGW and Mullapudi Venkataramana in Telugu (equivalent to PGW)."

My dear Syamala
I am so happy that your love for PGW is no less than mine! Nobel prize is a different cup of tea. It is brewed for selected people so that ordinary mortals would feel alienated. I have been bold enough to try a couple of them and came to the conclusion that God had created me to admire only Wodehouse ! But I must check with my son in law for the writing of Mallapudi. If he is the equivalent of PGW, then I must know more about him.
Sri

Cheeniya · May 30, 2017

@Agatha83
My dear Agatha
The Tamil writers that you have mentioned are all my favourites too. Sujatha came much later but swept everyone of his feet! The writers that you have mentioned were the mainstay of the circulation of their respective magazines. I remember how Vikadan was selling like hot cakes when Thillana Moganambal was being written by Kothamangalam Subbu.
I am happy that your DD has developed a great liking for Wodehouse! May her tribe increase!
Sri

iyerviji · May 31, 2017

My dear Anna

In my school days I also used to read Tamil magazines like Ananda Vikatan, Kalki, Kumudam, used to wait to read it on the first day when it is released but my father used to read first then only we used to get. That time besides studying reading tamil magazines and listening to radio was my past time. My aunty had made a book of the thdar kadhais of her days , so whenever I used to go to their house I used to read them.

After marriage luckily my husband was also fond of reading tamil weekly magazines, so could continue reading them. We used to buy Rani Muthu also and also Diwali Malars. In Office alsoI started a library of tamil magazines and used to distribute to everyone in the office during leisure time , we had many tamilians in our office, even our Managers were members . After retirement stopped buying magazines.

Thanks for bringing old sweet memories