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That Patch of Green Behind the Bright Yellow House -- A Snippet of Life

Discussion in 'Snippets of Life (Non-Fiction)' started by ojaantrik, Jan 4, 2015.

  1. Cheeniya

    Cheeniya Super Moderator Staff Member IL Hall of Fame

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    My dear, dear OJ
    What a nostalgic feast that was! But first things first! In writing about Rashbehari Avenue and its neighbourhood, you have shown a remarkable closeness to R.K.Narayan. There is this difference though that while you talk of a place that physically exists, Narayan’s Malgudi was entirely fictional. The records show that Narayan conceived this sleepy town with a Railway Station that catered to just two trains, one up and one down as they say in railway parlance. It was his grandmother who chose a Vijayadasami Day as an auspicious day for him to start writing about Malgudi. What an auspicious Day it turned out to be! Some of my friends swear that the town is real! RK Narayan embellished it with a lot of character giving it even a mythological sheen as well by making Lord Rama pass through it! He did not leave out even the Buddha from the list of distinguished visitors to this very distinguished town. And the little Swami towered over them all!

    Reading about Rashbehari Avenue and Dr.Sen’s family took me straight to the surrealistic world of RK Narayan. This is no mean achievement OJ. Your writings never fail to enthrall the readers and to acknowledge that “I am an ardent fan of OJ” is a kind of attempt to proclaim to the world that we read only the very best. Like the movie buffs thronging theatres which screened Satayajit Ray’s movies! But this is the first time that I am seeing this likeness of another great writer in your descriptive style. It has really rendered me speechless.

    Among the various FBs that you have received, the one that Kerman wrote has chided you for not saying hello to Bacchu and Dahlia when you saw them later down the years. When I read it, I told myself ‘How Narayan like!’. He also never mingled or hobnobbed with his characters. He just let them be! It is my firm opinion that if the present refuses to play ball with our past visions, then we should ignore the present and continue to dwell in the past. This is what you have done, been doing all your life and I am happy about it. I am absolutely against guys who rubbish our romantic stockpile of the heart by giving us a graphic description of its present state!

    Though I am not unfamiliar with Rashbehari Avenue, after reading this exquisite trip of nostalgia, it has assumed as much importance in my ‘Must Visit’ places of Kolkatta as Madame Tussaud’s of London! I myself have some very colourful visions of my year-long stay in Komala Vilas of Lake Market! I may come there for a brief stay with you en route to Kamalji’s place with you!

    I am not going to plead with you to grace our forum as often as you can to feed our starved hearts. I know that you do not write for others as most of us do but to satisfy your inner urge. When that urge becomes unbearable, you write. Not otherwise! We’ll wait for it to happen like the avid sky watchers for some colourful celestial drama!
    Sri
     
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  2. PushpavalliSrinivasan

    PushpavalliSrinivasan IL Hall of Fame

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    Dear Mr Ojaantrik,
    After a long interval you make your presence with a nostalgic story from down the memory lane. I admire you for your sharp memory and for remembering the names and the incidents so vividly and I felt as if I was watching everything in person.

    In December 2013 during your visit to Chennai we had both a visual and literary treat when you posted a series-"Mysterious adventures PO-j in Po-land!"

    Nice to read your post again,

    PS
     
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  3. ojaantrik

    ojaantrik IL Hall of Fame

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    Dear Kamla,

    Thank you for your wonderful feedback. I am not sure why I keep walking back memory lane. Is it because I am afraid of facing up to the reality surrounding me.?Those faraway days were carefree, were they? No real worries, or conflicts, yes, only events surrounding trivialities. One soon forgot them and was giggling away with a merry abandon. To tell you frankly, I want to return to my youth and continue to live there as a resident of the irretrievable past. I can understand a bit of the pain faced by my father's family who were uprooted from their native Dhaka after the partition. They never stopped talking about their young days. My father often remembered childhood friends. One of whom died very young. My father was sleeping when early in the morning he thought he heard his friend call out to him, saying "I am leaving..." He jumped out of his bed and ran to the friend's house. He was indeed dead from an illness he was suffering from.

    Love.

    oj-da
     
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  4. ojaantrik

    ojaantrik IL Hall of Fame

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    Dear Sri,

    You have been over-lavish in your feedback, but I am happy to read your reaction nonetheless. To bring in RKN into the picture was a bit like offering me a Nobel Prize and I accept that too without regret. After all, I live in a world full of imagination!!

    How correct you are in your observation that Malgudi was a purely imaginary town. It was RKN's genius that turned that imaginary world into one that we have all grown used to accept as a part of reality. I, on the other hand, live in a world of imagination, but it is a part of reality that I have chosen to transform into my unreal world of dreams. It's a world where clouds graze aimlessly like stray cattle on a velvety green meadow. Only dreamers are allowed entry there. Snippets of life are bits and pieces of dreams for me.

    With growing age, I am retreating irrevocably into that never never world.

    I do not know how long I shall be able to communicate with what appears to me to be the "future" as I sit in my long lost retreat. If I can, you'll surely hear from me. If I fail, you have to merely let your imagination take wings. Perhaps we shall chat over coffee sitting atop a cloud as it melts into droplets of rain!!

    oj
     
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  5. ojaantrik

    ojaantrik IL Hall of Fame

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    Thank you PS. You are right. I do not show up too regularly. It gives me immense happiness though to come here and exchange my thoughts with the wonderful friends this community has created for me. It's a community where I find peace and happiness.

    Best wishes.

    ojaantrik
     
  6. iyerviji

    iyerviji Finest Post Winner

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    OJ da I think you have noticed my fb
     
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  7. ojaantrik

    ojaantrik IL Hall of Fame

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    Dear Viji,

    I certainly noticed your fb. But I missed acknowledging it because the smartphone often misleads you. I am very sorry about this omission and sincerely apologise for the mistake. I thank you for your kind wishes and wish you a happy and success-filled 2015. You are right, I am probably living in a world of nostalgia. Perhaps this is what old age does to everybody! Thank you very much friend and sorry once again.

    oj-da
     
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  8. Kamla

    Kamla IL Hall of Fame

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    Dear Oj-da,

    Stop making such plans! Sitting on the cloud sipping coffee indeed!

    Time you uploaded all your writings to ICloud and continue writing more snippets and blogs for us to enjoy and please leave Cheeniya sir to do the same! You guys are just fine at your desks typing away on your PCs/Laptops whatever even if your wives are fed up with your antics!:roll: A whole lot of us are waiting to read you. Coffee on cloud can wait for a long long time to come!:)

    L, Kamla
     
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  9. shyamala1234

    shyamala1234 Platinum IL'ite

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    Dear OJ Sir,
    Sorry for the late FB. Preoccupied with life outside IL.
    Reminded me of RKNarayan and a Telugu writer Buchibabu of yesteryears.
    RKNarayan draws his characters from day to day life, nothing heroic about them but people whom we come across very often. He does not end his characters....they move on and we get a feeling that they are still there. Your stroll near the house where you were born and brought up, memories cropping up and presenting them to us in a very natural and smooth way is superb!!! No bombastic phrases which I cannot understand, but convey a lot of feelings....very few writers can do it. That is the reason why I like RKNarayan. He goes to the market place in his traditional lungi, halts now and then, speaks with locals in a low voice and they become characters in his books! I cannot express Buchibabu in English...one has to read them in Telugu. So, I am not writing about him. Somewhat similar to RKN. I am also seconding the nomination for finest posts.
    Thank you for a wonderful one.
    Syamala
     
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  10. ojaantrik

    ojaantrik IL Hall of Fame

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    Dear Kamla,

    I don't know how to respond to this. Friends like you make life livable. They remind me of a famous line from a Tagore poem. It went: I do not wish to leave this charming world// In the midst human kind I wish to survive ...

    Cheeniya, unlike me, is a far more useful piece of God's creation. I saw with my own eyes the way he attends to the needs of society. And I wondered to myself how on earth he manages to find the time to write and even keep serve IL in an official capacity. My time is spent mostly in front of the writing machine and my wife has now given up on me. In fact she asks me to disappear into my study whenever she detects a dejected look on my face. She knows there's no point complaining. I am a "gone case" as they often say in Indian English. :thumbsdown

    Let's see if Cheeniya wishes to ride the cloud with me or not. He has at least expressed a desire to visit Kolkata in the near future. I have even kept his room ready. And remember that Kolkata is the nearest approximation of a cloud for me. So, if Cheeniya keeps his promise, you won't be able to prevent us from enjoying our coffee sitting atop a cloud!! gigglingsmiley

    Love.

    oj-da
     
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