Priests, Communists & Detectives

Giovanni Guareschi, the Italian writer, created the character of Don Camillo, the hot-headed but lovable parish priest in a village on the Po valley. Active in parish affairs, he has to contend frequently with Peppone, the communist mayor of the village. Though ideologically at the opposite ends of the political spectrum, they are close friends & argue over their differences. The stories, set in post second world war Italy, & collected in a few volumes, though seemingly light hearted & trivial, hide spiritual truths inside.

Graham Greene also wrote about a Spanish  priest, Monsignor Quixote, supposedly a descendent of the famous Don. He was plain Father Quixote, but a fortutous visit of a visiting bishop, made him a Monsignor, much against the wishes of his own bishop. His village of El Toboso (native place of the original Dulcinea) also had a communist mayor, defeated in the recent elections. The two leave the village in Quixote's battered old car, called aptly Rocinante. Their picaresque adventures form the subject of the book, ending with the protoganist's death. It was also made into a film, with Alec Guinness in the title role.

G.K.Chesterton's Father Brown again was a simple priest, but

a remarkable detective. His companion was the (retired?) master criminal, Flambeau. The priest's dumpy figure with his umbrella & clerical hat, is a memorable addition to a long line of amateur detectives like Dorothy Sayers's Lord Peter Wimsey, Agatha Christie's Miss Marple & others.

Theme & Variations

A simple explanation of this form is that it states a musical idea & then repeats it, varying it in such a way that it sounds at once familiar & new. If a number of such variations are put together, voila, there you have a theme & variations form. (Daniel Politoske's "Music.")

The most familiar example is Mozart's Variations on the theme "Ah, vous dirai-je Maman" (or Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star."). A more complex & rewarding example is Dohnanyi's "Variations on a nursery tune" for Piano & Orchestra.

Bach's famous "Goldberg" variations for harpsichord are dedicated to his pupil, Goldberg, who was employed by a Count, who suffered supposedly from insomnia & wanted soporific music. The result was an aria & 30 variations.

The music publisher Diabelli submitted a waltz to 51 composers, requesting them to contribute a variation each for publication. Beethoven, in a fit of creativity, himself composed 33 variations, called "Diabelli Variations", which has become one of the most famous pieces in the piano repertoire.

Richard Strauss's symphonic tone poem, "Don Quixote" is cast in the form of an introduction, 10 variations & finale. The ill-fated knight is depicted by a solo cello, his battle with a flock of sheep depicted with most realistic bleating!

To recapitulate, there can be 4 types of variation:

1. Melody, harmony & structure retained.
2. Harmony & structure retained 
3. Structure retained.
4. Motives retained.

(From Harvard Dictionary of Music)

It can be noticed that in the last 3, the melody is not retained. Aficionados of Hindustani Classical Music may be quick to notice the similarity with the Raga Malika finale of concerts, where Ragas are changed with lightning rapidity, keeping the tala constant!

Supreme form of Western Classical Music - Sonata Form

While there are many forms of Western classical music, the pre-eminent one from an intellectual point of view is the Sonata form. Initially Sonata meant instrumental piece to distinguish it from Cantata, a vocal piece. Later it assumed a specific structure of its own, briefly outlined as follows:

1. Introduction (optional)

2. Exposition consisting of

    First subject in tonic key followed by

    Bridge section to 

    second subject, which should be 

    in the dominant key, if the first is 

    in major key or in the relative major

    if the first is in a minor key.

 3. Development of above material

 4. Recapitulation.

Many popular sonatas may not follow this strictly. From solo piano sonatas to (usually the first movements of) symphonies, concertos, trios, quartets etc., may be in this form.)

Here, a few of the most popular Piano sonatas (which are the only pieces where the performer appears alone on the stage.) are listed.

Haydn & Mozart composed many beautiful examples, but the ones to be named &

enjoyed were the "Moonlight" & "Pathetique" of Beethoven. His "Appassionato", "The Tempest" & "Les Adieux" are also justly famous. But the single movement sonata in B minor of the virtuoso Liszt, remains a landmark achievement to this day. His fellow virtuoso (but with a softer touch), Chopin, though mostly composing miniature forms like etudes, nocturnes & waltzes, also. composed a few piano sonatas. 

The Russian, Scriabin, who put his Synesthesia to creative use (by using colours to complement his music), also composed piano sonatas, notably, Op. 23, 30, 64 & 68.

Scintillating String Quartets

Even though Symphonies like Mozart's "Jupiter",  Beethoven's "Eroica", & Tchaikovsky's "Pathetique" are very well known amongst lovers of Western Classical Music, the cognoscenti are aware the highest delights await them in the String Quartets.

Haydn, the pioneer, composed many, including "The Lark", (so called because as Richard Wigmore states "the first movement's unforgettable, winged melody, high in the first violin's E string is played as a descant....") & "The Emperor" (so called because the second movement is a set of variations on the anthem composed for the Emperor.)

Mozart also composed more than 20, including the six "Haydn Quartets" so called because they were dedicated to Haydn. They include "Hunt", "Spring" & the atypical "Dissonance" Quartet.

But it was Beethoven, who in his "late" Quartets, took the form to sublime heights. Especially the Op.132 in A minor with its Molto Adagio "Heiliger Dankgesang eines Genesenen an die Gottheit, in lydischen Tonart" pushed the meaning of music itself into hitherto uncharted realms.


Debussy also, uncharacteristically, in the midst of his impressionistic, whole-tone outpourings, composed a string quartet, at once ground-breaking & joyous.

Schubert's "Death & the Maiden" quartet, is so called because the second movement's set of variations is based on his song "Der Tod und Das Madchen."

Shostakovich, in the midst of his run-ins with authority, managed to compose 15 quartets, the last of which comprises six bleak adagios in succession, implying a personal requiem, much in the manner of Mozart's.

Depressed characters in literature

In Charles Dickens's "David Copperfield", an elderly widow Mrs. Gummidge, lives with the Peggotys (friends of David), constantly mourning for her husband & saying "I am a lone, lorn creature & everything goes contrary with me", which is her catch phrase. However after "Little" Emily's elopement, she becomes active & helps the family.

In "Alice in Wonderland", Alice meets a Mock Turtle, who is perpetually lachrymose, possibly because it's destiny is to end up as Turtle Soup. It's companion is the Gryphon, with which, it dances "a lobster quadrille".

Eeyore, the grey donkey in "Winnie the Pooh", another chronically depressed character, is always wallowing in self-pity. It feels the other animals in Hundred Acre Wood neglect it & even ill-treat it, probably with good reason, because when it falls into a stream (likely "bounced" into it by Tigger), to rescue it, the others drop a stone right on top of it, which it adroitly avoids.

Cervantes & his madmen

The creator of fiction's most illustrious madman, Don Quixote, also enriched the English language by two words "quixotic' (to mean eccentric behaviour) & "tilting at windmills" (to fight against imaginary enemies).

It may not be known by many that Cervantes, in his collection of stories "Exemplary Tales", included a story about another madman, nicknamed "Dr. Glass Case", who believed that he was made of glass. He was mortally afraid of being broken into smithereens at the slightest jolt.

Apart from this idiosyncrasy, he was a very wise man (thus the honorific of Doctor), on the reputation of which, he was invited to the Palace. His reply, furthered his image, as he said "that I am not fit to dwell in the Palace, because I have some sense of shame left, & do not know how to flatter."

In this connection, it may be relevant to mention the remarks of Miguel de Unamuno, the Spanish philosopher, who said "If Don Quixote were to raise from the dead & return to present day Spain, they would seek out the ulterior motives behind his noble extravagance. If anyone denounces an abuse, prosecutes injustice, lashes out at vulgarity, the slaves ask themselves: What is he looking for here? What is he after? Sometimes they think & say that he does it to get his mouth stopped with gold etc.,

Return of the Masters

Satyajit Ray made "Pather Panchali' (1955) & Ingmar Bergman made "The Seventh Seal" (1957). The main character types in these two films were repeated in Ray's "Ashani Sanket" (1973) & Bergman's "The Serpent's Egg' (1977). It is proposed to point out the similarities here.

Ray returned to film in rural Bengal & deal with a Brahmin Priest (albeit more prosperous this time around) in colour this time. But external factors like the Bengal Famine (British made) put him & his wife in dire straits again. Though the time frame was much later with corresponding social changes, both stories were written by Bibhuti Bhushan Bandyopadhyay.

Strolling players' family played a pivotal role in the iconic "The Seventh Seal" set at the time of Black Death in Europe. "The Serpent's Egg", set at the start of the Nazi era uses a Circus couple as the pivotal characters. The Jewish man, out of work because of drink, is put to work in the archives where results of biological experiments are stored. The doctor there kills himself by cyanide, & the Jew let off but goes missing. The woman follows the oldest profession & there is no child Michael, as in the earlier film to create hope.

Mother or Monster?

In Hinduism, Mother occupies a pre-eminent role in family & society, next only to God. In fact, even when the son happens to become a sanyasin, & receives the prostrations of everyone regardless of their age, including his own father, he is expected to prostrate himself before his mother.

In contrast, in Western society, the attitudes are rather different. In Aldous Huxley's essay on "Mother", he starts by quoting the Mother's day Greeting:

Mother Dear, you're wonderful
In everything you do!
The happiness of family life
Depends so much on YOU.

He remarks on this sentiment as being popular & superficial & goes into the minority  opinion of people who are aware of Freudian thought, who know that Mother Dear can also be wonderful, possessive mother of an only son whom she babies into chronic infantility, that there are also wonderful, sweet old vampires who go on feeding, into their eighties, on the blood of an enslaved daughter. Being conversant with Hinduism, he does not miss to point out that Kali, the Eternal Mother, is also portrayed as a cannibalistic monster.

In Samuel Butler's "The Way of all Flesh", the protagonist's mother, who had played and won a game of cards with her sisters to be the one to marry his father, a clergyman, used to support her husband in oppressing her son, even resorting to emotional blackmail to get her way. No wonder he threw off the maternal yoke & left home at the earliest.

In Thackeray's "Vanity Fair', the mother pushes her son out of the room to entertain her admirers. Later the son refused to see her lifelong.

In Katharine Anne Porter's chilling short story "He", the mother boasts constantly about her love for her eldest son, born retarded. He is always referred to as only "He", symbolising the reality that he is a cipher. The mother underfeeds & overworks him saying he doesn't mind. When he gets physically irreparably injured & has to be institutionalised, drops of tears finally appear in His eyes & the hypocritical mother exclaims "Oh, what a mortal pity He was ever born!".

In Agatha Christie's novel "Appointment with Death", the mother, formerly a sadistic prison warder, continues her tyranny on her grown up children, who are economically dependent on her. She discovers a former prison inmate, now respectable, & starts to tyrannise her, threatening to expose her past. She kills her, freeing the children from the mother's tyranny.

In the last, unfortunately true story, the boy for whom "Winnie the Pooh" was written was pushed into limelight by his publicity hungry, avaricious mother. He did not see her for the last 10 years of her life, & she refused to see him even on her death-bed.

Productive & unproductive work: Views of Adam Smith & William Morris

Economics, like Politics, makes strange bed fellows. It is surprising that opinions about the title of this essay have been propounded by both Adam Smith, who may be called the "Father of Capitalism" & William Morris, the committed Communist.

Adam Smith

William Morris

Adam Smith, the Scottish Economist, in his magnum opus "The Wealth of Nations", Book 2, Chapter 3, defines agriculture & industrial manufacture as productive work & most others as unproductive work. He, with his famous example of manufacture of pins, glorified division of Labour & mass manufacture. He also defined domestic service as socially un-productive labour, as it adds nothing to the wealth of either individuals or nations.

William Morris, Designer & Craftsman Extra ordinary, who learnt 13 extinct crafts, was a committed Communist & wrote an Utopian book called "News from Nowhere" depicting a pastoral, Communist England with a non industrial society. He, in his essay "Useful Work versus Useless Toil" also defines useful work as agriculture (& here comes the difference), handicrafts. He was against both  division of Labour & mass production, as he felt that those reduced a happy usefully  working human being into a soul-less slave.

We, at present separated by centuries from both these savants, can draw our own conclusions, as we have observed the effect of both these ideologies.

Film & Music Appreciation - A Bibliographic Approach

The appreciation of any fine arts need not be restricted to the practitioners in those fields. 

Many lovers of them sadly confine their enjoyment to only a sensual level, when a little application to learning the basics of appreciation can enhance their enjoyment immeasurably. 

It cannot be stated too strongly that mere watching many films or listening to much music will not develop automatically good appreciation. Like any other discipline, it has to be methodically learnt. 

This learning, it should be emphasised, is not rigorous like the one undergone by those who aspire to become practitioners. In many western universities, semester courses are offered in these fields.

A select bibliography of books used as texts in these courses is appended herewith in the hope that a study of them with viewing of/listening to relevant material will enable one to be better educated.

Cinema:

Arnheim, Rudolf.     Film as Art
Bazin, Andre.          What is Cinema? 
Bordwell &              Film Art
Thompson.             
Gianetti, Louis        Understanding Movies    
MacCann, R.B.        Film: A Montage of Theories
Perkins, V.F.            Film as Film
Sarris, Andrew.       The Film
Stephenson &.        The Cinema as Art
Debrix

Western Classical Music:

Copland, Aaron.      What to listen for in Music                                              
Hopkins, Anthony.   Talking about Music
Karolyi, Otto           Introducing Music
Kermann, Joseph.    Listen
Politoske, Daniel.     Music
Wink & Williams      Invitation to Listening
                                   
Hindustani Classical Music:

Bagchee, Sandip.         Naad, Understanding Raga Music                            
Deva, B.C.                   An Introduction to Indian Music                              
Karnani, Chetan.          Listening to Hindustani Music                                
Nair, Rajiv.                   A Rasika's Journey through Hindustani music                            

European Masters of Film

At the outset, it may be mentioned that most of these confined themselves to a life-long theme & explored it exhaustively.

Michelangelo Antonioni

Federico-Fellini

Antonioni examined human alienation from his society. After his critical successes, major studios roped him in to make films with international stars. Blow-Up, Red Desert, Zabriskie Point & The Passenger achieved varying degrees of main-stream acceptance, with Satyajit Ray acerbically commenting "Perhaps the artistic significance of "Blow Up" is like Antonioni's tennis ball, which a vast number of critics & filmgoers seem to have picked up & handed back to the Maestro. I, for one, am still looking."

His fellow Italian, Fellini went to the other extreme of whole-hearted embrace of a fantastical, decadent life, impossibly working air borne statues of Jesus Christ & Roman Orgies into the body of his work, including the auto-biographical "Amarcord."

Visconti, showing dysfunctional families like "Rocco & his brothers" went onto to make opulent period pieces like "The Leopard" with (the possibly miscast) Burt Lancaster in the eponymous role.

Vittorio De Sica

Ingmar Bergman

De Sica, starting with the neo-realist trend setter "Bicycles Thieves" used the star power of Sophia Loren & Marcello Mastroianni to make meaningful, popular films.

The French "New-Wave", fuelled by the critics turned auteurs, charted individual paths. The most accessible, Truffaut, charted the growth of a boy into adulthood, in a series of films starting with "Four Hundred Blows" similar to Ray's "Apu Trilogy", though he is supposed to have walked out of the screening of "Pather Panchali", the fastidious Francois revolted at the Brahmin family eating with their hands!

Claude Chabrol, the acolyte of Hitchcock, expectedly made suspenseful movies.

Resnais, the man who pioneered the use of non-linear time in his debut film "Hiroshima mon amour" took a break from his pre-occupation with non-chronological presentations in his "Stavisky", a story of a  con-man with access to the highest in the land, played with aplomb by Jean Paul Belmondo.

The iconoclast Bunuel, starting from slicing eyeballs on screen, made other anti-establishment films & also a conventional, well-made "Robinson Crusoe."

Satyajit Ray

The Swedish Bergman, delved into the innermost recesses of the human psyche, especially the female one, but occassionally redeemed himself by wondrous visions like the baby Michael & his mother appearing like the Madonna & Child, in his "The Seventh Seal."

To end on a lighter note, the anti establishment Godard made anarchic films which none liked. When Satyajit Ray was told about this, he said "I also don't like him. But his films are filled with striking things."

Animal Fables & Fairy Tales

These have been arguably the earliest popular literature right from the time of Aesop to our own Vishnu Sharma. There have been considerable cross-fertilization of sources across countries. Brothers Grimm, Hans Andersen, La Fontaine & even Chaucer (The Nun's Priest's Tale from The  Canterbury Tales) have contributed to the genre. Our Panchatantra & Hitopadesha have also enriched it.

However, Tolkien in his erudite essay on Fairy Stories makes a fine distinction between the two & classes Chaucer's story, Brer Rabbit & The Three Little Pigs as Animal Fables. But he states that except "The Tailor of Gloucester", where friendly mice help the sick tailor to meet the deadline) & "Mrs.Tiggy-winkle", (a hedgehog washer woman, who washes the hankies of a little girl), which come close to being fairy stories, the rest of Beatrix Potter's oeuvre are animal fables.

But however one classifies them, their perennial appeal is proof of their popularity among the young at heart.

Hundred Acre Wood & Walden: Alternate Universes or Mirror Images?

Hundred Acre Wood is a magical world inhabited by author A. A. Milne's son Christopher Robin & his toys. They are firstly Winnie the Pooh, a small bear, "with very little brain", always thinking of his pots of honey & "a little something" (snack) even when he goes visiting & favourite activity being doing nothing. Next is the bossy Rabbit, the born organiser. The professorial Owl is the know all. The hyper-active "bouncy" Tigger debuts in the second volume, where the house at Pooh corner is built. The chronically depressed donkey Eeyore is perpetually sunk in self-pity. The smallest & most timid is the Piglet. Kanga & it's child Roo arrive before Tigger & are accepted after some initial hiccups.

These simple creatures inhabit the farm which is both comforting & terrifying with imaginary "Heffalumps." & "Wozzles". They go about their lives much the same way as Thoreau did in his self-built house (at Pooh corner?). If Thoreau self-consciously contemplates the simple life, Christopher Robin & his animals live instinctively in the Tao way, as Benjamin Hoff brilliantly analyses in his "The Tao of Pooh" & "The Te of Piglet." In fact, Hoff calls Thoreau the first "undeclared" Taoist! But Thoreau was immensely influenced by Hindu thought like his co-transcendalists Emerson & Whitman, profusely quoting from "Bhagawat Gita", "Vishnupurana", & the Vedas.

Fittingly, though his books are about Winnie the Pooh & Taoist philosophy, Hoff concludes with a paean to Gandhi, saying he put Taoist principles into practice & has shown the only way in which our world can be saved.

Adam Bede, Master of Ballantrae & striking parallels in Ramayana

George Elliot's first full length novel "Adam Bede" deals with the rare affection between two brothers, Adam & Seth, both poor carpenters in pre industrial England. Seth loves Dinah, an idealist Methodist preacher. But when Adam's first love, Hetty proves wayward & goes astray, & Dinah gets attracted to Adam, Seth cheerfully sacrifices his love. The unshakeable bond between the brothers remind one of the bond between Rama & Lakshmana in Ramayana.

In contrast, in Robert Louis Stevenson's "Master of Ballantrae", the siblings James (Master) & Henry start feuding right from childhood. At the time of civil war, for political reasons, James goes to war & Henry stays home & looks after the estate. When James does not return for many years, presuming him to be dead, Henry inherits the estate & marries James's fiancé Alison. But James returns, livid with Henry for grabbing the estate & his fiancé. After many twists & turns, both brothers meet an untimely end.

The presuming of the elder brother's (Vali) death, usurping the kingdom (by Sugriva) & marrying his woman (Tara) are strikingly reminiscent of the relevant portion of the Ramayana.

Mortification as an aid to Enlightenment in all religions

The Veerashaiva Saint Basavanna (1105-1168) wrote a famous Vachana, which says in essence:

Please make me lame, O God
So that I cannot move around.
Please make me blind, O God
So that I cannot see hither & thither
Please make me deaf, O God
So that I cannot hear vain talk.
Please make me think only of You, O God.

The Vaishnavite Saint Purandara Dasa (1550) composed a "Ugabhoga" which says:

Hari make me love You
If loved, make me beg
If begged, deny me wood (for warmth)
If wood given, deny me food
If food given, deny me clothing
If clothing given, deny me shelter
If shelter denied, give me shelter
In your Divine feet, Purandara Vittala

Julian of Norwich (1342-1416) desired from God three special graces:

1. Recollection of Christ's Passion (Crucifixion).
2. A near mortal bodily sickness, because she wanted to experience all the pangs of dying as a purification, so that afterwards she would live more entirely for God.
3. Three wounds:
     i. Wound of true contrition
    ii. Wound of living compassion
   iii. Wound of longing with all her will for God.             

The first two she asked conditionally - if it were God's will, the third she besought urgently & unconditionally.

In May 1373, when she was 31, all three graces were granted to her.

Rabia of Basra (8th century Muslim Saint) prayed:

"O, God, if I worship You in fear of hell, burn me in hell;
If I worship You in hope of paradise, exclude me from paradise;
But if I worship You for Your own sake, withhold not Your Everlasting Beauty."

She is supposed to have attained self-realisation & was able to perform miracles.

Cutting across space & time, these four Saints of different denominations, ask for mortification as an aid to Enlightenment.

Sources: 1. Kannada Kavya Sanchaya
                2. Revelations of Divine Love by Julian of Norwich.
                3. Islamic History.

Melodious Ragas of "Khamach That."

Hindustani Ragas are classified into 10 "Thats" depending on the notes used. Here it is proposed to mention some of the Ragas of Khamach That. The main distinguishing feature of these are the use of both Nishads.

1.Khamach: NSGMPDNS
                     SnDPMGRS.
This bitter sweet Raga is one of the most popular in the recent repertoire, (as hardly any ragamala Paintings are extant of this) used by all gharanas but the specialty of Maihar one.
 
2. Desh. NSRMPNS
              SnDPMGRS
This Raga with an immediate appeal is also associated with the monsoon when used in its Malhar variation.

3. Goud Malhar. NSGRMGPDnDNS 
                           SNDnPGMRGRS
This is a monsoon Raga with a special appeal because of its zig-zag movement. This is represented by a Ragamala painting in the first exhaustive volume on the subject by Klaus Ebeling.

4. Jaijaivanti. RGMGRgRS
                      NSDnR_
This complex Raga uses both Gandhars along with both Nishads in a distinct way to give a touch of gravity to the mood.

5. Jhinjoti. SRMPDS
                  SnDPMGRGS
This Raga, though in the Khamach That, completely omits Tivra Nishad, using only the Komal variety, again in a zig-zag way.

Shirley Temple & Judy Garland - A Study in Contrasts

These two were the biggest child stars of all time & were contemporaries. But their lives were quite different.

To take Shirley (1928-2014) first, her precocious talent was discovered while still an infant & exploited to the full. Her cheerful persona dispelled the blues of the Great depression & was rumoured to pull a famous studio out of impending bankruptcy. John Ford, no lover of child stars, was compelled to use her in one of his films but in spite of being ignored by him at first, she quickly won his heart to the extent of being named by him as "Single Take Shirley" in recognition of her perfection. Her IQ being checked was found to be 155! She used it to educate herself between shots, so that when she quit films in her early twenties, she became a business woman & then a diplomat representing USA at many countries. She was married twice. Her auto-biography shows her level headedness in handling her unprecedented fame.

Sadly this last quality was lacking in Judy (1922-1969). Whisking the coveted role of Dorothy (in "The Wizard of Oz") right from under the nose of her younger rival Shirley, she catapulted to dizzy heights of stardom under the inspired direction of Victor Fleming & her own magnificent singing voice. Even though she made other popular films, buckling under the stress of stardom, she sought refuge in barbiturates, an overdose of which was the cause of her early death at 47, compared to the ripe old age of 86 reached by Shirley. Judy was married 5 times in the "glorious" tradition of Hollywood. Probably only her early death prevented her from reaching the record 8 marriages of Elizabeth Taylor!

Love at the time of epidemics

Marquez's novel "Love at the time of cholera" depicts the human obsession with romantic love even when death is waiting at the door.

Similarly, Camus's "The Plague" shows the preoccupation of the stranded visitor to the stricken town with his separated lover. He even fallaciously thinks God created him to indulge in romantic love rather than die of the plague.

No scripture of any religion preaches this absurd doctrine, emphasising rather that Mankind was created to adore God. The first commandment of Moses & Jesus Christ also make this explicit. The Quran says the primary duty of a Muslim is to adore Allah.

But nowhere is this most emphatically presented than in "Srimad Bhagavatam" which was expressly created to solace King Parikshit's last days, who was under a curse of untimely death.

So at the time of pandemic, like the present, while all possible precautions have to be taken, the golden opportunity is to constantly love & remember the Lord. For the rest, one has to dree one's weird!

Dragons - Ogres or otherwise

Right from the myth of St. George & the Dragon, western minds are accustomed to view dragons as acquisitive, fearsome & bloodthirsty. Even Tolkien (Smaug in "The Hobbit") & Rowling (Harry Potter in the Triwizard Tournament), have depicted them as true to the stereotype, though ecological & environmental concerns had put forth the idea that all creatures are valuable in nature by the time they wrote.

In this context, it is really a visionary approach taken by Kenneth Grahame (Wind in the Willows) who wrote about a peaceful, poetry loving dragon in his famous story "The Reluctant Dragon" much before protection of wildlife became trendy. In this story, St. George & the Dragon stage a mockfight, just to satisfy the unenlightened populace. (Call it "match-fixing for a good cause"!) At the end, the dragon, symbolically "wounded", is supposed to see the error of his ways & promising to mend them, joins the victory celebrations of St. George, who proclaims that all creatures are part of nature's scheme.

Kanooru & Wessex.

Thomas Hardy & K. V. Puttappa (Kuvempu)

At the outset, it may be made clear that scholarly articles have been published on the subject. However, some personal views are presented here.

Thomas Hardy (1840-1928) & Kuvempu (1904-1994) both wrote novels about their respective countrysides. Hardy's "Wessex" novels are also noted for their beautiful language & restraint exercised by their characters in the face of adversity. But Kuvempu, in his most celebrated novel, "Kanooru Heggadithi",  chose to employ Rabelaisian language in the dialogue of his rural characters, possibly to emphasize their rustic origin. It is to be noted that Hardy saw no reason to use this device to place his characters in rural milieu. The result makes one wonder whether Kanooru villagers were less civilised than Wessex villagers!

But the same Kuvempu, in his magnum opus "Ramayana Darshanam" used lofty thoughts & language even in the negative characters, ennobling them even in their villainy. It is to be pointed out that even the great Valmiki himself did not do this. In this context, the episode of Indrajith's child is especially charming. Of course, Kuvempu was criticised for making everyone good.

Spiritual significance of Chivalry

Chivalry is the exaggerated consideration & respect shown by a man towards a woman. If one considers deeply the meaning of this, it is Providence's way of making the man pay homage to the woman for shouldering the onerous responsibility for propagating the species.

In the case of the Madonna, it is the respect paid her for bringing the Saviour of the Christians into the world. In the middle ages, the knights were engaged in crusades & other wars. In their absence, the Lady of the House held the fort as it were, keeping the domestic machine running. This also reinforced her Madonna-like status among the domestics.

This gradually transformed itself into "courtly love" where valiant deeds performed by the knights were dedicated to the lady of their choice, the most well-known being Don Quixote dedicating his deeds to Dulcinea del Toboso. Of course, there were exceptions like the Knight Templar Bois de Gilbert in Ivanhoe casting covetous eyes on the fair Jewess, Rebecca.

Remarkable stability in book prices.

About 70 years ago, when I was a small boy, my first English book "Pinocchio" was bought for me. My mother read it to me as I was too young to read English then. It was an ordinary (imported) paperback & I had written the price on the title page as one & a half rupee.

The price of a sovereign was about Rs.20 then & a family could live comfortably on the same amount per month. Assuming the price of a sovereign now as Rs.30,000 & (optimistically) estimating monthly expenses of a family to be the same, the price of an imported paperback should now be more than Rs.2000! Though many books cost the same now, many more are priced even lower! So we can conclude that cost of books (as a fraction of Gold or expendable income) has actually reduced in real terms!

The same holds good for music also. A record holding 6-7 minutes of music would cost Rs.3, which would translate to more than Rs.4000 now, whereas an LP or CD holding 40-70 minutes music (of much better sound quality) would definitely cost less.

So as Dickens said now is "The best of times & worst of times" also!