Marathi Literary Meet in Punjab Creates Buzz

The 88th Marathi Sahitya Sammelan (literary meet) is to take place next month at Ghuman, Punjab. The choice of location has aroused quite an amount of curiosity. This is the first time that the annual meet is taking place in such a far away place. Everybody is anxious to know what happens to this mega event in a land where Marathi speaking population is scarcely available.

Organizing the literary meet out of Maharashtra is not a new development. This has happened earlier also and the Sammelans at Indore (Madhya Pradesh), Belgaum (Karnataka) or Vadodara (Gujarat) in the past have left their mark in cultural life of Marathi speaking populace. One meet was held even in New Delhi. Actually, the demand for United Maharashtra, a separate state for Marathi people, was made in such a meet at Belgaum. Still, the meet, which will take place in first week of April, has created a sort of buzz in Maharashtra.

Ghuman is situated in Punjab but its claim to fame is the samadhi- the memorial - of Sant Namdev, the 13th century saint poet who went to Punjab and spread the message of Bhagavat Dharma. Even though venerated by Punjab's population for almost nine centuries, it was almost forgotten place for Maharashtrians.

The initiative to hold this meet at Ghuman came from Sarhad, an NGO from Pune and its head Sanjay Nahar. When Maharashtra Sahitya Parishad, the organizing body for the meet, finalized this location as the next meet, everyone was puzzled. How will a meet, focused on Marathi language, be successful in a land where Marathi was not spoken for centuries and is not spoken even now.

However, the sarpanch and other functionaries from the village in Punjab visited Pune more than once and assured their full cooperation. Their gestures have shown a renewed cordiality which has made everyone yearn to go that land.

However, there is some roadblocks in the way. The Marathi publishers have decided to boycott the event saying that nobody would buy their books in Punjab where hardly anybody knows Marathi language. This threatens to be a major headache as large chunk of Sammelan’s revenue comes from the fees collected from the publishers to set up their stalls.

Nevertheless, Marathi literary meet has an extraordinary place in the cultural arena of Maharashtra.

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Analysis of defeat

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Raj Warns Party Workers; Will It Work?

 Maharashtra Navnirman Sena chief Raj Thackeray on Saturday warned his party cadres not to indulge in indiscipline or face his wrath. He cautioned them not to put up banners on the leaders’ birthdays and advised them not to chase vote politics.

Thackeray was speaking in Pune after deliberating with the party workers for three days in view of the two subsequent debacles of his party in Lok Sabha and Assembly elections. The meet was attended by the party workers, functionaries and corporators.

He said, “Don’t chase the votes for the sake of votes but connect with people as one among them. Think yourself as not party functionary but as common person. It is not that people have deserted us but you have failed to connect with the people. Now is the time to do constructive work.”

Thackeray kept himself off from criticizing any party while referring to the party’s poor performance in recent elections but took potshots on Nationalist Congress Party saying that the leaders on NCP’s posters are like ten-faced Ravan. “Anybody who puts the hoardings for wishing on birthdays will face axe the same day and he will not be in our party,” he said.

He said, “I have analyzed the reasons for the outcome and I will reinvigorate the party in Pune as well as in other districts. However, don’t indulge in indiscipline or infighting. Otherwise, those people will face the action. The party has a certain frame and none of you should cross that frame.”

Thackeray also announced the email connectrajthackeray@gmail.com for the party workers to directly communicate with him and appealed them to convey anything.

Now the question remains: will it work? It will be amusing to see!

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Shiv Sena Begs for Respect

Ever since experiencing unprecedented victory in Lok Sabha elections, Shiv Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray is on a high. Since then, he is begging for respect and honor which Bharatiya Janata Party under Narendra Modi and Amit Shah refuse to accord. It seems he has missed the bus now and BJP’s victory procession passed by. 

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Kaththi – A Dope of Entertainment and Advocacy

When you buy a ticket for Vijay-starrer, it means a roller coaster ride of comedy, emotions, romance and of course, action. Kaththi does not make any exception to this and fulfills the demands of the Izhaiya Thalapathi fans. The movie is executed in the best possible way for such an entertainer, much better than Thalaiva.

Kaththi has message, not logic; it has entertainment, not banal stuff; it has performances not artisanship...overall, it is a Diwali present to be enjoyed without much hesitation. Most importantly, it has characters who I could find around myself unlike the Bollywood garbage where all characters live in some foreign countries and try to act like any other Hollywood actor had done in his latest flick. In Kaththi, as in all Tamil movies, individuals are not fiber or foam personalities, they are persons in flesh and bones who would react to the situation as anybody living 10-15 kilometers from me would. It is Indian way of living, no doubt about it.

The storyline is as old as it could get. One is forced to think - had Dadasaheb Phalke not made a mythological movie, he would have settled for something similar. A fugitive  criminal taking up the cause of his look alike in forced circumstances spans the narrative of the 166-minute movie, direected by A. Murugodass. In Thuppaki, he infused dose of Patriotism. In Kaththi, he ventures into the realm of activism. There was no need to hint at the communist ideology of the main character. But the director might have thought that only communists are activists or all activists are communists.

The activist and the criminal both advocate the case of the poor farmers who get a shoddy treatment by police, administration and corporate. The villain, played by Neil Nitin Mukesh, heads a cola company whose swanky office is seen numerous times. For some strange reason, the director has not named the company and even the court mentions it as MNC – nothing else.

The movie raises an important question – who has the right on the underground water? On one side there are farmers and on another multinational giants who are all bent on bending the rules and exploiting the resources, throwing law to the wind. In a unique style, the protagonist recounts a plethora of statistics and there is even a faint mention of Vijay Mallya. Kaththi or Kathiresan, played by Vjiay, says in front of media persons, “A beer producer borrows Rs 5000 crores and fails to repay it. Neither he nor any bank official commits suicide. But a farmer taking loan of Rs 5000 commits suicide.”

What adds interest to the plot and narration is super performance by Vijay. He steals the show all the way in both roles, and in one of the roles, literally. His voice modulation in Jeeva’s character is specially notable. He has even managed to utter few lines in Bengali in the start of the movie.

However, the movie has taken a beating on comedy front. Even though the plot has places where audience cannot but laugh or smile, at least, but it could have been better. A bit of Santhanam or Vadivelu would have been preferable.

Samantha does what all actresses are meant to do – be ready at the spur of the moment to entice, enliven and ensnare the main actor for dance and song sequences.

Personally, Kaththi is the fourth entertainer of the year for me which proved value for my money. The first three movies being ‘Rama Madhav’, ‘Poster Boys’ and ‘Punha Gondhal Punha Mujara’.

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Why Pawar Didn’t Act against Vilasrao Deshmukh...

Perhaps for the first time in last 22 years, Union Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar revealed on Tuesday why he did not take any action against Vilasrao Deshmukh, then a minister in his cabinet, during the famous coup of January 2013. He said he did not touch Deshmukh simply because the latter did not act of his own and was guided from leaders in New Delhi.

Pawar was speaking after releasing a book comprising of reminisces and tributes on late Vilasrao Deshmukh whose first death anniversary was observed on August 14. Deshmukh was one of triumvirate other two being Sushilkumar Shinde and Ramrao Adik. While Shinde, then state Congress president, had to relinquish his job, Adik faded into oblivion in later years.

In that famous coup which lasted for about a week, Deshmukh and others had openly demanded resignation from Pawar, then Chief Minister of Maharashtra, for failing on many fronts and questioning his loyalty to the Congress party.

Pawar lashes out at Maha CM over delay in clearing files

"Rajiv Gandhi called me in New Delhi and said, 'What is going on in Maharashtra?' to which I asked back, 'You ask me this, of all?' Then he said that he had just asked the trio to shake the tree a little and not to uproot it. Then Rajiv Gandhi asked me what action I wanted to take against Deshmukh? I replied none because I thought Deshmukh did not do anything on his own but he was operated by someone else,” he said.

He also said that it was Deshmukh who came to him and submitted his resignation for crossing the limits of cabinet conventions as a minister. “But I assured him that he was not at fault and allowed him to continue as minister in which he excelled as always,” Pawar recalled.

Pawar cited Deshmukh's nack of going through the files and take quick and proper decisions. “It is a mark of good administrator that he does not require to read and go through all that is written in it. He would quickly assess the grievance of person coming to him. And today, there are people who would shake inside out at the mention of signing on the file. It is as though they develop temporary paralysis when signing on the file,” he said.

Pawar's jibe was targeted at Chavan whom he had criticized number of times for his style of functioning. He had in the past said that Chavan sits on the file and does not clear them because of which development work is hampered. In the program on Wednesday, he said, “When the rulers do not take decisions, the common man suffers. There is nothing wrong in deciding on matters which are important for the development and the state.”

While reminiscing Deshmukh's role in building cooperatives in his region, Pawar also said that he was not happy with the state of cooperatives in the state today. “They have become one-man rule and the main purpose is defeated,” he said.

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Maharashtra BJP Demands Expulsion of Home Minister R R Patil

The Maharashtra Bharatiya Janata Party on Wednesday demanded the expulsion of state’s Home Minister R. R. Patil for his failure in controlling the deteriorating law and order situation in the state. The party also expressed its support for the ordinance issued by the state government for anti-superstition law with one condition.

Devendra Phadnavis, state president of BJP, informed the media about the resolutions passed in the Executive meeting which concluded on Wednesday. Citing the incidents of murder of anti-superstition activist Narendra Dabholkar and rape in Mumbai Nasik and Pune, he said, “The resolution asked the expulsion of Patil because he would neither move out himself or will not be removed. The transfers of police officials are pending for because NCP and Congress want their own favorable officers in plum places. The file is pending with Chief Minister for over two months. The Maharashtra has lowest rate of conviction in crimes, 9.5%, in the country. Even the naxalism is on the rise and Patil has done nothing in five years ever since he assumed the guardianship of naxal-affected Gadchiroli district.”

Pointing to an incident in the Bhandara district where three OBC girls from same family were raped and murdered six months ago, he said, “The government does not care about the poor and disadvantaged people. How would they feel the pain of these OBC family?”

Prime Minister Can't Expect Us to be His Cheerleaders

Phadnavis said that BJP had supported the anti-superstition bill back in 2005 and had warned of the legal defects in it. The government was not serious to bring it in the legislature or pass it. “We had many meetings with late Dabholkar and Shyam Manav (another activist pressing for the bill) and had asked that the article 2 in the ordinance, which stipulates action against anybody exploiting someone in the name of miracles, to be clarified. We said that if third party complaints are allowed in this article, it will lead to blackmailing. This is the only condition which we had put. Also, we want that Warkari sect should be consulted in this regard and we are even ready to do something in it.”

On the issue of funding to Madarassas in the state, as decided by the state government on Tuesday, he said, “Reducing the assistance to Hindi and Marathi schools and giving it to madarassas is wrong. I would like to ask the government whether it would ensure that no religious education is given and only modern education is given in the madarassas if they are to be given subsidy by the government.

Phadanvis also said that senior leaders Gopinath Munde and Nitin Gadkari had chalked out the strategy of focusing on booth level and had said that minimum ten workers are to be prepared at the booth level. About 84 thousand booths have been identified all over the state and they are to be targeted in view of the impending Lok Sabha elections. The meet was attended by about 666 workers of the party. Earlier in the session, Maharashtra in charge of the party Rajiv Pratap Rudy, former national president Nitin Gadkari and deputy leader of party in Lok Sabha Gopinath Munde addressed the workers.

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