Milan Kundera dies at 94

 

(From my tribute to Kundera on FB)
Milan Kundera, a Czech novelist, died on Tuesday, 11th July at 94. For me, it is rather personal.

Years ago, I was a participant in a television quiz where apart from general awareness, we had a subject round where we could choose our own topic. I had stumbled into a review of ‘The Unbearable Lightness of Being’ by Kundera in the now defunct Gentleman magazine and then went on to read the book. It was exhilarating.

Over a period of time, I bought a few of his other works. I found his ability to distil profound truths of life through a mix of levity, seriousness, stories of resistance against the repression of the communist regimes in Eastern Europe and also hedonism beguiling. A few stayed with me.

One I always think about is that life moves like the hands of a clock, in a pattern and always repeating the same thematic cycles. I have found this to be so true for myself - it has been chronologically linear but cyclical in so many other ways.

His characters approached the absurdity of existence and an intense desire to experience life in the same breath. They lived and talked as of they were faintly bemused but still flying over all that life threw at them.

Here is an excerpt from ‘The Unbearable Lightness of Being’:
“People usually escape from their troubles into the future; they draw an imaginary line across the path of time, a line beyond which their current troubles will cease to exist. But Tereza saw no such line in her future. Only looking back could bring her consolation. It was Sunday again. They got into the car and drove far beyond the limits of Prague.”

Having told the organisers that my topic would be ‘Works of Milan Kundera’, I discovered that I did not have his entire collection. In those Pre Amazon days, I started scouring all the bookshops in a few cities both personally and through friends. Usually, a lone Kundera would be lying on the shelves and a couple of his works were not easily available. The search however eventually yielded fruit and I managed to get all the missing books in my collection barring one. But in the months after the quiz, I always noticed the same shelves with many Kunderas. Did I play a part in building up that demand? I would fancy so (chuckle).

Kundera lived in Prague and then migrated to Paris. The first one full of both gorgeous architecture and the tragedy of lives and potential snuffed out by a draconian state. And in Paris, one can always sense the existentialism of Sartre, along with a celebration of life through its museums and grand boulevards. Kundera was both - Prague and Paris.

He was also a perennial Nobel contender but somehow did not get it. To me however, though lesser known, he is there with some of the finest: Mahfouz, Barnes, Coetzee or Munro if not Marquez and Camus.
Milan Kundera: April 1, 1929, to 11 July, 2023.

Is it the power of generosity?

 

Narayan Murthy is a true legend, an icon for generations. As a successful middle-class professional in India in the 1980s, it was an audacious step  to take the plunge into entrepreneurship. And in his journey, he set several benchmarks - the first to distribute wealth through stock options to a very large base of employees, the first to insist on the highest corporate governance standards for a fledgeling business, the uncompromising adherence to values and more. In the process, he created the  $70 bn behemoth that gave a fillip to job creation and entrepreneurship in the country and built the reputation of  India flying high as an IT superpower. IT services today are the biggest exports from the country. There are very few companies anywhere that are so innovative, pioneering and that also have transformed an industry and maybe even changed a country.

He belonged to a lower-middle-class family, his father was a schoolteacher with eight children. Now he is worth about $ 4 bn and by all accounts with time, his reputation and respect keep going uph. His daughter is married to the Prime Minister of the UK. It is by all means an abundantly blessed life.

In a recent interview with his son Rohan on TV ( link below), he says his favourite character in Mahabharata is Karna for his generosity. In the story, Karna gives away anything that anybody asks for including his shield that can protect him from any weapon. He is a tragic hero, He is the finest warrior amongst the heroes,  he suffers all along from fate but that does not stop him from being always ready to sacrifice. Murthy also in a very uncharacteristic gesture, did not retain a substantial equity in Infosys as everyone would do, but shared it equitably with his co-founders and employees. Infosys Foundation has carried forward that work too. 

It is quite curious that someone who in the last few decades gave away the most has also got back the most.

https://www.msn.com/mr-in/news/other/exclusive-rohan-murthy-interviews-dad-nr-narayana-murthy-on-starting-up-sacrifices-values/vi-AA1dzxnN

The Monk Who Keeps Inspiring

 

Vivekananda is a universally respected figure, a Hindu monk who transcended boundaries between the West and the East, between Hinduism and other religions. His spirituality, bounded by rationality and yet deeply religious, resonates even today.

Ruth Harris, a Professor of Modern History at Oxford, authored a book ' Guru to the World: The Life and Legacy of Vivekananda last year. I was in a session with her at a literary festival in Jan this year. The hall was packed and every story about Vivekananda was received with a hushed awe by a well-read and cultured audience.

Vivekananda believed in gender equality and the audience was elated to know that he had an openness of a different kind when he said then if there is rebirth, he would like to be reborn as an American woman. He was so impressed by the dignity and hard work of women in the USA. He influenced Freud and Gandhi and his broad thinking married seeming conflicts. He railed against colonialism but did accept the elements of Western civilisation that were inspiring. He was a proud Hindu monk but loved meat. He was aware of the communal tensions but talked of an Indian civilisation based on Hinduism and Islam. He preached the greatness of  Hinduism, especially its philosophical underpinnings, to the public everywhere but considered all religions noble in their own ways. His speech in the Parliament of Religions in Chicago in 1893 continues to stir hearts even now.

On Jesus Christ, he said in Los Angeles in 1990: "And three years of his ministry were like one compressed, concentrated age, which it has taken nineteen hundred years to unfold, and who knows how much longer will it take." 

And on Hinduism, in Chicago in 1893: "I am proud to belong to a religion which has taught the world both tolerance and universal acceptance. We not only believe in universal toleration but we accept all religions as true."

And on the scriptures in Almora in 1898:"We want to lead mankind to the place where there is neither the Vedas nor the Bible nor the Koran; yet this has to be done by harmonising the Vedas, the Bible and the Koran."   

      

Roman Emperors

 

Dictators and emperors have been some of the most cruel and craziest individuals in human history. Modern ones like Idi Amin, Hitler or Pol Pot have got drunk with power and committed terribly heinous acts. In ancient times, some of the Roman generals and emperors were extraordinary in lives of debauchery, violence and plain madness so much so that they defy imagination.

Julius Caesar(pic on top):

He was strictly the first among equals of the First Triumvirate that ruled Rome. Some of his  acts include:

- He was against luxury and he sent inspectors to dining rooms to catch people eating illegal fine dishes.

- His public spectacles involved armies of infantry, cavalry and elephants fighting. The wild beast hunting parties went on for five days.

- His sexual escapades were numerous and had no rules. He was referred to as 'every woman's husband and every man's wife.'

- As a consul, he stole gold and replaced them with bronze.

Nero:

The infamous Nero (pictured above) fiddled while Rome burnt and his acts defy cross all limits.

- At night he would attack people going back from dinner, kill them with a knife and drop them into sewers without any reason whatsoever.

- He took a fancy to a boy Sporus, castrated him and married him. He was passionately fond of his mother Agrippina too. Subsequently, he also tried to murder her by various means and finally sicceeded in doing so.

-He once got disgusted by the old-fashioned buildings in a part of the city and set fire to them which lasted for a week. While the fire was raging, he sang ' The Fall of Troy'.

Caligula:

He was the third Roman emperor, ruled for less than 4 years and was insane, to say the least.

- He made his high officials run on foot beside his chariot for great distances in their togas.

- He had a wild animal retinue and once decide to feed them the meat of prisoners and watched it standing in the colonnade.

-He had sexual relations with hostages, his sisters and wives of all his nobles as he fancied.

- He had a cruel face and even after that, practised in front of a mirror to make his expressions more fearful.

Marcus Aurelius, much later, was the wise and thoughtful one.