04-08-2005, 06:32 PM
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->Poetic license puts another Ganguli's head on the chopping block
Saugar Sengupta/ Kolkata
Clawed by the Emergency, a rhymester of considerable inconsequence in Bihar had likened the "hypocrites" who saw a "mother" in Bharat Mata to King Oedipus before being bumped off by some invisible hands. Almost three decades down the line another litterateur of national repute has been hauled up by a retired IPS officer for admitting the "vice" in a rather sophisticated patois hammering home the magnanimity and softness alike of Hindu deities so to say.
The 'confessor' is the top author and this year's recipient of Sarswati Samman, Sunil Gangopadhyay (Ganguli) who allegedly wrote in an autobiographical work Ardhek Jivon about his first encounter with the Mother at a Saraswati Puja when he imagined the deity in nude and gave shape to his desires; the top cop is BB Nandi, former Director General of the ITBP and the generous deity is none other than goddess of learning Saraswati herself.
Mr Gangopadhyay himself however, 'fluttered' to come out of the controversy a day after Mr Nandi lodged an FIR with the South 24 Parganas police under Sections 295, 295A of the Indian Penal Code and suggested, "As Hindus we have a tradition of cracking jokes at Gods and Goddesses ... I only depicted my feelings and so this should not be taken seriously ... I am upset that some light remarks have hurt the feelings of some people."
However, disallowing the proposition that it fell within Mr Gangopadhyay's birthright to dismiss "common man's faith as an element of joke," an uncompromising Mr Nandi said, howsoever big writer he is Mr Gangopadhyay has no right to hurt religious sentiments.
"The author who has earned his bread and butter through the blessings of the Goddess has not only defiled her but also depicted her as an object of sexual desire," he added.
To Mr Gangopadhyay's apology that "I had only depicted in the book what I felt at the threshold of puberty," Mr Nandi shot back, "This can happen only with the Hindus where one is allowed to depict their fantasy with one's mother... this can be lauded by some hybrid culture of the West and not at all the right-thinking Indians."
The book was written a couple of years ago but the relevant section was quoted in a Bengali daily after Mr Gangopadhyay referred to it while receiving the Saraswati Samman.
In what could provide some additional fodder to the saffron brigade, Mr Nandi threw a poser apparently to the powers that be, "if providing permanent visa to a progressive writer like Taslima Nasreen or for that matter allowing sections of her write-ups now banned in India to go uncensored can hurt the religious sentiments of a certain community, why can't such trash written by Bengali author Mr Gangopadhyay be banned... is it only because Hindus are the softest of targets." <!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Saugar Sengupta/ Kolkata
Clawed by the Emergency, a rhymester of considerable inconsequence in Bihar had likened the "hypocrites" who saw a "mother" in Bharat Mata to King Oedipus before being bumped off by some invisible hands. Almost three decades down the line another litterateur of national repute has been hauled up by a retired IPS officer for admitting the "vice" in a rather sophisticated patois hammering home the magnanimity and softness alike of Hindu deities so to say.
The 'confessor' is the top author and this year's recipient of Sarswati Samman, Sunil Gangopadhyay (Ganguli) who allegedly wrote in an autobiographical work Ardhek Jivon about his first encounter with the Mother at a Saraswati Puja when he imagined the deity in nude and gave shape to his desires; the top cop is BB Nandi, former Director General of the ITBP and the generous deity is none other than goddess of learning Saraswati herself.
Mr Gangopadhyay himself however, 'fluttered' to come out of the controversy a day after Mr Nandi lodged an FIR with the South 24 Parganas police under Sections 295, 295A of the Indian Penal Code and suggested, "As Hindus we have a tradition of cracking jokes at Gods and Goddesses ... I only depicted my feelings and so this should not be taken seriously ... I am upset that some light remarks have hurt the feelings of some people."
However, disallowing the proposition that it fell within Mr Gangopadhyay's birthright to dismiss "common man's faith as an element of joke," an uncompromising Mr Nandi said, howsoever big writer he is Mr Gangopadhyay has no right to hurt religious sentiments.
"The author who has earned his bread and butter through the blessings of the Goddess has not only defiled her but also depicted her as an object of sexual desire," he added.
To Mr Gangopadhyay's apology that "I had only depicted in the book what I felt at the threshold of puberty," Mr Nandi shot back, "This can happen only with the Hindus where one is allowed to depict their fantasy with one's mother... this can be lauded by some hybrid culture of the West and not at all the right-thinking Indians."
The book was written a couple of years ago but the relevant section was quoted in a Bengali daily after Mr Gangopadhyay referred to it while receiving the Saraswati Samman.
In what could provide some additional fodder to the saffron brigade, Mr Nandi threw a poser apparently to the powers that be, "if providing permanent visa to a progressive writer like Taslima Nasreen or for that matter allowing sections of her write-ups now banned in India to go uncensored can hurt the religious sentiments of a certain community, why can't such trash written by Bengali author Mr Gangopadhyay be banned... is it only because Hindus are the softest of targets." <!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->