Why not Raosaheb?

Why not Raosaheb?

There was a Land…..

Land where art was in DNA….

Land where maestros like Abalal Rehman, Baburao Painter, Madhavrao Bagal, Raobahdur Dhurandhar and many put their heart and soul in producing master pieces in almost every field of art…

Land where artists were not just artists but were considered as Raosahebs (respected person in society)…

And had support of Rajas…..

The land was called as Kalapur….

Bharat looked at Kalapur as a great source of art and artists. But much water is flown under the (Panchaganga)bridge. India replaced Bharat and Kalapur went into shell. “Modern” overshadowed “Classical” and commerce side of art started  widely discussed in fraternity.  Indian art Market(?) grew to 1600 crore this year and is growing and going international. MF Husain, Tyeb Mehata, and many more are being sold in Crores. A single painting named “saurashtra” fetched 16.49 crores in June 2010. 


 Just Rs. 16,49,00,000 /- only(?).

Money is flown like water to buy these water, oil, and Acrylic on canvasses.


Amid  this rush, Raosaheb is still like a still. Working within himself in closed loop, still producing masterpieces, one after another. But, without recognizing self. 

I saw one such Raosaheb last week. Like his forefathers he was engrossed in his creation, a truly world class as usual. Like a yogi he was pursuing his puja. Undisturbed by this chaos in art mundi where collectors are shouting their boli in auctions, Raosaheb was busy in instilling pran in his  work. 
Calmly … quietly… 

I preferred not to disturb him and left uttering a single word. I left Raosaheb  but, thoughts about him did not leave me. 

There are many such Raosahebs in this historical city.  I wondered how not a single Raosaheb is being figured in list of contemporary Indian artists. Is it their inertness or way of living life by valuing art more than money and fame?

But when the Jag says it is not wrong to get either one or both, why Kalapur is not opening up and aggressively showcasing its treasure to world? Rajas have gone but praja is here. Why can’t we ask one question to ourselves ….

Why others? Why not Raosaheb?

 Why not Raosaheb????  

                                             

Fit Hai Boss - Tale of kusti

Fit hai Boss

Kala Immam…., Nangiwali…., Tatakadil…., Patakadil……,

Can you guess what is common in all?

Well those who are die hard Kolhapuri can easily (Zopet suddha) tell that all are names of different Talim Mandals (Wrestling Training Institutes) which were engaged in making great wrestlers who shined not only in domestic but international  championship. Saying that they shined is not correct because they played on clay court and not on mats. So while showing sky to their opponents by sitting on his chest our Kolhapuri Mallas (wrestlers) used to get soaked in all that red clay. So, no question of shining. But the fact is they used to win almost all the matches. No wonder people from other countries like Iran, Iraq, Russia, and Pakistan used to be in Kolhapur to learn the art of wrestling and Fitness.

Life is changed here and art of wrestling is fading sharply. Hhh! Gone are The Mallas and aura surrounding these mysterious names.

But Bhava! life hasn’t stopped here. We still love fitness but instead of entering in to these Talims we are hitting trendy Gyms with modern names. Rules also are changed:

·        Earlier fitness centers were open to male only. Now it is for both/all genders.

·        Earlier fitness freaks had their unique dress code – just small pieces of cloth covering tiny part of body (Langot). But now we have multiple layers of clothing. Wrist, ankle, knee, hair, head bands, this and that band, Legg-in, track suites, shorts of different sizes, shapes and colors. Variety of pieces to cover upper part like T-shirts, sleeveless, blouse, tops, Ganji frock (local name? ) Again you have foot gears (Wahhan). So it’s colorful pack of us.

·        Thandai (juice of dry fruits mixed in pure milk. The process is lengthy and requires great efforts) was the one and only one energy drink. Now energy is packed in Tins, in powder form and made available in shops.

·        Numbers never mattered earlier. Now it is number centric. Zero figure, Six pack abs, height –weight ratio, trade mill count, cardio. All number game.

So Bhava! Purpose for fitness may not be same as old days. We don’t want to do kusti to shine in competition. But…………. (?)

Feel that someone should say to us..

Fit hai Boss.

Kolhapuri Remix

Dhagala laagli kal… pani themb themb pal…

Bhava! Remix ka hai jamana. All those DJs working on these sparkling discs, moving swiftly from one song to other mixing bits and pieces are making hell new avatar. All over the world remixes are making wave and adding new zing to the old songs. As if they are teaching us to look at tried and tested/ tasted things from a new angle. Wow! It really is cool thought. With due respect to originals, I too felt that fusion sometimes makes us happy.

Well coming back to Aaple Kolhapur. It’s pretty nice hawamaan. Unlike other cities we don’t check the weather repo here. We don’t require one. Everything is always fine here. Aaal ees well, always.

So, we were in remixes and talking about how it makes us happy. But who must have invented this remix technology (?) Let me scratch….

Ha! Got it. Who else than we the Kolhapuri. Jaggat bhari..amhi kolhapuri…

How??

Leme explain.

Have you ever seen any Merce being driven by orange Pheta (local turban made up of very long piece of cloth and to be built around the head. Many a times it act as decorative item to be donned during weddings to add Shaan (build image))

All over world Mercedes cars are being driven by class people who normally wear posh dresses to suit the class class. (upper layer in class). But Kolhapuri never believes on such universal truths. They have their own set rules. So rural rugged looking easily climbs behind the steering wheel of any so called made-for-classes machines and drives it on shaky road as comfortably as he drives his own tractor in farm.  No fuss about it. For him changing roles is very easy. Just like the DJs on the Discs.

But DJs only mix songs. Kolhapuri mixes anything with everything. One can see people having combo of Digestive Soda (aerated plain cold water) with plain fresh (first hand, dharoshna etc.) milk. The famous Kolhapuri food items like Misaal or Bhel are well crafted mixtures of many things resulting into new mouth watering items. Isn’t it a Remix?

Like a reputed DJ Kolhapuri also mixes words. Without intending to hurt others reputation he repeats some so called rusting words (Aa XXXX…. Ma XXXX…. Chya XXX.. ) mixing them smoothly in his sentences. While doing all this mixing he won’t follow so called rules of grammar and will change masculine gender into non-masculine and non- feminine (no.6) without doing any surgical operation. For example he will say kai mhantey te? instead of kai mahntoy to. How creative?

This way of mixing has gone deep into all Kolhapuri culture in such a way that you will easily find Hindu’s Lord Ganesha and Mohamedian Pirsaab occupying same Pandol whenever these festival are on same  day. No tension … no confusion..  only fusion. Great!!!

So Bhava! have any doubt about who invented Remixes?

Its rocking Kolhapuri… Yo…… Naad Khula..