Speaking of Mahishurapuri, a quick comment.
Last week, I was reading A History of Indian Literature in English edited by Arvind Krishna Mehrotra. Of particular interest for me were two superb essays on R K Narayan (by Pankaj Mishra) and A K Ramanujan (by Mehrotra himself), the two major English writers from Mysore. As I read these two essays, I was sruck by the remarkable absence of any reference to Mysore, especially in the essay on Narayan. Immediately, I was reminded of all the recent grand claims in Churumuri by several eminent Mysoreans on how Narayan placed Mysore on the map.
Here is a simple point I want to make. Both Mishra and Mehrotra are eminent writers, with a good, reliable literary sensibility. Mishra, in particular, is a writer with the capacity to recognize the importance of a place and to genuinely appreciate a writer like Narayan. You just have to glance through his Butter Chicken in Ludhiana to realize this. However, in his essay, Mysore appears twice and both times as Mysore state. Mishra writes more on Madras and other places, than on Mysore itself. As a city that shaped Narayan’s sensibilities or provided the inspiration for Malgudi, or even as the city in which Narayan lived for nearly eight decades, Mysore doesn’t exist in Mishra’s essay. Puzzling.
Ramanujan is known more as an academic scholar, teacher, mentor and a superb translator. But no mistake. He is one of the finest Indian poets of the twentieth century. Mysore, along with Hyde Park (in Chicago) where he spent over thirty years of his adult life, is a huge presence in his poetry. For the time being, please accept this as a proposition and I will make my case in the coming weeks, as I wrote more on Raman. Yet, Mehrotra doesn’t even mention Mysore in his essay.
In the last few days, I have searched for an explanation in vain. Is Mysore significant at all to understand Narayan’s fiction and Raman’s poetry? What is the role of a place in shaping the sensibility of an author and in the creative process? I will share my thoughts in the coming days but I do want to leave you with a thought.
Both Mishra and Mehrotra should have recognized the presence of Mysore in RKN and AKR. They dont’ need any hand holding. But if they don’t see what we expect them to see, are we making a big deal out of something minor? I also wonder sometimes whether we just sit in a cacoon and not investigate how the world sees us.
By the way, how does the world see us? How do we want the world to see us?
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