Masti: His Writings in English
K. CHANDRASEKHARAN
A Kannada writer of vast creative talents
could hardly be expected to contribute in another language like English so much
to his lasting credit as Masti. While like Tagore he
has attempted with success every variety of literary form such as poem, novel,
play, short story, essay, criticism, biography, sketch, dialogue, he has,
though not in equal quantity and variety but in no less distinct quality, given
us quite a good number of critical essays, biographical sketches and stories in
English.
Masti cannot claim to be a stylist in that
language but preserves a naturalness of expression which surpasses any of the
usual characteristics associated with prose-writing. People, who have watched
him in conversation may easily discern the same
unaffected, gentle and refreshing stamp in his writing. With no occasion to
strain for effect, his language runs like a rill which makes little noise of
its existence. His prose too does not run to lengthy or involved
sentences nor into deliberate short ones after a
staccato manner. In whatever way it can be described, it reflects vividly his
personality: mild, selective, individualistic and unassuming.
At any rate to those who are familiar with his manner and method, no difference
at all they convey from his speech or conversation. This identity makes for his
being recognised as a writer of uncommon simplicity.
Idiomatic of usage and with no penchant towards any known model in English, he
maintains an originality that is the man himself.
Turning to his English books, almost the
earliest one to see the light of day was “The Popular Culture of Karnataka.”
Lectures no doubt they were to university students, still devoid of bookish
scholarship, they retain something of the history of the people inhabiting a
region of the land, whose culture has a permeating influence on song and story
and whose religious background
accounts for the peasantry being fully conscious of their early traditions of
living and growing.
About 1941, his “Poetry of Valmiki” appeared
to convince readers and students of the great epic, that to understand its
beauties one should have lost himself in its poetry as Masti.
In sixteen chapters of close analysis of the “Chief Characters,” “The
Civilization and Culture,” “The Valuation of Valmiki,” etc., the book abounds
in some of the subtlest evaluations of a poet’s unequalled ability of narration
of the life of a most exemplary man. For sheer enjoyment of Masti’s powers as a narrator in lucid, unsophisticated
prose, the volume stands as yet unsurpassed. He made once again Valmiki live in
our hearts.
His four volumes of short stories came next
which practically fixed Masti in the remembrance of
literary students of this particular genre of writing. Experienced short story
writers in both Tamil and English estimated them as unforgettable for their
special quality of gaining on our hearts with a slow but sure emphasis of their
art. Some of the stories as “The Curds-seller,” “The Teacher” and “Venkatasami’s Love” can find rarely their equal in
literature. Connoisseurs such as Rajaji volunteered to turn the last two
stories mentioned into English. As a matter of fact, Navaratna
Rama Rao’s English translation of “Masumatti” in Triveni quarterly
induced Rajaji to translate from the English rendering into Tamil, and offer it
to the Kalaimagal monthly. The art of
writing with no trace of artificiality made Masti
superior of his individuality and imagination. However much Masti’s name has become a household one in Karnataka, for
litterateurs in other languages, to know of his creativity, the English
renderings form certainly the main sources.
“Rabindranath Tagore” was the next
publication of his to appear in print and arrest the attention of writers. Masti showed how far a great poet to be understood, despite
language barrier, an adoring student of the poet’s writings in translation can
justify by ample evidence of his insight into the poetic thought. Some of the
selections from Tagore which he has collected in that volume easily tell us how
much himself of an authentic poet Masti
is to have peered into the realms of a mystic soul like Tagore.
In 1958. “Chenna Basava Nayaka” in English
translation by Navaratna Rama Rao became the first
historical novel of Masti’s, painting the background
of the times of Muslim rule in
“Chikka Veera Rajendra” no doubt is more striking by its tragedy, and the material woven into historical details
makes it more of a permanent achievement for a novelist of Masti’s
calibre.
By the time Rajaji retired from official
position of the Governor-General of India, Masti had
started dwelling on his adorable human qualities aided with acuteness of
intellect and goodness of heart, drawing him to portray him exactly as he found
him. In many places in the two volumes, which appeared much later, one can
trace without doubt the intimacy which Masti had felt
for his hero and the admiration for the man in teaching every individual of any
intellectual worth that came into contact much to learn from his conduct both
in private and public life. Perhaps, as Rajaji observed at another context
concerning one of Masti’s creations, it may not be
necessary when making a long book that everything done or said must be put in
writing. The selection of material to pinpoint a trait or tendency would be
sufficient. According to modern biographers in the wake of Lytton
Strachey, few samples of both excellence and blemish
in the character of an individual written about could make the reader feel less
of fatigue and remember easily the whole of the picture portrayed in light and
shade. Because Masti did not choose any other for his
model, he did what he felt due to make his Rajaji live in the pages of his
book. Without dramatic condensation too, the story of Rajaji fares no less in
its ultimate whole to those wedded to recollections too dear to omit.
Coming to his “Essays and Addresses”
contained in a separate volume published almost at the same time as the two
volumes on Rajaji, they are of immense value to most of the modern writers who
get into a feeling that nothing will be sensational or of immediate consumption
by the reading world, unless both the manner of telling as well as the
substance contained would satisfy the curiosity and eagerness for change in the
readers. Eighteen chapters contained therein provide different aspects of Masti’s profound interest in all life. “The thought was all
based on the idea about national welfare which came to me as a growing boy and
young man from contact with great elders, and has regulated my outlook through the years,” is
the plea made in the introduction to this volume. Conscious, as he says, of
English not being his language, and hence the possibility for errors creeping
in any such writing attempted, he is not on that score guilty of grave slips or
ill-constructions of any kind requiring improvement. The addresses, some of
them, especially delivered to writers make deep impression by their sincerity
for improving their standards. One very important emphasis of his on writers is
salutary in every sense. He has asked writers never to imagine that without
good living and noble thinking one could achieve the objective of endurability in the long run. Talents for creativity and
skill in writing are entrusted to the writer by a Higher Power and the
remembrance of it should save him from falling a prey
to coveting the latest attitudes of Western writers. In between some of the
abstract thoughts, there are delightful short sketches of eminent men in public
life such as Sir M. Visveswarayya, Pandit Jawaharlal
Nehru, Tagore and Ram Mohan Roy. They show how much power of observation Masti possesses in delineating their character and mind.
One piece particularly: “Tagore: A Personal Impression” is a vivid picture or
Tagore drawn with utmost sensitivity and felicity. Perhaps none other of Tagore’s
admirers here has so unforgettably portrayed Tagore’s figure and personality
in lines of consummate art. Delivering a lecture on “A Cultural Programme for
New India,” he has shown what an amount of worthy material is in our country
for drawing upon and how his faith in the future of our countrymen is never
allowing of despair. One essential aspect of our growth depends, according to
him, on remembering that “our culture touches the whole of our life and if we
wish to make the programme for improving in culture we have to take a look at
all our life.” Nothing could be more timely and salutary to our countrymen,
trying to imitate most of Americanism in fashion of dressing and talk.
A true writer’s credentials show out in
private and public when he retains an unsophisticated philosophy of outlook. Masti’s two tiny companion volumes published recently under
the titles: “Thoughts on My Life” and “Thoughts on Religion” sum up his
testament of faith in both man and religion. Notes penned from day to day in
somewhat of a diary of his thoughts on life, breathe an abiding odour of the pent-up feelings and emotional upsurges which
he had undergone and which seek an outlet in calm assessments of his own
reactions to society and life. He says that supported by the feeling that God
has been present with him, he has clung to a little realisation of his own
self as his sole resource in life. How soothing to imagine of a writer of vast
experience expressing such sentiment at a time when most others will be
tottering on their legs and groping their way in the darkness of their souls
Masti’s ambition, if he has ever felt or wished
others to know, would be to feel contentment always and to spread the same
sense of uninterrupted healthy outlook around him in domestic as well as
company of friends. To hold the pen to the last is the Dharma of a
writer. Tagore wrote till his last and Masti even
while past ninety, holds firm the pen to explore still the regions of healthy
imagination.