Re: MY EYES HAVE COME....more on Chimanrao....

[Guest guest]

This conversation about Chimanrao evoked a sense of Nostalgia in me.... I

remember the time when Chimanrao was on TV.. we were kids.. this was the

time, when everyone had black and white TV's, which needed adjustment in

their " horizontal hold " and " vertical hold " and at times, you had to slam

them to turn them on....!!! One in 3 houses in residential areas had B & W

TV's and their neighbours used to gather around to watch geet,

Chitrahaar, and of course, the Sunday movie... it used to be a crappy one,

still everyone looked forwarded to the announcement of sunday evening

movie... that was always the supense part of " Saptahiki " which was presented

by Bhakti Barve Inamdar.... I laugh now when I think I used to actually

watch Saptahiki too every sunday..... I just cant believe that Bhakti Barve

is no more... I used to like her.. and she had done some great plays too....

anyways, coming back to Chimanrao.... it was intially a black and white

series produced by DD bombay ... I still recollect, the producer was Vijaya

Joglekar- Dhumale (incidentally she started the " trend " of hyphenated last

names on Mumbai DD) and it starred a relatively unknown Dilip Prabhavalkar

as " Chimanrao " and Bal Karve as " Gundya bhau " ... Chimanrao is based on the

characters and stories written by C.V Sometime in the early 1900's of a

typical middle class working class Maharashtrian Brahmin family in Pune...

(I remember reading a story when Chimanrao and Gundya bahu come to mumbai,

and Chiman has a toothache and then all the doctors in Mumbai make a 'ullu "

of him and " rob " him of his money) . Chimanrao's family consists of his

loving, doting and dutiful wife Kaveri or " Kau " and his smart kids, Maina,

Moru and Balu. Chimanrao also takes care of his old widowed mother who

lovingly always refers to him as " Bal Chiman " (translated in the Hindi

series as " Beta chiman)

I vividly remember the episode when he has conjunctivitis and he writes a

letter to his " Firabgi " boss, " I cannot come to work today as my eyes have

come, I will come to work when my eyes are gone...!! "

Sometimes sentences directly translated from Marathi into English sound

funny... I remember a mimicry that someone had performed once... A

maharashtrian lady was trying to explain to her friend in English as to how

to make grated potato ..... so she tells... " take a batata, and then KISS

it... KISS it till it breaks down into little little pieces " ( in Marathi,

the word for " to grate " is " kissne " )

Celebrated Marathi Writer Pu La Deshpande has also recollected how in his

young days, they had to write totally wierd letters to their British bosses

to ask for leaves... for example, if someone wanted a leave for " Shraddh " ,

then they had to say , " As tomorrow, my dead father is coming to visit me

in the form of a brahamin whom I have to feed, I have to take leave

tomorrow "

such are the joys of " living in translation "

by the way, Kishore Sir had mentioned about Dilip Prabhavalkar's one man

show " Hasva Phasvi " where he enacted Chimanrao and many other characters,

you can find the info and pics at the following link:

http://www.dilipprabhawalkar.com/v1/hasvaphasvi.htm

thats all from my side.....

Adios

Ameet 1993