Foreword to KN Rao's 'A Mosaic of Human Thought'
I first came across Prof.
K N Rao’s writing in a column he wrote for the city portal Chennai Online on
the trees of Madras. Little did I know at the time that I would one day be
involved in an editorial capacity in publishing a book on the subject by the
professor. Not only is he an expert on trees, in Chennai and elsewhere, and
botany at large, but also the archetypal polymath we do not come across
nowadays. They don’t make them like that anymore!
During the course of that
interaction, I came to develop a comfortably warm relationship with Prof. Rao,
a friendship between two people interested in literature and the arts. He is
more than twenty years my senior, but more energetic than many of my age. I was
at the time responsible for Indian Writing, an imprint of New Horizon
Media, which was then publishing Indian, notably Tamil, literature in
translation into English. He was a great supporter of our initiative and bought
every title we brought out. Not only did he read all of them, he also commended
us for the great trouble we took to maintain quality. He was probably more hurt
and disappointed than we were when some of our efforts did not measure up to
our own standard. He took the liberty of scolding us when he thought poorly of
our choice of works to translate.
Over the last few years, I
have come to know the many facets of Mr Rao’s creativity. He has written
several short stories in Telugu, which I have not read as I do not know the
language, but his writings in English have been delightfully varied. William
Shakespeare is a particular favourite of his, as we can gather from a number of
essays included in this volume. In a chapter entitled Wit and Wisdom of
Shakespeare, Prof. Rao refers to the chair in which he lounged and spent
the “happiest hours of my otherwise drab and long life.” “And thank God, I chose to read the bard
without the help of Verity, Arden and such others,” he continues, a tribute to
not only his excellent taste in literature but also his superior intellect.
“The Shakespeare bug bit me in the early fifties of the last century. Play
after play, I devoured, refusing to seek outside help.”
Prof. Rao is no ordinary
devourer, though. He draws parallels between literature and life, literature
and philosophy, literature and nature, so on and so forth. For instance,
quoting Nerissa from Merchant of Venice (The ancient saying is no hersy/
Hanging and wiving goes by destiny), he finds resonances with the Hindu
doctrine of Karma.
Or take the pathetic plea
of the much-maligned merchant of Venice, “I am a Jew. Hath not a Jew eyes? Hath
not a Jew hands, organs, dimensions, senses, affections, passions…If you prick
us, do we not bleed? If you tickle us, do we not laugh? If we poison us, do we
not die?” Rao says, “This has been the plight of Dalits in our own land, for
centuries. Now after millennia, they speak the language of Shylock.” They “eke
out their livelihood by manual scavenging, cleaning the cesspools, going down
into the drains braving poisonous gas…”
While on his Shakespearean
journey, Prof. Rao is in his element when he compares “the noblest Roman of
them all”, Brutus with the politician of today, of whom he says: “Do such men
have a chance of succeeding? More often than not, men with ideas of cleansing
politics are likely to meet the fate of Brutus. This Brutus had had the
satisfaction of dying for his cause. It is more likely a modern day Brutus will
end up as a Cassius.”
Prof. Rao’s explorations
of Shakespeare lead him to an analysis of the motivations and psychology of
three murderers from Othello, Macbeth and Hamlet. “Othello had the makings of a murderer in him: Iago was merely
the stage director for the action,” he observes. Macbeth “was at first a
murderer by instigation, through suggestion next and finally a callous, cruel
and wanton bloodbather.” “Hamlet’s murders were the fruition of the workings of
a highly cultivated mind through its conscious and subconscious moorings,” he
says, drawing clear distinctions between the three protagonists
While on the subject of
Shakespeare, Prof. Rao is really in his element when he carries out “a brief
botanical survey of Shakespeare.” He takes us on a tour-de-force of the
many-splendoured vegetation that abounds in the Bard’s plays, starting from
acorn cups and burr to the willow and yew trees of Much Ado about Nothing,
Macbeth, Romeo and Juliet and Titus and Andronicus.”
The essay, “Harbingers of Indian awakening”
provides proof if proof is needed of Prof. Rao’s expansive range of interests
that cover far greater ground than nature or literature. A man of science, one
who swears by science, Rao does not fail to acknowledge the role played by two
outstanding spiritual gurus in Ramakrishna Paramahamsa and Swami Vivekananda.
He says, “All leaders from Bal Gangadhar Tilak, Mahatma Gandhi and Subhash
Chandra Bose and Rajaji downwards agree that the political struggle they
launched had gained substance, thanks to this great work of Ramakrishna and
Vivekananda. Their memory will forever be enshrined in the Indian
consciousness.”
In ‘Three great men of Athens”, Prof. Rao writes
with awe about Socrates, Plato and Aristotle. Unsurprisingly he says no other
city has nurtured such great sons through the millennia. Socrates was so fond
of truth that he questioned the wisdom of the wise. He resisted unjust commands at the risk of his life. “One might
say that Socrates was the father of definitions. But it required great courage
to pursue his path.”
In another chapter, Rao tries to grapple with the
problem of what is or is not truth. He calls it the most elusive element of
things in human experience. It is elusive because it stems from the perception
of an event, implying understanding of an observation. “Obviously, what appears
as truth to one may appear quite differently to another.” He goes on to claim
that the truth of science is not the truth of socio-ethical colour. “Rather, it
is a bundle of facts, every one of which is incontrovertibly demonstrated as
true by observation and experiment.” Yet,
Rao refuses to dismiss the truth as experienced by Ramakrishna and Vivekananda.
Rao, the compassionate human being and Rao the man
of science seem to coexist without much conflict. In the chapter “On Death”,
Prof. Rao is able to speak of the devastating personal tragedy of his son’s
death in an accident as well as the continuity of creation, of species,
including the human race. If after that terrible loss, he could console his
wife by narrating a story of Buddha to demonstrate the inescapable fact of
death, he could also marvel at the “wonderful mix of mortality and immortality”
that began in a group of green algae called Volvocales.”
Death need not be bemoaned, he goes on to conclude.
“It is a mechanism which made possible senescence and consequently organs with
a lesser degree of efficiency of vegetative functioning die out. The mortal
coils of the individual are shed so that the immortality of the species is
ensured.” And the last sentence of the book says it all. “”. Whichever way one
looks at the question, the thought of God has to reign our minds: maybe not a
personal God, but a principle which is omniscient, omnipotent and omnipresent.”
I often meet Prof. Rao at events connected with
books or the performing arts. I have invariably been struck by his youthful
joie-de-vivre and positive outlook. And though he often has a good laugh at his
own frailty and mortality, maybe because he does so, he fills me with
inspiration and hope for the morrow. That he has brought out this volume at
such an advanced stage of his life is proof of his immortal spirit.
V
RAMNARAYAN
10 July 2009
Chennai
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