Adaptation

'The Man in a Case' is one of the beautiful stories of Chekhov. It begins late at night in a sleepy little village of Mironositskoe. Two gentlemen found lodging in the barn of the elderly man of the village, Prokofy. One of them is a school master who is well acquainted with the life in the village and begins discussing the wife of the elder. She is Mavra, an extremely well read and talented woman, however has confined herself to the village. One of the other gentlemen, a veterinary surgeon, expresses wonder on knowing that the woman has not seen a town or a railway line. Poked at that the school master begins describing a colleague of him known as Byelikov who almost lived all by himself. He always wore galoshes and kept every object that he used in a case. He was idiosyncratic as he was obsessed with the fear of violating rules and regulations. He made the whole of the school under himself as he expressed much fear in every possible act of both the masters and the pupils. He lived on the same storey on which the school master Burkin lived. His bed chamber was completely covered with mattresses and curtains and he used the curtains to sleep on in his bed and cocooned himself to a kind of atavistic behaviour of the primordial ancestors.

Ivan Ivanovitch, the veterinary surgeon, intercedes with the philosophy of life to the narration as he is of the opinion that the whole of the world and its populace spend their day to day existence in the same manner. In the case of Byelikov, it is an exhibition of extremism, as the man had the habit of visiting his friends and their colleagues in their tenements and spent an hour or two sitting glum and quiet observing their routine chores and exited with no manners. He is surprised to know that this figure of ridicule almost got married. A History teacher came to the school with his sister, who was almost thirty, however did not subject herself to the work of time on her beauty and complexion and retained a girlish behaviour. It only struck the acquaintances of Byelikov that he was very old enough to have got married and they too woke up to that on seeing a slim chance of uniting Byelikov with Varnika. The mill of marriage had begun its grinding and put the two together in the name of parties and outings. Byelikov procrastinated the marriage as he thought too much about family responsibility. The History teacher hated his intrusion into the private chambers and the deafening silence that he exhibited at such visits.

A naughty person came with a rue to make things public. He drew Byelikov and Varnika together under an umbrella and sent the pencil drawing to everyone. On one occasion, Byelikov, while walking with Burkin found the brother-sister duo cycling their way somewhere. He got horrified at the sight as he thought such an adventuristic display would create in students a tendency to freak out. He left school early the very next day, an act that was un-Byelikov, straight to Varnika's house to explain things and tender his apology for the pencil drawing involving himself and Varnika. The History teacher rose in temperament as Byelikov broached the matter of bicycling and gave a push to him from the top of the flight of the stairs. As he tumbled his way down off the balcony, found him a source of ridicule for Varnika, who came into the house while he was recovering himself from the fall. He became ill three days later and found himself in the bed of angels.

Wendy Wasserstein, a playwright of American fame, wrote a one act play, 'The Man in a Case' an adaptation of Chekhov's story. She makes use of only two characters in her play and alludes to the brother of Varnika. Wendy introduces them as joggers and meeting in a garden of the village of Mironositskoe. Varnika comes with apricots given in honour of the Greek and Latin school master Byelikov. He is annoyed at the fact that she goes on informing about their marriage to everyone and apricots give him hives. Varnika has fallen for him as he keeps everything in confinement including the leftover vegetables and fruits in covers. Byelikov is enamoured of their meeting and notes it down in his diary that he would place lilies on this day on his love's lock every year. As this requires celebration, Varnika wants to go to her brother's house on her bicycle and bring some cream. Startled to know about Varnika's arrival on bicycle, he sends her off on the pretext that he wants to work on the translation of Virgil's Aeneid and even tears the note that he has made a while ago down. Varnika leaves and the lights fade as Byelikov is found garnering the strewn pieces of his note. The play puts up a feministic reading of Chekhov's story and Wendy's adaptation never violates the original and gives a new thrust to the story on the contrary. Both texts provide a good reading.

Worldly Wisdom 2

‘The Umbrella Man’ is an enjoyable story of Roald Dahl. Roald Dahl is a British writer of Norwegian origin. He was a fighter pilot during the Second World War and served in the Air Force of England in prominent designations. He started his writing career in the 1940s during the war. He is a popular writer of children’s fiction. His popular novels include ‘Charlie and the Chocolate Factory’, ‘James and the Giant Peach’ and ‘The Gremlins’. He is also credited with a lot of short stories too, written with the objective of reaching the children in mind. ‘The Umbrella Man’ is narrated by a twelve year old girl who accompanies her mother to a dentist in London.

The story has values to be imbibed by children. The mother of the twelve year old girl often concentrates on teaching her child through participation in life-events. The girl emphasizes her ability to adjudge people rather better than her mother through the revelation of her height in the story. Her mother is thirty-six and not much taller than her twelve year old daughter, an indication of mental growth of the girl. One fine afternoon, the mother and daughter duo embarks on a trip to London with the mission of filling in the tooth of the daughter. The girl is much pleased with the work of the dentist as she has felt no pain while the doctor filling the hole of a tooth. On their way back home, the duo enters a café and the girl enjoys a banana split. As they come out at about six o’clock in the evening, the rain begins its act of drenching the city of London. The mother has not brought an umbrella and wants to catch a taxi to take them home. The daughter relishes the idea of sheltering in the café and having another of her favourite banana split. Then a little old man approaches them as they are standing on the pavement and fancy themselves whisked away by an un-occupied taxi.

The mother always caution her daughter about strangers and her advice to her is if the stranger is more pleasing then she must be more wary of the stranger. The girl comforts herself on looking at the shoes of the stranger, since, as per her mother, one who wears a fine pair of shoes is a gentleman. The man is very old and has a fluffy mustache. He is holding a silk umbrella very high over his head. The mother puts on an expression one of hauteur as she considers such a one is right in dealing with unknown people. The old man has informed that he is not such type as the one who stops gentle ladies on road side and demand money. However, today he requires money to get back home in a taxi, as he has forgotten to come with his wallet. The mother is not pleased and enquired how he has come there. The man has informed her that it is his habit to take a stroll in the evenings and get back home in a taxi as his legs would not stand him for long. Since he has walked long already, he could not go on foot further and he is ready to offer the silk umbrella, worth twenty pound, for one pound and it is not gentlemanly for him to accept money from anybody. The daughter is upset with the offer as the mother could exploit the situation to grab the costly umbrella for a pittance. The mother is seen thawing and in the end gives out a pound and praises the act of the old man who is considerate enough to offer them the umbrella to shield them from rain.

The old man has accepted the money with gratitude and is only found hurrying on his legs. The act has upset the duo and the mother is pricked with the sense of disappointment of being cheated. They choose to follow the man who evading the evening crowd gracefully enters into a pub. It is not decent for women to enter into the pub and duo stations outside and peers into the glass on the man. The man reaches the bar and gulps treble whiskey for the pound and comes back to the dressing lounge to take one of the umbrellas put there by the pub-users. The mother and daughter are shocked by the act of the man and the man further travels to the very place where he has just now sold the silk umbrella to find another one of his victims, this time a man with no protection of a hat or coat from rain, to sell his stolen umbrella for a drink. Further, he chooses not to go back to the same pub this time. The duo is flabbergasted by the strategy of the old man for a draught. The story ends with the duo finding themselves recipients of worldly knowledge and wisdom.

Worldly Wisdom 1

Vikram Seth was born in Calcutta. His father was a businessman, who for sometime worked in the Bata Shoe Company of Bata Nagar, West Bengal. His mother was a lawyer, who studied Law in England. She went on to become the first woman chief justice of India of the state High Court of Simla. Seth studied in England the elementary and primary classes or rather spent his first six years after birth there and came back to India to do the higher level of schooling. He went back to London to enrol himself as a student of Economics in Corpus Christy College and found himself attracted to poetry and music instead. Seth is a polyglot who has learnt German, French, Mandarin dialect of Chinese and Urdu. He plays flute and cello and a librettist. The volume of poems ‘The Frog and the Nightingale’ was published in the year 1994. He started his writing career in 1986 with the publication of his musical or verse novel ‘The Golden Gate’ and is currently working on the sequel of ‘A Suitable Boy’ titled ‘A Suitable Girl’.

‘The Frog and the Nightingale’ is a simple poem that speaks out a simple moral. It is a nature poem and built on the style of an allegory or parable. The poem features an ignorant nightingale and a conniving frog that marauds the spirit of the bird. It starts with a customary introduction to any story. There is a swampy land and which is home to several creatures. There lives a frog in that bog that considers itself a crooner and expends the nights in blaring out. Its baritonal tenor pierces the ears of the occupants of the bog and they spend their nights hoping for a remedy. However there is no stopping to this ‘jive’, lest the arrival of a nightingale. The frog lives under a sumac tree and always looks forward to the setting of the sun. One night, there comes a nightingale and perching on the sumac tree it has started singing. The song has soothed the dry ears of all animals that have been battered by the dry ‘croaks’. The song of the bird has attracted ducks, swans and herons. The bird has received much praise from the dwellers of the bog.

The following night when the bird is ready to sing, the frog has made its appearance by offering a critique on her last night’s performance. The frog introduces himself as the baritonal expert of the bog and has long been a successful practitioner of tenor. There the bird is attracted to commit first of its foibles. It enquires to the frog about her last night’s performance. The critic in the frog has come alive with the comments of the song being lengthy and the voice being too feeble to reach the possible listeners of the bog. The nightingale confesses that the song is not lofty but one of her creativity. The frog comes forward to teach the right methods of singing so as to improve the voice of the bird, and not for free of course, for a reasonable fee. As the bird has begun singing, with much energy and spirit to please the frog, a good crowd gathers and the frog fills its purse with a fee of admittance. The frog expresses his dissatisfaction and commences training in the following morning in the drenching rain. The nightingale, not used to swagger in rain, finds itself very uncomfortable. It is advised to put on a scarf and sash and imitate the cacophonic blaring of the frog. The frog is always hard to be pleased and wants the bird to reach a bass voice. The morning’s ordeal has exhausted the bird and the cool moon of the night has revived her spirit and voice. She sings in a high tone to attract and please the frog. However the animals could only listen to a dispirited voice of hers. She has been sold songs by the frog and advice too for emulating the baritone of it. The sorrowful nightingale can never please the frog and ‘raise’ herself to the level of the frog and she breathes herself last with an unfulfilled wish of hers. The angry frog announces to the animals that the wit-less bird is incapable of comprehending his lessons and dies out instead. So the bog has come back to the reign of croaking, screeching melody of the frog.

The poem deals with the concept of knowing oneself and knowing the world. The bird is unaware of its melodious voice and has heeded to the advice of a selfish, arrogant and inconsiderate figure of a frog. The bird is presented as a humble figure. However, humility at the expense of ignorance is dangerous. The poet makes use of ten-lined stanzas and the discipline of it gets violated here and there in the poem. The rhyme scheme is aa, bb, cc, dd, ee. There is an additional line tagging itself to a few stanzas to complement the meaning of them. The poet is selective in his choice of words and diction. ‘The frog and the nightingale’ is a fine poem indeed.

A Cliched Process

The act of suffrage, for many a long fought or a won-over privilege, as far as i am concerned, has lost its value. Gone are the days when the system was considered honorary, and a bestowed franchise on the citizens of a state, as the privilege is exercised equally, not being influenced by social diversity. Today, the exercise of suffrage is more or less a casual act as visiting a pub or a movie-theatre. The voters have lost sense of the right that they have been provided with and only think of monetary compromises at the time of exercising their mandate. Not all the wrong rests with the voters and the franchisers take up a prominent part in the blame-game. On the part of the voters, it is sheer indifference that has led them to hanker after the freebies and currency countermanding of their franchise. The elected show an uninterested attitude towards service to society and uplifting the poor. They are obdurate, callous and unmindful of the voters. They set their minds on only two things: money and cynosure. When it comes to facing elections, they unleash the arrogant power of money and extortion and try to bully the process of getting re-elected. In the recent Assembly elections to the state assembly of Tamilnadu, around twenty-four thousand people have exercised the option of not liking any candidate who contest in the election from a constituency. It means roughly, there are one hundred people in a constituency in the state of Tamilnadu who do not prefer to give the mandate to any of the contesting candidates. The elected never care to improve the basic infrastructural facilities. The free-noon-meal tenements are dilapidating and the rulers of the future are left to lurch in them. Many promises are given at the time of elections and they are immediately forgotten. The poor stay poor and the rich grow to a richer state, widening the gap between them, and also between togetherness, equality and harmony. India try to balance between people, who are inexhaustible with the liking for Cricket matches and spend a lot of money to get entertained and inexhaustible with the energy in search for staple food at least once a day. Only here, that the granary could feed rodents and reptiles and ignore the biped sapiens. Only here that tens and thousands of rupees is spent in deciding the winners of cricket matches and nothing to mend the hovels of the poor. India live up to its cliched definition of 'unity in diversity' in all walks of life.