Bow...bowoorious. Up..rorious. Two top dogs of literature. Muggs, an Airedale, of James Grover Thurber and Bolshoi the Boxer of Busybee (Behram Contractor). Thurber drew an immortal Muggs while Mario Miranda illustrated the bright Bolshoi. Me had many strays the most remarkable being a nameless brown in Sevak Baidya Street, Calcutta; at 10 in the morning and evening, she made a rush at me for two rotis and some dal each. And then the entire day, me would wag me tail at the delighted Lady. In the famed piece on The Dog That Bit People, Thurber writes or is it glides: Probably no one man should have as many dogs in his life as I have had, but there was more pleasure than distress in them for me except in the case of an Airedale named Muggs..... A big, burly, choleric dog, he always acted as if he thought I wasn't one of the family. There was a slight advantage in being one of the family, for he didn't bite the family as often as he bit strangers.' Bolshoi the Boxer, perhaps is a Parsi gentleman and Busybee does not offer many clues. In the BEST OF 1990-91, Busybee reveals: 'You are from India plain and simple,' I said. Why dont you realise and admit that, the only thing Russian about you is your name. And it is about time you changed that.' Bolshoi is a thinker, Muggs is bite. Every time me reads, The Dog That Bit People, me does not laugh, me roars pushing Rama to look at me in surprise as she knows me morose. Working in the Times, Mulki Laxman Kamath and Dilip Raote introduced me to Thurber and the New Yorker gang of etchers like E.B. White. Me used to trip to USIS Library on Marine Lines to read all the Thurber volumes like me did in USIS, Calcutta to read everything on Lincoln. Written in 1933, My Life and Hard Times, is the best piece of autobiographical fiction and nothing, not even non-fiction autobiography, comes near. The 100-pages book makes you wonder about Thurber, who borrowed a bit of comicness from his mother. Harrison Kinney in his rock size book of 1211 pages, James Thurber, His Life and Times, writes up a hilarious mother. But it is hard reading and me has given up. And me do not know what is better: Thurber language or Thurber drawings with all its curves. Cartoonist Abu Abraham seems to have adopted Thurber lines. Forced to make a choice me will go for Thurber drawings and Miranda paintings. Have pondered over them for hours. The best reading at 70; air conditions May. Wodehouse, Ring Lardner, Groucho Marx, Mark Twain.... yes they are all favourites but James Grover Thurber, in me family, is perhaps the best. Over the last two days, me has been reading and laughing My Life and Hard Times, twice. Lucky to have lived the 20th century. Wonder whether in the 21st century humans will ever laugh? Or have we had our last laughs?
Tuesday, May 2, 2017
Two top dogs
Bow...bowoorious. Up..rorious. Two top dogs of literature. Muggs, an Airedale, of James Grover Thurber and Bolshoi the Boxer of Busybee (Behram Contractor). Thurber drew an immortal Muggs while Mario Miranda illustrated the bright Bolshoi. Me had many strays the most remarkable being a nameless brown in Sevak Baidya Street, Calcutta; at 10 in the morning and evening, she made a rush at me for two rotis and some dal each. And then the entire day, me would wag me tail at the delighted Lady. In the famed piece on The Dog That Bit People, Thurber writes or is it glides: Probably no one man should have as many dogs in his life as I have had, but there was more pleasure than distress in them for me except in the case of an Airedale named Muggs..... A big, burly, choleric dog, he always acted as if he thought I wasn't one of the family. There was a slight advantage in being one of the family, for he didn't bite the family as often as he bit strangers.' Bolshoi the Boxer, perhaps is a Parsi gentleman and Busybee does not offer many clues. In the BEST OF 1990-91, Busybee reveals: 'You are from India plain and simple,' I said. Why dont you realise and admit that, the only thing Russian about you is your name. And it is about time you changed that.' Bolshoi is a thinker, Muggs is bite. Every time me reads, The Dog That Bit People, me does not laugh, me roars pushing Rama to look at me in surprise as she knows me morose. Working in the Times, Mulki Laxman Kamath and Dilip Raote introduced me to Thurber and the New Yorker gang of etchers like E.B. White. Me used to trip to USIS Library on Marine Lines to read all the Thurber volumes like me did in USIS, Calcutta to read everything on Lincoln. Written in 1933, My Life and Hard Times, is the best piece of autobiographical fiction and nothing, not even non-fiction autobiography, comes near. The 100-pages book makes you wonder about Thurber, who borrowed a bit of comicness from his mother. Harrison Kinney in his rock size book of 1211 pages, James Thurber, His Life and Times, writes up a hilarious mother. But it is hard reading and me has given up. And me do not know what is better: Thurber language or Thurber drawings with all its curves. Cartoonist Abu Abraham seems to have adopted Thurber lines. Forced to make a choice me will go for Thurber drawings and Miranda paintings. Have pondered over them for hours. The best reading at 70; air conditions May. Wodehouse, Ring Lardner, Groucho Marx, Mark Twain.... yes they are all favourites but James Grover Thurber, in me family, is perhaps the best. Over the last two days, me has been reading and laughing My Life and Hard Times, twice. Lucky to have lived the 20th century. Wonder whether in the 21st century humans will ever laugh? Or have we had our last laughs?
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