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Renowned literary critic M S Patil demystifies the realm of Marathi literature and criticism
“I’m not a big person,” he replies in his husky demeanour over the phone on requesting him for an interview. But it’s a different story now at his residence, he talks incessantly about his work, about the trends in Marathi literature, about the authors, poets, and books .
“The root of every creation is a desire. It has been the same with literature. It’s a search for the other side of you,” he travels back into the realm of words. You meet Dr M S Patil, the septuagenarian who’s one of the foremost literary critics in Marathi literature amidst his vast collection of books.
“The village,Dhamanpada, where I was born had a library. One of my earliest memory was buying ‘Shyamchi Aai’ for one paise. That was my first rendezvous with literature.” he recalls. Hailing from a poor background made education difficult for him. After completing his inter (XII standard) in 1946, he got a job as a number marker in David mills (now, Jupiter mills) in Mumbai. “It had a small library inside. It was here that I came across Sharat Chandra Chattopadhyay and many others.”
In 1947, the riots made it more difficult and so did collapsing family matters. So he had to abandon studies for work. For a solid one and a half years, he couldn’t go to school. But the thirst for knowledge was ever growing within. So he learnt Bengali in the meanwhile. Later he applied for his mid-term and successfully completed education till eleventh standard. Life took a turn then, forever.“I took another job in a sales tax office and enrolled in Siddharth College of Law for B A. Another reason to go to Siddharth College was my favourite writer Anant Kanekar, who taught there.” In 1961 after completing his M A degree, he was posted as a lecturer in Maharaj Sayajirao Gaikwad College. And some years later, as a Principal in Mahatma Gandhi College in Manmad, where he accomplished twenty years of his service.
The quest for literature although had embarked him to another journey. “My first critical analysis was done on Vyankatesh Madgulkar’s ‘Bangarwadi’. I showed it to the great masseur himself. He didn’t like it,” he adds mischievously. But criticism on poetry happened much later when he met Gangadhar Patil - his guide. “What I learnt from him was far greater than any university I ever attended,” he reminisces.
While choosing subjects for his PhD in 1973, a friend suggested him to take ‘The Study of a Poet’s Mind’ as a subject. “I selected sant Dynaneshwar and sant Tukaram as my subjects for the final thesis.” And Poetry was the next destination. The writings followed ever since: ‘Dalit Kavita’ in 1981, ‘Aksharvata’ in1982, ‘A criticism on the Neo-modern poets Sadanand Rege and Balkavi’ in 1989, ‘Bhartiyancha Sahityavichar’ (1990), ‘Kavitecha Rupashodh’ (1999) and a criticism on poetess Indira Sant in 2001.Currently, he’s rewriting his thesis on Dynaneshwar - a work he wanted to publish for a long time. “Every piece of literature has come from a desire. A yearning to feel complete. A timeless literature is the one which gives a new interpretation every time you read it. And it yearns an equally creative audience,” he says as an afterthought.
"Every piece of literature has come from a desire, a
yearning to feel complete. A timeless piece of literature is the one which gives a new
interpretation every time you read it."
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