Author: K Chandrasekhar
J S R L Narayana Moorty/
Translator(s): J S R L Narayana Moorty
Publisher: Smriti Books
Year: 2005
Language: English
Pages: 166
ISBN/UPC (if available): 8187967765
Description
This book, more like a diary, of Chandrasekhar is full of people who had the taste of UG and were never the same again UG is like a broad-spectrum medicine (not sugarcoated) that once ingested, cures the system of all its diseases. The system might get shaken up (depending on what all has been bottled up inside), but in the end, one comes out clean and healthy, like our Chandrasekhar!
This book is a pearl. It was born on the night when U G aborted Chandrasekhar’s dream to share him with posterity. Every segment of this memoir is fueled by the raw material of life. It is born out of Chandrasekhar’s urge and need to testify and talk about the intense experiences, which he has shared over the years in his middle class home in Bangalore with this strange man called UG.
A senior writer says that truth contained in a memoir is achieved not through a recital of actual events; it is achieved when the reader comes to believe that the writer is working hard to engage with the experience at hand. This memoir is a by-product of that struggle. That is why it sparkles with wisdom.
REVIEWS
After I am dead and gone, nothing of me must remain inside of you or outside of you. I can certainly do a lot to see that no establishment or institution of any kind mushrooms around me whilst I am alive. But how do I stop all you guys from enshrining me in your brain?
Several years ago, on a fateful night in a colonial house in Yercaud, Tamil Nadu, U G Krishnamurti made a bonfire of Chandrasekhar’s dreams. He flung audiotapes, video recordings, crammed files containing intimate letters of correspondence written to him by his friends over the years, and hundreds of rare black and white and colour photographs of himself into the fire. This unkind act of UG whom many refer to as the raging sage, clearly demonstrated that he was making sure that he kept his promise! Finally when the curtains came down and that bizarre night ended, in the dying light of the fire I could see a devastated Chandrasekhar trying to grapple with the astonishing loss that had befallen him.
But something told me that this night would change him and his way of looking at life completely. I was dead certain that this lasting injury would give birth to something magnificent, something which even U G would not be able to destroy or take away from him. And so it was to be. In that overpowering silence of Yercaud, Chandrasekhar found his voice. The echo of that voice resonates in each and every page of this book. Every segment of this memoir is fueled by the raw material of life. It is born out of Chandrasekhar’s urge and need to testify and talk about the intense experiences, which he has shared over the years in his middle class home in Bangalore with this strange man called U G.
-Mahesh Bhatt
(Renowned Indian Filmmaker)
Contents
PUBISHER’S NOTE
EDITOR’S NOTE
FOREWORD BY MAHESH BHATT
WHO IS THIS UG
INTRODUCTION
PART I
A Bonfire: My Life Before I Met U G
Why Did this U g Happen To Me
U G Arrives In Bangalore
Where Is The Glow In My Face
U G’s First Visit To Brahmachariji’s Cave
PART II
Dr Desiraju
First Visit To Chennai
The Basis Of all Relationships Is The Same: What will I Get
If Not Moksha, At Least a Transistor-Krishna Bhagavatar
Kumar, U G’s Son
PART III
Jnanasram And Jnanachakravarti
Kusuma-U G’s Wife
Valentine De Kerven
Do What You Can and Forget all About It
If She Gives Me This House, I Will Turn It Into A Brothel
PART IV
I Said to the Sages: Drawn And Never Rise Again
He did Not Utter A Sentence to Comfort Her
Childhood Memories
The Body Is Like an Animal
In Conclusion