The Hindu Business Line : Nonsense is `inherently pleasurable'

Before you shout `nonsense', in response to the headline, let us explore what nonsense is. "A genre of literature that is much maligned and yet much enjoyed," reads an easy definition that Anushka Ravishankar finds inadequate. For, nonsense is serious business. "Since nonsense is a negation of reality, its nothingness is of great significance, and defines it with precision," she explains.

Thus, `the quintessential nature of nonsense' is `the ability to be nothing and something at the same time,' one learns from The Tenth Rasa: An Anthology of Indian Nonsense, from Penguin (www.penguinbooksindia.com) . The book's editor is Michael Heyman, `a scholar and writer of nonsense and children's literature', and also `an associate professor of English at Berklee College of Music in Boston, where he teaches courses partly, if not wholly, nonsensical'.

Michael's co-editors are Sumanyu Satpathy, `a professor of English at Delhi University and one of the only nonsense scholars in India', and Anushka, `the only Indian nonsense writer published in English in India'.

Inventor of the tenth rasa, for your information, is Sukumar Ray, father of Satyajit Ray. `Spirit of whimsy', the senior Ray had called it. Bharata's Natyasastra (AD 200) had spoken of eight rasas, or emotional effects, viz. love, anger, the comic/ happy, disgust, heroism, compassion, fear, and wonder.

"The ninth, corresponding to `peace', was later extrapolated," says a footnote.

The book on hand includes translations from scores of works in different languages. Rabindranath Tagore's Khantobudir Didishashudi is one such. "The old woman's grandma-in-law's five sisters live in brick-a-brac... " begins Sampurna Chattarji's rendering in English, from the Bengali original. Another of his, is `Idli-Pom', as follows: "Idli lost its fiddli/ Dosa lost its crown/ Wada lost its wiolin/ And let the whole band down." Lest you stop laughing, here is something `very fishy': "There was a fish who called himself THANKYOUBHERYMAACH. Till the fisherman caught and salted him and ate him with boiled starch."

But, wait, why nonsense? "In over four years of peripatetic nonsense hunting and gathering, this is perhaps the question most asked of me - on trains, in lectures, in the classrooms; by librarians, scholars, urchins and curious cows," sighs the ed Michael, in the intro. "Asking me `Why nonsense?' is like asking a doctor `Why medicine?', or a lawyer `Why law?'," he quips. Nonsense is `inherently pleasurable,' he reasons. "Nonsense is an artistic expression of play... Observe tabla players recite their bols - dha tire kita taka tin na kite taka - and watch the joy in their eyes, hear it in their voices, a pure joy in rhythm, sound and structure, born of nonsense." Let's not tell Zakhir!

Please note that nonsense is different from joke. "A joke is funny because it makes sense; nonsense is funny because it does not." Adult nonsense is part of religious festivals, find the editors. "In a Punjabi celebration, adolescents play a nonsense game in which they must carry on a `conversation' with each other. However, each line they say must have no logical relation to the line spoken immediately prior to it by the other party. The end result is a conversation of nonsense - contextually chaotic, yet serving a practical social purpose in bringing together shy boys and girls who do not know what to say to one another." Only, the example may sound too close to what we are familiar with as TV viewers, especially of live talk shows!

Sumanyu discovers that `Indian nonsense' is part of our `traditional epistemology'. He invokes Adi Sankaracharya's indictment of materialist aspirations, Artham anartham bhabaya nityam. Usual meaning is, "Remember always that artha (money) is the source of all anartha (calamity)." Sumanyu offers an alternative: "Artha (meaning) is the source of all anartham (non-meaning)," or `meaning is contrary to its own self'.

Prescribed read for the highly cerebral!

SayCheek@TheHindu.co.in