A new comic book chronicles the story of spiritual guru UG Krishnamurti, who late Bollywood actress Parveen Babi once found solace in
James Farley and Nicolas C Grey
The Praveen babi panels which have been knocked off from the book
The Year was 1967. Uppaluri Gopala Krishnamurti, alias UG, was seated among a flock of people, who had gathered at a hall in Saanen, Switzerland, to listen to philosopher Jiddu Krishnamurti. UG, who until then had countered the former theosophist's teachings in his search for enlightenment, claims to have attended the talk out of little curiosity. "It was free and my friends dragged me along..." he reasoned. But, while listening to Jiddu share notes on the comparative mind, something within him snapped. For the next few days, he would be embattled by a recurring thought: "How do I know that this is the state?" Eight days later, UG's universe would be enveloped by a torrential gust of unexplainable energy, causing a series of strange physiological transformations within him - one that he would later describe as a "calamity".
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UG's life-changing experience is chronicled in a series of drawings in a new comic book titled This Dog Barking: The Strange Story of UG Krishnamurti (HarperCollins India) by Nicolas C Grey and James Farley. From developing a female breast on the left side to a white-lotus shaped swelling right above the bridge of his nose, UG's experience gets a pictorial tribute in this biography. "The physical changes associated with UG's enlightenment or calamity are obviously quite odd, but I don't find them bizarre. One can either accept that they occurred, reject them or remain undecided," says Scotland-based Farley.
James Farley and Nicolas C Grey with a portait of UG in their office
Born in 1918, in Machilipatnam, Andhra Pradesh, UG's life has been unusual. From a troubled childhood to his disillusionment with the leading spiritual teachers, including his fractious relationship with Jiddu, to abandoning his family in India and becoming the mascot for an unorthodox non-message philosophy, UG's story has always been a subject of interest among thinkers.
Cambodia-based Grey, who created the drawings for the book, chanced upon UG's teachings 13 years ago, when he was homeless. "I used to read books in stores, a few pages or a chapter at a time, and then move to the next shop. Once, I was reading a book called 'Star of the East' where UG was briefly mentioned. The next day, I overheard two people discussing UG in a coffee shop," recalls the self-taught artist. Soon, he got hold of all possible material on UG's philosophy. "Having been involved in underground comics, I felt that his story would work well if told in this form. There was something anarchic and freewheeling about it," he adds.
Grey then roped in Farley, a social worker, to write the material and the two set out to unravel UG's life piece by piece. The result is the book, which took over 13 years to create. "Initially, I took quite a loose approach to the material - re-writing things myself and mixing up UG's ideas with other things that I thought were interesting. But, as I worked on the book it became apparent that we would need to be more rigorous in presenting UG and his ideas, to give our book some integrity," admits Farley.
For Grey, the challenge was to recreate the mystery surrounding the spiritual guru. "I gathered every possible photo of UG that I could get from various people. For me, it was a very intensive process. I had to draw UG many times, in different panels, in different poses, at different times of his life. UG was an enigma, impossible to capture. However, there were always certain eccentricities that drew me to him, little things, like his fondness for chesses, his preference for small rooms, so, this was a way in for me," explains Grey, who invested 10 hours daily for over five years, after the written material was ready.
One interesting story that doesn't find mention in the biography is UG's involvement with late Bollywood actor Parveen Babi. Parveen had been introduced to UG by her then lover, filmmaker Mahesh Bhatt. The authors, however, recreated a series of panels, titled UG goes to Bali, which were intended to be part of the biography, but later knocked off.
"Initially, we wrote and drew a whole section around UG's relationships with both Parveen Babi and Mahesh Bhatt. It is an interesting part of UG's story…his relationship with Parveen in the 1980s reveals a more caring and loving side to him that doesn't always come across in his blunt and confrontational speaking style," says Farley. However, both Farley and Grey felt that the material didn't work in the structure of the book. "The whole 'Bollywood section' just stuck out like a sore thumb and damaged the structural shape of the book. So it had to go," adds Farley.
The authors, later, have published the series on their Facebook page. The drawings reveal the time when Parveen, who was fighting her own demons, didn't turn up on the set of the film she had signed with Prakash Mehra. While Bhatt thought that UG would have answers to her problem, what he didn't know was that this decision would jeopardise his relationship with Parveen.
The actress had also briefly left the film industry to spend time with UG. "He was the only person around me who had no ulterior motives," Parveen says in the comic strip. The relationship, however, wouldn't last long.
"UG and his friend Valentine De Kerven tried to help Parveen during the early stages of her mental illness. It seems UG felt that, due to her vulnerabilities, Parveen would always struggle to cope with the confusing world of Bollywood, but ultimately she opted to continue with her 'filmy' life, and her mental health continued to deteriorate," says Farley.
The duo likes to describe UG as a radical and intellectual dynamite. His teachings, however, were hard for people to engage with "as it was so abstract". "Our objective was to share these very exciting concepts with a wider audience [through this comic book]," says Farley.
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