The Stranger (1991)

Utpal Dutt: Manomohan Mitra

Photos 

Quotes 

• Ranjan Rakshit : I could see a headline before my eyes: Return of the Prodigal Uncle.

  Manomohan Mitra : Do you know that prodigal has two meanings, Mr. Rakshit?

  Ranjan Rakshit : Two meanings?

  Manomohan Mitra : One is wasteful. And the other is repentant. I'm neither.

• Anila Bose : Why did you leave home? Mother told me everyone loved you. And you were a fine student with a bright future.

  Manomohan Mitra : But yet why did I leave home?

  Anila Bose : Yes.

  Manomohan Mitra : There's a lovely word in German: Wanderlust. It means the irrepressible urge to travel.

• Chhanda Rakshit : You mean you never married?

  Manomohan Mitra : A wife would mean a family and a house. The whole point is, I didn't wish to be tied down to a home.

• Ranjan Rakshit : Well, how do you find the city after such a long time? Mind you, I'm in and out of Calcutta. But I'm used to hearing the city denounced.

  Manomohan Mitra : Why? It's certainly a civilized city!

  Ranjan Rakshit : You think so?

  Manomohan Mitra : Why not? Oh, the people are happier in the streets. The high-rises ascending proudly and in the midst of these, even after 35 years, I find men pulling rickshaws. How can you have a civilization without such contradictions?

• Manomohan Mitra : [to Ranjan]  How do you find me? You've come to see me, haven't you? What's the use of a newspaper when there's a telephone? It must be very hard to keep it to yourself. Isn't that so, Anila? It's full of the stuff of drama. Suspense. Suspicion. Conflict. "To be or not to be" Uncle. I hope you don't mind my saying so, Mr. Rakshit.

• Manomohan Mitra : I'll teach you a new word, a very funny word: kupa-munduk.

  Satyaki Bose : Kupa-munduk?

  Manomohan Mitra : Kupa is a well and munduk is a frog.

  Satyaki Bose : A frog in the well?

  Manomohan Mitra : Yes, just this. How terrible it is! Dark, dank, smelly, slimy, and yet the frog never moves from there. There are such frogs among people also. They are called "stay-at-homes." I'm not one of them. That's why I'm on the move so much of the time.

• Manomohan Mitra : Do you know who is really civilized? It's the man who by using his thumb, presses a button which releases a weapon which obliterates an entire city with all its inhabitants. And you know who's more civilized? It's those who take the decision to use the weapon, without turning a hair.

• Manomohan Mitra : Oh, yes, religion. Religion. Mr. Sen Gupta, I happen to be a bit unorthodox in my views.

  Prithwish Sen Gupta : That's all right.

  Manomohan Mitra : I don't believe in something which creates barriers between people. Religion does that. Particularly organized religion. For the same reason, I don't believe in caste.

• Prithwish Sen Gupta : Anyway, Mr., um, Mr...

  Manomohan Mitra : Well, Mr. Sen Gupta. The surname doesn't come easily, does it? Still you are so uncertain of my identity. May I request something? I have used a pen name. A name very dear to me in my early years. Nemo. I suggest that you use that.

  Sudhindra Bose : Jules Verne, Captain Nemo?

  Manomohan Mitra : Yes, a Latin word: nemo. Meaning: no one. An apt name for me, isn't it?

  Prithwish Sen Gupta : Whether you are "no one" or "someone" is exactly what we're trying to decide.

• Manomohan Mitra : Why insist on complicating things which are basically very simple? Why don't you see that I'm not a savage myself? My greatest regret is that I'm not a savage.

• Prithwish Sen Gupta : What about God?

  Manomohan Mitra : [sings]  Gives light to the blind, Life to the dying.

  [speaks] 

  Manomohan Mitra : Who will give light? Who will give life? The trouble is, it is extremely difficult to believe in a benevolent God these days. The daily papers alone make us question that belief. What can you do?

• Prithwish Sen Gupta : You claim to have studied the Murias.

  Manomohan Mitra : I do.

  Prithwish Sen Gupta : What do you think of what goes on in the Ghotuls? The sexual freedom that the young Murias enjoy? Sorry, Nili. What do your field notes say about that? Doesn't that amount to extreme promiscuity? Or would you call that civilized too?

  Manomohan Mitra : No. What you feel in your heart, I feel in mine. What I feel in my heart, you feel in yours. Holy wedlock. This is civilized.

• Sudhindra Bose : Is the touching of feet common among the savages?

  Manomohan Mitra : Not that I know of.

• Manomohan Mitra : What does a passport tell you? The name of the holder and what he looks like. But it doesn't tell you what that person is like. To know this, it takes time.

• Sudhindra Bose : [presented an envelope]  What is it?

  Manomohan Mitra : Have you heard of the English word: floccinaucinihilipilification?

  Sudhindra Bose : Yes! I learnt it in school. The longest word in the English dictionary.

  Manomohan Mitra : Do you know what it means?

  Sudhindra Bose : No. Not really.

  Manomohan Mitra : Sitting little or no value. 29 letters to convey this meaning. A sure sign of civilization.

• Manomohan Mitra : You can count on the sun and the moon to be punctual, but not the airlines.