Death of a maestro…

Habib Tanvir was an amazing man. He probably was the greatest theater personality to live in recent times. Innovatively using local talent and tradition and molding it into incredible, it seemed effortless. I have listened to his talks few times and he made lot of sense. During his plays the stage would burst into action and you are transported to a new vaguely familiar forgotten but endearing world, he effectively blended folk art, particularly the music and dialect (the variety of Hindi in his plays was spectacular to say the least). Charandas chor has a cult following, my personal favorite was Agra Bazaar-what a charming little play was that.

At a personal level I am grateful to him for kindling my deep interest in theater. Quite coincidentally the first play I watched was Mudrarakshasa, it was a brilliant experience for me, the kind I rarely experienced (I recall it quite clearly, it was 97’or was it 96’??, I was loitering around in Bengali market to Mandi house and saw this poster and dropped in. Next few months I was absolutely into theater, watching some brilliant plays by national and international troupes, as well as bad plays by amateurs). Theater has the immediacy that movies lack.

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Susheela gopalan was a great woman, the communist did project her as Chief Ministerial candidate but last moment they pulled the rug. Later she did make statements like “this was created by media, I didn’t want to be CM”. Really!!. She was loyal party member meaning supplicating to patriarchy. Gowri amma though was different she wouldn’t take any nonsense, the reason why she was kicked out.

I was reading in the Net Gita Dasgupta (senior RSP leader) talks of inherent patriarchy in the Left parties women with mass base are rarely given significant position. There are many research done on this, I too have seen that in Kerala. Surely those who read God of Small things (Arundhathi Roy) will recall comrade Pillai, although a fiction I recognize that man.

Brinda Karat is a brilliant and committed woman, but her enthusiasm for Women’s bill in the present form is seriously misplaced. I was reading that out of 33 cabinet ministers in Bengal government only one is a woman (even the Woman and child welfare is controlled by a male!!), while among the junior ministers there is again one out of 11. So total of 2 out of 44, brilliant I would say. Incidentally communists have been ruling this state for last many decades, they could have created a model of social change here but patriarchal headed threaded types have Machiavelli as reference point. Hopefully this is the end of communists in Bengal. In Kerala too the stories is no different there is only one woman minister out 18. Ms Karat is the only woman in the 15 member politburo. I could not get the number in the past from the Net. Not a single women heads the CPM state sectary list. Clealry there is something wrong here. What do you say to that Ms Karat??. Also note Ms Karat both Susheela Gopalan and Gowriamma although extremely brilliant women in thier own right got breaks as they were married to powerful men, within the Party, they overstep patriarchal clutch for this very reason. Although i do admire you but ever thought how many Susheela gopalans were crushed by the party machinery. The reason why i had to be nasty in the last blog, i know lot many women who were fixed or dont do well in life despite nothing lacking. Gowriamma was brash but what gives anyone impression that Pinrayi Vijayan is civilised?!!. As a loyal party member Ms Karat too has supported the extreme and insensitive actions of Budhadev Bhattacharya, that was unbecoming.