The day before was a sad day in the history of Indian Theatre and literature. Somewhere, in the myriad of Karnataka elections, food crisis, the colossal tragedies in China and Burma, the demise of the veteran playwrite, Vijay Tendulkar did not find much print space. This does not make the loss any lesser. Well, he has been keeping fairly unwell in body and spirit, particularly after the untimely demise of his daughter and actor, the one who popularised television serials as Rajini before the invasion of private channels. Well, I do not intend to go into a diatribe on his literary career. I am sure that in the coming days, there will be people with more expertise who would be doing that. And for basic information on that one can always visit http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vijay_Tendulkar
I'd rather want to present his activist side, whicjh is unfairly not highlighted much and my brief interaction with the man. Apart from being a crusader against death penalty, he was a person deeply involved with questions of power, hegemony and poverty. I met him during my stint in National Centre for Advocacy Studies. He was the President of the Board at that time. My second interaction with him was as the National Coordinator of the Social Watch Coalition. The two distinguished veterans who were witnesses to the birth of the first Citizens Report of Governance and Development were him and Rajni Kothari. We invited him for the launch at the last minute on the suggestion of John Samuel (Convenor of Social Watch), and despite his ill-health, he not only made it to Delhi for the launch, but also agreed to accompany us to the then President of India, A P J Abdul Kalam to present a copy to him. During our one odd hour meeting with the Hon'nle former President of India, he exercised his penchant for treating his fellow countrymen like school children with our small four member delegation as atleast three of us sat in awe (not necessarily of the President alone, but the ambience of his office as well and the amount of money spent on protocol and upkeep in such a large colonial mansion), Mr. Tendulkar alone sat unperturbed and without any arguments or statements, by his sheer body language demonstrated his intellectual superiority to Dr. Kalam, which was obvious to all of us in the room including the President's ADC.in attendance. Vijay Tendulkar, again despite his ill-health decided to join the team that brought out the Report in the celebration of the successful release of the Report and even had a drink with us to toast. The time he spent with us that late evening, he spent more time listening and if my memory serves me right, he tried to devote equal time with all present regardless of their stature and personal proximity with him. I have only one regret. The dining arrangement had me seated next to him. As he was leaving, he handed me his card and insisted that I call on him, the next time I was in Bombay. I never remembered the invitation till it is too late now and he is no more now. I am sure all who came across him in his lifetime would have fond memories of him. In solidarity -- Bobby Kunhu --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Green Youth Movement" group. To post to this group, send email to greenyouth@googlegroups.com To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/greenyouth?hl=en-GB -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
