This post is so overdue... I am ashamed that it couldn't have been done earlier.. and it is still incomplete so it will be in parts..
Last month was Guru Purnima (learn more here); when we acknowledge, respect and honour the contributions of our teachers in our life..spiritual or otherwise..( but then, shouldn't all learning be considered spiritual? maybe not... a lot of nonsense out there as well).
Guru= teacher-preceptor.. or in my opinion anybody who has made a difference in my journey by inspiring and teaching me to achieve greater heights than I would have otherwise.
So firstly with adoration and obeisance at the feet of my Guru, I proceed to remember some masters who recently passed on, who made a profound contribution to the fields they were associated with and to my life and journey in particular.
The first and foremost is a theatre Legend whom I had the privilege of a brief but lovely interaction and of all the masters who have influenced me so far, the only one I have actually met.
HABIB TANVIR (1st sept 1923-8th jun 2009) was no ordinary man. Acclaimed theatre director& playwright, poet, lyricist, actor, singer and teacher to many while running a professional troupe, Naya theatre for half a century!!
You can read about his life and work on the net.. There is the website habibtanvir.org ..one good article is this: Habib Tanvir: The making of a Legend by Javed Malik another here by Nilanjana Roy, The BS column: Habib Tanvir
A beautiful tribute ' A farewell to the bard of Bhopal ' by Sudhanva Deshpande who made two documentaries on him and Naya Theatre.
Another interesting item is an interview from 2004, "Art is always anti-establishment"
A clip from the television coverage about his passing is quite funny.. first as they get their facts wrong about Agra Bazaar being a play about Mirza Ghalib(!!) instead of Nazir Akbarabadi whose poems inspired it.. and more telling an excerpt from his last television appearance at an event organised by NDTV where he comments about how television is destroying culture.. on television!
"Is the youth losing its roots?" he was asked.. " yes due to television and other electronic media" he answered...best to see him say it himself with the presenter reminding him that he's on television!
I will put up my personal impressions up in the next post.. He was very special.
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