Remembering Ashwinibhai Bhatt

Ashwinibhai Bhatt passed away in the US on 10^th of Dec 2012. For the activists of Narmada Bachao Andolan (NBA), Ashwinibhai was first an activist than a writer. In fact, most of us in the NBA were not fully aware how popular a Gujarati writer he was and how well he wrote. On reading his books one realizes that had he not been a regional writer his popularity would have spread far and wide.

While it is very tempting to write about him as a writer, it is important to remember him as a firebrand activist of the NBA as that is an equally fascinating and significant facet of his life that is not so known today. His centrally located home in Paladi-Ahmedabad– 65, Brahman Mitramandal Society, was a home to many activists including those of the NBA. All activists associated with varied causes could walk in and out of his home freely where his mother who was fondly referred to as “Ba” and wife, Neetiben would lovingly feed everyone with delicious homemade food.  More importantly Ashwinibhai’s house became the NBA “office” in Ahmedabad at a time when activists of NBA were not allowed to function easily in the State. Anyone who housed NBA activists faced Government ire and harassment. Ashwinibhai defied this unwritten diktat and therefore his house was targeted by the State and State sponsored goons on more than one occasion. He risked/compromised his popularity as a well known writer and eminent citizen of Gujarat a great deal in order to be a part of the NBA.

Ashwinibhai’s involvement with the NBA came at a time when very few  people  having the stature similar to that of Ashwinibhai were willing to question and stand up to the State regarding the Sardar Sarovar Dam/Narmada Project publicly in Gujarat no matter what their belief. Even most of the eminent Gandhians in the State who otherwise believed “small is beautiful” stood for the Big Dams on Narmada. Ashwinibhai’s involvement therefore significantly extended Narmada Bachao Andolan’s base in Ahmedabad and Gujarat.

In Gujarat, the Sardar Sarovar Project was trumpeted as the “Jeeva Dori”- the life line of Gujarat. In such an atmosphere very few newspapers or magazines could report anything questioning the Sardar Sarovar Project not only because that would invite wrath of the State but also because they thought that the revenue of the newspaper / magazine would plummet. However “Abhiyan”, the popular Gujarati magazine Ashwinibhai was associated with, fearlessly carried many an important facts about the Sardar Sarovar Project and exposed the falsehood and propaganda of the State risking fall in the magazine’s circulation as well as revenue from advertisement. Today where media is increasingly owned by corporate houses and relies heavily on revenue from advertisement, one understands the worth of fearless media/journalism standing up for the truth more than for revenue. Ashwinibhai strived for such an independent and fearless media that exposed falsehood and brought out truth no matter what the consequences. Reporting on issues raised by NBA in “Abhiyan”, otherwise a mainstream magazine at a time when there was unsaid censorship helped bring awareness to the people of Gujarat especially Saurashtra and Kutch. Ashwinibhai chose to swim against the tide.

The following report in the year 1999 by Committee to Protect Journalists explains though very briefly how difficult it was to stand up against the State on the issue of Narmada Project in Gujarat and the role of Ashwinibhai Bhatt: http://cpj.org/1999/07/india-dam-essay-lands-writer-arundhati-roy-in-hot.php

It would be worth quoting some excerpts from CPJ's web site here: “Meanwhile, in Gujarat State, CPJ's sources report that virtually all bookstores have pulled copies of [writer Arundhati] Roy's book for fear of violent reprisal. Last week, activists from the two most powerful political parties in India, the Congress Party and the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), held demonstrations condemning Roy for her anti-Narmada views. On June 22, members of the youth wing of the Congress Party burned several copies of The Greater Common Good. Youth Congress president…threatened that "If within the next 24 hours, all [Roy's] irresponsible, anti-development books are not withdrawn from the shelves, the bookstores will have to face the wrath of angry Youth Congressmen." The BJP's youth wing held a similar demonstration on Saturday, July 24. In this climate of extreme intolerance, the renowned Gujarati writer Ashwini Bhatt was unable to find a publisher willing to release a Gujarati edition of Roy's essay, and is now planning to publish the book himself [Ashwinibhai not only translated the essay in Gujarati but also published it himself]. However, CPJ fears that distribution of the book will be extraordinarily difficult and even dangerous…”

Ashwinibhai, a pillar of NBA in Gujarat, had begun to write a novel-Jal-kapat (evil around the issue of water) to explain the negative side of large dams and politics of large dams/water. However this book could not be completed due to his failing health. His ill health no longer allowed him to travel to the Narmada valley as he wished. But completing the novel was never far from his mind. Had it been completed it would have been an exceptional contribution to the current development and large dam/ water/energy debate. However Ashwinibhai’s love for the river Narmada and the Narmada Valley is clearly reflected in his earlier novel “Othaar” as the story unfolds around the banks of the beautiful river. Ashwinibhai had travelled for several months in the Jabalpur area for this book.

The passing away of Ashwinibhai is not only a great loss to the literary world and journalism but an insurmountable loss to people’s movements in general and to Narmada Bachao Andolan and the ideology it stands for in particular.

Nandini Oza

Shripad Dharmadhikary

28-12-2012

Rasikaho....Really?

Today (16^th Dec) is the last day of the Sawai Gandharva Bhimsen Mahotsav, Pune’s biggest Hindustani classical music festival. I have enjoyed many excellent performances at this festival and even now attend occasionally. But this lament I had written some years back seems to be still valid, as was clear when I attended one day at this year’s fest.

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Come the second week of December, and Pune gets ready to play host to an august congregation of classical music artistes. The stars, the famous, and the not so well known but highly accomplished, all come to perform at the Sawai Gandharva Memorial Festival, or simply Sawai, as it is popularly known. Organised in the memory of Sawai Gandharva, nurtured over the years by the painstaking personal efforts of stalwarts like Pandit Bhimsen Joshi, this festival of classical music has become a part of the glorious traditions of Pune.

Over thirty artistes perform at this feast for music lovers, spread over four days, drawing an estimated ten thousand listeners. Most are from Pune and around, but many come from abroad, and many, like me, from distant parts of India. For people like us, living in small places without any opportunity to attend performances, Sawai offers a golden chance to hear some of the best that the country has to offer.

Every year, the festival opens with the mellifluous notes of the shehnai; but even before the shehnai starts, the first words spoken by the compere are "Rasikaho..." (Connoisseurs...). It is only appropriate, for the one thing that has made the festival one of the most well-known and popular events of its nature, with every artiste seeking an opportunity to perform here, is the highly knowledgeable audience at the festival. Those who perform at Sawai never fail to mention how privileged they are to perform in front this audience, for it is an audience which is passionate about classical music and which understands and appreciates its nuances.

Sadly, this rasik - the pride of Sawai - is increasingly being endangered now. Slowly but surely, the aficionado-cum-expert is being replaced by those who view the festival as a picnic opportunity, as an outing, where some nice music plays in the background as a bonus. So it is not uncommon to see people bringing in tea, vada paos, pulao and even more complex dishes into the pandal, partaking the delicacies while listening to Pandit someone or Ustad someone else.

As this person brings in cups of hot tea precariously balanced along with several plates of other goodies - for no one brings in the stuff for oneself alone, the eats are brought in for the whole party - and makes his way through the densely packed crowd, people around  can only hold their breath in trepidation, hoping that nothing spills, scalding skin or soiling clothes. It is easy to understand if during this whole event, one is not able to pay attention to the aalap which is being presented from the stage.

Some are a little more considerate. They bring their food and drinks from home in their hampers, sparing one the anxiety of anything spilling. I have seen families spread out a sheet, open a hamper complete with a picnic plates-and-spoon-and-cup set, dish out the goodies and have a nice meal, accompanied by 'please pass the salt' and 'khichadi kaay mast zhali aahe (why don't you try this khichadi-it is delicious)'. All of this in the middle of a live performance! Of course, while they spare one from dangers of spills, they also unveil the extra loud and extra irritating sounds that only some special type of plastic bags can make - as they repeatedly open and crumple and fold the bags to bring out the food.

With Shining India now leading the world in mobile phone penetration, with several crore cell phones in Indians' pockets, it is hardly a surprise that a few thousand of these will make their way into the festival pandal. Unfortunately, the phones don't come alone - they bring with them their human owners, many of whom do not have the basic courtesy to even put them on silent mode. Most people also think it is their birth-right to talk on their cellphones in the middle of concerts and performances. So now at Sawai, even as you pay only for listening to the artistes, you can get assorted cellphone conversations absolutely free of charge.

Some people do not even require this modern technology. They simply chat! Last year, a friend of mine attending the festival requested two people sitting next to him not to talk during the performance. They replied to him," What does it matter, it is still only the aalap going on".

This then is the new avatar of the rasik. At this time, it is still a small minority, but enough to be a nuisance. However, if things are not dealt with in time, the small minority will soon become a big minority, and the nuisance will become a menace.

What can be done? The most important thing is for people to realise how uncivil their behaviour is, and change. But that is easier said than done. So the first steps will have to be taken by the organisers. They need to ban food and drinks in the main pandal - these need to be strictly restricted to the grounds where the stalls are put up. People should be requested to put their phones on silent mode, and go out of the pandal if they want to use them. The audience should be requested not to chat and disturb others during performances. All these should be put up as signs at various places of the venue. (This will enrich another tradition of Pune - the putting up of signs and instructions everywhere!). Organisers should repeat these suggestions from time to time while making announcements. Volunteers should politely but firmly remind people of these ground rules. Hopefully, this will persuade at least some people to change. Equally important, it will bring weight to the words of those who request for silence and undisturbed listening.

These are just some ideas more in the nature of a plea for action. If this matter is not tackled in time, genuine music lovers will have no choice but to desert the festival. With the rasik gone, the festival will lose its life, and the artistes will soon follow. The event may continue, but its spirit would be dead. That will be the end of a celebrated tradition.

3 Idiots – A Different Opinion

The first question that came to my mind as I finished watching 3 Idiots was “So, who are the other two?” The first, obviously, being me. For I had continued to sit through several hours of a most trite, insipid and boooooring flim even after the first 20 minutes, by which it was crystal clear what the movie was going to be like. But then, as they say, hope lies deep in the human heart, and after everything is lost, there is still hope. So I continued to watch, hoping that the film will improve, something interesting will happen, that obnoxious things will stop happening, but like many other hopefuls, I found I had waited in vain.

Don’t get me wrong, I am not one of those high brows who turn up their noses at Bollywood. Far from it, I love my bollywood – masala bollywood, in fact, and the more the masala, the better. I don’t demand that the films be realistic. I enjoy the unbelievable happening. I don’t wonder why one moment the sun is shining and the sky clear, and yet, it can suddenly start to pour over the heroine. I accept, indeed, expect, the hero to be an all-rounder who can do anything and everything. I love the song and dance, action, mar-dhad, and heroes and heroines being saved by loyal dogs, pigeons or elephants. I thrive on unbelievable coincidences. I have greatly enjoyed bollywood fares of last many decades from the days of Raj Kapoor, Guru Dutt and Amitabh to the more recent times when films are known more by their abbreviations (QSQT, DDLJ etc.) than their full names.

When I was in school, I used to maintain a “List of 10” – ten best books I have read, ten best songs I have heard and of course, ten best films I have seen. I stopped updating these lists long back, but 3 Idiots has inspired me to start a new list – Ten Worst Films I Have Ever Seen (Barring None). And I have little hesitation in saying that 3 Idiots has made it straight to the top of that list. I can’t think of any that even comes close.

So we have this can-do-nothing-wrong, brilliant engineering student, who is already creating all kinds of devices from scrap, is a wonderful human being, a friend who goes out of the way – a friend-in-need if there ever was one, (and whose friends, in a perfectly complementary relationship, seem to be always friends in need – of help), and of course, in the glorious Hindi film tradition, maintains the highest level of personal sacrifice. All this is fine, but so boring!

What I could not figure out, however, is the great purity and innocence of our hero who obviously can do fair bit of calculations, and drawings to be able to make all these things he constructs, but still feels that kiss karne pe naak beech me aata hai… (The nose comes in the way when one tries to kiss). Now, I admit that if someone from our times on the campus claimed this belief, it may have been plausible, for we did not have TV and films that showed kisses all the time, leaving little for imagination (or the internet, of course, which plays such a huge role in 3 Idiots). It is interesting that the engineering campus hostel of 3 Idiots has almost all the things our campus hostels from 25 years ago had, but it does not seem to have any porn! For at least that would show our hero what happens when one tries to kiss. But of course, the purity and innocence of the Hindi film hero (and heroine) has been maintained.

Unfortunately, the price paid for such an all-round, pure and innocent hero has been extreme ennui and boredom.

Just last week, one esteemed newspaper columnist had offered legal advice to Chetan Bhagat, urging him to sue the makers of the film for refusing to give him due credit as the original story writer. IMHO, if I was Chetan Bhagat, I would jump with joy, secretly thank my stars, and go quietly to the temple to offer some coconut to the Gods (or whatever equivalent he does) in appreciation of this great piece of good luck. Indeed I would say that instead of suing the filmmakers, Chetan Bhagat should offer them money for hiding his connection with the terrible terrible film, instead of grieving that he has not been given any credit.

In fact, if any one should be peeved and cheated, it should be the internet, for most of the jokes in the film have been circulating on the internet years before the film was conceived, and I am sure must have landed several times in all of our inboxes in the last years. Possibly the only exception must be the chamatkar one – which, rather than being funny, just leaves a bad taste in the mouth.

The only saving grace is the “Aaall iz Well” slogan, and song, but alas, that cannot be said of the film.

Welcome to My Blog

Hi! Welcome to my blog. My name is Shripad Dharmadhikary, and I like writing and reading. I am just starting this blog, and so this message is brief. I will be back soon, with more.

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Shripad