Only two women represented Bollywood at the cultural protest against the Israeli military operation in Gaza, organised at the Safdar Hashmi Memorial Trust (Sahmat). One was Padma Bhushan recipient Sharmila Tagore, who recited poetry by Mahmoud Darwish and Samih Al Qasim, and the other Sanjana Kapoor, who recited powerful poetry of her own. Together, they made up for the naïveté and disinterest their fraternity has long passed off as political pragmatism.
“Babies without babyhood and ageless aged men; Women without desire, And because this is what it is, It is the most beautiful, clearest, richest and most worthy of love,” Ms. Tagore read Darwish to the gathering of the Capital’s Left-liberals.
Speaking to The Hindu , she said that she attended this protest out of compassion for the children killed in the conflict. According to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, more than 200 Palestinian children have died in the three-week-old operation.
“As a Unicef goodwill ambassador, I felt I must speak up for the children of the world, especially after a UN school was bombed yesterday… How many children must die before someone takes action to stop this war?” she asked. The cultural protest was almost washed out by an intense spell of rain, forcing the crowd of young and old fans of Sahmat and its allies to huddle up in the portico of CPI(M) MP Sitaram Yechury’s office on Ferozeshah Road, where the event was held.
A visual art project by Inder Salim followed, where the artist broke water melons pricked with olives at the entrance. The olives, which are a national symbol of Palestine, were wrapped in sealable plastic bags with bits of paper on which was written – Silence For Gaza (after Darwish’s poem that has resonated after the recent troubles began).
“I wanted people to get a taste of Palestine from these olives,” said Salim who gathered the broken water melons like a survivor gathering mortal remains. As fate would have it, pieces of chalk rolled into the display, washed by the rain — a grim reminder of the schools that have been bombed in the conflict.
“On which side of the border will my tears fall,” asked Sanjana Kapoor in her poem, “On the side of the bombed or those who bomb?” Salim’s olives turned out to be very bitter.
