The drop-dead gorgeous Greek god looks, the light eyes combined with the wealth of wisdom that found an outlet in the most eloquent manner by the most eloquent man — that would be Girish Karnad.
It was a formidable combination in one human being. I think it was when Girish was on his way to the U.S. that he used to come to Bombay, and that’s where he soaked up a lot of theatre.
This was the late 50s when my father Ibrahim Alkazi had built an open-air theatre on the sixth floor of a building. There were no elevators those days, and Girish and others would climb six floors to watch an Antigone being staged.
I would like to believe that Girish’s exposure to live music, Western myths and their theatrical presentation perhaps began here in Bombay. The Western myths are so different from ours. In the former, children kill their parents while in the latter, children follow in the footsteps of their parents, sometimes sacrificing even their present for their happiness. Yayati , Girsh Karnad’s first play, for instance, is all about that.
I loved the way he reprised kitchen kathas, stories told by our mothers and grandmothers. There are very few writers who can transcend history and create something that is at once contemporary and modern. He was an amazing playwright, writer, public-spirited intellectual and an eloquent speaker.
After all the years of heading government institutes, FTII, Sangeet Natak Akademi, Nehru Centre, and then questioning the establishment in that formidable voice — who could have done that but Girish Karnad.
(As told to Anuradha Raman)
