“Namaskaram Uncle!” I hope you will forgive me for treading on the footsteps of Shovon Chowdhury by using one of his most popular personas, that of the all-knowing uncle, who freely distributed wisdom in his ‘Ask Uncle’ column.
“Why are you doing this?” the editors might ask.
Renaissance man
It’s because Chowdhury, with his irreverent wit, inspires frivolity. He was a man who dabbled in many fields — while working as an ad man, he contributed columns in The Business Line and The Hindu, wrote novels and blogs. He can be described as a Renaissance man, the man who wears so many hats that he cannot be pigeon-holed. Which makes me wonder about the Renaissance woman — does she exist only in the imagination of artists who like to portray her sitting unclothed and hatless in a Renaissance garden? For, only in such a state can she change the course of history...
“This is his trademark style — he refuses to take anything, including himself and a fatal disease, seriously. Even in the worst of times, Chowdhury ‘The Investigator’ — the title of one of his columns — is there seeking the truth”
In one of his extended flights of imagination, Chowdhury depicts Madhuri Dixit as just such a woman as she leaps onto the stage with a gravity-defying number. Did she change the course of history? Chowdhury pondered such questions in the best years of his life, before he succumbed to cancer in 2021. It was a virulent form of cancer: Chowdhury calls it “Necrotizing Pancreatitis” and assures us in one of his asides that it’s as bad as it sounds.
Cover of Truth Digger: The Best of Shovon Chowdhury
This is his trademark style — he refuses to take anything, including himself and a fatal disease, seriously. Even in the worst of times, Chowdhury ‘The Investigator’ — the title of one of his columns — is there seeking the truth.
Urmila Chowdhury, his wife of 32 years and an educationist with a deep interest in theatre, provides introductory windows to the text.
While being deeply critical of the country’s headlong descent into the paranoia of power, Chowdhury never stops challenging himself, his primary audience. He asks questions. His answers are like Madhuri Dixit’s feet, lightly tap-dancing on the page.
Truth Digger: The Best of Shovon Chowdhury, Edited by Urmila Chowdhury and Sandipan Deb, Aleph Book Company, ₹499
The Chennai-based writer is a critic and cultural commentator.
