Vijay Tendulkar is no more

As a rule I don't have much liking for communists and their penchant to denigrate our society every now and then in the garb of liberals but one has to give them credit where it is due.
Vijay Tendulkar was one such man. I read his drama tittled "Silence the court is in session" in my college library on a sultry afternoon quite similar to climate mentioned in the play and while reading it I felt as if i am present in that room where this drama troupe is enacting a false trail. It hit hard on false morality of our society and how strong and dominant can condone acts of eah other via perfect legitimate means.

This play actually aroused my curiosity and I searched library for any other paly by him and then I hit on Ghasiram Kotwal and all debauchery behind the Peshwai was revealed. The play was also notable for its mixture of dance & choreography and i wanted to enact it during inter hall drama but our drama captain did not find it appealing enough and instead went for oft repeated Spartacus.

He has one more play to his credit called "sakharam Binder" which I am yet to read.While reading various obituary to him I came to know that script for movies liek Nishant, manthan ,ardhsatya and aakrosh were also written by him.
All these moveis are gem in themselves but my favorite is Ardhasatya maybe because I find it more connected to my age.

For someone like Vijay Tendulkar I think this would be apt " i may not agree with what you say but I will defend your right to say till death".
A conscience keeper which every society needs at all points of time.

Mumbai Musings 2

Now it is almost a month in Mumbai. Some observation
1.Due to ban on dance bars and time restriction on disco night life is not what one would expect in a metro.
2.A metro makes people break religious taboo. Girls in burqa can be seen sitting with their boyfriends at marine drive
3.There are so called Maratha stores (I happened to visit two of them). But they are inadequately stocked, rude staff and priced same if not higher. Possibly monopoly feeling makes them behave so or marathis are not businessmen actually
4.girls of age even 13-14 years dress like late teen girls and their faces show that in metros girls attain puberty early. it was never so in my small hometown.
5.Lots of Muslims with long beards or skull cap in normal business place -- any sign of future or am i observing too much
6. Parsi community support mechanism especially in kolaba and old town. Really old people living in dilapidated old buildings
7. All companies have HR and normal support staff mostly Anglo Indians or their descendants.Most probably they are result of intermarriage between lower castes and Britishers. Now I can understand indignation of BK Nehru against this community in his book.
8. A dangerous trend of sectarianism. I mentioned about maratha stores before. There is YMCA hostel whee they prefer Christian guys .There is Maharashtra govt run law college which prefers only maharashtrians. What will happen to this country
9. High brand stores in Malls are frquented by shoppers as opposed to say Indore.
10. People follow lanes in traffic and also while taking buses or trains.other Indian cities can learn
11. No high rise in Nariman point. What is the reason? I don't know but they dream to make it second shanghai. phew ...
12. Mumbai metro project is nowhere. Only roads are blocked in northers suburbs but nothing real happening
13. Climate - good even in summer better than north india at least
14. Food - in all areas you can find find food according to your pocket and platter.