Nathuram Godse in a play

 This is a play about the guy who killed Mahatma Gandhi. It tries to put forth his perspective on the act. Not too convincingly, I might add. 

It's good as far as a perspective goes. But justifying murder for any reason, to my mind, except rare cases of self-defence, is a no-no.

Written and directed by Bharat Dabholkar, a celebrated Ad man. It is well-acted, and is a bit thought-provoking, showing some warts in the Mahatma's ways of dealing with the Partition of India. Anant Mahadevan acts as Mahatma Gandhi, and his son. Bharat also plays a small role himself.

It's also a bit hard to believe that he was acting all alone. Anyway, a good theatre experience. This was the Hindi version.

The Nobel and Other Awards

This is a reflective piece-don't say I didn't warn you!

Some people get awards-others don't. Does not usually mean that the others are not worthy. If I remember this right, Dharmendra never got a best actor award. But we enjoyed his acting in many films- Sholay, Chupke Chupke and Satyakaam, to cite just three.

Mahatma Gandhi did not win a Nobel, while lesser mortals got it. Murakami has not yet got one, and given the controversy about the Academy, this year is unlikely for him too. Point is, awards or no awards, every one of us may be contributing in our own way to something good. Award-givers are human, and can't possibly be right in selection all the time.

From a different angle, artists may get love and affection from their fans, which is bigger than other awards (for them) and helps sustain some of them for long periods.

Nothing against awards-many of my students have got them regularly, and I am proud of them. But I am also proud of those who did not get the awards, but are good at anything they do-or, are simply sensible human beings.