{"id":330677,"date":"2021-01-31T18:26:19","date_gmt":"2021-01-31T18:26:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/tehelka.com\/?p=330677"},"modified":"2021-01-31T18:26:21","modified_gmt":"2021-01-31T18:26:21","slug":"ved-mehta-leaves-huge-void-in-literary-circles","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/ved-mehta-leaves-huge-void-in-literary-circles\/","title":{"rendered":"Ved Mehta leaves huge void in literary circles"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>With the passing away of writer Ved Mehta, I can only say that we have lost not just a great writer but also a man with a definite personality. I had met him twice and interviewed him once around the autumn of 2009, when he had flown down to New Delhi with his wife, Linn Cary \u2014 a descendant of the 19th century American writer James Fenimore Cooper.<\/span><\/p>\n

He came across as not just straight forward but also blatantly stark in his views. And though a meningitis attack had left him visually impaired at the age of 4, yet he looked so very confident, full of life. Remarkably, he didn\u2019t let this setback of impaired vision, come in way of his writing. Author of over 30 books along with several long and short stories, not to overlook the fact that for over three decades, 1961-1994, he was a staff writer at The New Yorker. Above all, he lived life to the fullest. Along with exceptional inputs and outputs to his professional life, there were those ample steady splashes to his rather unconventional and colourful lifestyle, till of course, the time he\u2019d decided \u201cto settle down\u201d. Marrying in 1983, at the age of 49, along the strain of Aristotle\u2019s philosophy that for a marriage to be happy and going, a man must marry a much younger woman.<\/span><\/p>\n

During the interview with me, he detailed, \u201cI married late when I was 49 years old. And Linn is almost 20 years younger to me. Actually Linn is a friend\u2019s niece and I had first met her when she was 11 years old. And years later I had met her again at a party. This time I was drunk and kissed her. The very next morning I wrote an apology note to her and she told me that from her side too, there were feelings involved. It is then we decided to marry and we married in 1983 and today she is my one and only wife and we have two daughters.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

He had stressed on the fact that knowledge of our historical past is very significant. To quote him, \u201cI feel our history is very important for today\u2019s generation. People who live without history are no better than animals \u2026history is important as it adds a dimension to life, just as children and wife add that extra dimension to a man\u2019s life.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Though based in America, he was extremely critical of America\u2019s intrusion in Afghanistan and beyond. To quote him on this, \u201cAmerica should get out of Afghanistan. And Iraq was a total disaster, totally a fantasy of a kind, along the lines of the US did in Vietnam and Korea. I\u2019m for non-violence and all for the policy of tolerance. And I do also believe in Aristotle\u2019s philosophy vis-a-vis democracy: you can only have democracy if a majority of people belong to the middle class.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Ved Mehta was also extremely apprehensive of the Right-Wing coming to power in India. He was worried that divisions and communal rifts between communities would be brought in, and that in itself would spell disasters for the masses of this country.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u2666 \u2666 \u2666<\/span><\/p>\n

WHERE ARE BOLLYWOOD STARS AND STARLETS! <\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Where are the Bollywood stars and starlets who played the role of farmers! I do realize they were make-believe portrayals, more along the fairy tale strain. What, with them singing and dancing in and around lush green fields and meadows and forests, if not bathing in the various streams and rivers and village ponds!<\/span><\/p>\n

My logic is simple and straight: As those countless filmi characters gained popularity because of their farmer roles, so they ought to come up with a word or two on today\u2019s farmers and their plight. If the likes of Manoj Kumars and Dilip Kumars could go up the graph by singing and dancing in the village locales, then this is the time to stand up in solidarity with the farmers. Maybe their health conditions wouldn\u2019t permit them to reach out to the protesting farmers in that whole- hearted way but their families could definitely do so.<\/span><\/p>\n

In fact, it\u2019s more than disappointing that none of the well-known Bollywood men and women have come forward and spoken out. Why? Is this because they have little time or the required inclination or are they worried about the reactions of the political rulers of the day and the machinery under their control!<\/span><\/p>\n

I\u2019m stating this because though many amongst us spoke out against the political masterminds of the Gujarat pogrom of 2002, but Bollywood had disappointed. Few dared to speak out against the killings and carnage. Why didn\u2019t the\u00a0<\/span>big names and bigger banners of Bollywood take on the political rulers of Gujarat? Their answer was as stark\u00a0<\/span>as this: If we had reached out to the dying and near-dying victims of the pogrom, we would have been in the \u2018bad books\u2019 of the government and our films would be targeted and with that we ruined!<\/span><\/p>\n

Well, such is the reality! Such scare of the aftermath.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u2666 \u2666 \u2666<\/span><\/p>\n

And whilst on Bollywood, awaiting to hear the news of the birth of Kareena \u2014 Saif Ali Khan\u2019s second baby. Wonder what name they\u2019d give the new baby. Can\u2019t get over the distasteful comments, to say the least, passed by the various Hindutva characters when Kareena\u00a0<\/span>and Saif Ali Khan had named their\u00a0<\/span>son Taimur.<\/span><\/p>\n

In fact, nobody tried to speak out or for that matter even squeak that there\u2019s another dimension to Taimur, the conqueror: following Taimur\u2019s invasion of North India in 1398, over 1,700 woodcarvers, architects, calligraphers and highly-specialized cooks \u2014 wazas \u2014 had migrated from Samarkand to Kashmir. Even today, a great majority of the Waza families in the Kashmir Valley trace their origin to Samarkand and these wazas are in great demand for the wazwan feasts. Not to be overlooked the fact that the \u2018feast of feasts\u2019, the wazwans, are hosted by both the communities \u2014the Kashmiri Pandit and the Kashmiri Musalmaan.<\/span><\/p>\n

ON SHAHRYAR\u2019S NINTH DEATH ANNIVERSARY \u2026<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

On poet \u2014 writer \u2014 lyricist Shahryar\u2019s upcoming death anniversary (he passed away on February 13, 2012 ) I am not putting in any of his verse, though his lyrics in \u2018Umrao Jaan\u2019 and \u2018Gaman\u2019 are of the everlasting sorts.<\/span><\/p>\n

Well, instead of his verse, I\u2019m highlighting his sense of observation cum humor…. He was from my father\u2019s ancestral qasba, Aonla, in Uttar Pradesh and he knew my younger sister, Habiba, also settled in Aligarh. But I came to know of his Aonla and Aligarh connection only after I was first introduced to him almost two decades back. A common friend introduced us, with this introductory line:<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\u201cShe is Habiba\u2019s sister.\u201d<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

To that he reacted, \u201cYou Habiba\u2019s sister!\u201d<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

Yes, I am \u2026she\u2019s my younger sister.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cBut you look different! So different! You two real sisters! She covers her head but
\nyou \u2026\u201d with that he gave a rather disapproving look at the sleeve-less shirt on me. <\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

Yes, we are real sisters.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cFrom the same father?\u201d<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

Yes, of course.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cSame father?\u201d<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

Yes \u2026yes.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cSame father!\u201d<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

At least this is what amma told us! <\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

With that we had a hearty laugh.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

letters@tehelka.com<\/span><\/p>\n

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With the passing away of writer Ved Mehta, I can only say that we have lost not just a great writer but also a man with a definite personality. I had met him twice and interviewed him once around the autumn of 2009, when he had flown down to New Delhi with his wife, Linn […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":330689,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[23,2205],"tags":[13885],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/rest-api\/wp\/v2\/posts\/330677"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/rest-api\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/rest-api\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/rest-api\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/rest-api\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=330677"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/rest-api\/wp\/v2\/posts\/330677\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":330692,"href":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/rest-api\/wp\/v2\/posts\/330677\/revisions\/330692"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/rest-api\/wp\/v2\/media\/330689"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/rest-api\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=330677"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/rest-api\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=330677"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/rest-api\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=330677"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}