Renowned Hindi writer and Padmabushan awardee Kamleshwar died of a massive heart attack at the age of 75. Born in Mainpuri, Uttar Pradesh, in 1932, Kamleshwar perhaps attained national popularity as the Additional Director General.for Doordarshan when he used to appear in a popular weekly programme Parikrama, and received a much-deserved Sahitya Akademi award much later in 2003 for his book Kitney Pakistan. He wrote some 30 books and several short-story collections and scripts for ten TV serials that included popular ones such as Darpan, Ek Kahani, Chandrakanta and Yug, apart from producing and directing various TV programmes and documentaries. As a journalist, he was editor of Dainik Jagaran (1990- 92), Dainik Bhaskar (1996- 2002) and once popular but now defunct Hindi magazine Sarika, and made his mark in Bombay film industry with some memorable filmscripts such as Sara Aakash, Aandhi, Mausam, Rajnigandha, Choti Si Baat and Mr Natwarlal.

From Outlook.

I remember Kamleshwar because he told me that writers should be historians and historians writers. He was talking of the Partition when he said that. One December morning, five-six years ago, Kamleshwar told me that he had written Kitney Pakistan (How Many Pakistans?) because “I had the iron in my soul. The process of Partition has been going on from time immemorial. In the process of making people more civilized, they have become more brutal. Partition ab humme zyada manzoor nahin. Yeh neem ka ped, yeh Hindustan mein hai. Woh imli ka ped, woh Pakistan mein hai. Ek ped se chidiya udkar udhar chali gayi, uss ped se chidiya udkar idhar chali aayi. Woh chidiya kidhar ki hai?” The birds happily crossed borders between India and Pakistan, and Kamleshwar wanted writers to do the same.

I wish him lasting peace.

kamleshwar

LONDON: Bollywood actress Shilpa Shetty has won Channel 4’s reality TV show Celebrity Big Brother and bagged an estimated 100,000 pounds in prize money. More.

Before I got bored by the chain of events, I was puzzled that one of the first riots over the insults against Shetty took place in my hometown Patna. Here is a link to a piece by Hari Kunzru that I had enjoyed reading, especially his sly ethnography of the Indian middle class, and while I’m in the mood let me supply the link to another piece which you might also already be familiar with, this one by Germaine Greer, who is slightly comical in her righteousness here, not because her politics are wrong but because her strident claim to knowledge is so very whatever-is-the-opposite-of-postcolonial.

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