2011 made us bid goodbye unwillingly and sorrowfully to…
(Tribute: http://unboxedwriters.com/2011/12/satyadev-dubey-the-resilient-cactus/)
Satyadev Dubey who wrote film dialogues like he was unaware of all the cliches and conventions that do not let cinematic characters breathe. And produced and directed theatre with a fierce passion that sought and demanded nothing but absolute attention and commitment from those who worked with him. His legacy is one of uncompromised excellence. And hard to live up to because today, the easiest thing to give up is your passion for the work you do.
Bhimsen Joshi whose voice when unleashed under an open sky could make your Kundalini shiver, uncoil and spring to life.
(Tribute: http://unboxedwriters.com/2011/12/dev-anand-time-traveller/)
Dev Anand who lived and died with dusty boots on. Boots that had walked India right into independence, accompanied the nation through the idealism of films like Vidya, the pain and redemption of Hum Dono and Guide, the stylised 60s, the new found permissiveness of the 70s where Jasbir became Janice and smoked pot, and that era where he became obsolete though just the fact that was tirelessly he optimistic and creative was a lesson we could all use, we who give up at the first sign of nihilism, criticism and censor.
(Tribute: http://unboxedwriters.com/2011/12/forever-miranda/)
Mario Miranda whose lines were so alive with warmth, with joy, with wit, with energy and so loving towards the chaos, the madness, the inventiveness, the unstoppable narrative that India is, that you wished you lived in the beaches, the bazaars, the restaurants, the Goan villas and palm fringed villages he painted rather than in your mundane life.
(Tribute:http://unboxedwriters.com/2011/11/the-river-flows-on/)
Bhupen Hazarika whose voice was the voice of Brahmaputra in full swell. A voice that was angsty, free-spirited, defiant. He was the courage and the romance that thrum through the veins of the North-East. A voice that was politically charged and deeply humane.
(Tribute: http://unboxedwriters.com/2011/11/a-nation-of-onlookers/)
Keenan Santos and Reuben Fernandes who lost their lives while battling a pack of criminals who roam most of our cities and randomly pick victims, mostly women, knowing for a fact that no one will stand up to them. These two boys did and put us to shame.
(Tribute: http://unboxedwriters.com/2011/10/someone-somewhere/ )
Jagjit Singh who defined ishq, hijr, visaal, dhoop, badal, bijli, barsaat, samandar and all the magic that we will never discover again in another voice because no one else can sing ‘Koi yeh kaise bataye ki woh tanha kyon hai,’ the way he did.
(Tribute : http://unboxedwriters.com/2011/10/goodbye-steve-jobs/)
Steve Jobs who lived to create and created to live. Things and stuff we may dismiss as consumer fantasies but creations that to him were of great importance because they streamlined technology, made it accessible and more aesthetic and kept evolving like time to keep pace with it.
(Tribute: http://unboxedwriters.com/2011/08/shammi-kapoor-the-joy-of-life/ )
Shammi Kapoor who lived through many transformations. The awkward actor wanting to register his presence in stilted love stories. The rake who found himself with Tumsa Nahin Dekha and romanced many beautiful debutantes under the sun dappled chinars of Kashmir, the man who bowed out from mainstream posturing in the 70s and returned as a podgy, warm, sunshine scene stealer in films like Shalimar, Vidhata, Yeh Vaada Raha and counting. Someone who grew spiritual, deeper, happier, settled in his own skin and lived his life on a song even in a wheelchair and despite failing kidneys. Those blue eye stayed mirthful till the end.
(Tribute:http://unboxedwriters.com/2011/06/mf-husain-a-tribute/ )
MF Husain who died in exile but after having lived a life that was as dramatic, vibrant and unapologetic as his large, triumphant canvasses. And he proved that you can punish an artist but not take away that magical something that goads him to create in a crowd, in isolation, in pain, in joy because his urge to create something is bigger than the impulse to destroy that the world may unleash upon him.
(Tribute: http://unboxedwriters.com/2011/09/jehangir-sabavala-a-tribute/ )
Artist Jehangir Sabavala, stopped after six decades worth of creative output only when death came calling. His restful canvasses were hard to categorise as they offered visual and aesthetic connect without being simplistic and had sophistication and subtlety with global sensibilities. A refined man, he was a true aristocrat in a world where the word has come to be scoffed at.
(Tribute: http://unboxedwriters.com/2011/09/an-affair-to-remember/ )
Mansur Ali Khan Pataudi passed away too, but not from memory. He reminded you of a perfectly burnished profile etched on a coin. That nose. Those eyes. The legacy of a game well played, a timeless love lived till the end. And great dignity if you discount the hunting episode that saw him behind the bars. The one blemish in an otherwise upright, blameless life.
(Tribute:http://unboxedwriters.com/2011/02/remembering-uncle-pai/ )
Uncle Anant Pai who gave us the gift of mythology after uncaging it from fading memories and unread scriptures, who culled profundity from heritage and made it as easy to read as a comic. Who gave us Amar Chitra Katha.
(Tributes: http://unboxedwriters.com/2011/07/back-to-black/
http://unboxedwriters.com/2011/07/a-random-number-called-27/ )
Amy Winehouse who suffered too much, had a deep but fragile spirit and lived too much, loved too much and died too soon.
(Tribute: http://unboxedwriters.com/2011/03/the-unrepeatable-elizabeth-taylor/ )
Elizabeth Taylor who we will remember for her violet diamond eyes, her spirited, passionate life and career. And that humanity and empathy that saw her raising millions for AIDS research.
Christopher Hitchens who I will remember not just for his interesting and mercurial views on war and philanthropy (So Bush and the Iraq war were excusable and could be forgiven but Mother Teresa could not?) for the fact that even in the final stages of cancer, he was writing thousands of words everyday to meet deadlines. A writer to the bone who wrote till he could write no more.
Sultan Khan. Asad Ali Khan. Gautam Rajyadhaksha. Navin Nischal. Bob Cristo. Vaclav Havel.
And some we were happy to see the last of..
Osama Bin Laden. Muammar Gadaffi.
Maybe this year will bring back to us, those who were taken away. In the snatch of a song, the sudden pang of a memory. In a smile. In the continuum of life that goes on even when we can’t. Here is hoping that we will have a rewarding year where there will be more peace than strife, more joy than grief.
Happy 2012, everyone.
Reema Moudgil is the author of Perfect Eight (http://www.flipkart.com/b/books/perfect-eight-reema-moudgil-book-9380032870?affid=unboxedwri )