His last days were spent in loneliness

TNN / Aug 28, 2006, 02:40 IST

Share

AA

Text Size

Small
Medium
Large

All of us at that time wanted to gatecrash into Indian cinema.

All of us at that time wanted to gatecrash into Indian cinema. Us meaning, Ritwik Ghatak, Salil Chaudhuri, Tapas Sen and I. We would meet at Paradise Cafe on Hazra Road.
For hours we would talk art, literature, philosophy, politics and economics. These were the post-Independence years, 1948-49. The owner didn't mind that we split four cups between eight of us, because he enjoyed the discussion.
Hrishi was then working with New Theatres. He was assistant to editor Subodh Roy and earned a salary of Rs 60 per month. Naturally, he was the richest among us. Tapas and I smoked cheap cigarettes. Ritwik chose 'bidi'.
They cost two annas for 25. We would all dream of success of flying, soaring in the sky. Years later, we realised that not only Hrishi, Ritwik, Tapas and Mrinal had made it, the boy who used to tie the 'bidi' also went on to become a lecturer in US.

After he had gone to Mumbai with Bimal Roy, Hrishi wrote: "Back then, we used to joke about flying, today I am actually flying to Soviet Union with Bimalda."
We couldn't keep up the adda, but success didn't change Hrishi. All through his life he remained the perfect gentleman that he was. Nipat bhalomanush (A perfect gentleman). His films were exactly like him. His characters could rarely be evil.
Hrishi believed. He had faith. His last stage was painful. Dialysis, ventilators were his companions for the last three months or more. More than that there were the sorrows of his personal life.

His wife, his brothers, even his younger son had passed away. He lived all alone in Mumbai, with only Meno (domestic help). Perhaps, that is why he had mirrors on every wall of his rooms.
Even the bathroom. Once while visiting him, I started feeling uncomfortable looking at so many images of myself. When I said this, he suggested we step outside to see the sunset. Then, he broke the silence that had set in between us. "One more day has gone by." That was a measure of his loneliness.
(As told to Ratnottama Sengupta)

End of Article

FOLLOW US ON SOCIAL MEDIA