Presenting Shabana...

<div class="section1"><div class="Normal">Shabana Azmi speaks with passion and forthrightness, savouring each word. For she means what she says. Expressions of humour, gravity and even pain flit across her face in rapid succession, leaving you feeling that she is for real. Inquisitive questions don''t bother her, in fact she draws into herself to introspect and then answer with intelligence, candour and integrity.Not just a woman of substance but one who gives actual meaning to the word, she shares some of her thoughts with <span style="" font-style:="" italic="">Chandigarh Times.</span><br /><br />Politics is no cup of tea... A woman who has reiterated that politics is a means for getting her voice for the less fortunate heard, it must be difficult to handle. "Nothing is easy. Each struggle is a process that carries you further. Parliament is not the only politics, it is important because it has the power of legislation behind it," she bursts forth. A moment of thought and she adds, "But even the personal is political. For awareness of civil society is the biggest strength that we can have."<br /><br />No mask offscreen... Why should there be? For her trademark honesty has endeared Shabana to millions across the country. "Absolutely. I remember the slum dwellers I started to work with, they were very hesitant to open up to me. But that awkwardness disappeared as they realised I wasn''t going away," she recalls. She points out that actors are human beings too. "Our resource base must be life. As it is the only thing that helps people to connect with us."<br /><br />Being herself... Shabana has embodied every role that a woman can – of relationship, religion and social responsibility.<br /><br /></div> </div><div class="section2"><div class="Normal"><br />"Every one of them is important. But my cause for the needy is paramount. The most important of them is housing for the poor. But no issue is isolated. With that comes the issue of women''s rights, their health and empowerment," she states.<br /><br />Fighting fundamentalism... One subject that still fires her up. "Fundamentalism of all hues needs to be fought. Because fundamentalists give each other strength." Folly to experience... She has been known to be outspoken at the best of times. "Being outspoken is one thing, but being foolish is another. Being in the Parliament has taught me caution, how to weight my words and say the most outspoken things with delicacy," a small grin appears out of nowhere.<br /><br />She cries as easily as she laughs... Silence greets the question. A frown mars her brow but is quickly smoothened out.<br /><br />"I''ve never thought about this but I think that it has made me stronger. For sentivity is what has kept me alive. If one can be moved by injustice or beauty, that is what keeps an artist living," she muses.<br /><br />Shabana Azmi was in the city on Friday to preside over the second regional conference of rural women organised by the Dr Amrik Singh Cheema Foundation Trust at Tagore Theatre.</div> </div>