“I
can only throw a stone in the stream. I have no right on the ripples
that it creates.” A prophetic line from Yayati, Girish Karnad’s first playwritten when he was just 21 and a Rhodes scholar at Oxford. The ripples this
Renaissance man created have touched many shores and left a lasting impact
on theater, cinema, television and public life where he stood up fearlessly for
free speech, pluralism, democracy and staunchly against the majoritarian
Hindu Right. He was active as an engaged public intellectual to the last. The
iconic image of him standing with the placard saying ‘Me Too Urban Naxal,’
at a protest on Gauri Lankesh’s death anniversary last year, has gone viral. He
is seen carrying his oxygen tank, but that did not prevent this colossus from
making his voice and presence felt.
BY MAITHILI RAO
The Genius of
GIRISH KARNAD
56
HE HAD THE POWER TO COMMAND ATTENTION
WITH HIS IMPECCABLE DICTION, RESONANT
VOICE AND INTRINSIC DIGNITY. KARNAD WAS
UNCOMPROMISING — WHETHER IT WAS HIS
WRITING OR EXPRESSING HIS OPINION ON
MATTERS OF LITER ATURE, CURRENT POLITICAL
SITUATION AND FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION