Mr Bachchan has enriched our dramatic or cinematic vocabu- lary with artistic sophistication and in a voice that is at once recognisable and unique. He has coped with universal adulation and fame with amazing savoir- faire. He has kept a fine balance between this and the destructive elements of fragile fame, false glamour and frivolity Amitabh Bachchan’s great father was at Cambridge doing his doctorate, when I was an undergraduate. I did a talk in Hindi for the BBC on Jawaharlal Nehru at Cambridge. I went with my clumsy text to him. He could not have been kinder. Later he was selected by Nehru to be MEA’s Hindi K. NATaWAR SINGH.
University convocations do not generally create excessive excitement. Not even a mild stir. Broadly speaking, they are stale non-events, ignored by the media. However, there are exceptions.
The special convocation held by the University of Delhi last weekend was indeed something special. Something different.
The four individuals honoured are distinguished Indians. Here, one name stood out. Wherever Mr Amitabh Bachchan goes, he ignites, illuminates and inspires.
He does so with uncommon dignity, grace and style.
He is an artist of genius.
This word is rather loosely used to bestow respectability on second rate men and minds.
Real genius is a very rare commodity. Most of us know many brilliant, clever, gifted, celebrated, fascinating, inventive, notable, scintillating people.
If one were to be asked to name a genius friend or friends, one would be hard put to it. The dictionary meaning of the word genius is known to reasonably educated people.
I find it inadequate.
In my judgment he or she is a genius who converts the mundane into the magical, the ordinary into the extraordinary, the transient into the ever-lasting.
Am I going over the top? I think not.
Mr Amitabh Bachchan has enriched our dramatic or cinematic vocabulary with artistic sophistication and in a voice that is at once recognisable and unique. He has coped with universal adulation and fame with amazing savoir-faire.
Not many can take such adulation and fame with mature detachment. He has kept a fine balance between this and the destructive elements of fragile fame, false glamour and frivolity.
Above all, he has, for a quarter century, brought relief and joy for a few hours to hundreds of millions of human beings all over the globe whose cares and anxieties most of us ignore.
Joseph Conrad (1857-1924), the Polish born English novelist, puts it much much better than I have. Writing about the loneliness of the artist, Conrad appealed, “to that part of our being which is a gift, not an acquisition, to the capacity for delight and wonder ... our sense of pain and pity, to the latent feeling of fellowship with all creation — and to the subtle but invincible conviction of solidarity that knits together the loneliness of innumerable hearts ... which binds together all humanity — the dead to the living and the living to the unborn.” I claim no intimacy with Mr Amitabh Bachchan.
Know him I do. Who does not?
He is a national treasure. More than 20 years ago, I was in Dakar, Senegal, a French speaking country. One of his films was being shown to packed cinema halls — with subtitles.
We entered the formidable portals of Parliament the same day in November 1984.
His great father was at Cambridge doing his doctorate, when I was an undergraduate. I did a talk in Hindi for the BBC on Jawaharlal Nehru at Cambridge. I went with my clumsy text to him. He could not have been kinder. Later he was selected by Nehru to be MEA’s Hindi adviser.
Mrs Indira Gandhi in her generosity awarded the Padma Bhushan to me in January, 1984. Mr Amitabh Bachchan was also a recipient. I treasure the group photograph taken in the gardens of Rashtrapati Bhavan after the award ceremony. I am sitting and he is standing. It should have been the other way round.
D elhi University needs to be congratulated for selecting Mrs Sheila Dikshit, Mr R.K. Laxman (younger brother of R.K. Narayan), Prof C.N.R. Rao and Mr Bachchan.
The University of Delhi is not among our oldest seats of learning, but it is old and distinguished enough.
On March 26, 1923, the Viceroy, Lord Reading spoke at the University — if I am not wrong — and a part of his speech deserves to be re-called:
“We shall welcome knowledge with open arms when she comes to our portals — but let us not make the mistake of forgetting her more bashful sister, wisdom. For knowledge and learning alone will not make the sum total that our alumni should take away with them at the close of their studies. We should have them go out into India, not only adorned with learning and replete with knowledge, but possessing those less easily acquired and more intangible qualities of the cultured mind, good judgment, wise tolerance and strong character...” These qualities Sheila Dikshit, R.K. Laxman, C.N.R. Rao and Amitabh Bachchan possess in ample measure.
University convocations do not generally create excessive excitement. Not even a mild stir. Broadly speaking, they are stale non-events, ignored by the media. However, there are exceptions.
The special convocation held by the University of Delhi last weekend was indeed something special. Something different.
The four individuals honoured are distinguished Indians. Here, one name stood out. Wherever Mr Amitabh Bachchan goes, he ignites, illuminates and inspires.
He does so with uncommon dignity, grace and style.
He is an artist of genius.
This word is rather loosely used to bestow respectability on second rate men and minds.
Real genius is a very rare commodity. Most of us know many brilliant, clever, gifted, celebrated, fascinating, inventive, notable, scintillating people.
If one were to be asked to name a genius friend or friends, one would be hard put to it. The dictionary meaning of the word genius is known to reasonably educated people.
I find it inadequate.
In my judgment he or she is a genius who converts the mundane into the magical, the ordinary into the extraordinary, the transient into the ever-lasting.
Am I going over the top? I think not.
Mr Amitabh Bachchan has enriched our dramatic or cinematic vocabulary with artistic sophistication and in a voice that is at once recognisable and unique. He has coped with universal adulation and fame with amazing savoir-faire.
Not many can take such adulation and fame with mature detachment. He has kept a fine balance between this and the destructive elements of fragile fame, false glamour and frivolity.
Above all, he has, for a quarter century, brought relief and joy for a few hours to hundreds of millions of human beings all over the globe whose cares and anxieties most of us ignore.
Joseph Conrad (1857-1924), the Polish born English novelist, puts it much much better than I have. Writing about the loneliness of the artist, Conrad appealed, “to that part of our being which is a gift, not an acquisition, to the capacity for delight and wonder ... our sense of pain and pity, to the latent feeling of fellowship with all creation — and to the subtle but invincible conviction of solidarity that knits together the loneliness of innumerable hearts ... which binds together all humanity — the dead to the living and the living to the unborn.” I claim no intimacy with Mr Amitabh Bachchan.
Know him I do. Who does not?
He is a national treasure. More than 20 years ago, I was in Dakar, Senegal, a French speaking country. One of his films was being shown to packed cinema halls — with subtitles.
We entered the formidable portals of Parliament the same day in November 1984.
His great father was at Cambridge doing his doctorate, when I was an undergraduate. I did a talk in Hindi for the BBC on Jawaharlal Nehru at Cambridge. I went with my clumsy text to him. He could not have been kinder. Later he was selected by Nehru to be MEA’s Hindi adviser.
Mrs Indira Gandhi in her generosity awarded the Padma Bhushan to me in January, 1984. Mr Amitabh Bachchan was also a recipient. I treasure the group photograph taken in the gardens of Rashtrapati Bhavan after the award ceremony. I am sitting and he is standing. It should have been the other way round.
D elhi University needs to be congratulated for selecting Mrs Sheila Dikshit, Mr R.K. Laxman (younger brother of R.K. Narayan), Prof C.N.R. Rao and Mr Bachchan.
The University of Delhi is not among our oldest seats of learning, but it is old and distinguished enough.
On March 26, 1923, the Viceroy, Lord Reading spoke at the University — if I am not wrong — and a part of his speech deserves to be re-called:
“We shall welcome knowledge with open arms when she comes to our portals — but let us not make the mistake of forgetting her more bashful sister, wisdom. For knowledge and learning alone will not make the sum total that our alumni should take away with them at the close of their studies. We should have them go out into India, not only adorned with learning and replete with knowledge, but possessing those less easily acquired and more intangible qualities of the cultured mind, good judgment, wise tolerance and strong character...” These qualities Sheila Dikshit, R.K. Laxman, C.N.R. Rao and Amitabh Bachchan possess in ample measure.
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