Wednesday, September 10, 2014

Editorial, "Alas, the Giants are Departing" in LAW ANIMATED WORLD, 31 August 2014 issue, Vol. 10: Part 2, No. 16

ALAS, THE GIANTS ARE DEPARTING



one by one – gargantuan in their respective fields, with superb motivation to serve humanity in general. Their extraordinary achievements in diverse arenas are but contributions to the cause of common human weal. This editor fondly remembers his school days when all the students – generally film goers – would split into two camps of ANR-NTR fans and heatedly argue as to ‘ANR goppaa? NTR goppaa?’ [who is greater hero – ANR or NTR?] and gradually realization would dawn that both were great, unparalleled-in-their-respective-specialized-characters actors who had mesmerized the Telugu film watching public in those days. They were a competing, if not rival, duo in the eyes of people then. In contrast the friendly duo of Bapu-Ramana commanded the Telugu film sector to an extent in recent decades. Bapu’s versatility in art, direction and production is indescribable and sadly his body now extinct, following his demised friend, a magician of the written word in Telugu. Well, as time passed, the fascination for films waned and this editor as also many of the growing up students were drawn into the vortex of academic, social and political developments in the country and some into the movements to ‘change the society’ [samaaj ko badal dalo] when acquaintance first and camaraderie next with giants in political and social transformation movements had taken place. That is how a M.T. Khan and a Bipan Chandra came into the socio-political circle of contacts to this editor and the former was more of a comrade-in-arms, as a revolutionary writer, in the movement for social and human emancipation that shook the country in the late sixties and seventies, which continued to the present day with Khan Saheb more and more immersing himself in and guiding the human rights movements. And Bipan Chandra, a doyen of progressive historians in India, with his in-depth, scholarly studies into the history of the freedom struggle and communist movement, was a sort of Dronacharya for several Ekalavya disciples like this editor. This very personal note is to profoundly condole the passing away of these eminent personalities and, paying them glowing tributes, to rededicate ourselves to their noble ideal of universal human welfare in the sublime spirit of ‘vasudhaiva kutumbakam’ (entire world one family). §§§

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