Naseeruddin Shah: “What’s happening in the country is tragic and it angers me”

The  Mighty Naseeruddin Shah  In A  Rare  Interview With Subhash  K Jha Tells  It Like  It Is On the Pandemic, Politics and the Pedestrianism  Of  A  Placid Populace

Naseer Saab, 2020  will probably be remembered  by  civilization  as  the worst year ever. Do you think Man has brought this crisis upon himself?  Are we responsible for the mess that we are in?

I’ve kind of felt always that humanity’s hold over the earth is a giant evolutionary blunder. Nature certainly didn’t intend this and we humans will have to pay the price for our rapaciousness some day–that day may be already here. That Nature doesnt need us is proved by the rapidity with which the earth is healing itself, the sky is clearer, Mumbai’s gum-coloured sea is showing traces of blue-green, porpoises are venturing nearer the coastline, flamingoes are crowding Sewree, In short the animals to whom the earth belongs are reclaiming it.

So would  you agree this is the worst year in the  history of civilization?

Whether 2020 is the worst ever year is a moot point and will only become known when the Covid is brought under control. It is worse than war in the sense that this time we are battling an invisible enemy. The political mess we are in and the regressing into superstitions to cure Covid is without doubt our own doing.One can only pray for the wellbeing of those who do not have shelter enough to isolate themselves and are being subjected to hardship which would break the back and the spirit of any of us well heeled ones.

What  would you say about the  way  the situation is being handled  by our administrators?

The way the Government  is dillydallying over extending help to those walking hundreds of miles to their homes would be termed inhuman if it were at all comprehensible. How much time should it really take to swing into action instead of ‘mulling’ over the problem and trying to decide the manner in which help could be given? The urgency of these pedestrians’ situation seems to have escaped all the wise heads who are content to let the much maligned NGO’s extend themselves while they look on with barely concealed indifference. And in the midst of this tragedy engulfing us, the Government of course has the time and inclination to harass and arrest dissenting voices.

As I reach out you, Sir, the nation and the  globe, is in a state of prolonged   lockdown.  Do you think this lockdown is  a solution? Or do you  like many  of  us, feel  amajority would now die of hunger rather than the virus?

The lockdown is the only solution at the moment, but we might have been better prepared to deal with it had so much time and attention and money  not gone into welcoming and fete-ing one of the stupidest men on the planet.

Do you mean  Trump? How  have  you been  going through the  last  4 weeks  of enforced  confinement? What are the activities that  keep you from getting restless  and  despairing?  Have  you been reading and watching films? Which ones have  you enjoyed?

I’ve been brushing up on my Urdu reading and am thanking my stars that my father made me learn the Arabic alphabet as a child. My ability to read Urdu is fast improving, but writing it is another ball game so I’m not trying that-as it is I sometimes cannot read my own handwriting in English! AND I’ve been helping around the house, in the kitchen as well, which is something I should have been doing earlier anyway.I never knew what a stressbuster cooking can be! Then I’m reading a lot of Faiz Ahmed Faiz’s poetry and about his life with a view to mounting something on stage about him in the future ,if there is a future!. AND I’ve been educating myself on those Shakespeare plays I know nothing about-and there are plenty!

This is a  time when  all of us have been thinking about our life so  far. Naseer Saab, how do you  look back on your life so far? If you had  a chance to  change  things that have happened  in your life, what would you like to change?

I would consciously try to control my temper which runs away with me often .It’s a bad habit I would like to lose but apart from that I wouldn’t change a thing even if it was in my power to do so.

As a nation, we grow more intolerant  .Even the lockdown has unlocked new waves   of  bigotry as Muslims are being blamed for the  spread  of the virus.  Do you feel  the culture of  intolerance  would finally splinter  India’s socio-political  fabric   into  irretrievable anarchy?

We have to learn to cope with whatever life throws at us, but the fact is thoughts of mortality occur more frequently than they used to.To utter the word ‘intolerance’ in India has become blasphemous and moderate, liberal etc have become pejoratives. But what’s happening in the country is tragic and it angers me. IT DOES NOT SCARE ME as some people seem to derive pleasure from repeating. If the people fanning the flames had any idea what their provocations can lead to, maybe they would desist.