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| #RIPIrrfanKhan |
एक छोटी सी हिंदी कविता: हमारे इरफ़ान
(1)
April 29th, 2020
“Irrfan Khan passed away in
Mumbai.” – 2:39 A.M.
Read: 6:25 A.M.
Today began with that message,
sent about 4 hours before sunrise, from a friend in India. The urgency of sharing
one’s grief with a confidant was palpable. This is what happens in times of
personal loss. The first response while coping is to share your shock with
someone else.
Maybe they would know how to
make sense of this all!
But I did not know what to say. I
read it, went back to bed, held my wife’s hand, who was still asleep and laid
there with eyes wide open.
Yes, this felt personal. Very personal,
indeed.
“हम अपनों के
हाथों ना मरने वाले
मुन्ना, हमें कोई बहुताई
बड़ा बदमाश मारे तो
मारे.”
(2)
Instantly, the heart ached.
And continued to ache for the rest
of the day. Life went about as usual. The office. The work. The routine.
But the Earth did not move. The
world did not face a deadly and invisible foe. People did not bicker and trolled.
COVID-19 became dormant. Communal, political, racial and xenophobic divides
ceased to exist.
Shared grief. Shared memories. Shared
laughter. Shared experiences. Nothing else.
“सुनो पंडित, गोली
वोली ना चल्लई तुमसे...मंतर फूँक के
मार देयो...”
(3)
Nostalgia.
Irrfan passed away during the COVID-19
lockdown. This ruled out any excessive fanfare, funeral procession, incessant media
coverage and all other grotesque ostentations associated with celebrity deaths.
He left as quietly as he had arrived.
All of us have our favorite
Irrfan moment, dialog, scene or a movie. But none of could exactly remember when
Irrfan entered our conscience.
In that sense, Irrfan is, like favorite music or
first love.
It almost does not matter when this love affair began and peaked;
we are just grateful that it exists – like a beautiful prologue for our lives.
This also, immortalizes him.
The music ends, silence
follows. First loves remain unfulfilled, life goes on. The sweet taste of
nostalgia remains.
(4)
Not since the 2011 cricket World
Cup triumph, do I recall, my world in such congruence. Although in grief, the
harmony, especially nowadays, was still a sight to behold. Tributes, video
clips, memories, status messages, personal and group chats, social media of
every kind, was just about Irrfan.
Such is the power of this Artist,
even when deceased. And I capitalize the A in Artist, intentionally.
He won hearts, and not until
today, did many of us realize, how deep his performances had touched us. Today,
one word that has been repeatedly used to describe Irrfan, has been, understated.
While others might find it paradoxical for showbiz, I believe that is exactly
what Irrfan aspired to be. Had he not been more about the characters he portrayed,
than the actor that he was, he would not have connected the way he did.
And then, we would not have
felt this hollowness and the void, that we are feeling today.
We never met, talked or interacted
with him, but we knew someone who resembled someone that Irrfan had seamlessly
played. He was the one. Some bristling student leader reminded us of, Ranvijay
Singh, in Haasil and Maqbool felt like the Zenith of all
complex mafia characters ever. We all wanted to be friends with that careless
yet conscious and instantly lovable, 38-year-old bachelor, Monty, from
the Life in a Metro, and we felt the conflict of that Pakistani patriot,
Captain, from The Mighty Heart.
We had met people who looked and
sounded like Raj Batra from Hindi Medium and had been to schools
that he was fighting against.
And in The Lunchbox, we
saw the urban loneliness that we have, either seen, been living, or feared in
the future.
He was the real Madari,
who invited all of us in his immortal performances and we willfully participated.
So, who was acting in those 149
movies? The Jaipur born, NSD trained actor, who was probably living his long-harbored
dreams, or the millions of Indians who saw themselves and their lives being
portrayed, through him?
Indians, just Indians. No labels.
No strata. Just a shared love, called Irrfan Khan!
And then came, today.
United, we stood, in grief and
mourning the one human, among the stars. The one that looked like us.
Maybe just for a day, but, yet
again, the Master Actor, diverted all of us from our earthly displeasures. and
took us along on a ride to simpler times, like he had done countless times in
those movies that embodied the soul of a nation -filled with laughter, some
tears, and lots of nostalgia.
Tomorrow, we shall be divided again,
and this time we will not have our shared bond.
The world would seem weaker and
we, less loved.
Rest in Peace, Irrfan.
“मुहब्बत है, इसलिए जाने
दे रहें हैं...ज़िद
होती तो बाहों में
होते...”
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| #RIPLegend |
