{"id":5978,"date":"2020-12-20T10:51:41","date_gmt":"2020-12-20T05:21:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/learningandcreativity.com\/silhouette\/?p=5978"},"modified":"2021-01-17T22:37:39","modified_gmt":"2021-01-17T17:07:39","slug":"murmurs-moments-with-soumitra-chatterjee-quizas-quizas-quizas","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/learningandcreativity.com\/silhouette\/murmurs-moments-with-soumitra-chatterjee-quizas-quizas-quizas\/","title":{"rendered":"Murmurs: Moments with Soumitra Chatterjee (Episode 4)"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"4<\/p>\n

\"1<\/a>

Standing tall, from the private collection of the author<\/p><\/div>\n

\u2018Siempre que te pregunto<\/em>
\nQue cu\u00e1ndo c\u00f3mo y d\u00f3nde<\/em>
\nT\u00fa siempre me respondes<\/em>
\nQuiz\u00e1s, quiz\u00e1s, quiz\u00e1s\u2019<\/em><\/p>\n

I was playing Andrea Bocelli\u2019s \u2018Quizas<\/em>\u2019 on YouTube for\u00a0him<\/em>. Andrea is a favourite of mine.\u00a0He<\/em>\u00a0seemed to like the timber of Andrea\u2019s voice as well. Soft yet vibrating, lilting without being sonorous. I told\u00a0him<\/em>\u00a0that Andrea was blind since he was a teenager. How tragic it is.<\/p>\n

We soon shifted to people with disabilities, how the dysfunction of one sense organ sharpens another.\u00a0He<\/em>\u00a0describes how\u00a0he<\/em>\u00a0approached the character of Sashi Bhushan in Goutam Ghosh\u2019s\u00a0Dekha<\/em>, an old man who was blind from glaucoma at an advanced age. It is one of\u00a0his<\/em>\u00a0finest renderings on screen, subtle, complex and very complicated.<\/p>\n

\u2018It is not easy. If one starts losing an ability and it\u2019s a gradual decay, it is difficult to develop another one extraordinarily. I know it. My hearing problem has aggravated slowly. And at an advanced age, it didn\u2019t help me to train other senses in that way.\u2019<\/p>\n

\u2018Yes, but you are just a bit short of hearing. Who knows what happens to one who turns deaf totally?\u2019 I argue.<\/p>\n

He<\/em>\u00a0looks grumpy. Some mornings are worse than others the way they tear us apart. May be\u00a0his<\/em>\u00a0sleep last night wasn\u2019t deep or sufficient. May be,\u00a0he<\/em>\u00a0could hear the sound of\u00a0his<\/em>\u00a0own breathing that woke\u00a0him<\/em>\u00a0up for long. Not all hearings need a functioning ear drum.<\/p>\n

Just as all seeing don\u2019t need eyes.<\/p>\n

\u2018Don\u2019t romanticize all the moments in art. That is basic in any form,\u2019\u00a0he<\/em>\u00a0suddenly says in a low soliloquy. Not looking up, not inviting a debate or a discussion even. We have been for some time now discussing casually, the art forms and our own experiences and enjoyments.<\/p>\n

\u2018I don\u2019t, life Is not a platter,\u2019 I still reply.\u00a0He<\/em>\u00a0doesn\u2019t look up even with a provocation like that.<\/p>\n

\u2018You write poems. Which one to you is first \u2013 writing or being alive?\u2019\u00a0he<\/em>\u00a0tosses one back at me still looking down slightly.<\/p>\n

\u2018Being alive has always been for me,\u2019 I know this for sure, only a few that I afford to. Writing is staying alive, not the other way around, probably.<\/p>\n

\u2018Amitava, one has to be rude at times, to be creative. Rude with others, rude to the self,\u2019\u00a0his<\/em>\u00a0hands have prominent veins jutting out blue. The skin is pale, broken almost at places with dark clots \u2013 so many syringes and tubes, so many medical tests. So many histories. After the successes, there had always been storms.<\/p>\n

I don\u2019t answer\u00a0him<\/em>. For there has to be silence now. Inside our heads music plays on, we don\u2019t need ears ever to tap and trap them blind within our skulls. Once we produced art, now is the time to consume, some of it.<\/p>\n

\u2018You won’t admit you love me
\nAnd so how am I ever to know?
\nYou always tell me
\nPerhaps, perhaps, perhaps<\/p>\n

A million times I’ve asked you,
\nAnd then I ask you over again
\nYou only answer
\nPerhaps, perhaps, perhaps<\/p>\n

If you can’t make your mind up
\nWe’ll never get started
\nAnd I don’t wanna wind up
\nBeing parted, broken-hearted<\/p>\n

So if you really love me
\nSay yes, but if you don’t dear, confess
\nAnd please don’t tell me
\nPerhaps, perhaps, perhaps.\u2019<\/p>\n

This is a preview collection of interactions that is set to release as the book Murmurs: Moments with Soumitra Chatterjee<\/a><\/em> by Amitava Nag, on 19th January 2021 to celebrate the legend\u2019s 87th birthday.<\/h3>\n

\"MURMURS<\/a>
\n <\/p>\n

Click here to read all published episodes of Murmurs: Moments with Soumitra Chatterjee<\/a>.<\/h3>\n

 
\n Catherine Berge’s Gaach<\/em><\/strong> (The Tree, 1998) is a rare documentary on Soumitra Chatterjee. Silhouette is grateful to Catherine and producer James Ivory for providing permission to make it available to the Silhouette readers.<\/span><\/p>\n