Mahesh Elkunchwar, one of the greatest playwrights of modern India, has written in almost all formats of dramatic composition. Adding to this extraordinarily rich corpus is this book of essays written in English over 20 years.

Years ago, Elkunchwar said that perhaps his essays were dramatic monologues meant to be read aloud. The monologue as form is an apt description: this is not enclosed speech, for there is a listener whose presence is acknowledged and who is invited to participate in the process of interpretation.

Many essays focus on shaping moments of the past, narrating remembrances from years ago. Others distinguish what was felt yesterday from what is felt today, or even what ‘should’ have been felt then when seen now, through today’s lens. While memoir, monologue, and essay blur at the edges, identifiable ideas and experiences come forth: meetings and conversations with friends, thoughts on the craft of writing, and the formative experience of journeying from village to cosmopolitan city.

The tone of Elkunchwar’s narratorial voice is sometimes pensive, sometimes turbulent and irritated; sometimes combative, foolhardy, haughty, exhilarated, regretful; sometimes imbued with a kind of abstractedness while interpreting the complexities of friendship, its bonds and its betrayals. On the practice of writing, there is limpid clarity. His interest in Indian classical music and affinity to classical Sanskrit texts inflect his position as a pre-eminent ‘modern’ in the history of modern Indian playwriting.

Anuradha Kapur