As protest mounts across the country against the killing of Gauri Lankesh, her ex-husband and prominent journalist Chidanand Rajghatta has written a moving tribute to the slain journalist. The note he posted on Facebook throws light into the amazing person that Lankesh was.
바카라Forget all other labels (attributed to Gauri): leftist, radical, anti-Hindutva, secular etc. For me, there is just this: My friend, my first love, she was the epitome of Amazing Grace," Rajghatta writes, recalling various points in their life since their school days.
Lankesh was shot dead by unknown men in Bengaluru on Tuesday night. She was shot in the head and chest by gunmen who arrived by motorcycle.
Here is the full text of Chidanand Rajghatta바카라s tribute to Gauri Lankesh:
"Gauri Lankesh: Amazing Grace
If Gauri Lankesh read all the tributes and accolades for her, particularly those that refer to soul and afterlife and heaven, she바카라s have had a good laugh. Well maybe not a laugh, but at least a chuckle. We had decided in our teens that heaven and hell and afterlife were a lot of b.s. There was enough heaven and hell on earth, and we should just leave god alone 바카라 he has enough on his hands 바카라 instead of begging him for things like many people do.
But part of our compact was we would not be hurtful to others 바카라 including family -- in our youthful irreverence even if we disagreed with their beliefs and practices. We didn바카라t always succeed 바카라 ah, the impetuosity of youth! -- but it was a good principle that served us well later. Which is how even when we divorced 27 years ago, after five years of courtship and five years of marriage, we remained friends, great friends. Part of the compact. Don바카라t be hurtful. Even to each other.
We met at a school that was the birthplace of the Rationalist Movement of India 바카라 National College. Our principal, Dr H.Narasimaiah, and the Sri Lankan rationalist, Dr Abraham Kovoor, were pioneers of the movement, and right from our teens we took to the thrill of questioning and debunking a variety of godmen/women, charlatans, frauds, superstitions etc that abound in India.
More on this another time, but I바카라m putting this out here early to provide context to the killing. Rationalists and agnostics are in the cross hairs of uber-religious bigots.
One of the first books we read together -- before getting into the weeds (I mean metaphorically) of religion, politics, and life itself -- was Will Durant바카라s Story of Philosophy. Neither of us was proficient in our mother tongue Kannada (at that time), so we regretfully forsook our own bounteous literature for everything from Wodehouse to Graham Greene, devouring anything that Premier Book Shop바카라s Mr Shanbhag could produce for us 바카라 at a matchless 20 per cent discount (others got 15 per cent). She returned to Kannada years later, but more that soon.
Meanwhile, we 바카라skinned our hearts and skinned our knees, learned of love the ABCs.바카라 Terry Jack바카라s sappy, saccharine 바카라Seasons in the Sun바카라 has just been released a couple of years before, and we hummed it between Dylan and Beatles. I바카라d return to Indian music years later; she was tone deaf. We read and laughed at Eric Segal바카라s Love Story, saw the movies Abba, Saturday Night Fever, and Gandhi on our first dates, and went to the boondocks on moonless nights to see billions and billions of stars and galaxies after reading and watching Carl Sagan.
Feisty wouldn바카라t even begin to describe her. She hated the fact that I smoked in college. Years later, when I had given it up for a long time, she had begun to smoke. One time, she visited me in U.S (crazy innit? ex-wife visiting me? But she was more friend than ex !) I insisted that she not smoke in the apartment because it was carpeted and the stink wouldn바카라t go away. It was winter.
바카라What do you want me to do?바카라
바카라If you have to smoke at all, go to the rooftop and smoke.바카라
바카라But it바카라s cold and snowing!바카라
바카라Shrug바카라
바카라You tightass!...I started to smoke because of you!바카라
바카라Awww바카라sorry old girl. I바카라m asking you to stop.바카라
바카라Yeah right. You바카라ve become too *&^%$#@ American!바카라
바카라American has nothing to do with it. Being healthy.바카라
바카라Bollocks. I바카라ll outlive you!바카라
Liar.
Many friends were and continued to be bemused by our friendship. Separations and divorces are often messy, bitter and spiteful in India, or anywhere for that matter. We had our moments, but we transcended that quickly, bound by higher ideals. On our day in court, as we stood next to each other and our hands reached out and fingers interlaced. "If you want to go your own ways, better disengage," the lawyer hissed. After it was done and dusted, we went out for lunch at the Taj down MG Road. The restaurant was called Southern Comfort. We laughed and said goodbye as I moved first to Delhi, them Mumbai, then Washington DC. She visited me in each place.
My parents loved her despite her rebellious nature, and remarkably for traditional, orthodox Indian parents, kept in touch with her 바카라 and she with them -- even after we went our own ways. One time, when I told her about a budding dalliance, she drew herself to her full height (all of five feet and HALF INCH 바카라 she never failed to emphasize the half inch) and said: 바카라Ha! You can never take away the honor of being the first daughter-in-law of the family. When my mother passed away this past February, Gauri Lankesh was there, literally 바카라live casting바카라 me the final rites before I got home.
My ties with her family were as unusual. Through our separation and going our own ways, I continued to meet her dad P.Lankesh, a writer, playwright, film-maker 바카라 even after I began living on the U.S., when I visited India. Over a drink or two, we바카라d debate and argue about politics, religion, literature, movies, farming distress, health, the world. They바카라d tease me about abandoning the good fight, while I바카라d argue that it was temporary, and a little time and distance is good for perspective. Where he passed away in 2000, she truly became her father바카라s daughter, taking over the newspaper he founded and continuing the good fight.
There was no doubt she was left of center, even extreme left of center and there was much we disagreed about. She chewed me up for being an early proponent of technology, saying one time in the 90s, "Stop yammering about cell phones. Our poor can't eat cell phones." I never let her forget it. But her heart was in the right place. Some eight years back, after I had built a new home in Bangalore, she determined that I needed a housekeeper to manage the place. 바카라I am sending someone over,바카라 she declared over the phone. 바카라She바카라s a widow with two young daughters. Make sure you take care of them and put them through school.바카라
Ramakka, her gift to us, is still with us; her daughters Asha and Usha both graduated from school, earned degrees, and now work 바카라 Asha in Syndicate Bank and Usha in an NGO. There are hundreds of Ashas and Ushas because of Gauri Lankesh.
Right now, between writing this, I am scrambling to get on a plane again, my mind a cauldron of fragmented memories. One phrase keeps repeating and resonating in my mind: Amazing Grace. Forget all other labels: leftist, radical, anti-Hindutva, secular etc. For me, there is just this: My friend, my first love, she was the epitome of Amazing Grace."