dhobighat

Few impressions about Dhobighat & Lata Aaji's thoughts about it.

Dhobighat essentially depicts 3 classes. Shaya is a rich upper-class girl facing no big problems. Lady in Video is in higher middle class & Dhobi is lower / working class. Per se, all three are not bad. As a class, we can identify with lady in video ie higher middle class.

Shaya's approach towards life is casual. Lady can not come to the terms with loneliness one feels because of circumstances especially faced by most of us living in a city like Mumbai. Poor dhobi is struggling with day-to-day life & being exploited. Fourth character ie Artist belongs to different world as most creative fellows are. He starts viewing video's just as a curiosity. Towards the end, it hits him emotionally which reflects in his painting.

Before screening the film, Lata Aaji talked about the film & reality facing us. Her observations are something like this.

Globalization has impacted different cultures adversely. Everything has become commodity with a price tag. Value system has eroded. Subconsciously, American culture is a role model. Pace of day to day life has become so fast, hectic & uncertain that nobody is at peace. We are in the world, where except for our immediate family, we are not bothered about anybody. When going is good, we tends to feel that its because of our ability or intellect. But when calamity falls on you, you have nobody to take advise or calm you & you are shattered.

She pointed that to keep afloat in this situation emotionally, you should have strong communication/bonding with like-minded group ie whole Anandmeva shibir group. Secondly you should have compassion towards working class lower income strata of the society & it should be reflected in your own deeds. Lastly, you should be grateful towards the world.

Coincidentally on same day morning, I had gone to Yusuf Meherally Centre at Tara for the felicitation of Dr G.G. Parikh who is at very young age of 88 years working towards upliftment of have-nots. Programme was organised by Mr Datta & Mrs Asha Gandhi who at ripe age of 86, collected donation worth Rs. 4 lacs for this cause just writing personal letters to around 150 people. On stage, Mrs Khanolkar (age 82) who is a mother of Medha Patkar is running school for orphan girls in chembur. She started it after retiring from the job & Mrs Apate (80 yrs) who runs 100 bed hospital for downtrodden. In every speech, they ponder about upliftment of poor have nots & whether they have any role in the globalised world. Mr & Mrs Gandhi are ordinary middle class couple. Sixty years back, they have decided to be in a teaching profession, never to enter politics & lead a frugal life. During course of 50 years, they have collected donations more than 50 lacs & run orphanage for Latur Earthquake sufferers. We must ponder `Hey Sarva Yeta Kuthun.'

All these fellows are at peace with themselves, have great social network & very happy.

I felt they were practical examples what Lata Aaji meant.

Sanjay

`Dhobighat'

To see a movie knowing Lata Aaji's perspective at background made it all the more enriching. Lata Aaji asked, `can u relate with the character or situation in it?' Yes of-course. Sometimes we find ourselves in Aamir's shoe or sometimes in Pratik's shoe-a very thin line of demarcation in-between. You can really jump on both sides in different situations in your life. If u don’t want to become a ping-pong ball tossed constantly between being a `user' or being `used'. U have to walk a tight rope-balancing on it is very difficult. For that u need support – being connected with each other can provide that. Anandmewa in this context become all the more necessary and absolutely essential.

I would like to share one small experience in this context which took place on 26th January. After returning back home from the school, I prepared our lunch. Being holiday, we all had our lunch together and went to take a small nap. Manava and Aniruddha started with their studies. At around 2.00 clock, some people came banging on the door – shouting and bullying and started threatening about calling the police. It was actually difficult to understand the situation. After much shouting, what we could understand was this – that morning some girl on pink scooter had dashed with one boy from our lane. Since I was a female with pink scooter, they felt that I am a culprit and started threatening. In spite explaining to them that we were not involved & scooter is parked in the compound for last 3-4 hrs, they were not convinced. At that time, our neighbor came out and stood firm with us throughout the episode which was ultimately settled peacefully. It really unsettled our children very much.

Lata Aaji always stressed this point. She urges to be friend with like-minded people around you on continuous basis. That day because of neighbour's support and strength, we could sail through safely.

Third point was about `loneliness' in the crowd. I think it started with disintegration of our joint families, became more severe with demolition of chawl system and became acute with globalization. I am sure everyone is facing it sometime or other in our life. Shades of it may vary but it is very much their looming in the nearby dark corner. All the more reason for us to stay connected & make stronghold of our inter-personal relations.

I hope this will compel us to take constructive steps towards it very seriously & sincerely.

Bhagyashree