‘I’m paying my respects to people who didn’t accept status quo’

When I come across young people who show you their work,I get engaged. It’s my alma mater,and I owe so much to that place. I have come to Delhi to talk to the Ministry (of Information and Broadcasting) and to the Prime Minister,to seek help and not only allow the institute to run more efficiently,but also to retain its spirit and identity. There are a lot of ghosts that walk around FTII,so that spirit,that ‘thing’ must be retained. Debates,disagreements and dialogues have always been a very important part of FTII.

Dialogues and travelling seem central to you. You keep setting out on long journeys within India.

People,without realising it,can turn either cynical or smug. If you take these journeys,you realise what you have missed. I am 70 but each time with these journeys I get rejuvenated as I visit the lives of ordinary people.

Another book on the horizon?

I am paying my respects to people who didn’t accept the status quo around the world,who stood their ground,did not turn cynical but continued to speak up for what they thought was right. We seem to have entered a world where there seems to be no big idea left. All that people seem to want is to get a job in a bank,or be a Narayana Murthy,Bill Gates or Mukesh Ambani. There is nothing wrong and I have nothing against these people,but there are surely other ways of seeing the world.

This is meant to be an era of information and unprecedented access to data,so more diversity ?

It should have led to that,but it has bred far more conformity,which is the tragedy. Areas of concern now seem very restricted,almost a narrow tunnel view of the world. I think it has to do with the nature of mass media,which is functioning on the principle of conformity; it needs to control thinking and it breeds conformity. Also,the historical or collective memory of people is being rapidly erased. Memory is critical for a nation. But now,in India,there is this preoccupation with just events. In truth,there is incredible anger in ordinary citizens about not having enough control over their lives and no jobs and underlying communal tensions. It’s festering just below the surface,but never discussed.

How will ‘memory’ help in reconciling all this ?

Memory and history give you a timespan,a scale with which you measure things. It’s not just the ‘here and now’ that determines the pattern of thinking. It gives you a timescale as opposed to abhi.

The abhi can lead to terrible violence. Memory can help turn a potential eruption into a wave-like event. It helps human beings by providing a context.