Remembering poet-playwright Gieve Patel: Attend the tribute event at NCPA

He was all of 18 when he first met Gieve Patel Ranjit Hoskote says a few years after he encountered the poetplaywrightartistrsquos work On Killing a Treemdasha poem that finds a place in many school textbooks It was at their guru Nissim Ezekielrsquos office at Theosophy Hall in the months to come they kept in touch and wrote to each other laying the foundations of a cherished three decadelong friendshipThe other space where Hoskote and Patel would frequently meet and cross paths in the 1990s was the NCPAmdashspecifically the Little Theatre It comes as no surprise then that for Hoskote an upcoming tribute event at the NCPA for Patel is something of a homecoming He and other voices from Mumbairsquos literary community who shared ties with Patel will come together to celebrate the physicianartistrsquos versatility across poetry and theatreRanjit Hoskote PicPriyesha NairThis evening will also be one of personal remembrance as Patelrsquos contemporaries such as Adil Jussawala and those who came after him like Arundhathi Subramaniam reflect on his plays and verses Subramaniamrsquos introduction to Patelrsquos oeuvre like Hoskote was On Killing a Tree Patel was invited to her school to read the muchanthologised poem ldquoThe year was probably 1983 or 84 I remember his broad smile clearly as well as his crisp unsentimental reading of his workrdquo she saysAfter 1994 when Subramaniam was head of Chauraha an interarts forum at the NCPA she frequently interacted with Patel his theatre director wife Toni and their daughter as she hosted individual and joint readings by them ldquoThere was a directness of manner an honesty and openness about Gieve that appealed I remember his laugh the clarity of his gaze his ability to see right through affectation and pretension of every kind his integrity I always found his refusal to kowtow to the caprices of cultural fashion refreshingrdquo the awardwinning poet shares They spent many evenings at Churchgatersquos Tea Centre and Nariman Pointrsquos Status restaurantmdashevenings dotted by conversation idlis and filter coffeePatel in 2017 younger poets recall the sage advice he offered PicGetty ImagesHoskote recalls with great fondness his friendrsquos ability to give advice ldquoVery early on in my poetry career I thought I was weighing too many options at a certain point And he said lsquoYou need to go deep down to where things are brokenrsquo It is when I grew older that I realised the wisdom in this advice He had great sensitivity towards questions of the creative imagination And he never offered unsolicited advicerdquo the curatorpoetculturaltheorist saysAn aspect that ties Patel Hoskote and Subramaniam together is their hybrid practicesmdashacross mediums and formats Patel who studied medicine and trained as a general practitioner would go on to paint oil and acrylic works write impactful plays like Mister Behram directed by his wife and conjure poetry that would be quoted many times over by succeeding generationsSubramaniam speaks of a memory when Patel told her how freeing it was to not have to pick between disciplines ldquoHe was encouraged to believe he had to specialise in one in order to be successful It was a turningpoint when he realised there was no real pressure to choose I remember him saying lsquoI found I could do them all and Irsquove been happy ever sincersquordquo At the same time Subramaniam says Patel wasnrsquot trying to be a Renaissance man he was simply an artist deeply and singlemindedly committed to each of his pursuitsHoskote whose essays on Patelrsquos work will soon be published as a book by Seagull says that the decades between the 1940s and 1990s saw a diverse ethos for art in Mumbai where different forms were interconnected ldquoPeople hadnrsquot gone into professional silos and become overfascinated by monetisation Gieve and I though we were at different points in our career were blessed to be part of an ethos where artistic exchange took place across languageshellip No one sat you down and said lsquoIrsquom going to mentor yoursquo But there were very generous people who served as examples or made opportunities available to peoplerdquo he explainsWHAT Celebrating GieveWHEN 19 January 630 PMWHERE Experimental Theatre NCPAFree admission on a firstcomefirstserve basis