‘Amazing writer, fine human being’

Namdev Dhasal pays tribute to Dilip Chitre.

People accused Dilip Chitre of being a 'high-society' or 'middle-class' writer. This is incorrect. He was connected with the people, with society and social issues. He was committed. He wasn't politically correct. He criticised some traditions. He was modern in his thinking but his writing was rooted in issues. He was a fiery writer.

I first met Dilip when I was a librarian at the Praja Samajwadi Party centre. They invited modern writers and literary people. Dilip was called to speak about his poetry. I will never forget him. There was a small, lean man who came with his cigarette. His wife, too, was with him. He spoke very well about how Marathi poetry had passed through various stages and how it had got disconnected from society. This was imprinted in my mind.

The second memory I have of Dilip is when he was working in The Indian Express. I was handling a literary magazine called Vidroha. I wanted his help and asked him to contribute. I had asked Ashok Shahane and other writers too. We were tapping writers and poets of leftist and socialist leanings. Even in that rush he wrote out a page for me.

After that we kept interacting. At that time the environment in Marathi literary circles was such that each writer or poet would pull the other down. But here was a person who interacted and mixed with other writers, poets, motivated them and appreciated their works. In a way we were staunch rivals, yet we admired each other and were friends.

One must read his works. He never reflected the defeat of a human. He never showed a person helpless or as a loser. He never gagged the voice of the citizen. He never believed in social barriers. He was an amazing person and had immense faith in people. This was his strength.

Some have a pattern of writing, but Dilip wrote all genres. He didn't stick to a formula. He had a marvellous way with words, but he didn't play with them. He phrased words so well, they had profound meaning. He wrote imaginatively about the relations between man and woman. The Marathi literary world has lost a great writer, poet, and fine human being.

Dilip didn't get the acclaim he deserved. He had written a play, Mithu-mithu Popat. I think it was fantastic folk theatre, based on lavni. Critics didn't give him due credit. He also made a film, Godown. It was about a lady who was hiding in a godown. Satyadev Dubey was in it. Today so many experimental, offbeat films are being made. Dilip's film went unnoticed.

Dilip was a great intellectual. When he spoke on any issue he spoke with study and was firm, though he would never put the other person down. He opposed the Marathi manoos rhetoric and the violence unleashed by political parties. Dilip had spoken and written against it since the days of the Shiv Sena.

See the difference between Nobel laureate VS Naipaul and Dilip. Naipaul was to come to meet me at Falkland Road where I lived, in Mumbai's red-light area. He was told something by some people and when he saw the sex workers holding aartis to welcome him, he misunderstood and fled. Once Dilip was with me in the area when an African youth living there came with swords to fight in our locality. I held one sword and Dilip held the other, pinning the youth down. If he was disconnected from real society, he was right there among real people fighting on the streets.

I feel sad that in his last days, when he suffered in immense pain, the people who could have helped him did not. I had tried to approach chief minister Ashok Chavan but had to deal with his secretary and a few others in his office. They wanted me to write an application! By the time they give a date, the person would be dead, and that is exactly what happened. They go and distribute money to all sorts, but they couldn't help him with medicines and other facilities. The Sahitya Akademi had said it would.