We lost the beautiful, dynamic and gifted Zarin Chaudhuri last month. I received a message from my friend, Nowroji, which said, “…our gentle Zarin Chaudhuri passed away yesterday. Would be happy if you could dedicate an article to her if possible.” And that is how this piece was born.
Many old timers and theatre lovers remember Zarin with fondness. She dazzled us with plays such as You’re a Good Man, Charlie Brown and The Fantasticks. She designed eye-catching costumes for Girish Karnad’s Tughlak (with Shambhu Mitra playing) and acted in Vijay Tendulkar’s Silence! The Court is in Session and Sakharam Binder.
Zarin trained many schoolchildren in her lifetime. In fact, outpourings of Zarin’s students crowded social media. Reading these, I realised that different people remember her from different perspectives. Dickoo, who was at the helm of the Calcutta School of Music, spoke of her work in the speech and drama section, “I saw time and again that quiet kids after her tutelage, transformed to the Mouse that Roared.” Indeed, she drew out the shyest of children with her inimitable manner.
I knew Zarin from the days when she was arts officer at the British Council. We teachers watched her from afar with undisguised admiration and I couldn’t believe my luck when, years later, she came to work with the students of my school. Actually, she had worked at Modern High School earlier, but it was well before my time.
During her stint at the British Council, Zarin used to organise an annual inter-school drama festival. A friend said, “She was not satisfied with simply scheduling the many participating plays. She attended rehearsals for every single school of the twelve or more that competed.” Zarin answered all their questions, however trivial, without showing the slightest irritation. This made the schools feel comfortable about working with her. In addition, she smoothed rough edges; gave small directorial suggestions and ideas to enrich their scripts and improve costumes, lighting and sound. This kind of nurturing is rare today. I used to feel that she alone ensured the uniformly high standard of theatre produced by amateurs. It was edifying to see the unique way in which she passed on the values of discipline and teamwork. Her students -- some of them are middle-aged now -- proclaim that these lessons have stayed with them.
The word, ‘inclusion’, has become a part of school jargon. It has become almost mandatory for schools to declare that they are ‘inclusive’. A friend remarked that decades ago, Zarin practised inclusion in her own way. She taught deaf children from the Oral School for the Deaf and formed her own group, The Action Players, which performed outstanding plays. I remember being particularly enchanted by Patal Babu Filmstar, an adaptation of a short story by Satyajit Ray. Enhancing these plays were the couple of ‘voicing actors’ who were usually high school volunteers. They, too, had richly benefited from Zarin’s nurturing. The high point was when she arranged for Astad Deboo to teach her special group to dance and they went to America to perform Dancing Dolphins, which included poems from Vikram Seth’s Beastly Tales. One of the performers was Sundeep Kedia who was just four years old when he joined TAP. Today his two daughters are in college and high school, respectively.
Zarin knew sign language and encouraged people to learn it. When Sundeep came to my school to seek admission for his elder daughter, I saw that the child was communicating with her father in sign language. Later, Sundeep himself taught our students mime and movement. His touches brought visible improvement to our plays. It was in her last few active years that Zarin trained the aspiring thespians of my school. Although she had high standards and exacting expectations from everyone she worked with, she didn’t have the heart to turn anybody away, including those who were generally perceived to be without talent.
In the course of her life she had spontaneously built a large population of adoring disciples who are scattered all over India and abroad. Truly, Zarin created magic wherever she went.
Devi Kar is director, Modern High School for Girls, Calcutta
