Adieu Shyam Benegal!

Days after celebrating his 90the birthday, Shyam Benegal passed into the mist of time last evening.Benegal, whose body of work straddled the worlds of mainstream and alternative cinema with remarkable dexterity, leaves behind a legacy of nuanced story telling and sharp social critical.

Benegal's groundbreaking debut feature, Ankur (The Seedling of 1973) marked the arrival of a film maker unafraid to tackle caste discrimination and other entrenched societal issues.

His television series Bharat Ek Khoj (1988), based on Nehru's The Discovery of India, remains a landmark in Indian historical story telling.

Adieu Shyam Benegal. Om Shanti! Sadgati!

Courtesy. Excerpted from Kartik Bhardwaj's article in the NIE

Tailpiece.

Got up at 5, the chores and was ready by 10.

The bedlinen were changed and the soiled ones were washed in the washing machine. The maid was at work.

To cardiologist George Mathew Neerakkal, who has said that my heart is pumping at a lower capacity! have given medicines and asked for an angiogram to be done.