MONUMENTAL NEGLECT

The year 2020: There was a massive gathering at Lindeck Square that evening where the Chief Minister was to install the statue of former CM Sheela. The area was festooned with flowers with a big banner welcoming the CM. The function which was to start at 6 was delayed by nearly half an hour, and the restive crowd was noisy. After the invocation, the welcome address, and the garlanding, the CM was requested to address the gathering. There was pin drop silence as he started his speech. He said “Friends, I first wish to apologize for being late for this function. There is a reason for it. I had to travel by a roundabout, traffic- filled route as the usual road was blocked for repair following yesterday’s storm. The overhead bridge is not yet ready. We have met today when it is my pleasant duty to install the statue of madam Sheela. We all know Sheela was a polymath: Speaker, dancer, musician, film actor, playwright, politician and patron of all of us, particularly the have-nots and the underprivileged. We know she was born into an aristocratic family and turned to become one who could appreciate problems of the common man. She founded the PTP which party has been ruling our state since a decade. It was she who had prevailed on me to join the PTP. Her appeal resonated in me and I resigned from the RVM of which I had been a staunch member since several years. As you all know, Sheela has stepped down due to ill-health leaving me to be the CM. Since we are honouring her services by installing her statue, I shall briefly recall her contributions.

Even while in school, she got interested in the performing arts. She learnt classical dance from a renowned guru and her maiden stage performance was inaugurated by the President of India. She gave several performances with her team in India and abroad winning great acclaim. Filmdom was already eying her for a stellar role. Starting as a danseuse, it was only a short journey for her to move to play the heroine. The movie THE MONK’S TEMPTATION saw her in her first stellar role where she starred as the divine dancer Urvasi. Noted director Hussain who directed the film said that Sheela could herself easily surpass the mythical dancer if given the chance! Since then she has acted in several hit films of which you are aware.

Sheela was very courageous. Once she was camped in a forest near Lona after doing a film. She would go round like on a safari carrying a gun, but mainly to shoot wild life on camera. There, seeing a wild boar charging a young woman she shot it dead. She took the woman Hema – an uneducated villager- into her employ. She says it was through Hema that she realised what poverty meant and about the fragility of human life. She has explained her concerns about those deprived to Mrs.Tamtomo her Indonesian biographer now living in New Zealand. Later Sheela bought farmland in Lona and presented it to Hema. Looking at the woman’s success in exploiting the land, we can all gauge her competence and also about how farming could make one prosperous.

People only like to hear about Sheela in films but she was versatile. She could play the veena like a virtuoso. She has instituted scholarships in music and dance in the university here. She learnt Sanscrit and I know she is now composing a historical drama set in the age of Emperor Harsha.

 Mrs.Tamtoma in the biography has written about what Sheela had told her regarding her entry into politics: She knew through certain stories in her films about the suffering of the poor and about how denial of opportunities made them become criminals. The life of a repeat offender and of how he was reformed by a social organisation greatly moved her and made her to think about doing good to society through the legislature. That was why after she quit the film world, she started the PTP in a small way, but her following swelled and she was elected to office. That was the start of another career for her. Her outlook and approach to problems in society made her surpass competing politicians. She became a legend writes Tamtomo.

I again say hers was an untiring effort to reform society and to uplift the poor and the needy. She has introduced laws or amended them to benefit society. Putting up her statue in a public place to perpetuate her memory was mooted and received much support. Contributions poured in not only from our citizens and film industry, but from many overseas fans as well. I was trying to fix up a sculptor to make a granite bust of Sheela when the internationally acclaimed sculptor Eva Centamori from Argentina met me. After hearing me she said “A bust, particularly of black granite, would only suit a male who is bearded, bald or shaggy like Greek philosophers and the like. Sheela needs to be sculpted in full form, in marble as the woman she is. I’ve met her and would like to make her statue like she was in her prime. I’ll do it for free if you’ll allow me. ” Her reasoning appealed to me and I gave her the job and whatever help she needed. She, and one of her students from her studio in Cordoba, had several photos and films of Sheela to work with.  The result is this statue I’ll be unveiling today.” He paused and added ”I chose Lindeck Square for the installation as it’s a very busy and important place in this city. We don’t know who Lindeck was. This place will hereafter be Sheela Square. Eva Centamori isn’t present here this day as she has been called away to receive a prestigious award in Italy. She has told me she would come again when I’ll suitably compensate her. Her contribution is inscribed in the stone tablet beneath Sheela’s statue. I now dedicate Sheela’s statue to our city this day which is her birthday. I’m sure that she will be remembered forever.’ As he pressed a button, the circular curtain around the statue gently flowed down fully exposing the statue as bright lights focussed on it. There was prolonged standing applause by the audience as TV cameras recorded the event. The function ended after the usual vote of thanks.

Sheela was at home watching the event. Looking at her sculpture she was amazed. She couldn’t believe it was she in her prime. She was a practical woman and climbed into a virtual time capsule of her own! She set the year to 2023, and travelled invisibly to Sheela Square on this date in the morning. It was bright sunshine when she anchored and watched as a group of workers with ladders brooms, etc descended on the spot. The supervisor was an elderly woman from a cleaning squad. She  ordered her staff “Quick, get to work! I want the statue cleaned in an hour. Remember to clean carefully. There should be no damage.” Two men climbed ladders and started dusting the statue. As they worked they indulged in small talk with loud laughter in between. The supervisor who was watching closely, shouted “Fellows, shut up! Even a statue rouses you, and you touch parts of the woman and share comments! I overheard what you were saying. You men are shameless! Stop obscene talk and finish the cleaning.” The invisible Sheela who also heard the talk was momentarily elated at the effect her statue had induced. She remained parked in the same spot and witnessed the low key function that evening where she was briefly remembered.

Sheela then set the machine to go to the same place, on the same date and time in the year 2030. She gasped when she couldn’t recognize the place. The statue was missing! There was no traffic at the junction as it seemed to have been diverted perhaps to an overhead bridge. Alas! Sheela Square was no more!

Sheela next set the machine to be in the same point at the same time, the same date in the year 2040. The machine ordered ”Looking too far ahead. Dismount!”

Sheela was back from her virtual tour! She said to herself “I have to make peace with the reality that fame is transitory and the term ‘forever’ has only sentimental value. The future will honour its contemporaries. Succeeding generations will throw relics of the past to the dung heap of history!”

END