Noted playwright too suffers civic body’s neglect

Here lives an internationally-acclaimed Playwright Prof Mahesh Elkunchwar, in front of whose residence in Dandige layout,

Shankar Nagar, the road is in bad condition. (Pic by Vikas Vaidya)

Principal Correspondent :

How many Nagpurians know about ‘Sonata’? About ‘Wada Chirebandi’ about ‘Holi’, ‘Sultan’, ‘Party’, ‘Virasat’, ‘Atamkatha’, ‘Garbo’?. These are plays written by Prof Mahesh Elkunchwar, our own Nagpurian who taught English Literature in Dharampeth Science College. Neither the Nagpur’s authorities nor the so-called leaders of this city are ready to recognise him. He also doesn’t care if nobody knows. But, his pain is they are neglecting him as far as providing basic amenities like road.

The road just in front of his home in Dandige Lay out, Shankar Nagar (East) is in a shabby condition not for one or two years but almost for 7 to 8 years. The road doesn’t look like the road, it has shattered into millions pieces of gravel, driving vehicle on which is like inviting the damage to tyres. The literary world in Nagpur has annoyed over is issue. The expressionist directors like Vijaya Mehta, Ketan Mehta, Govind Nihalani could not resist their temptation when they read plays penned by Elkunchwar and went on to make the films those hit international film world. But civic body in Nagpur probably is not aware of the contribution of this Sangeet Natak Akademi awardee that’s why it is not even ashamed of its inaction.

There are some people in the politics who know about literary eminence of Elkunchwar who keep visiting him. The present Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar had visited Elkunchwar’s home two years ago, the road was same then. The present Home Minister Anil Deshmukh too failed to notice the bad condition of road when he recently paid a visit to this great writer. Elkunchwar once called Mayor Sandip Joshi to get the road repaired. It was done once though not in a proper way. The condition remained the same. Then on several occasions Elkunchwar called every officer from Mayor to all, nobody responded. “I got confused whom to call. Somehow I dialled some number and told the officer about the condition of the road. He kept asking me my name as he could not pronounce it properly as Elkunchwar.

I registered complaint but don’t know what has happened to it as no action is taken till date,” elaborated Prof Elkunchwar. The road inside Dandige lay out, in Shankar Nagar was repaired long back and it looks good till the last end where the office of Rashtriya Chemicals Fertilisers situated. But shockingly the small part of the road that turns towards the residence of Prof Elkunchwar and another great personality in medical field Dr Shrikant Mukewar, the Gastroenterologist, was left unlevelled. Why? The reasons best known to the authorities or the contractor who might have minted money out of it. And as it has been the practice all over the city about road construction where contractors have become habitual of leaving roads to the fate of citizens, they did the same in case of this road too. This time the target is a great creative writer.