THE STAR WHO SHUNS THE SPOTLIGHT

Dhirendra Varma, the youngest son of celebrated Hindi writer Padma Bhushan Bhagwati Charan Varma, is living a life sans stardom, in his house, Chitralekha, in the Mahanagar area of the city.

But that is what common men do, you say. Yes, but not all of us have penned 700 stories and have six published novels to our credit. Nor can we say that we were on back-slapping terms with Dev Anand and Shashi Kapoor.

Now 82, Dhirendra Varma’s collection of stories includes the much-acclaimed ‘Lucknow se Lahore tak’, which was written around the time when former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee launched the bus to Lahore. Stories in ‘Lucknow se Lahore tak’ talk about the cultural similarities between the twin cities.

Born in December, 1936, in Prayagraj, he travelled along with his father from one city to another before settling down in Lucknow.

Varma’s excellence in creating humour in ‘Kissa Pritam Pandey ka’ got him instant recognition, his novel eventually getting adapted as a TV serial for Doordarshan.

Out of the numerous stories and plays he has written, many found a slot in Vividh Bharti’s ‘Hawa Mahal’ programme, which was a popular daily fixture, as also on Doordarshan. Varma was also a regular contributor of stories in ‘Sarika’, ‘Dharmyug’, ‘Saptahik Hindustan’, ‘Navneet’, etc.

The idealistic, righteous but happy-go-lucky nature of Dhirendra Varma is reflected in the protagonists of his novels. Literature critic and poet Sanjay Mishra Shauq said, “Dhirendra Varma is more talented than his father but he chose to remain in the latter’s shadow and never sought limelight for himself despite the fact that his list of fans included the great Dev Anand and Shashi Kapoor. Kapoor was his classmate at Don Bosco School, where Varma had his early schooling.”

Varma himself said, “Yes, Shashi and I were in class together. We used to enjoy a lot together because we were from noted families, Bhagwati Charan Varma was a great writer and his father Prithvi Raj Kapoor was a superb actor. Shashi had no hang ups about being the son of the great Prithvi Raj Kapoor but he wasn’t interested in studies.

But that was the trademark of the Kapoor Family.”

Dhirendra Varma walked down memory lane to recount how he became the prolific writer that he is.

He said, “When we shifted to Lucknow, I was given a double promotion going by the standard of teaching in Mumbai, but then there was an unprecedented issue... it was the issue of Hindi. In Mumbai, we were taught Hindi as an optional subject but in Lucknow, it was compulsory and much tougher. As a result, my elder brother and I both failed in Hindi, in Class 9.

“One can imagine the plight of the son of an eminent Hindi writer, whose son failed in the language. Babu ji did not say much but I could feel his pain. Failing in a subject generally leads to developing dislike for it, but that did not happen. Instead, I developed a huge liking for Hindi, so much so that I not only started writing but also took up lot of translation work of the National Book Trust. My command over English was an added advantage.

“To inspire me, I had seen many prominent writers like Pandit Narendra Sharma, Sumitranandan Pant, Harivansh Rai Bachchan, Ramdhari Singh Dinkar and in the later life, Yashpal, Amrit Lal Nagar, coming to our place for literary discussions. I used to listen to their discussion with Babuji very carefully and from there I used to derive my ingredients,” said Varma.

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Talking about his later days as a student, he said, “I was always a people’s man. My first public interface was being part of student politics. In Lucknow University, I became active in students politics and won the election for the post of general secretary by defeating none other than Jagdish Gandhi (who later went on to become the president).

“I remember that during my tenure the then Prime Minister Pandit Jawahar Lal Nehru was visiting Lucknow. I took my bicycle, bought a garland and went to the airport with a couple of my supporters. As soon as Pandit Jawahar Lal Nehruji came out, I garlanded him and requested him to visit the Lucknow University. To my utter surprise, he agreed and thus, LU witnessed the first visit of a prime minister to the campus. “When Nehruji came to know that I was the son of Bhagwati Charan Varma and have a penchant for writing, then he asked me join ‘National Herald’. I joined ‘National Herald’ as reporter where a stalwart like M Chelapathi Rao was my editor and it was his guidance that helped me hone my writing skills.

“Later, I started writing columns for ‘Navjeevan’. My column, ‘Phuljhadi’ became very popular. I remember I had written an article congratulating Indira Gandhi for helping Bangladesh becoming a nation and winning a decisive war against Pakistan. I showed the draft to my father who said it’s a good article and it will get published ‘but next time when you write something like this, always think, what will happen to this article after 15 to 20 years? Will it still be relevant?’ Babuji had actually given me a lesson on writing as he told me to be a visionary and see things beyond time. That’s why critics say that my stories written even 40 years back are still relevant today.”

On his friendship with Dev Anand he said, “I have always been a great fan of Dev Anand. His youthfulness, his philosophy about life was extraordinary. His penchant for living gave me a boost. We got in touch with each other in the 70s and became friends. We were mutual admirers of each other: I told him that I am his biggest fan and he told me that he was a fan of my writing too. He had my number saved in his phone and every time I called, he would answer in his inimitable style, ‘Dhirendar kaise ho’.

Dev Anand visited my residence in Lucknow in 1996 and said that lots of fan visit him in Mumbai, but this was the first time he was visiting a fan ‘as I am his fan’.”

I remember that during my tenure the then Prime Minister Pandit Jawahar Lal Nehru was visiting Lucknow. I took my bicycle, bought a garland and went to the airport with a couple of my supporters DHIRENDRA VARMA WRITER

HINDI

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