Spotlight
Vijay Tendulkar

Vijay Tendulkar: unflinching gaze
Vijay Tendulkar who passed away in Pune on 19th May 2008, delivered the keynote address for the biannual all-America convention of Marathi speakers five years ago. He spoke not about literature, drama or cinema but about the virtues of charity, generosity and kindness. He argued that more often than not, charity was motivated by self-interest. When the giver gave his name to his gift, he was telling the world, look how charitable I am. The same was true of those who did favours to others expecting them to be obliged forever. Such charity and such favours were better not done. It was a profoundly purist viewpoint which did not go down too well with many of his listeners. Some people suggested snidely that the speaker was likely not to be a practitioner of what he preached.