Shocked and deeply saddened to hear about Shakti Bhatt's passing away. I can't claim to have known her well; but I know many people who knew her, and had heard of her often, all nice things.
I met her just once, at the Kitab Festival in February, where I got to thank her for releasing our book at the Jaipur Literature Festival in January, and for a workshop she, Jeet Thayil, her husband, and Nilanjana, conducted for Caferati Delhi. At Kitab, we shared a light at the Prithvi Cafe, and talked of this and that, and the impression I filed away was of a hugely intelligent, vibrant, cheeerful person. Later, at the dinner, I joined her, Jeet, and a couple of other friends and chatted a bit. I have been an admirer of Jeet's writing from the days that he was a columnist for a Bombay paper, so it was a pleasure to meet him; Shakti said charming, encouraging things about the stuff we—Caferati—were doing. Meeting them was pretty much the best thing about Kitab for me, and I was looking forward to strengthening the acquaintance when I next visited Delhi..
My thoughts are with Jeet, and the family.
Jai Arjun Singh. Nisha Susan. Lesley Esteves. Amitava Kumar. Arun Venugopal on SAJA. Nilanjana. Ossian at the Willesden Herald.
Update: You can leave your memories of Shakti here, and read remembrances by others here.
hi
ReplyDeletethis news comes as a shock to me and i havent been in touch with her for years now and lose her so soon was not at all expected.
i hope she finds peace whereever she is and hope god gives her family and loved ones peace and strength to deal with this unfair occurence.
i knew her when she was in school a good friend and human being .
we shared a few real good moments as real good friends and thus she remains in our hearts the same way today and forever