BENGALURU: Girish Karnad was cremated on Monday, surrounded by his family and friends, with almost no pomp and ceremony. Members of the theatre fraternity went to pay their last respects. Karnad’s residence on Lavelle Road was restricted to a select few, while others were asked to come to the crematorium to pay their respects.
Poets Jayant Kaikini and KS Nissar Ahmed, and theatre artiste-writer Zafer Mohiuddin, as well as Arjun Sajnani, who is working on Karnad’s last play titled Road to Talikota, were present at his residence.
Later, the body was taken to the Kalpalli crematorium in Byappanahalli and mourners visited up to 2 pm when the cremation took place. The ceremony was held amid much security, restricting entry to just the close family members.
“In Karnataka, there have been three extraordinary people — Kamaladevi Chattopadhyay, Shivaram Karanth and Girish Karnad. Interestingly, they all came from the coast, which meant they were open to English, Kannada, Konkani, Christians, Muslims,” said historian Ramachandra Guha, to select media persons.
Mourners stayed back for about an hour before the last remains of Karnad were taken out. The family kept the funeral as simple as possible.