Pune, Oct 7 (FN Representative) Observing that today there is a high percentage of educated illiterates in the society, Dr Mohan Agashe, a distinguished film and theatre actor and psychiatrist, on Monday suggested that it is necessary to make friends with at least one form of art to be literate. While conversing with actor and publisher Sudhanva Deshpande on occasion of a Literary Festival organised by Symbiosis International (Deemed University) at its auditorium in Viman Nagar area of the city, he said, “being educated and being literate are two different things. Today, we have a high percentage of educated illiterates in the society. If you want to be literate, then let us make friends with at least one form of art.” “You need to have two professions in life. One for survival and another to make it worth.
What helps you to survive is your ability and not your interest. The core purpose of education is to recognise what your abilities are,” he said. While addressing the youth, he said, “Today’s youth are not even aware about what exactly their emotions are. They are filled with a lot of information but have no experience, in fact it should be in the reverse order, you should be able to relate your life experiences with the available information. In the current education system, along with the textbooks, there should be an audio-visual experience for students to understand the subject matter. Speaking about his performance in theatre and in films, Dr Agashe mentioned that “when you are performing something, you have to surrender your intelligence, and everything has to be focused on your performance.”
Talking about his most famous theatre performance in Ghashiram Kotwal, he said that Ghashiram became popular because of its universal nature and not because it was controversial. “Ghashiram is a timeless creation of Vijay Tendulkar. This play became popular across many countries. It has got acceptance due to its Universality,” he added. The two-day Lit Fest featured stimulating conversations on a wide range of topics including writing for children, reporting from conflict zones, Indian crime fiction and the evolution of food cultures in India. The theme of this year’s festival was ‘One World, Many Stories’.