On March 27, as locked-down halls marked World Theatre Day, Usha Ganguli posted a message on Facebook, “No fears, no fears, be safe.” She accompanied it with an audio clip of her performance from the play Antaryatra, in which she says, “Mirabai has told us, ‘Even if the greatest calamity befalls me, Mira will not stray from the path of her Lord.’ To stay true to your quest and keep striving is to keep living. I will also live. I have also lived.”
On Thursday morning, Ganguli, a veteran actor-director of the Hindi stage, passed away in Kolkata. She was 74 -four months short of her birthday – and is survived by hundreds of members and admirers of her theatre group, Rangakarmee, as well as her son and other family members. Ganguli was cremated at the Keoratola Burning Ghat in Kolkata with only a handful people in attendance due to isolation measures. In December, the actor-director would have celebrated 50 years of life in theatre.
