Gobind Ram Nimbalkar

On one of the Delhi visits, while the Naya Theater troupe was staying and performing at Bal Bhavan, after the show, I saw Gobind Ram Nimbalkar in a corner. It was quite unlike him. Someone who would always be laughing or smiling, it was strange to find him weeping. I asked him what made him cry, he replied, saying that ‘Today my guru has died’. It was the day the troupe had received the news that Madanlal had passed away.

I never saw the legendary few on stage, they had already left or passed away before I started watching Naya Theater plays. I hear about Thakurdas, Madan, Fida bai,lalu ram. This bunch of actors together with Habib Tanvir and Monica Misra Tanvir created the magic that came to be known as ‘Naya Theater’. Gobind Ram Nimbalkar came much after Thakuram and Madan, the original brigade of Nacha performers from Chattisgarh who decided to work with the city ‘saheb’- Habib Tanvir. Slowly, as the older brigade retired and left or died, Gobind Ram became one of the main actors of the troupe. He played chor, kakadi waala, Bottom and many other roles. Unlike Deepak Tiwari(in the 1990s when i started watching Naya Theater, it was this actor who dominated the theatre , but then he left with his wife Poonam and Gobind baba took centre stage once again), who, with his sharp eyes, long hair, authoritative walk, slim and supple body was very striking, Gobind Baba as we called him was balding, he had a bit of a paunch, he didn’t have a dashing gait. Normally you would probably not notice him but if you looked closely, his round face had a charming smile; his eyes were full of mischief. It was as if you were looking at a young child smiling at you and then when he came on stage- he was something else altogether.

I can’t think of anyone performing ‘Bottom’ after seeing Gobind Baba do it. I can’t forget the sight when he would order the ‘paris’ (fairies) around or when he along with Ramcharan Baba who played Quince would be arguing about how the play would be designed in terms of cast and actors or the last move of ‘Chor ‘which all the actors whom I have seen play the character have brought something of their own to -  a scene where the Rani decides that she will get Charandas killed- the ‘chor’ pleads with Rani- it is the turning point of the play- this is the time when the audience realises that the ‘chor ‘is going to die- the chor turns towards the audience at the end of this conversation, Gobind Baba’s sad eyes haunted you for a long time after the performance. In ‘zahreeli Hawa’ he would be very happy because it was one of those plays performed b y Naya Theater where he didn’t have much to do. There was a scene where after the gas leak in Bhopal, in a destroyed city, there is a song dedicated to nature (this is what I could understand of it) which Nageen sings– while the song is being sung, at one point Gobind baba had to sit up and ask –‘Phir ka hoees? He would do that with a lot of flair too. Gobind baba in lots of ways was Bottom who had to be the star always and so he did become for me even in Zahreeli Hawa.

He was a professional to the core- you learn a lot of things by watching these greats work- playing Bottom was quite strenuous- the mask needed to be handled which he would plan with great detail. Once we were performing Agra Bazar at Ramjas College, the rehearsal had gone on for some time. Everybody was going for lunch but Gobind Baba decided not to. Habib saab asked him why he was not eating? Gobind Baba said- to keep my tummy light...Habib Saab smiled , nodded and walked away. ( The best thing about Naya Theater was to watch this amazing relationship between the actors and Habib Tanvir, they would keep fighting with him over various things, but when it came to the acting, they knew that Habib saab’s word is the final one ) During the Habib Tanvir retrospective at Prithvi in 2004, didn’t see Gobind Baba drink at all( unusual for the Naya Theater actors...if you saw Chait Ram do it , you would never want to drink again) On the last day of the festival Prithvi organised a get together with drinks, Gobind Baba told a few of us that he was going to drink that night. We should just make him find his room, and so he did, he drank like a mad man, we put him in his room and he was himself the next morning. In another drinking episode, at Durgapur, we had three shows, we had stayed there for about four days. Usually, after a long stay or stint of shows was over I would gift ‘mausa’(Oh, I have to tell you about mausa too, mausa is Amardas, the tabalchi in the theatre, he had turned an alcoholic, till one day he found himself miss the rehearsal as he pulled himself out of a drain, that day he came to habib saab and promised that he would never drink again, he didn’t ,but for some beer once in a while) two bottles of beer. That day, mausa refused to drink. I offered it to Gobind Baba, who obliged, and then suddenly we were told that there was some miscalculation, we were supposed to leave or we would miss the train, Gobind Baba did not want to leave the beer nor did he want to miss the train. I told him – Gobind Baba ab chaliye nahin to train choot jaayegi and he responded – arre train to chali jaayegi, hum choot jaayengein, chalo chalo. But he did finish his beer before he left. Well, Naya Theater became like a family, and the seniors would take care of you as their own, losing Gobind Ram Nimbalkar is like losing a friend who would bring a smile to your face and an elder who would look after you.

Just a few days back I heard that Gobind Baba had passed away. He will be missed by those who had seen him perform and also by those who knew him closely and who had travelled with him.