FREE time is a rare occurrence in a working woman’s life. When I managed to grab some recently, I wanted to wile it away by doing—well—absolutely nothing and found myself before the idiot box, after years. While surfing the channels I found that the idiot box had done the unthinkable, gotten sillier. That realisation made me nostalgic of the good-old days of television (1990s), when mega serials meant 53-episode-long epics such as Bharat Ek Khoj. My contemporaries might remember Bharat Ek Khoj and Katha Sagar fondly. They were infortainment for both the young and the old. They exposed us to history and literature and great doses of robust writing and scripts. Such serials were inspirational—after all they were directed by one of the best directors of India, Shyam Benegal. For years now, Benegal’s films have been about visceral representations of Indian reality. He has explored the theme of inequality in all his films through some recurring roles; the oppressive landlord, the corrupt official, the struggling tribal woman and the villager trying to break free. A sensitive director, Benegal has also dealt with the urban milieu passionately—in Bhumika he explored an urban woman’s quest for identity, with Kalyug he revisited the Mahabharata, taking us through a modern interpretation of the epic set within a wealthy business family. He has always engaged in different narrative styles, like in Suraj Ka Satvan Ghora, where the story is told from different perspectives. There are several other examples of this man’s sheer genius; how he always tries to bring the mundane and the margins to the mainstream. His Well Done Abba may not have been a ‘hit’, but it did put the twin issues of employment and government schemes in Andhra Pradesh to the forefront. He has truly viewed India through his democratic lens and made us do the same. It should not be surprising that after the bout of nostalgia, DW team promptly tried to contact the man and talk to him regarding his films, life and inspirations. This month, the magazine (I am glad to say), is about the lives of geniuses. Famed photographer Nemai Ghosh is featured in our Looking Back section. For his admirers, there’s a bit of good news; Ghosh’s collection of 90,000-plus photographs were recently bought by a Delhi-based private art gallery. The gallery plans to showcase most of them in a series of exhibitions in December. A legend in his own right, Ghosh is as talented as he is endearing and humble. I hope you like reading his story as much as we loved writing it.