Story For Mukti

Legendary theatre activist Habib Tanvir met a very young Jill MacDonald at the Edinburgh Festival in 1955. Despite the difference in age and backgrounds, the attraction between the left-wing thespian and the artistic English girl was instant – and the relationship enduring, resulting in the birth of a daughter, Anna, in 1964.
Habib left England a year later to explore different forms of theatre all over Europe and Russia. He often lived in poverty – writing, performing, even singing in cafes to survive. For the two and a half years that he was away, Habib documented his adventures in a series of letters to Jill.
Returning to India in 1958, he continued the correspondence, describing in detail his difficulties in adapting to his own country and in establishing Naya Theatre.
Stuffed into a small, battered writing case, these letters travelled around with Jill for more than fifty years, somehow remaining intact. Her side of the correspondence is lost, but here she presents her own story, relating it to Mukti, the eldest of their three grandsons.
Never before published, Habib’s letters provide a unique insight into the heart and mind of a renowned and multi-talented artist at a seminal period of his life. Together with Jill’s own narration, A Story for Mukti also provides a rare view of a world where borders were fluid and a shared love of communicating sustained a romance across continents and through the years.