Girish Karnad, Indian playwright, author, actor, and film director whose movies and plays, written largely in Kannada, explore the present by way of the past. After graduating from Karnataka University in 1958, Karnad studied philosophy, politics, and economics as a Rhodes Scholar at the University of Oxford. He wrote his first play, the critically acclaimed Yayati, while still at Oxford. Centred on the story of a mythological king, the play established Karnad’s use of the themes of history and mythology that would inform his work over the following decades. Karnad’s next play, Tughlaq, tells the story of the 14th- century sultan Muhammad ibn Tughlaq and remains among the best known of his work. After knowing the facts about Karnad as well as reding various newspaper articles on his recent demise, I can say that he was a ‘Crackpot’. A crackpot is an eccentric person especially the one who has a list of bizarre or unusual ideas. Though the word first seems to be addressed in a ...