Obituary - Current Affairs for October, 2016

Well-known football legend Carlos Alberto Torres passed away on 25th Oct 216 at Rio de Janeiro in Brazil at the age of 72

• He scored one of the greatest goals in World Cup history in the 1970 final against Italy
• Torres was a Brazilian footballer
• He is regarded as one of the best defenders of all times
• He captained Brazil national team to victory in the 1970 World Cup scoring the fourth goal in the final
• This is considered one of the greatest goals in the history of the tournament
• He is also known as ‘O Capitão do Tri and is a member of the 20th Century World Team
• He was named by Pele as one of the world’s best living players in the FIFA 100 list in 2004
• He was also inducted into the Brazilian Football Museum Hall of Fame and was a member of the US National Soccer Hall of Fame
• In January 2013, he was named one of six ambassadors of the 2014 FIFA World Cup in Brazil

A 1960s prominent anti-war activist and a prominent counter-culture radical, Tom Hayden went to serve the California state assembly and senate

• He passed away at age 76 on Oct 23, 2016 following a lengthy illness
• He was acquitted of charges after protesting at the Democratic national convention in Chicago in the 1960s
• Hayden was married to actress Jane Fonda from the 1970s to 1990
• He was elected to the California state assembly in 1982 and to the state senate 10 years later

The last king of Rwanda Kigali V who ruled the east African nation for less than a year before being forced into exile settled in the US has died at the age of 80

• Born Jean-Baptiste Ndahindurwa, King Kigeli came to power in 1959 and was forced to leave the country the following year after clashing with the Belgian colonial power.
• In 1961, the monarchy was abolished.
• "He was a devout and dedicated believer and the last anointed African Roman Catholic king to reign over a full country,” the website of the late Rwandan king said
• King Kigali came to power after succeeding half brother Mutara III who died under unclear circumstances following the Hutu social revolution
• He was an ethnic Tutsi
• In Sept 1961. the monarchy was abolished by referendum and Rwanda gained independence in the following year
• Since 1994 and the rise of the current President Paul Kagame’s Rwandan Patriotic Front emerged from a former Tutsi rebellion
• Every effort fell by the wayside though RPF authorities committed to their willingness for the king to return.

Italian playwright and actor Dario Fo who won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1997, passed away at the age of 90

• Fo was one of the leading figures in the 20th century political and theatrical movement best known for his works Accidental Death of an Anarchist and Can’t Pay, Won’t Pay.
• The Nobel prize honoured him for his ironical humour and satire which highlighted important issues
• Fo began his career in the 1950s and went on to write 80 plays
• He was best known for his one-man show Mistero Buffo
• He was also a theatre directory who worked on several movie and TV productions

Thai King Bhumibol Adulyadej passed away on 13th Oct 2016 at Thailand’s capital city Bangkok at the age of 88.

• He was the world’s longest reigning monarch
• Following the demise of the Thai King, Crown Prince Maha Vajiralongkom is expected to become a new king
• Bhumibol Adulyadej was crowned King of Thailand on May 5, 1950 at the Royal Palace in Bangkok where he pledged a reign with righteousness of the benefit and happiness of the Siamese people
• During his reign, he was served by a total of 30 PMs commencing with Pridi Banomyong and ending with Prayut Chan-o-cha.
• They are known as Bhumibol’s Thirty
• Forbes estimated his fortune to amount to USD 30 billion in May 2014

Businesswoman, philanthropist and fashionista Parmeshwar Godrej passed away on 10th Oct 2016 after a prolonged lung illness at a Mumbai hospital

• The wife of industrialist Adi Godrej, she was known for her charity work
• Adorned in her signature beret. she hosted some of the most well known celebs in the world
• She also championed the cause of HIV-AIDS prevention and her biggest initiative was in 2004– the Heroes Project which involved a collaboration with actor Richard Gere, the Clinton Global Initiative and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation
• She was the daughter of an army officer
• She married Adi Godrej in 1965, having met him when she was 17 and working as a AI air hostess
• She has two daughters- Tanya Subhash and Nisa Godrej and one son Pirojsha
• She also refashioned several homes and iconic restaurants such as China Garden and Khyber
• She also designed clothes for actress Hema Malini in the movie Dharmatma in the 1970s
• The fashion icon also teamed up with director Shekhar Kapur to launch production house Starlight in 2000 which was preceded by co-producing the Merchant Ivory Production The Perfect Murder in 1988
• The style icon was remembered on Twitter by many celebs and thinkers as well as known names in the business, fashion industry and among charity houses across national and international shores

Manipur based theatre legend Heisnam Kanhailal passed away on Oct 6, 2016 following a brief illness at the age of 75. He has contributed to the field of experimental theatre for more than 40 years

• Born in Imphal, he worked with a noted theatre director and playwright Badal Sirkar but continued to experiment with alternative art theatre
• He later founded the Kalakshetra, the theatre laboratory in Manipur.
  
  He is famous for the following productions:
  
  
• Tamnalai (The Hunting Spirit)
• Kabui-Keioiba (Half Man Half Tiger)
• Draupadi
• He had also undertaken a research project on actor-training methodology with assistance from the Ford Foundation Grant, Emeritus Fellowship and Nehru Memorial Fellowship
• He was a recipient of several awards such as Central Sangeet Natak Akademi Award in 1985, Natya Ratna in 1997 from the Manipuri Sahitya Parishad and Sangeet Natak Akademi fellowship in 2011
• He was awarded the Padma Shri civilian award in 2004
• He was also awarded the Padma Bhushan civilian award in 2016 by the Union Government

One of Bangladesh’s best known writers, Syed Shamsul Haq has passed away in Dhaka, the capital city of this nation on 27th sept 2016 at the age of 81

• He was known for his immense collection of novels, poems, plays and essays. He was also a critic of religious fundamentalism
• Notable works by him include Boishakhey Rochito Ponktimala, Ekoda Ek Rajjey, Birotihin Utsab, Protidhwonigon and Opor Purush and patriotic songs of immense beauty which inspired the 1971 Liberation War fighters.
• He was also awarded with various awards including Bangla Academy Literary Award (1966), Ekushey Padak (1984) and Swadhinata Padak (2000), the highest civilian award of Bangladesh.
• The poet is survived by his wide, son and daughter
• He died of lung cancer
• PM Sheikh Hasina and President Abdul Hamid condoled his death
• The PM termed the poet the conscience of the nation. She said the country had lost a writer who devoted to the truth. “He viewed Bangali, Bangladesh and Bangabandhu as inseparable entities and through his powerful writings he showed the nation the dream of a secular country,” she said.
• Considered to be a pioneer of modern Bangla literature, Shamsul has written deeply emotive poems such as Ekoda Ek Rajjey (1961), Boishakhey Rochito Ponktimala (1969), Birotihin Utsab (1969, Protidhwonigon (1976) and Opor Purush (1978).
• Besides poems, he also wrote more than 50 novels including Stobdhotar Onubad ( 1987), Nishiddho Loban (1990), Khelaram Kheley Ja (1991) and Ayna Bibir Pala.
• His plays Payer Awaj Paqa Jay and Nuruldiner Sara Jibon set a standard for modern Bangla theatre.
• He also translated world classics like Shakespeare’s Macbeth, Tempest, Troilus and Cresida, and Ibsen’s Pyr Gynt.