Teaching is Learning

I am writing this sitting in Imphal – capital of a remote state of Manipur. My work involves travelling and thus I need to stay away from home frequently. However, whenever I am away, my communication with my daughter continues. She sends me SMS or emails, with the help of her mother Nirali. Google transcription has made it easy to communicate her feelings/thoughts as it is in the same language that she expresses. This morning I received this SMS: “ આપણે આપણા દેશને કેમ સાચવતાં નથી. હું શું કરી શકું? હું દુખી છું. ધ્રિશિતા ” ( Why are we not taking good care of our c ountry What can I? Sad. Dhirshita). After a bit more inquiry, I got to the following details. While returning home with Nirali , she saw a person not obeying traffic rules, despite the presence of a traffic police right in front of him. Thereafter, she met with a small traffic jam; again, there on corner of same road two policemen were chatting with each other and not contributing to manage the road jam. At this, she lame...

Tu ladje Anamika…The name itself sets the tone of the play. I presumed it to be full of anguish and anger with reflection of what we have been watching over news channels since more than a month now. Of course, the words were going after the verdict of INT and Gujarat Samachar competition a week ago. Tu ladje garnered three awards in the competition and thus, the excitement was palpable. However, competition results are just reflection of being best among few and they are not a real test of commercial and critical acceptance. To me, screening of this play at Third Bell at Natrani during 1-3 February 2013 was its first litmus test in real life theatre market. A full house in Natrani amphitheatre is not a common scene and I was thrilled on 1st itself. My expectations were huge and what an experience, I was not only satisfied but delighted beyond words. While I am writing this, I am happy to report that all three shows were houseful!! Tu ladje anamika is path breaker as far as the artisti...

IDARIO GADH JITI AAVYA Tradition of Dhinglighar lies in providing avenues of exploring the less-explored destinations. These are not tourist options as such but they are child-centric destinations. These are carefully chosen hidden jewels that can give a real ‘kick’ to young minds. Be it little hillock on Hingolgadh, or trails around Sambalpani or adventures in the lap of unknown parts of Mount Abu. It even includes forests and temple ruins of Polo as well as rich marine life around India’s only national marine park at Bet Dwarka. These various outdoor programmes not only helps children enjoy and learn to appreciate nature and be with themselves, it also provides opportunity to parents to spend exclusive – child centric and child focused - quality time with kids, something that is becoming extremely rare. This is one reason I generally do not miss Dhingalighar’s outdoor programmes like the one we had during 26-27 January 2013 at Idar. We started in the early morning on 26th and with a...