Teaching is Learning

Prostitution. Why talk about it? Why a play on such issues? Why act in a character of a prostitute, could not you find a more socially relevant and acceptable story? These are some responses my fellow teammates received from their near and dear ones once they disclosed the details of our play Chalta Phirta Bambai . I recall what Manto said in a response to the criticism he received for his brazen way of writing.   He said, अगर आप इन अफसानों को बरदाश्त नहीं कर सकते तो इसका मतलब हैं की ये जमाना नाकाबिले-बरदाश्त हैं | “If you find these stories intolerable, it must mean that we live in an intolerable age.” There is a lot that Manto wrote in defense of what he wrote and why such stories needed to be told. However, I am not going to those details. I want to write her about our own limitations and tunnel vision on issues of life and our surrounding. Anybody who does not fit into the ‘normal’ of our perception are not only physically outcast, we also don’t like to talk about them. Leave a...

Slowly, with successful performance of Chalta Phirta Bamabai, I have approached what I call 'end of the beginning' of my theater journey.  It was 20th November 2012 that I started my first serious attempt at understanding theater. The idea was to understand theater and the kind of hardwork, dedication and efforts that go into making a production. I started loving theater as an audience and therefore wanted to understand my this love a bit more by being part of it. I wrote my first theater related blog - around same time - to share my views on what can be done to make commercial theater a bit more viable and sustainable.  Thereafter, last four months involved intense experience of understanding, exploring and experiencing various dimensions of theater. I started with lot of self-doubts and reservedness. Along the process, there were series of episodes of introspection, reflections and something close to self-realization. There were also phases of questioning, reasoning and d...