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Kokan to Kashmir !


The last couple of days have been filled with thoughts, writing exercises and improvisations related to my play ‘Sahasrachandradarshan’ that is based in Kokan. Sahasrachandradarshan is a ceremony conducted to honour a person who has turned 80 years old. This is a play about a family from the present-day Kokan who gather together to celebrate the Sahasrachandradarshan of Aaji. In the course of events, some relationships are explored and some revisited and some stretched to their limits.


The mind is a funny thing ! In one improvisation of Sahasrachandradarshan, Pratibha and I are sitting outside the ICU where our 80-year old mother has been kept after suffering a stroke. The doctor takes his last round for the day and informs us that the situation is grave and could turn any which way over the course of the night. About two and a half years ago I had once done this improvisation with the girl who played Pratibha for the first couple of shows. During the last week I did it again with the new girl who will play Pratibha today. Although the starting premise of both the improvisations was same, they turned out to be very different from each other; but both times they succeeded in upsetting me greatly. I am amazed how, if one believes in the premise wholeheartedly, if one surrenders to the feeling completely, one can feel the situation as if it were occurring for the first time, with the same intensity.


Today and tomorrow night we perform shows of this play and from day-after tomorrow I begin rehearsals of my new play Kashmir Kashmir. It is, as the name quite clearly points out, about Kashmir. However it isn’t presented in a typical manner. It is totally whacky, crazy, sharp and intense in some parts. I am feeling very excited and very afraid at the same time. I will be leaving the familiar, safe confines of known relationships and family structure and entering into an abstract and extremely volatile zone…that too overnight. The only common factor is the idyllic natural beauty of the two.


Flight Kokan to Kashmir is ready for departure…please fasten your seat-belts…ignore the queasiness in your stomach…once the flight is in air, you will feel better…Bon Voyage to me !
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Swapnali said…
Hey Masta!
Wish you all the best!
29 June 2009 at 19:35
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