….well…something that I missed when I wrote part I…so to remind you, Habib Tanvir's troupe was in Delhi, it had to travel to UP but it could not. This happened because Dr Kiran Seth of SPICMACAY insisted that the govt of India had given a facility to artists, it ought to be availed of, this way the organization can save money which can be put to better use. But, to get these concessions approved from wherever they got approved was a herculean task. Kumar Pushan, a SPICMACAY volunteer then, managed to get that done but in the process he forgot to get the railway tickets and reservations. So, it was night, it was a theater company, which meant about twenty people or more stranded in Delhi with no place to go…and no budgets…it was a problem to be solved.
So, now there was a scramble for a place for the artists. Dharamshalas were looked into but they either were too expensive, inconvenient or too full. Hotels were out of question due to limited budgets. With some effort a temple was found which had two dormitory kind of rooms attached to it. The temple committee was willing to give the rooms to the troupe.
So, for night halt a place was found. All naya theater actors would smoke and drink. Some of them even smoked 'chillums' with 'ganja'(grass). The group that was looking into this thought - okay one night , part of the day, doesn't matter…by the time the temple committee notices anything the artists will be gone…but as it so happened, travel arrangements were not so easy to come by and the naya theater troupe had to stay put there for I think about three nights-SPICMACAY continued to try and get the train tickets done, Habib saab refused to move without proper arrangements. There was a bit of a stalemate otherwise they could travel by road the next day.(which eventually they did) Kumar Pushan was no where to be found, he had gone underground in Faridabad.( I have to say this Pushan)
Now, we ( I got included in this ) were worried about the fact that the temple committee will notice people drinking and smoking and they will ask the artists to go so we were all searching for an alternative place to keep them.
But then when we went to meet the artists on the second day and asked them if everything was okay, they said- yeah fine, everything is fine…one of us asked them- what about drinking and smoking? and they said- that is not a problem…We asked- what? how? They said- we have made friends with the people in the temple committee. They also sit and drink here in the temple complex.
well...
So, now there was a scramble for a place for the artists. Dharamshalas were looked into but they either were too expensive, inconvenient or too full. Hotels were out of question due to limited budgets. With some effort a temple was found which had two dormitory kind of rooms attached to it. The temple committee was willing to give the rooms to the troupe.
So, for night halt a place was found. All naya theater actors would smoke and drink. Some of them even smoked 'chillums' with 'ganja'(grass). The group that was looking into this thought - okay one night , part of the day, doesn't matter…by the time the temple committee notices anything the artists will be gone…but as it so happened, travel arrangements were not so easy to come by and the naya theater troupe had to stay put there for I think about three nights-SPICMACAY continued to try and get the train tickets done, Habib saab refused to move without proper arrangements. There was a bit of a stalemate otherwise they could travel by road the next day.(which eventually they did) Kumar Pushan was no where to be found, he had gone underground in Faridabad.( I have to say this Pushan)
Now, we ( I got included in this ) were worried about the fact that the temple committee will notice people drinking and smoking and they will ask the artists to go so we were all searching for an alternative place to keep them.
But then when we went to meet the artists on the second day and asked them if everything was okay, they said- yeah fine, everything is fine…one of us asked them- what about drinking and smoking? and they said- that is not a problem…We asked- what? how? They said- we have made friends with the people in the temple committee. They also sit and drink here in the temple complex.
well...
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