Directing a Play at Tihar 3

 So, the area where the jailer's office exists in a jail is called the 'dyodhi' ( a hindi word meaning threshold or an entry to the building), this is an area where you enter the building by crossing one gate but you are still not in jail proper. You enter the jail after getting your hand stamped by guards sitting at the gate of the inner area of the jail which has the wards for the inmates. So 'dyodhi' is the inmates' language. You cross it and you go inside. Before you enter though, if you are not an inmate then you get your hand stamped so that they know that you are an outsider. 

In this area there are offices of the Jail staff including the Superintendent of the jail or the jailer. So, this evening I walked towards his office. It was unusually dark. He was not on his regular table and chair but sitting on a side, with his head in his hands .I was not sure whether I should address him or walk away and do my work. But then I thought why not and I said hello. He raised his head and he told me that the inmates in the two barracks had had a conflict brewing.  The jail officials caught this in time. I realised that being a jailer is not so easy, it can keep you at the edge all the time. 

What this meant was that I had to now work with a new set of inmates. And not in the ward now but in a small room which housed their library at the center of the jail. 

Directing a play at Tihar 2

 So, I entered the space with a lot of apprehension and rightly so, though I had worked with young people in school settings but had never gone into a prison, nor was I trained for it. However, I rationalised it in my head that it can't be any different from working with young people anywhere else, so why should I be worried. But the first interaction was a bit of a shock. 

The ward that was given to me was the 'kasoori' ward. These were the inmates who created trouble while they were in the prison. So, they were the difficult ones not only in the eyes of the law but even in the eyes of the jail administration. 

There were about forty of them divided into two 'barracks'. 

I got them into a circle and began a small conversation just to introduce myself to them and get slightly familiar with them. One of the first few who responded to the question, what do they do normally do outside of the jail? ( probably not an appropriate way to get their introduction), was a threatening one which evoked a laughter from all the others. So I was thinking, this is no different from a new teacher being tested by kids in a class. But then I was also aware of the fact that these kids had not much to do with school. They were not disciplined like school kids. They were actually here because they had hurt other people in some way or the other. I was scared! 

However, the session did not go too badly. They seemed to enjoy the physical warm up games that we played and did some basic impersonation acts. 

Although they were not allowed to sit on the chair that was there for the jail staff, so when I asked them to use it they were hesitant and the jail staff also told me not to let them use it. I didn't get it then but later understood it that the jail staff was doing a difficult job, these kids were used to the notion of hierarchy, the chair was a symbol of power that the jail staff could exercise on them. Also, the power that they had to punish them for behaviour that was undesired. 

First few days went okay, if nothing else, the games and exercises were a break from the monotony of their existence, till things went south, and I did notice it, but I tugged along for a few days thinking that maybe I was not getting the group right and things will change, till it got very frustrating and I could sense certain tension within the group though I did not have any idea of the specifics of what was going on, till on this day I entered the jail superintendent's office to brief him about what was going on and get some inputs from him. But that conversation was another story...

Directing a play at Tihar 1

This was a special experience. I was still at JNU waiting for my viva for my dissertation to be over and done with. ( I still feel my dissertation could be quite special if I had applied myself a little more, but I was doing quite a few things, and as a very celebrated professor at the university had told me, 'Himanshu, originality is good, but it is not enough, research means, rigour with regularity', I realised that there was very little time to do anything else, leave alone theater which consumed a lot of time. And academics especially research needed me to be consumed by it at that time which I wasn't able to do despite all my attempts and efforts to move away from theater, I almost always got involved in it, somehow there was no escape, but more on this later) 

In those days, we still had landline phones, mobile telephony had come to India but it wasn't that accessible. So, I got a phone at the hostel landline number. It was from Mr Arun Kapur. He asked me what I was upto and I told him that I was waiting for my viva to be fixed. He called me over to the school ( he was leading Vasant Valley school at that time, I had worked there for a while looking after drama and debates) Mr Kapur asked me to get into his car as the school ended, which I did. And then we drove for a long time, all the way to Tihar prison complex and specifically to jail number 5 which housed the younger inmates ( I think from ages 16 to 21) Under the aegis of 'Ritinjali' , the NGO run by him, he used to work with the inmates when he got free from the school!

 But I had nothing to do with the nature of work. When the car entered the jail, I asked him why was I there. And he said, there is some work that needs done with the inmates. 

Soon I was inside the jail and working with a group of the inmates on a Bhishm Sahni play on the life of 'Bhagat Singh'. It was an interesting thought to introduce the life of the revolutionary to the young people who got caught up in a cycle of crime and violence. Getting engaged in doing the play could truly be inspirational. The play was being published by NBT and Bhisham Sahni himself was going to be there to watch the play. 

There was pressure there! For some reason I had decided that I will get this done. But I had to get the group to be inclined to work with me and on a play leading to a series of experiences. Will write about my first day there in an upcoming post.