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. 

Bond Stories 1

Why was he called Bond?
Because he knew everything!!!
As a kid, I could never believe that. I could never think that there could be someone who could read my mind that well. But then there were these teachers who made the school what it was. Sheel Vohra was one of them.
Initially I was scared of 'My frond...Bond'. 'My frond' because the way he pronounced 'friend'. It was only in my last years at school that I got to know him better. Here are some of the memories I have of my interactions with him.

The first was when we were travelling for a mid term trek from Gangotri to Kedarnath. A mid term trek was where the kids went out of the school into the mountains for a longish trek. Could be accompanied or unaccompanied by teachers depending on the class we were in. So, while going from Dehradun to Gangotri in a bus where three groups of kids were travelling with three senior teachers- Bond, AD and Mr Vaishnav, we dealt with the bus trudging along the circuitous hilly roads. Then the bus stopped at 'Srinagar'- then a quaint little town nestled in the hills. Everybody got off the bus. So did I but just for a bit. I never enjoyed these bus rides. I like to walk in the hills so I was waiting for that to happen. So, got back into the bus sooner than the rest. I was sitting in the front seat. Mr Dar was also in the bus somewhere in the front. Some other kids decided to use this break time for playing cards. They were doing so in the middle seats of the bus.Bond also hopped on ...walked straight to the middle seats where the kids were playing cards and said with just a tinge of a smile in an absolutely deadpan manner 'My frond my seat is somewhere here ...and that is the END of your game!!!'
Stunning one liner which had the required effect on those who were playing cards!!!

My brother had left for the UWC in the USA after class tenth. I could never imagine that Bond would be interested in finding more about the students who had left school but he was. Sometimes he would walk up to me and ask ' My frond how is your brother doing? ' and then since he knew we were both merit scholars and that my mother was working pretty hard to give us the education we were receiving , he would almost always ask 'और तेरी मम्मी कैसी हैं ?' This was still the time that I was pretty scared of him so I would quickly answer his questions and get the hell out of there.

But then I became a part of the board of editors of the school weekly. AD was the master in charge( master is a teacher) of the weekly. He had started this tradition of assigning one of the editors the responsibility to oversee the publication of the weekly for a particular week. My turn came. I was pretty happy that all the work required to be done was already done by Wednesday. This meant delivering the articles to Mr Agarwal's Commercial Printers, two proofs and finally the page proof. I was set. Though Rajath Shourie had warned me 'Don't think you are done Tyagi...Bond might still make his way to your table in the CDH' And that did happen...on Friday, like a day before the Weekly was to be delivered...walks Bond towards me at lunch. He says 'My frond this is the cricket report for the week...go and give it to the printer' . I tried protesting, 'but sir , the weekly is ready to be printed...can we do this next week? ' Pat came the response ' My frond you better go and give it to the printer or I will go and give it myself' I realised...'my frond Bond' does not take 'no' for an answer. I finished my lunch , rushed to the printer...got the pages changed...the typesetter had to set the types afresh...prepare a new page...he was pretty upset and for a damn good reason...but Bond had said it ...it had to be done!!! Okay this is an aside but let me just mention it here, for some reason Bond would spell  a name differently even if it was in the same article. For instance if he spelt my name as Himanshu at one place in his cricket article, he would spell the same name as hemanshu at some other place and then himanshoo at another place and so on and so forth. A cricket article had several names so you can imagine what plight he had put me in and how I cursed him for doing that!!! But then I got used to it...every time I was close to believing that the work on the weekly is done, I reminded myself, but then there is Bond!!!

So, this was after I had become a school prefect.( The school had a prefectorial system...in those days it seemed important to be a prefect...now of course I think it would probably have been a good last year at school if I wasn't one, I actually think I wasn't even suited to be a prefect since I was least authoritarian, the only lesson I learnt from this experience was that I should not try to be in any administrative position, it would be disastrous) There was a kavi sammelan at school which ended unusually late. Actually it ended at about 3.30 - 4 am in the morning. The rest of the audience was asked to go back to their houses but some of us remained. Bond also remained in the audience. When the kavi sammelan ended, my friends asked me to go to Bond and ask him if we could be excused our first two classes along with PT as we had stayed up so late for the kavi sammelan. As I walked up to him...before I could say a word...Bond said 'My frond I will be in my first class tomorrow and so will you be'. Shocked I was to hear it!!! But then I asked him 'सर तो फिर थोड़ी चाय ही पिला  दीजिये  अब हाउस जाकर भी क्या करेंगे ? सो गए तो उठ नहीं पाएंगे '(Then please give us some tea...now if we go to the house and go off to sleep , we won't be able to wake up) He promptly responded 'हाँ हाँ  आ जाओ !!!' We all went to his house, he gave us tea, and then there was a chatting session which lasted till day break and the first bell. Could never imagine Bond to be so...he chatted and chatted and regaled us with his stories about his years at school. 

My Interactions with Habib Tanvir: Part XXVIII, Actors' complaints about him and vice versa

When Habib Tanvir started with the Chattisgarhi Nacha actors , he got a troupe of nacha performers to Delhi and organized their stay. Nacha is a folk dance drama form with lot of satirical element in it. The performers were extremely live, great at improvisations and could turn on and off as they pleased. Habib Tanvir was trained in the proscenium theater though right from the beginning, Agra Bazar in 1954 he did show the inclination towards making theater easier than what must have been the practice at that time and later. The school of drama was a very different kind of style- urban theater with strong emphasis on the spoken word in Hindustani. The plays were also very urban. The folk element was missing- at least the time that I saw their plays. So, these chattisgarhi actors brought a lot of value to Habib Tanvir's theater. Then of course, music , singing , folk and tribal dances were very important part of his theater.

But when you met them and talked to them, the actors were always upset with Habib Saab. Why? Because they thought that they were betrayed by Habib Tanvir when it came to the moneys being shared between the actors and what Habib Tanvir made for himself through the theater. Now, I know this for a fact that the theater on most occasions did not make much money. The actors felt that it did but it seemed not to. There was a grant that the theater received from the government of India but other than that the only source of income remained the performances of its various plays at different venues in the country. Sometimes the money would be hardly commensurate but Habib Tanvir would still accept the offer of doing the show so that the repertory was in circulation. Yet, there is a fairly legitimate grouse that the actors had with him that he was still living in a decent apartment at Shyamla hills while the actors were paid a meagre salary. And thus they remained for their life time.

In one of the conversations I brought this up with Habib saab and he explained that the theater has all kinds of expenses. Pensions are being paid to people who were part of the theater but are now too old to act in the theater. Sometimes the medical care of the actors and the older actors also needs to be paid for. The moneys are limited and some times shows are taken up by the theater even if it was going into a loss and thus there was not much more the theater could do. However, more than all of this, he said if we somehow managed to pay the actors higher, they would disappear for six months. Since, the repertory depended on these actors it could not afford to lose them for such long periods. So, in short, that was how it was. Then also Habib Tanvir himself was able to afford an apartment in Bhopal quite late in his own life. He lived with restricted expenses. Everything in his house was budgeted. He drove a small car- a maruti Zen. So, the actors feeling that he was living in opulence while they received a raw deal was not probably that true though they should have received much more financially as they were some of the best talents that there was to see in Indian theater scene. Maybe, it was the nature of the art of theater and it remains so till date. There is hardly any money in it.

There were conflicts on this issue in the theater. This despite the fact that there was deep affection for each other. Habib Tanvir loved his actors and they respected him but there was always this underlying tension over finances. Naya Theater remained a creative powerhouse driven by Habib Tanvir despite this and kept functioning and producing great plays. I learnt soon enough that this complex relationship between the chattisgarhi actors and Habib Tanvir is not something that I need to meddle with, so, I remained quiet when the actors spoke about him and when sometimes he was upset with his actors.

My Interactions with Habib Tanvir : Part XXVIII With Kids- Parul and Gungun

Now there are acting and theater training schools across the world. We have our very own the 'National School of Drama' and various other state run institutions for learning the dramatic arts. The process is formal, there is a strict curriculum and probably the process not so organic as it ought to be. But for kids in Naya Theater, or the kids of Naya Theater actors- the two of them I interacted with closely and saw them grow in the theater made me realize how it really ought to be done. Ramchandar Singh, one of the senior actors in the theater has two daughters- Parul and Gungun, both of whom acted in Naya theater plays, they also travelled with the theater. They would tag along with their father for the rehearsals and also with the mother sometimes for the show. And then there were other kids like Dani, Wamiq's son who got introduced to stage at the highest level in our country through Naya theater. Dani though did not travel with the troupe so much.

Parul and Gungun would watch the rehearsals, move around on stage freely, they were never stopped by Habib Saab or anyone else. However, they somehow just learnt the discipline of a rehearsal. Would not enter the stage unnecessarily and would sometimes know each and every movement and line spoken by the actors on stage.

Parul would play the 'bandariya' on stage in Agra Bazar and then the child in Raj Rakta. She worked exactly like a professional actor. She would know her entries and exits. Then of course there was Habib Saab directing her. At these moments he was the gentlest. The kids called him 'Baba' . He would call them close to himself…explain to them in the simplest possible manner what they ought to do and they would execute and perform.

Sometimes when the shows were delayed and went way past her sleeping time Parul would delegate the job of waking her up to some of us and made sure that she was woken up. Not once in the years that I worked with Naya Theater, did I see Parul floundering on her entries. She would also calculate costume changes and ask for assistance from her co actors and work things out so that she manages it well.

Gungun was way too small when Parul started going on stage in Raj Rakta. She also wanted to be up there. Towards the climax of the play, the rajpurohit tries to perform bali on the child that the king is fond of and whom he considers his heir apparent. At the altar lies the child. Somehow Gungun also entered the stage and lied next to her sister. Their father was supposed to be performing this intense scene and he was surprised to see two children there. Well, Habib Saab did not pay much attention to this incident, in fact he only chuckled about these incidents. These were the joyous things for him in his theater, he simply enjoyed these things. But as Gungun went out of the stage she did get an earful from her mother. But as Parul grew in age and size Gungun replaced her as the actor playing the boy in Raj Rakta. And she performed with similar quality, though she did bring some of her own energy to the play. Habib Saab as ever was as gentle with her as he was with the other children. Well, when he worked with these children you could not even imagine that he was the hard task master that he was known to be. But then, as I said earlier, kids probably are the best performers and they understood his language better than the actors …sometimes!!!

My Interactions with Habib Tanvir: Part XXVII Smoking in Bonn, irreverence

A few years before his death, there was a retrospective of his plays at Bonn in Germany. We were staying in a small hotel very close to the auditorium. Bonn had this special quality, it seemed like a very quiet city. Though the university was vibrant and there were a lot of young students who volunteered for this retrospective. The Naya Theater actors were supposed to get a small sum as their daily allowance for their lunch and dinner. The actors decided to save this money. So, the complimentary breakfast was something that was gorged upon and the poor ladies who ran the hotel had a tough time feeding the Naya Theater actors. So, that was a start.

But in the auditorium no one was allowed to smoke. Habib Saab had this element of irreverence and rebellion in his personality. He clearly stated that he needed to smoke his pipe as the rehearsals were on or else he could not think. Very reluctantly the organizers allowed him the privilege of smoking in the auditorium during the rehearsals but the other actors were told that they had to go out for their nicotine fix if they needed it. Habib saab felt great about it, he had managed to break a rule but Vijay Shukla did one better.

Vijay Shukla and some other actors went for a party at the University…well there was liquor and they had an opportunity to interact with the youth of the country especially the girls. The party lasted almost the whole night and when it came close to the time of the last train to leave, they panicked and rushed to the station. They had to get on to the train which was on the other side of the station, to catch it they would have to take the stairs and reach the platform across. Vijay Shukla in true Indian style jumped at the rails and crossed. By the time the officials could do anything the train had arrived and Vijay Shukla got on to it and he could not be caught. The actors successfully reached the hotel in the wee hours.

Next morning Vijay Shukla's feat was discussed and it reached Habib saab's ears. He chuckled and said , I thought I had gotten past the rules in Germany, Vijay Shukla has beaten me even at this!!!

My Interactions with Habib Tanvir: Part XXVI - Simple or complex Part I

Naya Theater performances had an air of simplicity when you saw them. It seemed like a very linear story telling and there were simple stories being told. Nothing was such that came in the way of your viewing the performance and being with it. That is the hallmark of great work in theater.

The first ever production of Naya Theater I saw  was in 1989. That was Agra Bazar. I was a young school going student. Agra Bazar is based on the poetry of Nazir Akbarabadi, a poet who wrote all kinds of poetry. He was someone who wrote on the concerns of the common people which was quite unlike the times when classical languages were more respected than someone writing on simple things like kites, vegetables, eatables. But the poet did go beyond just plebeian poetry. He also wrote in praise of the Hindu gods and also about holi- regarded as a Hindu festival. It was symptomatic of a syncretic culture. Thus the poet becomes extremely important. The narrative was simple. One vegetable seller wants to sell his vegetables by singing in praise of them. He wants someone to write some poetry. No noted or aspiring poet would do that but Nazir. The poetry came in quite seamlessly in to the play through a device of two 'faqirs' who sang at different points in the play. Or through the characters who came into the bazaar and left. At one point I asked Habib saab if I could be a part of the crowd which moved around on the stage- I thought it would be a lot of fun. Since my character only entered the play towards the end of the second half, I thought it would be easy. But the movements that looked quite simple were not so simple after all and I realized that it was not that easy to be a part of Habib Tanvir's crowd. The play which ran for about three hours had about sixty characters and since everything was being played out in the bazaar, timing was of essence. Well, quite a complex task made to look so simple when you saw the play!!!

My Interactions with Habib Tanvir: Part XXVI I am very angry with you

Since I started working with Naya Theater in Habib Saab's last phase, I usually worked in smaller replacement parts. Once while I was talking to him, I said that I would like to work in a production with him from start to finish to be a part of the full process. He heard me, then the discussion veered off somewhere else and we started talking about other things. I remembered what I had told him but I was surprised to realize that he did too.

The troupe was in Kolkata working on Tagore's 'Visarjan' with Usha Ganguly's troupe. I received a call from him asking me to come to Kolkata for the production. I was confused. We had recently shifted to Mumbai and wanted to get started here. To be out of Mumbai for two months at that stage did not make any sense. Even so, I gathered all my courage and asked him if there were any roles that he wanted us to do in the play. He didn't say much on the phone but said ' Okay then you don't come'

I thought it was over. Some months later he called again and said that the play is ready and that he would like us to visit Kolkata to see the play and give feedback. ( This he did all the time, he would collect all his friends and ask them for a feedback. It did not mean that these friends were some great voices in the theater. He would just gather ideas from people who saw his initial rehearsals and shows to make certain changes to improve the play) So, we went to Kolkata. He saw us, welcomed us and then he said 'I am really angry with you that you didn't come' I said, 'but you only said I shouldn't come' To which he retorted 'because you asked whether I have a role for you, I wanted you to come for being a part of the process and you started about roles…that gets me really angry'.

He was not happy with the way the play shaped up in Kolkata. The partnership with Usha Ganguly's troupe also did not work out. The acting styles of the two troupes was so different that if you were in the audience you would feel that there are two plays running.

Later the play came to Delhi and then he made many more changes and I came into the play as the sutradhar and Nayan Rai. Wish had gone to Kolkata for those two months - maybe I would have got a better role and also been a part of a naya theater production from beginning to end.

My Interactions with Habib Tanvir: part XXV Tribal Actors

Habib Tanvir's theater had folk elements. This anyone who knows his theater would know. You can't escape this fact about his theater. The main actors of his theater were drawn from Chattisgarh. They were 'Nacha' performers. Nacha being a folk drama form of the region. Most of the actors spoke in chattisgarhi dialect of Hindi on stage. A lot of the comic element of his drama was taken from the nacha tradition. Some of the plays that Habib Tanvir did were also not his own creations but were taken from the Nacha tradition again. Okay, let me get back to the Nacha tradition a little. From what I know of it, in Nacha, the actors improvised…they had puns, punch lines, they mocked certain classes etc. They also mocked traditions and created some serious theater on very relevant subjects- overturned social relationships - look at ' Jamadarin' or 'Ponga Pandit'- one of the more controversial plays of Habib Tanvir. ( He had to face a lot of resistance from groups and individuals who considered this play to be anti Hindu) But this post is not about the nature of democracy in India. It is about the tribal actors/dancers in Habib Tanvir's Naya Theater. When the prominent elements of his theater came from  rural Chattisgarh, his musical references also were folk and tribal. Habib Tanvir had travelled quite a bit in Chattisgarh and Bastar listening to folk and tribal music.

Now coming to the tribal actors and dancers in his theater that I got a chance to interact with. These were from Dantewada in Bastar region. Laxmi Sadu's troupe. The most memorable thing about them was that they used to bring 'mahua' with them in plastic bottles. They would carry their plastic glasses. They would offer it to people they became fond of. Shalini was owned by them very quickly and thus I got an entry into their inner circle and I was also offered Mahua at the end of a day.

The thing about them , the special thing was that they were almost always smiling and laughing. They would drink alcohol and then laugh even more and also sing and dance. The whole group did almost everything together. So much so that when in crowd scenes Habib Saab would try to make three of them move away from the rest of the group everyone would go where the others were moved. Habib saab tried to explain it to them a few times then just accepted this as a fact and decided to design his scenes in such a way so that they all moved together.

While traveling in buses they had special songs where they would sing about everyone in the bus and have something usually funny to say about different individuals in the group through the song. Well, am sure their society and their lives have certain issues but they always seemed happy , contented and alive. 

My Interactions with Habib Tanvir: Part XXIII 'Mein isliye khafa hoon ki tum bambai gaye hi kyun?'( I am upset because why did you choose to go to Mumbai?)

  A small role in 'Slumdog Millionaire' was offered to me. The dates were clashing and I had to miss one of the shows of 'Raj Rakta' somewhere in the Northeast. I have huge qualms about missing a theater show that I am a part of for the reason that the whole show comes together with your small bit going into it. When one of these bits goes missing and someone else has to come in and replace an actor , it impacts the show and feels disrespectful towards the crew which works extremely hard to put it all together. However, this seemed like a big thing( and it eventually did become big, Slumdog won eight oscars) And we had to shoot on the same day when this show was going to happen. I spoke to Habib saab, nervously so, he could just shoot me down and he would have a fairly good reason to. Habib saab was very understanding as usual. These are his words then ' I understand it is your first work in cinema, I understand the excitement even if it is a small role they are offering you…mein is baat se khafa nahin hoon ki tum mera show chod kar film mein kaam karne ja rahe ho, mein is baat se khafa hoon ki tum bambai gaye hi kyun?' ( I am not upset that you are leaving my show for a small bit in a film, I am UPSET because I can't fathom why did you go to Mumbai?) What could I say to that? Though we did have a conversation about it later. I asked him what he would have me do as an actor. He said that I should have worked with Naya Theater in Bhopal. I did ask him to remember how much an actor at Naya Theater gets paid. He smiled, took a puff at his pipe and nodded. That was that.

A visit to Manori beach

If my understanding is correct, Manori is a small island close to Mumbai. It is very close to the suburb Malad west. For those who do not know most of Mumbai is divided in two parts- East and West and getting from one to the other is quite difficult so if someone does try to visit Manori based on this post, please remember that I wrote 'Malad West'

(Here is a link to the map of Mumbai from Google for you to understand the exact location)

I offered it to visiting kids of my sister in law. They chose 'Manori' over a trip to 'Gateway of India' . We did the car to Marve, jetty, bus to the village, through Manori village, beach and back in about six hours. The kids loved it. 

There are two ways of getting there as far as I know. One is to take the land route. Please do your own research on this. Apparently you really have to take a long way and go to Bhayandar etc to reach there directly by road. The other way is to reach Marve jetty and take a ferry from there. Marve is close to Malad station, if you are on a shoestring budget you can take a bus from the Malad or Kandiwili West stations to Marve, you could also take auto rickshaws from the two stations or else you could travel by car or in a cab/auto rickshaw on the new link road reach a place called Mid chowky, take a left, cross the Malvani fire brigade station which falls on your right and then go straight. After some distance is traversed there is a right turn you need to take to reach Marve , if you keep going straight you will reach Aksa beach. Best is to ask local shop keepers for the way. 

From Marve beach you take a ferry which takes 10 Indian rupees as the fee and takes you to Manori in about 10 minutes or less. The ferry is fairly safe and so are the people. Once you get down at Manori there is a bus, auto rickshaw or a horse driven cart that you can take to the Manori village and from there it is about a five minute walk through this 'fishing community' village to the beach.

At Manori Island

The sights it offers are wonderful.

There is not much here to do except for just sit and gape at the visuals nature offers you.

When the clouds split, Sun seemed to be in an orange bloom

Yes, like anywhere else human beings have messed up with this small yet more or less virgin beach. I think the weekend crowd that comes here really dirties the beach. There are no waste baskets to throw any waste in but even so, sure that the place could be kept cleaner.

There are some resorts here where you could stay the night. It is quite calm and peaceful.

I am told there is a resort called Manori bel which is located in a coconut plantation. It looked quite enticing.You can step on to the beach from the resort through a gate. 

Just one disclaimer, unlike JUHU beach there is nothing much to buy to eat at least on  weekdays. So if you do intend to do a day trip on a week day to Manori, please make sure you are carrying your own food.

My Interactions with Habib Tanvir: Part XXII, in continuation of part I

….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...

My Interactions with Habib Tanvir: Part XXI Acting in a film to go to France

Habib saab stayed with us for one of the Prithvi theater festivals. It was our first year in Mumbai. That was the time when he was talking to Subhash Ghai about acting in the film 'Black and White'. He tried to negotiate a price with him. Mr Ghai quoted a certain sum. Habib Saab was not sure whether that was the right or appropriate amount for him and he asked us. We were absolutely new to the city and we knew nothing about the industry at all, so we really had not advice to give him except to say that it seemed a little less but Habib saab went ahead with the film. He wanted to go to France and he decided that this film should provide him with enough to make that trip. 

Cut to, the shoot was over, he was staying in a Juhu hotel for some time for the dub. The day that got over he told us that we should meet and that let's get some friends over. So, in our one bedroom hall apartment we got friends together and Habib saab came. The driver did not know where to go so at the yari road Barista I went to pick him up. He was in a production car and quiet. I think he would be quite upset. He was usually quite critical of the whole production process. Another actor, a contemporary of ours in Delhi saw him and wanted to say hello. I stopped him thinking that Habib saab could just lose his temper if he was in a foul mood. 

I got into the car, asked him if he was in a bad mood. He threw his hands in the air- on the contrary, I am happy , very happy, my work in the film is over.

That night was a small little party at our small little apartment. Habib saab did get drunk that night. His going to France was arranged after all.

My Interactions with Habib Tanvir: Part XX, 'Kaahil' ( lazy, slothful)

Once I travelled from Mumbai to Kolkata on a train!!! For a show of 'Agra Bazar'. It was a long journey. Almost 48 hours in a train if I am not wrong. I was traveling alone since I was going from Mumbai. I was tired and bored. I got off at Howrah , Kolkata was very humid. I was told by the volunteer who came to pick me up that Habib saab has asked you to be brought straight to the hall. I tried protesting - let me go wash at least. He said- you can do it at the hall, Habib saab said that. I could not refuse and went straight to the hall, very upset with him, thinking that he had no mercy.

And he didn't. He looked at me, probably understood and then said - good you came, these days there are these actors who first want to go to the hotel, take a wash, sleep and then come for the rehearsal. These idiots are 'kaahil', they will never be able to do anything in life. 

I stood there wondering…

Baithak with Sitara Devi: A SPICMACAY story

I didn't know much about Sitara Devi, the famous Kathak exponent. I saw her the first time in a SPICMACAY lecture demonstration at one of the colleges of University of Delhi. She was quite old but was charm personified even with that aged face and body of hers. This is something special that these artists carried within themselves which can't be defined. It is something to do with their personalities. 

I tried to keep a studied distance from SPIC MACAY but invariably got caught in the happenings of the organization. I think one such event (and I am so glad it happened) was when I think because I went to a SPIC MACAY meeting on insistence of Shalini( which I must have done very grudgingly), I ended up in a car with Dr Kiran Seth and Shalini and was told that we are going to meet a great artist.

Now, where we were going was in the opposite direction from where I lived. We were going towards Asiad Village accommodations close to Siri Fort. Kiran carried some expensive liquor, Sitara Devi did like her drink. From Kiran's side this was a gift to her for all her support. Every time I saw her on stage for SPIC MACAY, she would say- I am doing this for Kiran Seth. She was extremely fond of Kiran.( I gather)

The occasion was her birthday. So, we enter the house. Sitara Devi greets us. As I said earlier, there was some magic in the personality. The way she carried herself, her smile, her eyes, the way she talked- it wasn't someone who held herself back. And why would Sitara Devi hold herself back? I later heard stories about the kind of things she had to go through to become an artist and a kathak dancer.

So, this was the mehfil then, this was vintage stuff, she  joked and laughed and talked …and the interaction went on for some time. There was another artist - I think a tabla player whose son was learning some instrument- sitar? The older gentleman wanted his son to be blessed by Sitara Devi and the young man was heard…it was a full performance…like a baithak…the young artist sat in front on mattresses and durrees and we all sat facing him on sofas and chairs in a small room…the nervous young artist played in front of an encouraging stalwart who constantly maintained a benign smile on her face...in between when he would do something nice…there would be 'wash waahi' from Sitara Devi. She was abundant in her appreciation. The young boy was happy. 

After the fellow had finished, Sitara Devi talked to the young boy for some time, appreciating his hard work and goading him to keep working hard. She was a story teller , after all a 'kathak' dancer. She would say something about her own life and draw an example for the young talent. 

After this she started talking about her life. She talked about a tabla player with whom she really enjoyed dancing. In her opinion this tabla player was superior to ustaad Zakir Hussain, whom she said was very good too but not quite there yet to compete with this person's competence. I forget the name but obviously the tabla player must have come much before Ustaad Zakir Hussain. I was blessed to have spent some time there in Sitara Devi's presence…witnessing an impromptu baithak…grooming of a younger artist. 

Maybe I should thank Dr Kiran Seth for this...

JNU : Posters: Wall Art: Politics

Its a special university. I was a part of it from 1996-1998. It was and remains a strongly political university. Left and Right are very strong and they are the ones that contest for the political space. So AISA, SFI, AISF, ABVP remain influential. On a recent visit to Meerut while returning back the flight got delayed and we got a chance to go to JNU for a brief while. Just got photographs of some of the wall art or posters on JNU walls.

Above is a normal wall at JNU…notices for meetings …pamphlets stating an issue…some party's posters etc are normal on all JNU walls.

 The posters are really self explanatory and very well done. Whether you agree with the ideology or not, the art work is nice.

The white patches on the posters are put by the JNU election commission I assume. It is one of those educational institutions where the students conduct their own election. An election commissioner is nominated who then runs the election. Walls for putting up posters are assigned to the different organizations in fray- primary among them at JNU are AISA, SFI, ABVP,AISF. Then there are others like DSU,which are largely fringe of the left. In our time Free thinkers also had a presence, I don't know if that is so now.

Then there is literary element to the posters. Muktibodh in the first poster. I don't know whose poem is the next one but the words flow well- create an impact.

 The poster above… I don't really understand what it is about but it is an interesting poster.

Then there are the ones below…Interesting ones

The one below is about the freedom of hips...

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The Babas - Marx and Lenin and the young man who sacrificed his life- Bhagat Singh

Below is the other side…sorry to say weak on the art and aesthetics quotient

I was surprised to see such scanty presence of the parishad on the walls

The Hindutva ideologues. This is relatively new. Didn't see this when I was at the campus. Think the Parishad has become stronger in some ways post 2014 general elections

Not a very exhaustive piece on the posters and wall art of JNU but a beginning.