Dr. Avnish Jolly, Chandigarh:Scene V Locale: Main Cremation ground Chandigarh.
Cremation Ground, denotes undoubtedly the last stop of everyone’s journey of life. However, this young man choose it as “starting point” of his mission’s journey. It was summer of 1992 and sun was at its scorching peak and so was the zeal of this young man to do something for these scattered scars of our modern society. By now he had about 30 odd boys and girls, in the age group of 8 to 15 years literally singing and dancing to his tune. To move ahead, they needed a suitable space where shape could be given to their dreams. After scanning several sites, a vacant plot near parking lot of cremation ground appeared just appropriate. It was secluded, leveled piece of land, dotted with huge shady trees and having much needed drinking water nearby. But then there was a problem- the plot was badly littered with human excreta. However since the site was very near to their labour colony, the brigade decided to go for it and cleaned the whole mess themselves. And what followed was perhaps the best surprise of their life. For the first time in their life, they danced together, jumped around like free birds, sang the songs of joy and enjoyed every second of their company of young man. Needless to say, foundation of the mission had started taking shape.
But the joy was very short lived, for next day when they reached the plot, they were shocked to see it re-littered. Committed to core, they cleared the mess once again and resumed enjoying their chorus. However, the story got repeated everyday. Fed up with this scenario, the group shifted to a grassy plot in front of Department of Indian Theatre, Panjab University. Fortunately, nobody objected to it. Things were much better now in shadow of Deptt. of Indian Theatre, literally.
Scene VI Locale: Lawns of Deptt. of Indian Theatre, Panjab University, Chandigarh.
Children were enjoying their evening assembly and their number crossed over 30 at times. Besides singing and dancing, another attraction was a free treat of tea and snacks every now and then which the young man use to offer them from his pocket money. However the initial zeal and zest started fizzling out and children started dropping out slowly and gradually; leaving young man alone on several occasions. Yet, a silver lining was that some of them did come back though not regularly. Some three four months passed like this when it was felt that mere song and dance routine was not enough to retain their interest. Some thing more was needed. Thus using his theatre experience he thought of starting some kind of drama with them. Searching for a suitable script he realized that none of the available scripts served his need for either they were bit too formal or difficult to be comprehended by these novice slum children. They needed something in their mutilated spoken language and a story to which they could relate. Since nothing like this was available, the young man tried to pen down a few lines himself, though he had never done scripting before. Surprisingly, the bunch took these lines like fish to water. Egged on, a month after another para was composed and that to clicked with them. The experiment continued and after about 4-5 months of labour they had a script of their own, running for about one hour and a half and they named it – “Raja Aur Kissan” (the King and the Farmer). It was a pot-pourrie of folk lore, folk dances, folk music, acrobatics, jugglery etc. The story was of a king who due to his extremely sedentary lifestyle suffers total loss of appetite. When all ploys fail to treat the king, a poor farmer seeks a chance and to everybody’s surprise, succeeds in curing the king by his own innovative methods.
By now it was July 1993 and temperatures had risen to around 45-C. Unfazed by blazing winds, these youngsters continued their onward journey, step by step, in the open grounds, under the sky. What to talk of remembering the dialogues, even understanding them was not easy as most of the players were illiterate not only in literal terms but also in intellectual sense, as they had not known or seen any thing beyond misery and drudgery till date. Their cluster of low roofed shanties was the only world that they had experienced. No wonder then that preparing a ten minute scene took ten days or more at times. Undeterred by these handicaps, the young man continued to baptise his brigade members in theatrics. Alongside he was also trying to make them more presentable and amenable, like carving gems out of rough stone.
So you too can lend your helping hand to brighten the destiny of scores of children living in darkness of illiteracy and abject poverty. Mr. Khan can be contacted on his cell +91-9815145453, +91-9316132900, +91-172-22720105 / or you can e-mail him at theatreage_chd@yahoo.com