Neelam Mansingh, anchoring the roots!

Neelam Mansingh Choudhary has been honored with Sangeet Natak Akamedi Award in 2003 and Padma Shri Award in 2011 for her extraordinary contribution in Indian theatre. And believe me, she is one of the most simple going, humble, sweet and classy woman you'll ever meet. 

This Punjabi woman is not unknown to the city and neither Bhopal is unknown to her. Neelam Mansingh Choudhary settled in Bhopal in 1979 when Bharat Bhawan was just an idea. She is one of those artists who inaugurated the stage of Bharat Bhawan when the cultural hub was established and that makes it more emotional for her and also for the city. Along with the artists of her Chandigarh based theatre group ‘The Company’ Neelam Mansingh came down to the city for her show in Bharat Bhawan few months back to stage the play 'The licence' based on the story of Saadat Hassan Manto, and let me remind you Manto is a dare! 

I had spoken to Neelam ji on phone few days before she reached Bhopal, thanks to Sourabh Anant, and she had asked me to come down to Bharat Bhawan on the previous night of the show where she directly reached from the airport. Late at night on a Tuesday in November 2014, preparing the lights for her show next day, Neelam ji didn’t need a question for the push to speak. She instantly said, “I thought that the show is a part of some festival but it is a standalone performance. However for me it’s like coming home in a strange kind of manner where all the people I knew are dead. There is an emotional connect with the city. And you know we inaugurated the stage with Nirmal Verma’s ‘The Weekend’. It’s really wonderful to be here again!”

Vishakha: When you were in Nationa School of Drama, Ebrahim Alkazi was the Director and when you joined Rangamandal of Bharat Bhawan you worked with B.V. Karanth. Both of them are legends and are two different schools. How did that training influenced you in your learning years with them?

Neelam ji: I think I was very fortunate to work with the two legends of Indian theatre. Alkazi was a renaissance man, like a sage and philosopher, working on realism, rehearsals and design. What I really got from Alkazi was very invaluable that is the work culture and a sense of detail. Whereas Karanth ji was an anarchist and he used to work on improvisations, spontaneity of the actor, what we call people’s theatre. The association of four and a half year with Karanth ji in Bharat Bhawan lasted for another 22 years. His collaboration with my company in music is just unforgettable and inseparable. So it was between a sage and an anarchist. I think I completed my education in theatre like this. I feel lucky.

Vishakha: How did you come to Bhopal after NSD and why going back to Chandigarh?

Neelam ji: Both were not my choice. I came to Bhopal because my husband got transferred and the same reason for going back. When I came here, I knew nothing about the idea of Bharat Bhawan but I was fortunate to be at the right time at the right place. When I had to go back, I was heartbroken. Mere bas mein hota to main Bhopal se kabhi nahi jati! Look at this space, it is so beautiful, the art gallery, Antarang, Bahirang, kahan milta hai ye sab! There were people like Nirmal Verma, J.Swaminathan and one of the exciting directors like Karanth ji, who would ever want to leave all this!

Vishakha: And then you started working in Punjabi…

Neelam ji: This is what Karanth ji said when I was very upset. He said if you want your theatre to be contemporary, work with you own language. You can’t move towards modernity without anchoring somewhere. And there was this big challenge with Punjabi theatre as there were many crazy notions like language of truck drivers, funny characters like cartoons on screen and Punjabi theatre was considered downtrodden. It was like dismissing a language and the culture. It was almost a political decision, unconsciously, and Punjab was a troubled state at that particular time. What Karant ji said to me was non-negotiable and so I realized the need of working with the language and style because people also need to know that Gurumukhi is a beautiful language and the Sufiyana Kalam also comes from the same land.

Vishakha: What about Naqqals specifically?

Neelam ji: Most of my ideas generated while I was working here in Bhopal with Rangmandal, this is why I consider this place as my Karmabhoomi. B.V. started getting the Nacha, tribe tradition, group from Bundelkhand for some projects. Those interactions were not to get us in a particular tradition but to help us open and unlock our tied up energies. And this was not only Karanth ji’s idea but Pannikar was doing it with Chakyaars and Ratan Thiyyam was doing it in Manipur. In Chandigarh, I was working with many aspects of Punjab, martial arts, Sufi etc. and I came across Naqqals. There were many reasons for the deterioration in that tradition and many things were changing. Naqqals had skills but that wasn’t like Jatra and others. I thought this is a tradition needed to be worked on.

Vishakha: What do you think about the recent theatrical activities and conditions?

Neelam ji: This is difficult to say. If I were living in some other country I could have answered that but India has got such a huge traditional variety. It is difficult to see Indian theatre from one aspect. But yes, I think that money is a big issue. Surviving on theatre is difficult; it is uncertain and financially disturbing.

Play: 'The Licence'

Sa’adat Hasan Manto is that one writer of all times who is a dare to be performed on stage. The intensity of emotions and psychological hammering in his stories creates instability inside the reader. One such story of Manto ‘The License’ was staged in Bharat Bhawan that had certain references from Bertolt Brecht’s story ‘The Job’. With the third bell and lights off in the auditorium, audience was prepared for something spectacular to happen.

The story deals with the life of a girl Neeti who runs away with a Tongawala named Suraj. After few months of their marriage the police finds out the couple and arrests Suraj. Neeti tries to insist the cop that she ran away willingly and Suraj did not force her but her husband is put behind the bars. Due to ill health in the jail, Suraj dies after two months but since he had given his Tonga on rent to one of his friends Deena, Neeti used to get a fixed amount every day. After Suraj’s death, Deena proposes Neeti for marriage but she refuses and later she is raped. Neeti decides to move on and get the Tonga herself on road. She would take people on her Tonga and earn a livelihood but one day a cruel traffic police stops Neeti and demands to see her license. Neeti doesn’t have the license so she said she will come to the office tomorrow and apply for it. The next day when Neeti reaches the office, the officer tells her that she is a woman and can’t run a Tonga on road. Neeti says she doesn’t know anything else, how will she survive? The officer tells her to sit in the market and sell her body. The height of anger crosses the limits and Neeti had no option than to wear her husband’s cloths and become a man to run her Tonga.

The play began and it was only after one hour that the audience realized it was a play. Dumbstruck, no one there could take their eyes off the stage. Many a times there were silence of speech but the movements of the actors were narrating the story, sincerely followed by everyone.  The play was like story telling where Ramanjit Kaur played the roles perfectly, bringing the soul of every character in her body. There was a character in background filling up the scenes, acting with the reference of the ongoing story and interacting with Ramanjit’s characters played by Gick Grewal. The music was live, beautifully designed on the set in a corner where the singers were sitting in a circle with the kerosene lamps. Music was designed by B.V. Karanth who was associated with The Company for 22 years. The folk music of Punjab was amazingly put in to enhance the play performed by Pamela Singh, Meher Chand, Bahadur, Satman Ringh, Ram Singh and Amarjit. Lights get the big compliments for the best output of the emotions throughout the play. Daulat Ram Vaid designed the lights and Parveen Jaggi executed with perfection. Properties were another fascination in the play. Water, milk, Tonga, bench, kerosene lamps, bucket, cloths, bricks, everything was used on stage as per the need. Everything was real! 

Rang Sopan-2: A mini cultural trip to Kerala

It's going to be a year that I covered this amazing theater festival 'Rang Sopan-2' that was dedicated to and based on the work of Padma Bhushan Kavalam Narayan Panikkar. It was the beginning of my work in Hindustan Times and my good luck too that I got the opportunity to meet K.N. Panikkar and watch his plays. The festival was held for 7 days at Bharat Bhawan in Bhopal and was absolute fun, ofcourse for those who love to know and explore about Indian art and culture. 
There is so much to say about this personality whom I met in the beginning of my job. This festival gave me a good direction to move forward. The seven day festival 'Rang Sopan-2' was indeed like a 'festival' where all of us, Bhopalies, saw the richness of the culture of Kerala. The festival included plays in Hindi, Sanskrit and Malayalam, some sessions of Rang Sangeet (music of theatre), some talk and discussion session on the contribution and working style of K.N. Panikkar.
The evenings began with 'Theyyam' which is a traditional spiritual folk dance form from Kerala. Rather, Theyyam is a very popular ritual of worshiping prominent in the state. The performer uses a lot of make-up and heavy head gears traditionally. Dance movements are vigorous and special instruments accompany the performer. Theyyam is based on different stories famous on the land and have more than 400 types.

Later the Sopanam Rang Samooh would stage the play everyday either in Hindi, Sanskrit or Malayalam. The most exciting part of this whole festival was that even the non-Malayalam and non-Sanskrit speaking audience would understand the story. This is one of the strength of Panikkar's productions that the expressions, movements, music, set and lights would say it all and language is not a barrier! Another strength is his actors. It looked near to impossible that the same actors staged six different play of different moods in three different languages continuously without any flaw! One of the Hindi play was staged by the artists working in the repertory of National School of Drama. The classic style, dramatization of all elements of the play and amazing acting skills of artists of the group made it even more interesting and attractive where a huge population in theater fraternity is working on realistic theater. Sharing some photographs of the plays.

Still from the Malayalam play 'Uttar Raamcharitam' (उत्तर रामचरितम्) by Sopanam Rang Samooh 

Still from the Hindi play 'Abhigyan-shakuntalam' (अभिज्ञान शाकुन्तलम) by NSD repertory 

Still from the Malayalam play 'Kalluriutti' (कल्लुरुट्टी) by Sopanam Rang Samooh

Still from the Sanskrit play 'Pratima' (प्रतिमा) by Sopanam Rang Samooh

Still from the Malayalam play 'Bhagawatjugiyam' (भगवतजुगियम्) by Sopanam Rang Samooh

It's a new beginning!

It's a new year! It's a new beginning!
New years come and passes, and turns into old years. What is new in that? It's just that we consider that this year we will do something new, do something we haven't done, something that we wanted to do last year but couldn't. It's a flow of positive energy that, at least for a month or so, makes us think of our wishes, passions, priorities and plans.
Why for a month or so, why not for the whole year? Well now that depends on your sincerity for your own interests. So this time, I wish to resume this blog and continue writing. After a year too busy in settling myself I just forgot about writing the blog and now I realize that i should often do it!
This is a call for myself and for the people who like reading that now we will explore something into arts, travelling, people, conversations and stories! We might not be perfect in it but we will try to put our opinion of how world looks like from our two pretty eyes!
Till the next post..Cheers!!

बात सम्मान की है...

"क्षमा शोभती उस भुजंग को

जिसके पास गरल हो 

उसका क्या जो दंतहीन

विषरहित विनीत सरल हो"

कुछ दिनों पहले एक मित्र के याद दिलाने पर रामधारी सिंह 'दिनकर' की यह कविता पढ़ने का मौका मिला| आधुनिक हिन्दी साहित्य के जाने माने कवि दिनकर की "शक्ति और क्षमा" अपने शीर्षक के दोनों शब्दों को बेहतरीन तरह से समझाती है| कविता का सार है की शक्ति और क्षमा परस्पर एक दूसरे के साथ ही शोभा देते हैं| क्षमा कर देना हर व्यक्ति के बस में नहीं होता| जिस व्यक्ति में किसी  पर वार करने का बल न हो वह क्षमा करने योग्य नहीं होता बल्कि जो शक्तिशाली है, जिसमें कुछ बिगाड़ पाने का बल हो, क्षमा उसी व्यक्ति पर शोभा देती है| 

इसी प्रकार त्याग उसी व्यक्ति पर शोभा देता है जिसके पास त्याग करने योग्य कुछ हो| जैसे राजकुमार सिद्धार्थ जो राज-काज और संपत्ति के त्याग के बाद गौतम बुद्ध बने| कोई भिखारी या ग़रीब त्याग करे इसका कोई अर्थ नहीं बनता क्योंकि उसके पास त्याग करने के लिए  है ही क्या? और अब बात ईमानदारी की। एक अमीर व्यक्ति यदि किसी के बकाया रूपए लौटाए तो वह इमानदार है। बेशक वह इमानदार है। पर ऐसा व्यक्ति जिसके पास कुछ ख़ास संपत्ति या धन नहीं है फिर भी बेईमानी के पैसे लेना उसकी फितरत में नहीं है, जो बकाया पैसे सूत समेत बिना बहाने लौटा दे, ऐसा व्यक्ति न ही सिर्फ ईमानदार है बल्कि सम्मान के योग्य भी है।

शायद आपको लगेगा के आज के समय में ऐसे लोग कहाँ मिलते हैं जो शक्तिशाली होने के साथ क्षमाशील हो, धनी होने के साथ त्यागी हो, और ईमानदार तो बस एक शब्द भर सा लगता है। आपको आश्चर्य होगा यह जानकर के मैं वास्तव में एक ऐसे व्यक्ति को जानती हूँ जिसके पास किसी तरह बस दो वक़्त की रोटी कमाने का जरिया है, जो महनत का काम कर अपने परिवार का पेट भरता है, और इश्वर से बस इतना मांगता है की बेटे और बेटियाँ खूब पढ़ सकें और एक दिन इमानदारी और इज्ज़त की कमाएं और खाएं।

वह एक महिला है जो मेरे घर काम करती है। माता-पिता नौकरी पेशा है तो इन्हें हमने घर के काम और देखभाल के लिए रखा है। आप समझ सकतें हैं की किस तरह की महिला होगी वह जिसे हम "आई" कहतें हैं, मराठी में इसका अर्थ है "माँ"। आई किसी कहानी की आदर्श पात्र हो सकती है। पर वह सिर्फ एक कहानी की पात्र नहीं है बल्कि मानों जीवन के एक अद्ध्याय को समझ जाने के लिए बनाई गई एक पात्र है। आई की तरह जीवन जी पाना उतना आसान नहीं है जितना की मैं लिख पा रहीं हूँ या आप पढ़ पा रहे हैं। मानना होगा आई के उस धैर्य और विश्वास को जो आज भी दुनिया में अच्छाई को बनाए हुए है। कभी सोचती हूँ की कितना मुश्किल होगा हमारे लिए उस इंसान से अलग हो पाना जिसने खुद कभी पढाई तो नहीं की पर हमें बहुत कुछ सिखा दिया, जो खून के रिश्ते में कुछ न लगते हुए भी परिवार का हिस्सा है, जिसने हमसे काम या रुपये का रिश्ता नहीं बल्कि दिल का रिश्ता बनाया है। मुझे गर्व है की आई मेरी ज़िन्दगी का हिस्सा है।

इस सब के बाद भी वह तीन-चार हज़ार रूपए ही कमाती है। पर ये मूल्य उस काम का है जो उसका शरीर करता है, वास्तव में तो आई ने सम्मान कमाया है। 

Concern vs judgement

Call it concern, care or even possessiveness if fine, but there it makes a big difference with being 'concerned' and being 'judgemental'. Most of the times people say that they are concerned about you but this is what they just say and do not mean. You are always judged by others on your situations and their thinking, for what you do and what they think you must do, for what you really want and what they think you should want...

I have seen there are friends who break up at a certain point in their life because of this problem of giving judgement every time. Specially when it comes to friends, I think, it should just be a listening thing. After all 'listening' is one thing that takes away anger (at least in my case :P). For friends, you can be crazy with them, shout loud when u feel, cry when you are frustrated, abuse to your end limit and then get back to normal. Yes, you can be worst in front of your friend. This is what make the relation special. But here comes the problem when the concern of a friend becomes rules for the other, when they promise they'll understand when your bad but they don't, it is when one gives judgement on every possible thing, other doesn't want that and...break up...!!

When you are a friend to someone, you have to be with them as they are, you can't and shouldn't try to change them, but if they do change, let it be. Its natural, accept it! And now when you start judging, you start irritating. And the funny thing is, you expect that your friend who is frustrated will listen to your judgement and will follow what you suggest!

See, how it is coming up. Its not just a slight difference in pronunciation but a big difference in meaning that changes life. A tip for a healthy and happy relationship "Do accept but do not expect!"

Just a matter of understanding

How different personality people have even when they have same interests and caliber but have so different situations in life.

Everyone says that a self made man is always the one who 'always stands out' than a man who 'always had facilities and opportunities' to become some one who stands out. Compare a successful businessman who is a son of a successful businessman with a successful businessman who is a son of a successful carpenter. The man who will 'stand out' in this case for people will be the son of a carpenter. I find it so unfortunate for the son of a businessman who has to bear this pressure of 'standing out' from others. Of course he had opportunities but i hate this when people start expecting that he will have to pursue what his father does and if he doesn't, he is not worth any respect! (You never know, he could have been the best musician of the country!)

What about a woman? She is respected, oh sorry, that is a rare thing! Let me correct, she is appreciated (rather) when she is pretty even when she is 50 and is an active participant in the society where men gets to talk to her. But than again, this is when she is lucky enough to get a good husband and in-laws who let her work for herself. What would you say about a woman who is still in a conflict about how to bring herself up in society while her husband is busy earning respect for 'himself' and she has no one to share responsibilities than herself? She is still in the cycle of going for the job, coming back home, cooking, taking care of the children... When she tries to help her husband, he scolds that she doesn't know about what he is doing and how his work is done. "Mr. husband, if you'll know how she manages to do all this (managing her job and home), may be then she'll know about 'what are you doing and how your work is done'!" Here I'm not talking about the unlucky middle class women who do not even get the liberty to work but about the unfortunate ladies of so called educated families who get the liberty to work but are still counted unequal to that of their husbands.

This is a real problem of our society that no law would ever be able to change (although I don't want something like that). This inequality is in the mentality and has become the hard core nature of a human being. Be it a man or a woman, both have already decided for themselves; who will cook, who will help children in home work, who will earn money, who will represent the family... And the woman who do not accept this treatment, who are as successful, active and most importantly free as men, are generally single!

I won't say it is solely because of men but women are also responsible for that. But just one help of man in helping children in homework, or cooking on weekends, or making evening tea sometimes, or just a sweet smile saying 'I'll tell you how it works' is all what a woman wants!! I, again, think these small acts can bring a big (optimistic) changes in relationships, can change moments to 'happy moments', can make at least a part of our society better...

And yes, I THINK this way because I have seen this happen!!

Starts with thinking

So this is my first post in my blog! Since a long time i was thinking of starting a blog but unfortunately it remained a thought but today it got a chance to come to reality. Sometimes i think too much to begin with something as i don't find it right to give out stupid things(i, again, 'think' that sometimes my thought are stupid :P), but u see, u learn from mistakes. I'm sure it must have happened with a lot of people, as with me too, to come up with a real good name for the blog (or may be it happened with only me :/) but i got confused with what will i write?

I thought...thought...thought...and realised that this time i'll not 'think' too much on this. And finally came up with writing about what i do most of the times, i.e., i 'think' so much that i make story out of anything and the next hour i forget it! So why not write the stuff that comes in my mind for every possible thing that i see! I enjoy writing and i hope that my friends would like to read that 'stuff'' and will like it...

Cheers :D