META, the Mahindra Excellence in Theater Awards, is an annual event which pulls in almost 400 entries from across India. The ten plays chosen by the Selection Committee are staged in Delhi, and provide an absolute treat for theater afficionados. This year, a play that left me with a buzz in the brain was Ghanta, Ghanta, Ghanta, Ghanta, Ghanta, staged by one of my favorite directors, Mohit Takalkar, and translated from Sam Steiner’s Lemons, Lemons…
The central theme of the play was the power of the word. Those who have the word, have the power - the narrative - and the play explored what happens when the ordinary citizen has a daily ceiling of words, 140 in this case. Within a private relationship, when one partner is privileged by public office?
Though the play was profoundly political, it also set me a creative challenge. How much can one express in 140 words? This is a challenge to which I will return periodically, perhaps in addition to my weekly post.
This first one sketches an interaction with three young men in a Delhi park. Feedback is always welcome. This time, particularly so:
Don't mind me, done lots of this stuff, I settle into the grass.
Have a toke?
Doesn't suit me now.
I got charas too - Skinnylegs.10 tolas from Kasol.
I shake my head, a gardener sidles up, reaching for a toke.
Eyeballs glazed, Prettyboy listens to his phone, extends it to me.
Errr...?
Skinnylegs rescues the phone - what's Uncle supposed to do with it?
It's OK to smoke here?
No, but we find a quiet corner.
Cops?
Floppyhair looks up - Sometimes.
Extortion?
Naah, they bash them up.
You?
No, I live here. You can't go to someone else's place to stone. In a publicity place.
Prettyboy and Skinnylegs slide away from the publicity place.
Employed?
4 years at the Patanjali shop. But the owner changed.
A beat.
Married?
No. Let me get work again, I tell my folks.
Looks down.
A conversation between strangers is a great vehicle to explore how much you could pack into 140 words. For one, a chat between strangers aloows a quick ping-pong game. And then, with each trade of question and answer, new information surfaces, which kept me hooked. For all these reasons for me, brilliant choice, Mohit!
What could you do better? I don't know but I would try to go for the same destination in a different vehicle--not conversation, but maybe a description? Off the top of my head, John McPhee does that well in his writings, although ironically his writing is anything but abridged.
Your thoughtful comments are deeply appreciated, Satyajit.
I will try a description.
Right now, I am cycling between Sri Lanka beaches.
Lots to observe here.
More soon.