The year was 1290 . A crowd had gathered around a clearing, where broken down pillars marked the presence of an ancient temple, now long gone. A young boy, just 14 years old, leaned against one of those pillars, deep in thought. Then, he began speaking, and the crowd fell silent, listening to his every word. He spoke without any notes, translating the Bhagavat Gita, from Sanskrit, which only the pundits knew, to the language everyone in the village knew and spoke – a variety of Prakrit which developed into the Marathi language. Even as he spoke, one of the men in the audience realized how momentous this event was, and how important this composition would be. He began writing down the words the young boy spoke, and this composition was named by its author and composer, the Bhavartha Deepika – the enlightening meaning (of the Bhagavat Gita). Now, the ancient, holy text, was no longer restricted to the pundits, but accessible to all, understood easily by them, composed as it was, in their...
Given a choice between a movie and a play , I would choose a play any day...... But ask me how many plays I have seen, and the answer is - negligible! There are many reasons, mostly to do with distance and timing, and in the past, the cost of the whole outing....But today, the primary reason is Samhith. I would love to take him along to plays, but for one thing, he does not have the patience to sit still for an hour (he can't even do that for a movie!) but more importantly, given the time plays are usually put up,and the distance from our place, it totally throws him out of gear, and that leads to problems for me. However, all of a sudden , Shankar insisted that we go to see a play at the Ravindra Natya Mandir , and after a bit of argument, both, Samhith and I gave in..... Off we went to see Akvarious Productions ' ' Afsaneh : Bai se Bioscope tak ', staged as part of the Vinod Doshi Theatre Festival . The play is actually a dance drama about the nautanki and baitha...