I went to the Planetarium building to check on the Manager as I was advised by the lady in the Center. The gentleman was off for the day. After I introduced myself, the office people advised me to meet the Director of the Center in the main building. Saturday was a working day and I could return.
Planetarium has an attraction to people like me who work on matters relating to space. An English language show "Wonders of the Universe" was scheduled to be screened at 3 PM. It was good timing for me. I bought the ticket and walked through the corridor to the screening dome. The corridor had planetary images painted on the wall. People from all spectrum in life were walking by. There was chatter, mothers talking to younger ones. Many were awe-struck to see the sky depiction on the walls. I loved the scientific awareness.
Planetarium equipment is standard in the world. Customarily a planetarium would show patches from the night sky with occasional magnification. New mappings are done to create more realistic rendering through image fusion. It can be a good tool for science education for students to visualize the mechanics of the stars and the planets. As I was leaving,a large school group was entering accompanied by two teachers. They were going to the Marathi language show to be screened at 4 PM.
The return journey home was easy. Taxi to Mahalxmi, train to Goregaon, then taxi home. The final taxi ride was tricky because there was no street address. One has to come near a temple and then guide oneself. I found the taxi drivers in Mumbai of higher diligence than the drivers in Delhi. Mumbai appeared more active and more friendly. Respecting a visitor gives character to a city.
Jitendra and I had tea at home. We were ready for our trip to Sophia College Auditorium for the play. We hired a taxi and merged ourselves in the evening traffic. It was a two hour ride. I had to practically retrace my path this time in an automobile. The driver was good. We had to go to city and then to the Parsi enclave.
I had a fancy to theatrical performances from the childhood. My mother was a lover of artistic events and we would spend many summer nights in watching popular folk plays presented on open air stages designed in public areas. Dramatic performance is an old art form of India. New literary compositions were mostly created to help develop public debate on the issues in the society. Plays mirrored the home life and helped the mind analyze conduct in the play of life. Portraying heroism and nobility through the plays are tools of inspiration to the children and the young. Plays have psycho-physical impact on the mind.
"Ek Mulaqat" is a play depicting the events of a romantic evening encounter between two poets. The play is based on a real life story of two well known poets of Punjab, Islamic Shahir Ludhianvi and the Hindu Amrita Pritam. They both were contemporary to my father and were members of the pre-independence progressive writers' group in India. Both wrote powerfully about the human conditions, Shahir in Urdu and Amrita in Punjabi. Amrita began liking Shahir, she divorced her husband. Shahir went ion exploring life and remained uncommitted. Shahir died young at about 60, Amrita lived twenty or so more years.
Punjab has been a land of creative writing through its history. Early Indians settled there and composed the Vedas. The land is prosperous but has seen exploitation and wars. The valor of the people does find expression in creative compositions and freedom in thinking. Partition of India at her independence tormented Punjab dividing families. Both Shahir and Amrita chose to live in India though they were born in present day Pakistan. Both lamented on human misery and wrote powerfully about it.
My father was a leftist and was an activist poet. Poetry is romantic expression, activism is service to society. A poet lives in a literary circle, an activist lives among people. A poet strives to influence society through his or her words, an activist acts in real time. A poet's words are the inspiration, an activist's conduct is. A poet is a guide, an activist is a friend. Unlike the other poets of his generation, my father had chosen to combine the two traits.
Though not proficient in many languages, I had interest in watching words when I was young. Words do not make a difference but the style of composition does. Every composition has a built-in prosody to it and the composition follows the prosody. Poets try their best, they succeed when the composition may carry the inner prosody. It was interesting to attend the progressive writers' conferences when I was young. I had to detach myself from romanticism in order to take the responsibility of the family. Through the play, I wanted to relive my early childhood.
Sophia College is in a dense residential neighborhood. It is a women's college, possibly secluded for a reason. The entrance and the lobby did not look like a part of Performing Arts Center. There was a ticket window and a few couches placed in the lobby. Many young visitors were possibly attracted to the film personalities doing the play. Two reputed film actors Shekhar Suman and Deepti Naval were participating in the play. I had not seen their performance before.
We were given a well produced program brochure advising us to read through the reproduced poems to create mood. Transliterated texts from poems from both the poets and their translation in English was provided. English is still is the common medium in literary circles. The brochure contained my favorite lines of Shahir from his poem "Taj Mahal: "My love, they too love so well, Those who toiled on the Taj. Their graves lie unmarked, No one has placed even a wreath there!"
Indian writer and scholar Bharata wrote the treatise on the dramatics called natyashastra in 4th century AD. He specified the stage preparation, the artists' entry, the make up, the props and the accompanying music. The play has a goal of sensory simulation, one must be cognitively affected. There has to be an environment. The mood should be created. The presentation of the paper analyzing the possible neurological implications of sensory simulation brought me to Bangkok in this trip.
Our seats were in the balcony. We were treated to ninety minutes of poetry, cleverly disguised as witty conversation. Shahir shows up in the house of Amrita who had been eagerly waiting. Amrita talks of the world, life and happiness and Shahir goes in tangent to the triviality, pain and misery. Amrita loves everything Shahir says and teases him more. They drink, they talk of nature. A man inside alerts Amrita of her phone calls, she ignores. She adores him, he remains detached. He likes her as a listener, not as a partner. He admires her passion, character and wit.
The set design was simple, but well done. It simulated the evening scene and the romantic tone. The shayaris were interspersed as ghazals for listening pleasure. Urdu and Punjabi are not every-day languages, one has to listen carefully to mark the words. The acoustics was good and there was total literary silence. The play ended with standing ovation to the artists. Both were excellent. The writer director Saif Hyder Hasan came on stage to applause. He was unkempt and shy to acknowledge the magnitude of his accomplishment. He had planned the applause in his prosody!
Slowly we walked out. Exits are always crowded. On my way, I noticed the Director helping people. I went to him and complimented him personally. I had seen "one man companies" before, he was one of them! The concept, the design, the script, the direction and the production were all to his credit. Unlike Shakespeare, he was not on stage.
Our taxi showed up and we retraced our path twenty miles to our home.
