My Tryst with Theatre

I come from a fine arts loving family and a family where everyone is encouraged to learn at least one of the forms - dance, music, theatre. My grandparents used to play the sitar. My uncles have learnt instruments and my aunt Kathak. I also tried to keep the tradition going.

1. I trained in Kathak for 3 years.
2. I tried to learn the keyoboard, but wasn't too successful.

Then I found performance.

I started with attending the concert by Mr. Anup Jalota and another one by Mr. Jagjit Singh. Then, I went to US to finish my study and then I came back and discovered theatre.

I attended my first play 2 weekends ago, 2nd October. I never thought I would watch Mr. Naseeruddin Shah perform as my first play to attend. It was a great experience. The play was titled "Katha Collage".

Katha Collage - as it was a collection of 3 plays - Bade Bhai Sahab, Shatranj Ke Khiladi and Samantran. The first two were written by Munshi Premchand.

I've probably just read one or two stories written by Munshi Premchand, as part of course work. But, I would definitely like to read Bade Bhai Sahab.

Naseer's son Imad had played the protagonist in this play. He was very good and a very very close resemblence with Naseer, even in the voice.

All in all it was a very enjoyable experience and very theraputic for curing the stress built up for weeks.

Me and mom agreed, that plays and theatre definiltely improves our quality of life. Fine arts isn't a very expensive hobby if compared with the shopping and movies people do every weekend.