Just natural

“Chal Door Mere Mun” emerged from Lokesh Jain’s summer workshop.

Summer vacations in schools is the time for children’s theatre in Delhi. Apart from the Delhi Government’s cultural wings like Sahitya Kala Parishad, Punjabi Akademi and Urdu Akademi, quite a few theatre directors organise children’s theatre workshops in different parts of the city charging quite a heavy fee. Since over the years I have been writing on the works of Government agencies that organise children’s theatre workshops, this year I decided to confine myself only to the “private sector” if I may use the term without casting aspersion on their work or financial motives. In fact, the end product of such groups is usually of much higher standard than the Government-run cultural organisations. Simply because over the years there had been hardly any change made by the Government-run organisations in the standard of presentation or the method of selection for the directors to conduct the workshops, etc.

While looking for something new in children’s threatre this year, a friend, just a few weeks back, asked me if I had seen any of Lokesh Jain’s works with children, and if not, I should not miss their group Mandala’s presentation, “Chal Door Mere Mun” at the India Habitat Centre. The play is scripted by the group with lyrics by Jain. The play is different from the usual run of children’s plays that are mounted by different groups during the holidays. The play is a journey of seven butterflies who live happily in a jungle with their friends. But one day they come to know that two men — Yakku and Makku — have come to destroy the hills for their vested interest, they want to start a mining company. The children of the jungle and the butterflies revolt against them but are nabbed by the two bad men and sent far away. They are put in a cave to die. The children heara roar of a boatman confined in a tortoise shell by Yakku and Makku, because all the boatmen had protested against Yakku-Makku’s fishing company. As we go along, the fishermen tell the butterflies that if they discover two red and yellow flowers and give them, they will be freed from the tortoise shell and will also help the butterflies to come out of the cave. The butterflies not only finds the flowers for the fishermen but also help Yakku-Makku’s daughters who are ill after drinking the polluted water of their father’s factories. On being freed from the cave, the butterflies are dancing and singing, happy once again.

The essence of Jain’s workshop was to join children from diverse backgrounds and with special needs. Through the workshop, the little ones (they were 21 in total) make an effort to evolve relationships with the hills, turtles, etc. and learn how to live with nature.

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