I love the peace and solitude my living room offers.

It is a bright room with lots of sunlight pouring in. I love being surrounded by living things, and plants play a big role in my life! The elegant and tall bamboo is my favourite ­ it was used as a backdrop on the sets of my recent play Umbrao Jaan.

I have collected artefacts and momentos during my trips to India and other parts of the world. But, like in my life, India plays centrestage in my living space as well. I have an oringial canvas painting of Lord Krishna stealing buttermilk, from Orissa in India, and miniatures of dancing courtesans and brass and sandalwood murtis (statues) of Lord Ganesh, Natraj, goddesses Parvati and Saraswati. There is a lot of wood in the room which has monotones of pink, rose and maroon. Batik tablecloths add to the Indian ambience and the wool rug from Iran adds tradition and colour.

The bookcase holds books from France, Malta, and other parts of the world on different subjects by several authors.

I went to India to find myself and discovered India instead ­ her mystery, magic and her culture, which I want to share and bring to the West.

For this, I conceived a theatre-promoting company, Rasik Arts Inc., to open doors and link the cultures of America and Asia. It is not only the West, but also second and third-generation Americans and Canadians of Indian origin who know little of their culture other than what Indian films have to offer. With Rasik Arts, I hope to change all that.

I came to Toronto to pursue a career in arts and theatre and enrolled at the Uof T's graduate theatre programme. I wanted to incorporate music and dance into theatre and decided to experiment with the medium.

It was while studying for my doctorate in theatre and teaching at Ryerson and Queen's University that I was first introduced to India through the medium of dance. I enrolled in Joanna Das' Kathak dance school to enhance my knowledge of theatre, acting, communication and movement. This introduction to India grew into an undying relationship, which continues to grow with every visit to India.

I did not know what to expect upon my first visit to India. I thought I would discover myself in India. Even while this did not happen, I kind of emerged from my shadow to rediscover myself. I have been to India six times in the last eight years and met and learnt from Birju Maharaj, Rukmani Devi and Padma Subramaniam.

Each visit has demolished the many misconceptions I held about India. One of them being on the submissive Indian woman. Indian women are among the strongest in the world.

While in India I saw a lot of dance performances and dance dramas, street plays and Ram Leela as well as folk tales performed in smaller towns. Fascinated by Girish Karnad's play Naga Mandala, I decided it would be my company's first major stage performance. The play held audiences spellbound when staged in Toronto a few years back.

The idea of staging Umrao came to me when I bought a tape of the movie from Gerrard Street and realized how powerful and popular the character of Umrao was. I went to Lucknow to study more about her background and the place she lived.

Rasik Arts presented Umrao for the first time in English in September 2001. A talented cast of Indo-Canadian actors like Ellora Patnaik, Doris Rajan, Ishwar Mooljee, Layanti Banerjee and others rendered power-packed performances. I enjoyed the production challenges it brought, including the authentic music, dance, costumes, sets and lighting the play required. I want the play to tour major cities and towns across Canada and the us.

I would like to bring some of Mahesh Dattani's plays to Canada. These are contemporary, urban portraits of life and easier to produce. He won the 1998 Sahitya Akademi Award for his work Final Solutions and Other Plays. I also want to bring another play from India, Sandook - The Chest. Besides this, I want to film a documentary on traditional, village storytellers of India that take to story-telling for a living, but have transformed it to a mystic art.

I want to make human beings recognize other human beings and make the world a better place through the medium of theatre, dance and drama. I want Indians to play more than the brown-nose and your routine Indian cab driver in an international arena. I hope Rasik Arts can change the Indian stereotype in the West.

­ As told to Firdaus Ali

 

 

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