22 days in the land of sunrise-Arunachal Pradesh

Theatre,Y.D. Thonshi & Mirror

14th April 08
Today is the 1st day of Assamese calendar year. My Mobile is ringing frequently. I am also sending back short message to my co-artists, friends and well wishers. Living in a crowded and noisy city, often miss my parent, brother and relatives in a small hilly town, Diphu. The bright sunshine guides me to the land of Sunrise in the east of India. My destination is Naharlagan, little kilometer away form the capital of Arunachal Pradesh, Itanagar. A theatre workshop with the local artists in the beautiful town is on my card. With rigorous interaction and practice as my agendas, I am also expecting to Arunachal, earlier known as NEFA.

Pranjal K. Saikia knocked the door to inform-the vehicle has arrived. And soon our journey begins. We were accompanied by another actor Shantanu Monsun. Slowly we left Guwahati and our vehicle starts rolling on the bumpy National Highway, 52. Looking through the windows, the soft spoken guy, Pranjal looks at the morning daily-all useless news. Shananu was quick to respond, after all media is a business. I tried to intervene; everything is a business today, perhaps not the theatre. And we are the believer of art-no business, no glamour and no money.

After one hour journey through the hilly terrain of Jorabat, our vehicle arrived at Kagaj Nagar, Jagiroad. Soon after a light breakfast and grabbing few bottles of packaged water with biscuits, we start the next phase of our journey. More terrible road welcomes us, as the construction of 4-lane Highway was on progress. A good news but in expense of hundred living trees on the road side. The broadening of the road demanded the lives of those green old trees. Development comes with a price for all of us.

Pranjal is a senior member of our theatre group. He is an actor and a very good organizer. Shantanu is new in our group from Barpeta District. He has a musical background. We will be there almost for a month. We are excited and looking forward.

If you go to a place and does not stay for long and don’t taste the local cuisine, enjoy the indigenous culture, roam around the streets, vegetable markets and villages, I don’t think, that is a stay. I always wish to enjoy the local colour and flavor of a place with optimum involvement that inspire me to understand the celebration of lives in their ways.

Passing Nagaon, a major town of Assam, and our vehicle turned left to cross the mighty river Brahmaputra. The longest road bridge Kolia Bhomora guided us to Tejpur, the land of Usha-Anirudha.

Even, traveling through the north bank of River Brahmaputra in Assam is fascinating always. It is different, unique and special. The wide-ranging Tea gardens in the both sides of the High way fascinate all of us. The empty road with clear sky makes our mind fly and for hours we become silent.

The highway tuned towards Arunachal at Balipara. The virgin Arunachal hills become visible. We reached check gate at Halengi, the necessary formalities is done by Pranjal.Its terrible. We need so much formality to visit our own lands. Inner Line Permit, RAP (which is applicable for the foreigners) etc.

I am coughing badly and feeling feverish. Though my health forced me to sleep most of the time in the journey, but in between I did not forgot to look outside frequently. The fish sellers and the boys in the bicycles with a typical orchid locally called KOPOU, the old people in the street wearing snow white attire is very much fascinating.

I was almost dark, by the time we reached Naharlogun. We entered into a hotel called Chandini as planned. Mr. Tam was waiting for us. His warmth made us forgetting the tiredness of our journey. A hilly silence covered us.

15th April 08
Arunachal Pradesh State govt. is celebrating its completion of one year of its 5year tenure. It is a festive mood here. The whole day we waited to meet the local organizers of the workshop. The local organizer is the dept of culture, Arunachal Pradesh and the sponsor is North East Zonal cultural Centre. In the evening, an official of the dept. of Culture, A.P. turned up. He discussed about the requirements of the workshop. He took the list and goes out by saying that we are going to start the workshop tomorrow. I was still suffering from fever. I ordered a chicken soup. The kitchen manager refused to take the order since it was 7.30 by the time. They are ready only with dinner orders. It reminds my earlier experiences in Nagaland, Mizoram etc that it is a hill station of north east. So, here sun rises early and as well sun sets also early. Almost in all the hills stations of North east like Izwal, Dimapur, Kahima, my home town Diphu, the dark comes by 5 or 5.30 in the evening and by 7.30 it’s really night. Only Dreams may be borrowed from the lone tiny roads of the towns. Deep Silence will be the mediator.

16th April 08
We begin our work. It was a taught day. We needed to try heard to establish a communication among us. Few of them are local ethnic Artists and others belong to local Bangoli community. It was a mixed group in term of age ethnicity and requirement. We divided the group into two parts for convenience to conduct the sessions since few of them are below class ten standards. While the organizer selects participants, they never know that the participants from different age (at least) group will be a difficult task for all of us. I have seen, this type of initial workshops are never been shaped in the period of planning. Though that is not their fault. Since this is an initial workshop.

17th April 08
It was a cloudy day. I am not getting well. Still, I am trying to feel better. The participants are excited. That was the best part. They are looking for new things. We heard few folk stories from the participant today. Pranjal started some theatre games. I stared few action reaction games…

18th April 08
The blue and fresh Hills give you peace. It brings silent to me always. In Arunachal too, it is making me silent. In last two days, I am reading a book called ‘the legends of Paisem’ published by Penguin and written by Mamang Dai. Mamang is an acclaimed writer cum practicing journalist. I heard about this book and also about her narrative pattern. She is one of the best known writers from Arunachal Pradesh. Lumbai Dai and Yeje Darye Thongshi are very known writers nationally and they are very close to Assamese Readers. They write in Assamese language.

19th April 08
I, Pranjal and Shantanu are reading books every night and Next day, we share the stories.We are trying to find out a suitable story or a folktale or a play. I was caring Antigone, The tempest and Nagamandal with me. But, we are realizing that a play will be a much taught job, because the workshop starts only by 9.30 am and get over by 4-30 pm. Most of the participants have no experience even watching a theatre. No one heard of Ratan Thiyam or B.V. Karanth or even not close to folk performances. But, many of them manage to sing and know bit of traditional dance forms. Mrs. Arati Khound, an enthusiastic and eldest participant knows many dance forms of A.P. She is a local of AP and got married to an Assamese. Anthropologically A.P. is a culmination of many ethnic groups practicing separate language and culture.

Our search for a story is on. We are reading books by Y.D. Thongshi, Lumbe Dai, Mamang Dai etc. Pranjal collected books from district library. I bought few books from a book stall too. But, we are enjoying the process.

20th April 08
Shantanu said, in the vegetable market, I show, most of the shopkeepers are sitting with dry cabbages. I replied, for seasonal vegetables, Arunachal Pradesh may be dependent on Assam. Pranjal Added, The south of Arunachal Pradesh is bordered by Assam; other three side of A.P. is bordered by China and Bhutan. So, the national communication is through Assam only. If a road blockage or bandha takes place in Assam, AP too effected.

I and Shantanu went to the streets. We wanted to see how it looks at night. It was seven pm and the streets sleep in the lap of deep silence. Pranjal was busy structuring the story for performance. I wait till everyone goes to the world of dream and I read a Mamang’s poetry – the river poem. A folk tale collected by Y.D. Thangshi make me traveling in the world of past. In the silence, I try to connect with someone sitting in the other end of the world in the internet.


21st April 08
With the child group, we are devising a play. Nothing has structured yet. We are just shuffling the ideas with eight of them. It is a Y. D. Thansgi’s story called DAPUN means Mirror with the senior group. Pranjal discovered the story and we all liked it.

22nd April 08
Today we had typical Arunachal’s dinner. Rice with Boiled Chicken with green herbs. In the hotel; it was good, better than regular Indian dishes. In fact Pranjal and Shantanu are almost always trying local foods in different restaurants in lunches. After dinner, we three of us had discussed about the plays and we composed a song for the child group. Pranjal played an important role in translating the song.

23rd April 08
The production is in process. I always believed that a production is not important in a workshop. But, the participants must get a process that they may create any production later on and understand the process of creating a play and enjoy the pleasure of a life performance.

24th April 08
The participants today seem that they are happy. It means that they are receiving the ideas. Pranjal is very happy to see them happy. He is a very well know story writer and novelist. He received the Sahitya Academy Award for his writings. I, Pranjal and Shantanu –we all are excited to dramatize a story of Y. D. Thanshi. He is a writer loved by readers in Assam.

Celebrating our happiness, we went to the place called Itaford. It has a historical importance. But, we become unable to know that who constructed the fort. Shantanu spoke to many people living nearby. But, we are enabling to foggier it out. Like many other north eastern ethnic groups, here also there is no written history.

25th April 08
Today we did a market survey in search of costumes and sets materials. Market is not very big in Naharlagun and in Itanagar. So, we did not take long time to understand the possibility in terms of materials. I was taking an eye on the possible materials at every moment whenever we are in the market and even while traveling through. Arati Khound gives us company. She is the eldest participant in our workshop. We had a cup of tea and a pannier jalapi. None of us had tested a jelepi made up with pannier earlier. We enjoyed.

26th April 08
Had seen a wonderful film in TV.
Visited the Itanagar Trade fair for materials for designing. In the evening, I went to talk with the manager of a tent house. Me and Shantanu was ready to hear that we wont get stage lights for theatre e.g. p.c. Spots, Dimmers etc. But, the tent house owner agreed to manage the necessary lights and accessories. We are happy, in fact Very happy. Oh, at least for the demonstration we will get 10-12 p.c and few par lights. And we will get a consol too.
27th April 08

We are discussing on the properties and the set materials required for the play. Everything is very costly here in Itanagar. We are calculating budget matters. In the mean time a call from the workshop in charge Mr.Tam comes. After listening to his words, we are stunts. The light charges will be too high. It will be eighty percent of our total budget.

28th April 08
For lights, we started to think alternative. Mr. Tam suggested for presenting the play in halogen lights. We cannot agree with him. We cannot allow our artists to perform in halogens. I tried to arrange lights from Guwahati. I had discussed with few lights hiring agencies of Guwahati. They all said that they will be able to confirm tomorrow only. I am sure; tonight will be a nightmare for all of us.

29th April 08
AAINA Pranjal decided the title for the performance. AAINA is a local word easily associated with mirror. Pranjal had worked on the first draft of the play. He wrote the dialogues for sequences. The story tells the tale of interaction between isolated lifestyle of the inhabitants of the blue hills of lower parts of Himalaya and the modern scientific discoveries.
I initially concentrated on the children group .Developed a small play on Imagination. I titled the piece as ‘Sathi sapna dekho’.


30th April 08
The plays are preparing in Hindi language. Since every participant’s mother tang is different from each other. In Itanagar, Hindi is very common. In this case Pranjal translated the story to Hindi from Assamese.

1st May 08
I with Shantanu am preparing the synopsis of the play for publicity.
…A teacher was appointed to a new village school in the Aakun Basti. It is a story while Arunachal Pradesh was known as NEFA. The village is located in a remote corner and the inhabitants had no idea about a school. It was very new for them. Even they are ignorant about Slate, Pen, pencil, book etc. The teacher was the first person to bring a Gramophone and a looking mirror to the village. When the villagers discovered those things in the teacher’s residence, they were surprised. Rather astonished.

A girl called Wangdan, a resident of the village had a difficult past. Her face is destroyed by a village boy named Chimbo for not being able to receive her attention. Wangdun after looking herself in the mirror feels very depressed. And she committed suicide in the same day in the nearby forest. The mirror become fun for many villagers and Children, But, for Wangdun it is the reason of self killing. This is the storyline of the AAINA. ……

Little tired, so, we planned to write the synopsis of the other play tomorrow.

2nd May 08
The play Sathi Sapna Dekho is devised and developed with the young participants of the workshop. Their homeland is one that that is the land of sun rise. They dreamt of a beautiful land which is green, peaceful and competent. The young minds talk about anti social activities of the society which they don’t wish to exist in their imaginary ideal world. They wish to fly high and see the world of their imagination.

3rd May 08
We had a long day today. We rehearsed till late evening. The lights equipments reached today. Shiva and Kanu are skilled light technician. They worked together earlier for our theatre group in Guwahati. We all are relieved to see them. We planned to arrange lights tonight only. Since, we are egger to have a lights rehearsal tomorrow.

4th May 08
Today is the final day. Walk up in very early in the morning. I still use to take a lot of tension about any performance. I remain excited, tensed and anxious till the show is over. Over and all I never meet Sir Thanshi before. I spoke to him over phone few months back. I doubt that he remembers me. I am worried because he is going to witness the performance tomorrow.

5th May 08
The Performance was at Shidharth hall, Itanagar. Performance went off. No technical hassle. Audience set till end and they seemed enjoying. Khanindra Deka, a reputed Reported from Guwahati came to see the performance at Itanagar. Sir Thanshi Came before time and remained sited till we starts off. We performed the Sathi Sapna Dekho first and than Aaina. In the end of the performance, he met all the artists. Khanindra Deka had an exclusive dialogue with him. Khanindra told me that Sir Thanshi liked the performance. We are glad that he is not annoyed. Our worries went off. Even, everyone went off. We and Mr. Tam remained .We knew that the performance is over. While we reached hotel, we realized now it is the time to back to Guwahati.

6th May 08
We started to Guwahati in very early in the morning with our memories. It was 4 a.m. in the morning; a very silent disturbing morning raped us. We came to Bandar dewa, we crossed the border of A.P.

A car arraigned by my brother’s friend was waiting for us. Khanindra Deka, Pranjal, Shantanu and me were silent in the car, may be enjoying the scenic beauty or playing with the memories..........

And here is the directorial note of me for the performance:

We are looking for long time to find an opportunity to create a theatre piece with ethnic artists of Arunachal Pradesh. It has given me an ample of scope to interact with local talents. I believe it is one of the important activities that may inspire evolving an identity of North Eastern theatre. Interaction among the Artists of India’s alienated northeast is expected from long past. In the long run, this kind of exercise may contribute tremendously towards the growth of larger Northeastern identity. In the process of working together we have discovered each other. This kind of process may help us to exchange more and more ideas, believes and thoughts. It is really a rewarding experience for me as well as my colleges.

The Article was written for Rang Prashang , A National School of Drama Publication,2007