Source: here.
The black basaltic rock had assumed the delightful shape of a large throne, fit for a mighty rakSha like atikAya, who was slain by the saumitra. It was a cool refugium in the hot plains baked by the eye of mitra and varuNa, a far cry from its origins as a magmatic upwelling from the innards of the Earth around the time of the final demise of the non-avian dinosaurs. I rested facing the direction of the gods. The eye of mArtANDa bhairava behind me, tilting towards the western boundary of the heavenly vault cast light, on her fair beautiful face – accentuating the her sharp features to verily attain the likeness of the foremost of the yakShiNI or apsarA hosts. She expressed her wish to direct an extraordinary nATaka for which purpose she wanted me to inspire her script.
I have always known myself to start with great literary flourish but end
in despicably ugly “nidhanas” that lent my writings the look of a
painting scratched by the bird on our patron god, the brahmaNya deva’s
flag. In deva bhASha they term it “ArambhashUra”. So I expressed my deep
apprehensions about being able to effect that crispness necessary for a
good plot. I thought of two people– the earthy groundling Vidrum and the
learned kavi the muni. But neither could be paired with her as they were
like momentum and position in the Heisenberg inequality…
So with much effort pacing languidly along the basaltic slope she and I
came up with our first nATaka, a very contrived political satire titled
“Muammar al-Gaddafi”. I must say my part was only in getting the issues-
the dialogs were all her’s. It seemed successful in the venue we had it
staged. I felt an urge to dedicate it to Dennis Kincaid, by reading
whose books, I had learnt this mlechCha bhASha, which became my mother
tongue on account of vyvahAra. In the subsequent year, the composition
of our peers had changed in nature and nurture and became rather
unreceptive to our nATaka-s, banishing us to the fringes, much like our
hero jayanta the atharvavedin.
Her playwriting was much like her drawing, brilliant but sporadic as the tridecennial cicada’s song. But due to the vigor of our clansmen the Atreya and the A~ngirasa and clanswoman who was supposedly a professional at this but in reality a fake :-) we got our sakhI back into groove to stage a historico-mythical trilogy: 1) “Bhopal and Pune”. I did not like this too much to start with Jx was very much captivated by it. This nATaka worked on the death of Bajirao I in the former location and his concubine Mastani in the latter. But I really had my say when I incorporated a brahmin protagonist to mouth long monologs placing the dharma-shAstra in proper light. I played on a certain moral proclivity of our people to win the day for the much maligned dharma-shAstra. It reddened the face of many who came expecting the opposite, but gladdened the true constituents of the puruSha’s head.
2) This one moved back in time to illustrate the drama in the
appointment of a successor to Chingiz Khan. This nATaka revolved around
the tumutous scene of Jochi, Chagadai, Ogodai and Tolui with their
father the Khan and the quest for the Mongol throne. This nATaka mainly
helped in clearing misconceptions of the Mongol Khans in the minds of
our un-erudite compatriots. The great vaiShNava who had wandered in
oDDiyAna would have been pleased to see this. We raised the curtain with
our level of “special effects” to the lines of Gibbon:
“By the arms of Zingis and his descendants the globe was shaken: the
sultans were overthrown: the caliphs fell, and the Caesars trembled on
their throne.” I think this was the only worthwhile thing in the whole
nATaka.
3) The next went back even further in time play the tensions between mAdrI and kuntI on the deployment of the mantra of durvAsas for the sons. We had our Atreya play as durvAsas, for he was a fallen brahmin at the level of a shailUSha.
Now the time has come for us to literally get our act together again though this is not something I should be doing. This time it shall be titled “Airplanes and Robots of king bhoja-deva paramAra”. Let us see if they get moving and flying.