Sad Demise of Nautanki...............

*  As a child I remember watching the stories of Buddha, Nala-Damayanti, Bharthari, Harishchandra, Dushyant-Shakuntala and so many other Puranic tales, performed by various Nautanki groups that visited our village. It was fun and education watching those dramas, through the whole night.  Even after more than four decades, I vividly remember some of these. A few have been mentioned in this blog.  Unlike the movies, who in the name of cinematic liberty, often distort the actual tale, the nautanki groups preserved the essence and character of the story, as it was written or told.

*   Nautanki was born out of folklore of North India. There was a princess with incomparable beauty who was so delicate that she weighed only as much as a flower. This folklore took the shape of a drama then known as sangeets (musicals) by the name, Nautanki Shehzadi ("The Story of Princess Nautanki"). Soon it became so popular that the name became that of the genre itself. The word, nautanki, comprises two words, nau meaning "nine" and tank referring to a "silver coin, weighing four grams". It metaphorically implied that the graceful princess weighed only 36 grams.

*  It was famous folk theater, popular in northern India, especially in Uttar Pradesh. Before the advent of cinema in India, it was the most popular form of entertainment prevalent in these areas. Usually a nautanki consisted of folklore and mythological dramas with interludes of folk songs and dances. 

*     TV and multiplexes have slowly and steadily killed this excellent art, which a few decades ago enthralled the rural and semi-urban India. Sadly, it has become extinct. Often in solitude I mourn the sad demise of my favourite drama form.

Why is WEST crying over Crimea ...?

*       Not long ago when Yugoslavia was breaking up into independent republics, the West without losing anytime granted recognition to Croatia, Slovenia, Bosnia and Kosovo, giving the logic that it was the will of the majority in those republics. 

*       Why is West now crying over Crimea when the majority there wants to go with the Russians ? 

Cherrapunji...........

*   Remember ever hearing an anecdote or a tale from a tourist guide

    during your visit to a place and the next moment wishing to write a

    story about it. I got inspired during my visit to Cherrapunji, some

    years back. The woman guide narrated so beautifully how a little

    known village, Sohra in Meghalaya got the famous name of

    Cherrapunji.

*   It inspired me so much that I penned down a short story by the
    same name.

*   So sit back and enjoy the tale..........

Cherrapunji

A jilted Akash was escaping from his recent troubled past. Kadambini, his fiancée of four years, had left him suddenly without giving any reason. She hadn’t bothered even to tell him in person. All she said was that she was marrying a NRI and moving with him to the States. He learnt about it through her email. Her decision had shattered him emotionally so much that for a moment he had contemplated of ending his life, but somehow he held back. The example of his parents, whose married life went through its daily doses of upheavals and he had been a witness to it for over a decade or so, ironically proved to be a source of inspiration. His mother, an ambitious woman, was a top ranking bureaucrat in the government while his father who too was a bureaucrat but his laid back attitude towards life had resulted in his stagnation. Nor that he cared much for the promotions anyway. He had a penchant for painting and during his childhood he had wanted to take it as a vocation but for his father. 

     (for full story go to short stories section, thanks).....................