‘You cannot engrave on water, Nor wound it with a knife Which is why The river has no fear of memories’ – Girish Karnad, Hayavadana The midnight of August 14, 1947 witnessed a separation that defined lives thereafter. The body of a nation was split and sundered – the union of India split into Pakistan, India and East Pakistan (which later became Bangladesh). While families were separated, the nations’ body stored their memories, which were spatialized and brought forth through numerous cathartic writings and art practices in the post-Independence days.…
The trees outside my library
Thursday, January 31, 2013 An incredible surge of emotions choke me. My throat keeps gurgling, as if this mammoth lava of emotions is struggling to erupt through my lungs, through my windpipe, bringing forth all that has been building up inside for days. Unnamed emotions, unnamed worries, stress, pressure, I can go on, trying to name that unnameable ‘thing’. Language fails me. I’m mute. I’m crying. As I rush out of the library to avoid being seen, I sit right outside. It’s almost dusk. The sun has just set. The…
About Me
I am an artist-scholar and Associate Professor in Theatre Arts at the Department of Film and Theater, San Jose State University. I received my doctoral degree in Theater and Performance Studies at Stanford in June 2016. My dissertation, completed under the guidance of Dr. Jisha Menon, was awarded the Charles R. Lyons Memorial Prize for Outstanding Dissertation. My research project was supported by the Graduate Research Opportunities Award in Stanford, which facilitated my fieldwork in India and Bangladesh during the summer of 2013 and 2014; and the Wisch Fellowship by…
Workshop by Lois Weaver
November 2012 ‘Where do you come from?’ – I am rolling this question around in my mind, trying to remember where I come from. From Kolkata? From India? From Bangladesh? From homelessness? From an undefined state of nostalgia? As Lois Weaver introduced several questions for us to think about when we all sat around a circle, I realized we were going somewhere from ‘here’ – the present moment. Within the next few days, about fifteen of us were grouping and regrouping together, playing games, brainstorming ideas, creating rituals and performance…
Getting On, a Backstage Tour
Location: San Francisco Senior CenterDate / Time: September 14-17, 2012, 10:30pm-12:30pm This Open Theatre Workshop is run by internationally acclaimed Artists and Theatre Professors Lois Weaver (Queen Mary University of London), Helen Paris and Leslie Hill (Stanford University). ‘Getting On, a backstage tour’ is a two-part theatre workshop in which we play with notions of ‘age fright’ through metaphor of ‘stage fright’. We will work on creative responses to ageing and encouraging participants to embody, then narrate an experience of ‘backstage’ where we might find each other as we stand…