Sunday, December 28, 2008

Brecht-revisited;The Caucasian Chalk Circle.

The judge says evidently Hi- Tang is not the mother 0f the child she did not come forward to draw the child out of the circle.Here I am thinking, How difficult it is to do certain actions ,manouver situations to one"s own advantage! with our teenaged children,with our estranged spouses,with our jilting lovers.Is it so simple to claim love,respect,achieve fulfilment in love,relationship?Hai-tang says:I supplicate you,Honored Sir,to calm your wrath.If I cannot claim my son without dislocating his arm or bruising his baby flesh,I would rather perish under the blows than make the least effort to take him out of the circle.
The judge says:A sage of old once said:what man can hide what he really is? Behold the power of the Chalk Circle! in order to sieze inheritance,Mrs.Ma has raised a young child that is not her own.But the Chalk Circle augustly brought out the truth and the falsehood.Mrs Ma has an engaing exterior but her heart is corrupt.The true mother Hai-Tang is at last recognised.
Again I am thinking about appearances; what we appear ,are we really that? Can people be judged by their appearances.So many times we are decieved.Are we really able to see or show goodness of our souls to other people?people usually register whatever they want to according to their needs,perceptions.We cannot influence any one,maybe only upto a certain extent.Then there is the power of tools or supports of judgement.that may help us reach a certain conclusion.Is judgement really fair? it is so difficult ro reach the truth.Only to an extent!

Tuesday, December 23, 2008

Caucasian Chalk Circle(Brecht -revisited)

Characters -I imagine my own actors doing this.The setting is a dilapidated house in a not so very remote corner of the troubled NWFP in Pakistan.Old man,peasant women,young peasant,a very young worker,Old man(on the left,the other one was on right.)Peasant woman(on the left,the other was on the right.)Agriculturist Kato ,Girl tractorist .Other characters I will enumerate later on otherwise you will get bored,Eh? Note on the locale;The action of the play centers on Nuka,a town in Azerbaijan.Here comes in my imagination.Can I imagine this town in NWFP.People are so different,not physically,tall or short,fair thin or fat,eyes usually light brown,blue,green,you name it and the colours are there,generally the same type of physique but not the nature .But then nature may be the same way,but can humans differ?.Why cannot I imagine a guy in Azerbaijan to be the same as that in NWFP? well then!the capital referred to is not Baku,but Tulis,the capital of Georgia.Now then is a Georgian different from an NWFPian?I wonder.There are some similarities,nature too!Ah then! Stalin was a Georgian. Was he like a Georgian? Are all georgians like Stalin? tough question to answer.
Yhe play begins...
The judge;Officer,fetch a piece of chalk.You will trace below the bench a circle,in the cenre of which oyu will place teh child.Then you will order the two women to wait,each of them at opposite sides of the circle.When teh rael mother takes hold of him,it will be easy for the child to come outside the circle.But the pretended mother cannot lead him out.
(The officer traces a circle with the chalk and motions th Child to stand in teh centre of it.mra MA takes the child"s hand and leads him out of the circle.HAI TANG fails to contend with her.)

Friday, December 19, 2008

English Journalists(satirical)

Oh these English journalists with their English so purr-fact,writing articles;so well researched,FORMULATED,AUTHENTICATED,so well RE-searched! I could almost die under the weightous burden,bow in allegiance,for giving us almost BIBLICAL FACTS on
Life or how to lead it or how to mess it.On how to survive days weeks without cat dog food,toad or even spider food,share lice and lies,how to buy houses,flats or other abodes,dilapidated but oh so CHIC,ugly but oh so fashionable,Upclass but oh so YOB!
Eat the right food,head or other parts,
In favorite resturants,by the river,Advertised Spots,How to make Money ,honestly and otherwiseJunk food ,honestly and otherwise
Puns on Foreignors ,honestly and otherwise,a hotchpotch of FACTS about RACIAL RITES(OOPS)Riots honestly and otherwise! Ooh these ENGLISH JOURNALISTS,with medals on their chests,KNIGHTS IN SHINIG ARMOUR,HONEST OR OTHERWISE

The commercialisation of religion.

I looked at the little statuettes sitting comfortably perched on little shelves of an oriental shop in Oxrford and thought of Ravi and Chanda,two little hindu children of the maid who worked in my cousins house.Ravi with his forever runny little nose and broken sandals,trying to befreind my nephew to play his Game Boy games,this curse of the Japanese or smart technology?Imagining children bieng lured by moneyspending games-Nintendo,Gameboy,pound 100 for a toy and all of Ravi"s dreams,his runny nose,his broken chappals,frozen in my minds eye as a picture of poverty and sorrow.And Chanda,with limpid,big brown eyes, so short and thin and dark for her eight year old female self! Kaali, her mother would condescendingly call her,referring to her dark colour.Not thinking twice about Kaali Mata ,the bhagwan godess of good luck !"Bhaag achaay hon towe (she should be fortunate)! Chanda would coyly be touching my seven year old daughter"s cheap plastic toys. Begum baji,she would look at me heart wrenchingly. Did Shany go to Mk dunnel yesterday? My daughter would nod vigorously,making body movements,gestures which converted her innocent,pleasant self little presnce into a revulsing,falsely superior one."Mk Dunnel" , material induced superior self! Gone the beautiful innocent childhood world of imaginary kings,queens,cinderellas,snowwhites and fairies.Enter the materialistic,dangerous world of fast food,fast games,technology,lost innocence.All these "gods" are for sale,budha ,ganesh,the monkey, Kali perched comfortably on these shelves."Are you and Indian"?Asks the shopkeeper visibly proud of his Indian origin."No a Pakistani!"I say proudly and a little bit condescendingly,sure the No gets him! Call us "Pakis" in Britain,Sikhs,Indians,Muslims,Hindus,all Asians of color .Imran Khan,the cricketer,an epitome of Virtue?because he has married a godess ,well almost,a white godess!The Indian shopkeper starts looking at my daughter suspiciously while she plays with his cheap Chinese fans on a lower shelf. I quickly choose to buy the beautiful but cheap Chinese goodluck tea room frames at reduced prices and a fan for my daughter.I pay quickly, reluctantly parting with the pound coins,bieng of subcontinental origin. Islamic terorist! He is thinking.I look guiltily at him almost reading his mind. I did not destroy the Buddha statues, the Taliban did!I mutter,pretending to look educated,modern.Lucky me,gone to school,done higher education.Chanda and Ravi,in their broken world,unable to study,to play innocently,forever eying the food in our kitchen.Thanks to our "Nuclear Power Superior Complex" mentality of our poverty stricken,emotional world!I quickly take my daughter"s hand and the goods to get out of the shop,lest there is a discussion friendly or other wise and I am a tourist in a foreign land anyway,so proper it is almost frigid ,frozen!