Speaking the gods8217; language

It is Sarda8217;s interpretation of the language of Sanskrit and of dance which is interesting. She teaches Bharat Natyam in Sanskrit. 8220;The original songs for the dance were written in shlokas by Bharat Muni. So I started experimenting in teaching in the original form. For example, I explain the Hastamudras in Sanskrit and eventually my students understand and respond to the meaning directly through dance. It8217;s spontaneous abhinaya this way.8221; One of Sarda8217;s Bharat Natyam students learnt Sanskrit well enough to teach it now.

Sarda8217;s interest in Sanskrit was fuelled when she went to attend an Akhil Bharatiya Parishad sammelan in Bangalore as a student of history in Fergusson College, where Sanskrit was a subsidiary subject. 8220;Later, I spent one year in Delhi for training. My guru, Krishnashastri Kanitkar Rashtriya Puruskar awardee guided me, encouraging me in my venture, something which has been attempted for the first time in Maharashtra. At her school, foreigners constitute the majority, especially students from Buddhist countries like Malaysia, Japan and Korea. Sarda8217;s bid to take the shashtras to the people has borne fruit as more students are keen to learn the language. She also plans to popularise it further by starting a section on 8220;Sanskrit for Computer Programming,8221; at Maitreyee.

Worth the wait
It8217;s described as infuriatingly elusive, great literature and rivetting stuff! Samuel Beckett8217;s play Waiting for Godot has fascinated and frustrated viewers and readers over the ages, partly because of the author8217;s reluctance to provide explanations of Godot8217;s identity and partly because it is a serious exercise in understanding human existence and hence difficult to understand.

The Motley group from Mumbai presents the much-awaited English play in Pune on Sunday evening, August 7, at the Tilak Smarak Mandir at 9 p.m. The play stars Naseeruddin Shah and Benjamin Gilani in the lead roles and is directed by Gilani. The other characters are played by Akash Khurana, Sagar Arya and Shah8217;s young son, Vivaan Azad Shah. Even as Motley celebrates 20 years of existence, the the play is 8220;show-casing8221; its 100th performance.

Samuel Beckett is one of the most important playwrights of the post-World War II period. His plays variously represent the de-constructive consciousness of that period. His characters are agencies of this consciousness and provide insights into his perception of humankind. The structural principle in Beckett8217;s plays lies in the binary-opposition : hope-frustration, happiness-grief, salvation-damnation. Most of his ideas are enacted by pairs, like Didi-Gogo and Lucky-Pozzo in Godot, Humm-Clov and Nagg-Nell in Endgame.

Beckett wrote in both English and French and translated works from one to the other, and is an incomparable stylist in both, suffusing his words with subtle poetry and rhythm. Waiting for Godot is said to represent the Theatre of the Absurd. The western concept of absurd goes somewhat along the following lines 8211; 8220;Absurd is the way of thinking, an essentially contested value concept. It rejects casual relations and rationality. Absurd not only attacks rational thought rationality cannot answer all Mother Nature8217;s mysteries, it also believes that causality has it8217;s limitations every event has a cause and effect follows, but the end result may be unexpected. The illusive, unknown element is termed Absurd, with its own rules and regulations which are out of our control.8221;

In the play, the main characters are the two tramps 8211; Didi and Gogo, wearing tattered suits, with no apparent objective except to wait for someone. The contradiction comes in the difference between the two characters, one soft, the other harsh, but both have the same objective. They are waiting for Godot. As we all are!