Cos.........they are just children!

Yesterday, I went to see a play produced by a dear friend and mentor, created by a theatre group called Pandies. Pandies has been a radical feminist theatre group picking up social issues and creating awareness on the way our idealogical perspectives have created a self-defeating society.

In it's current avatar Pandies has moved beyond the 'three walls' theatre of the auditoriums and worked with street children and children affected by violence and terrorism. Though I have not always whole heartedly agreed with every perspective of the group, having been a member since it's inception, I passionately believe in their passion!

This time, Pandies has been working with an NGO called 'Saksham' which has been consistently working with slum children near the areas adjoining Noida. Nithari has also been one of the areas they have been working in. Till January 2007, Nithari was just another place they worked with children and helped them become more aware of the dichotomies of their lives. Post January 2007, things have changed a quite a bit.

The plays performed includeed two more segments: One a skit of what the children belived actually happened in D5, and believe me when you see another child casually lopping off imaginary limbs from a child co-actor, it scares you more than any newspaper or tv coverage would!

The other a conversation which followed into an interaction with the audience on what the NGO and theatre group have worked to achieve both pre and post Nithari.

The skits covered various issues the children face in their day to day lives: money, education, child labour, bad parenting, cruel intentions, religious bigotry and riots, and even love affairs which go off into tangential directions.

The plays have been scripted, directed and conceptualised by the children. The adults are around just to help them fine tune their ideas. Creative imagination lends itself to a boistrous and ebullient set of performances. There is always closure as everything returns to the natural order in the end. The world is utopian, imagined by children and very far away from the perspective of an adult.

While there was much debate on social issues and the Nithari debate did rage on, what mattered to me more, as an adult, a parent and a closet performer, was the children. Their innocence, their sense of fun, their desire to live in a better world, unlike the one we have given them, their intuitive sense of understanding, took you away from the slum clusters of their life to a wonderful imaginary world created by their expression. As a parent I know how much it takes to get 5o odd children to perform on stage towards a logical conclusion. As a parent I hoped their parents felt pride seeing them take to the stage so naturally. As a parent I wished they could all find their natural birthright: love, respect and nurturing.

In the end, they are just children. Surrounded by violence of the grossest kind, surrounded by poverty, need, apathy and neglect they still find time to be children, and for that one must always salute them!