Sita Swayamvaram (Tulsidas’ Raamaayana) (Hindi)

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"They wanted something in Hindi from the Raamaayana. We were given 3 months to prepare it. We had done Arunachala Kavirayar’s Raamaayana in Tamizh; the multi-lingual version was done in 1992/93 for our tour. But the organizers wanted this Raamaayana in Hindi and this gave us the opportunity to research into Tulsidas’ Raamaayana. We entrusted the job of editing to our Hindi teacher Kamakshi at Kalakshetra. She gave us the relevant slokas and I did the final editing of what to use.

In Mumbai, there was an emergency. Shoba, of the Trio Sisters, who was supposed to do Sita’s role, fell ill with jaundice and could not participate. To change and reorganize the whole thing was difficult. We cabled our student Harinakshi in Ahmedabad to come down to Mumbai immediately and in the space of 2 days, we grilled her into learning the role. Taking up this challenge, she rose to the occasion and gave a beautiful performance.

The 2nd day was a variety show, a thematic presentation for the round table conference whose emblem was 2 peacocks. To bring that emblem into dance, we choreographed a peacock dance. Without the expected peacock feathers fanning out, we made special costumes and the heads of the dancers were the eyes you see in the feathers, something out of the ordinary. It was greeted with tremendous applause. Incorporating the body and movement, how we depicted the unfurling of the feathers was the salient feature of this presentation. "