Making A Song And Dance About My Ramayana

Despite the mention of my Ramayana series, I have nothing to do with this theatrical production. But I suppose it’s a sign that my retelling has filtered down into the culture in some way.

Not sure how that makes me feel. On one hand, it was my culture that made it possible for me to write my Ramayana retelling. Being a product of my times, of this age, as against Valmiki’s or Kamban’s or Tulsidas’s times. Being the person I am, flaws and all, because it takes a flawed person to truly appreciate Rama’s idealized perfection and Ravana’s idealized imperfections. Being a person of mixed race, no definite religious upbringing, devoid of caste-communal-religious baggage (or at least not indoctrinated in it), bearing an iconoclastic and questioning, even challenging attitude to all things (and I’m being euphemistic here), the movies I watched, the books I read, the places I visited, the things I lived through, everything contributed to my retelling, and it all shows on every page.

So to hear (or in this case, to read about) someone else being inspired enough by my retelling to mount an entire theatrical production that draws from the books and uses elements from them–completely without any involvement on my part, and only with the barest of awareness (a brief email written a year or so ago mentioning that this was being planned and was it okay with me)–is odd to say the least. I haven’t seen the actual production, although there’s a video on Youtube that I’ve embedded at the end of this post (I haven’t watched the video either). And I don’t know if I want to see either the actual production or the video excerpt from it.

Because that would be cannibalistic in a sense. Or would feel like it. Besides, I’m already on other stories, other worlds of the imagination, and have, in a sense, done with the Ramayana. This is someone else’s journey now, and I wish that person all the best with her own personal voyage of self-discovery.

Ultimately, the Ramayana is a mirror. You see it in what you want to see, or not. If it makes you angry, the anger comes from within you. If it makes you sad, ditto. Happy. Pious. Fanatical. Aroused. Inflammed. All you. You. You. You.

This is You too. Or in this case, her. Her being Shobana. And Shobana being anyone who takes up the song and sings it forward. For her own reasons. So be it. Sing on. The song belongs to everyone. Some have no voice. Some sing for others. They also sing who only listen and love.