At the 4th annual conference of Swashikshan, the India Homescholers Association, children got the opportunity to work with the Space Theatre Ensemble from Goa, and all of us were treated to a show by the children, followed by performances by the teachers: Andrea Pereira, Heidi Pereira and Katheeja Talha, and the director, Hartmann D’Souza. They were not so much drama as dramatic performance of poetry. They vividly brought the poems to life. One of the poems was “They Said” written by Uma Narayan who is a Philosophy Professor at Vassar College. The Hindi version is called “Aisa Kaha Unhone.”
I tried to upload this earlier but with the internet speed in India it would have taken all day and slowed down all other internet activity till done, so I never got around to uploading it. Now having at last uploaded it, I came across this article about a young girl named Hilde who perfectly embodies the spirit of the poem. She writes and edits her own newspaper and recently faced criticism, very much along the lines of “They Said.”
More about Hilde later. First, listen to the poem: “Aisa Kaha Unhone.”
