Mumbai Mashi

'Mujer' by any other name would be as sweet Well… the good news is that we now have an additional hour to rehearse bringing our rehearsals to four hours a day. Phew! We’ve focused on how to use a  Bunraku inspired  (3 person operated puppet) and now we are figuring out exactly what this show is going to be. After exploring our role models, the general consensus was that “we don’t really have a role models.” There are definitely women that have inspired us, those that have pushed through the various challenges that still face women today and many are inspired by our mothers. We discovered that we are stirred too by the woman just a little older than us, with a little more wisdom and worldly experience; our next stage in life and sitting next to us on the bus, the one that just missed the auto-rickshaw and the ones that come to see our work, sitting in the audience directly in front of us. Our role models might be everywhere we go, if we choice to see them.

On 28th Nov, I met seven young talented young women (6 performers & a stage manager - the luxury!). With an idea to make a show together about what it's like to be a woman growing up in modern day Mumbai, to learn puppetry skills for the first time, then showcase this work at Thespo 18 Festival and all in just 3 hrs rehearsals a day... who was it that told me I may sometimes be a little too ambitious?! We got to know each other swiftly, playing games, sharing 'cutting tea', idlies and stories. Many humorous, some a little more painful but familiar to us, the way childhood fairy stories might be but more uncomfortable, with the conclusion yet to come. Getting to know our puppet 'Mujer'with an intensive puppetry day, Sat 3rd Dec 2016. Exploring who inspires us, they were mostly outside the formal education system! Using a little Frantic Assembly inspired movement.  The day 'Mujer' nearly got hitched. She did look beautif

                                         Sunset at Juju beach                                       The source of pages...         No bookshop is complete without a tree at its centre.                                   Coming soon to Prithvi Theatre                                                  Man in a van                                                   Juhu sunset 

After reluctantly leaving Ahmedabad, my new friends, social life (this is India after all) and dream of permanently working with the brilliant Manav Sadhana . Amidst pockets of time in the Gandhian research team, who are the most humble and extremely knowledgeable folks I've ever had the pleasure to spend time with. I arrived in Mumbai. The good news- I was able to get  ₹ 2000 out of the cash machine. The bad news- no-one has any change to be able to accept it! The better news - the Indian heart is bigger than I could possibly imagine.  Once again, I have no option but to ride the wave of that beautiful blend of human kindness and hold on tight, you never know what's going to happen. Especially when you're in a car intentionally driving the wrong way down the road and when you go to click in your belt in you realise the connector has been cut out, wonder why and look up to see the headlights of A bus coming towards you. Both myself and currently unnamed '

Made it to India with 530 Rupees in my pocket. Enough to get me a small bottle of water and a rickshaw to where I'm staying. Oh yeah - no one can get any money out of the banks as the government has announced that all 500 and 1000 rupee notes are now illegal. Rich in people's kindness and sheer generosity of which here at the Gandhi Ashram, Ahmedabad, Gujarat there is an abundance. I now see where you Leicester folks get it. More soon. Internet very unreliable as it seems are the banks!