Mumbai theatre group asks why you arent angry enough about womens issues

We says Arnesh Ghose as we sit around a table at a Lower Parel restaurant are not ped enough We staged Asylum on December 16 2014 and I asked the audience what the day marked No one remembered Every time a rape happens we change our profile picture to a candle and then move on This is not what we should move on fromhellip If you want to move on move on from a break upActors Suhas Chatkara and Manvi Ranghar with Mirror Merchantsrsquo founder Arnesh Ghose PicSayyed Sameer AbediGhose the 26yearold founder of fouryearold theatre group Mirror Merchants is now channeling anger into the Charpai Project with a longterm view of creating a platform to discuss gender and sexuality over a charpai and chai Before that however comes a series of web videos titled Ball Talks and a slew of events where participants will share poems and art around the larger theme And then there is the play which will be staged midFebruary at a venue in the suburbs yet tobe finalizedA still from Charpai Projectrsquos Ball Talks Episode One titled ldquoTherersquos nothing sexy about a vaginardquo If the video featuring Sanket Sharma and Aritro Rudraneil Banerjee enrages you then the idea has hit homeThe stories mdash Khol Do Pussy Riot yes named after the Russian band Do Boond Roshni Ki and The Idiots mdash also explore thesame theme In two plays the audience become witness as Manvi Ranghar a 21yearold student of literature from Jai Hind college enacts a rape The music video for the play titled Bhaayo is now online and discusses Indias rape statistics Four every hour more than one every 20 minutes But we didnrsquot want to relegate it to a statisticThis enactment is raw Itrsquos about a woman who is living through her rape and what she is going through The audience will be forced to look her in the eye Yet says Ghose there will be no man on the stage This is not meant to be titillating The woman will be narrating her experience from memory from penetration to seeing blood and her clothes being ripped he says Itrsquos going to be uncomfortable That however is the point The play also includes original songs whose lyrics have been penned by an Urdu poet from Bhopal Omair ShahidRanghar says while initially parts of the rehearsal for the enactment did terrify her she reminded herself to stay remote from character If I hadnrsquot I wouldnrsquot have been able to do justice to it It made me more empowered she saysIn Do Boond Roshni Ki a story that revolves around a prostitute who falls in love with a eunuch Suhas Chatkara plays the transgender For the 21yearold who joined the group in 2014 after a chance audition for Asylum while he was a student of Hinduja College this was an eyeopener Handed out a character and the script Chatkara and other actors had to go about their own research for a backstory Chatkara spent time with Mumbairsquos hijdas People are afraid of them They are either treated with disgust or fear After meeting and speaking to them I realised they are misunderstoodGhose has another rant and he is fine with the term in fact hersquod be happier if everyone ranted a little more Why is that eunuchs are equated with women and wear womenrsquos clothing This happens only in India and China Elsewhere they dress as menWhy is it that if any part of the male anatomy is considered lsquolesserrsquo than what it should be the man is immediately equated with a womanTheatre he believes is the last bastion of a noncommercial art form and it should be used as such I am not saying donrsquot make money But why canrsquot Ashvin Gidwani whose Blame it On Yashraj has completed nearly 100 shows support a play like Nirbhaya Yael Farberrsquos awardwinning script That show had to go to Edinburgh to be recognised when in fact it should have been taken to every village in IndiaWhat irks Chatkara is the misconception surrounding that loaded F word mdash feminisim College students use the word incorrectly They donrsquot know its meaning What does it mean to him Equality But people donrsquot see it as thatAnd then there are people chips in Ghose who say lsquowhat about menrsquos rightsrsquo Suffer 200 years of abuse as minority and then we can talk about menrsquos rights Men have no clue what it means to be a womanEven the hushhush way in which women are forced to talk about menstruation is a concept that those at Mirror Merchants donrsquot subscribe to Here everyone knows everyonersquos lsquodatesrsquo Suhas in fact keeps a record If you need a napkin say so We have to show every woman love and respect for the natural process she is going through he addsAs we ready to wrap up Rangkar asks us What are your views on thisOn womenrsquos rightsYeahRealising that itrsquos a wide question Ghose makes it simpler On a scale of 1 to 10 how angry are youThink about it