On a Friday afternoon, the peculiar quiet of a performance venue without its audience envelopes the National Centre for the Performing Arts. But that's often a sign of something brewing within its walls, which, when thrown open to the viewers promises to replace the silence with collective gasps. We almost let out one as we take our seat at the Experimental Theatre, where a rehearsal for When Land Becomes Water is underway.

A unique collaboration between renowned Delhi-based puppeteer Dadi Pudumjee and his Ishara Puppet Theatre Trust, Canadian-Russian composer Airat Ichmouratov, and the Symphony Orchestra of India Chamber Orchestra, led by Evgeny Bushkov, the NCPA production is based on a set of books by Neeta Premchand. Often called the deckle queen of India, she tells the tale of the Flood as it exists in Indian, Mesopotamian and Biblical mythology through handmade paper illustrations. The theme that runs through the performance is that of the universality of the stories and how, despite the differences, human beings are united.