It is rare for marginalised voices to be heard on mainstream platforms.  This weekend, Bengaluru-based Sharanya Ramprakash will present Nava, which tells the stories of nine urban trans women through the Navarasa (nine rasas).  “A dear friend of mine is the founder of the Aravani Art Project that paints large murals on buildings and uses public spaces to bring visibility for trans people. I collaborated with them and many of the performers work with the project,” says Ramprakash. 

“Nava means new, and that’s one of the reasons why we chose the name for the performance. The other reason was that the Navarasa is an upper-caste concept, which specifies nine human emotions and how they are interpreted or emoted. We wanted to challenge that and say that a trans person may experience these emotions in a completely different way,” Ramprakash explains.