Every teaching that surrounds desire, trains us to not feel it. Desires are bad; they make us selfish but desire is what forms the crux of human existence. We desire to grow, we desire to live a certain life, and we desire to exist. Writer and director Ulka Puri believes in these maxims.

And while the desires of man have been addressed before, it is the woman who has been shunned for her feelings. Puri realised this during the conference for CoHab (Canada) at Mumbai University that was held several years ago. “I was speaking at the conference about the stories of several women I had known and realised how their desires have been suppressed for years now,” she says. In an effort to bring out similar stories, Puri wrote Ballad of Desires, a dance piece that will soon be performed at Prithvi Theatre.