The best way to know the self is feeling oneself at the moments of reckoning. The feeling of being alone, just with your senses, may lead you to think more consciously. More and more of such moments may sensitize ‘you towards you’, towards others. We become regular with introspection and retrospection. We get ‘the’ gradual connect to the higher self we may name Spirituality or God or just a Humane Conscious. We tend to get a rhythm again in life. We need to learn the art of being lonely in crowd while being part of the crowd. A multitude of loneliness in mosaic of relations! One needs to feel it severally, with conscience, before making it a way of life. One needs to live several such lonely moments. One needs to live severallyalone.

Wednesday 18 November 2015

RAMLILA – INTERESTING BHOJPURI FLIP

This one is a Ramlila clip shot randomly.

The annual ‘Ramayan’ event, organized across India through plays, is being staged here at the Manikarnika Ghat, Varanasi - on November 17, i.e., on the day of Chhath Puja in 2015.

Ramlila is played over an extended period of time at different places in Varanasi and it goes well beyond the Dussehra festivities – that fall usually in the months of September-October.

Here, in the Ramlila at the Manikarnika Ghat, the informal conversation interspersed with dialogues between the characters is quite interesting.

The part of Ramayana (or Ramcharit Manas, the most loved Hindu scripture written on Ramayan by Goswami Tulsidas in 15th-16th Century) being staged here is about ‘Vibhishan leaving his brother Ravan and joining Lord Ram’s side in the epic battle between bad and good’.

After Vibhishan has left Lanka, Ravan’s place, Ravan commands his spies to go clandestinely after Vibhishan and to report the developments from Lord Ram’s camp.

The brief conversation/dialogue here is in Hindi-Bhojpuri mix that also includes informal conversation between the characters about changing their appearances for the next scene and it can be heard well on the speaker. Bhojpuri is a dialect of Hindi and is spoken mainly in eastern Uttar Pradesh and Bihar.

That is the way most of the Ramlilas are staged these days – just to fulfil the basic minimum of a tradition that is centuries old – without aesthetics of stage performances – but the flip here brings natural smile if you know the context.

It tells what has happened to this serious art form - that is weaved around something without which the Indian society cannot think of its holistic existence – and that – that still why it is so imperative – that you stop by to think about its serious revival – given that Ramlilas are an inseparable part of Indian cultural milieu.

So, you don’t appreciate the way it is done here, still you enjoy the show – not looking for professional finesse – that you cannot expect from poorly paid and makeshift actors – but for the sustenance of this Centuries old tradition.

I just thought to post it here...but it is quite 'audible' -  Bhojpuri and Hindi the Banarasi way..

Enjoy it raw from the YouTube link here: 



©/IPR: Santosh Chaubey - http://severallyalone.blogspot.com/