Prayas

Inspired by Rohinton Mistry’s short stories

A Fine Balance by Rohinton Mistry has always enjoyed best-seller status in New Zealand.

If it offers an insight into parts of India few New Zealanders know, other work by Mistry inspire migrant Indians to look at themselves.

For Auckland’s Amit Ohdedar, of the Auckland Indian theatre group Prayas, its one of Mistry’s earlier works that touched a chord and led to the creation of a tribute to the Parsi writer who now lives in Canada.

“For many of us Mistry’s experiences mirror our own,” says Amit who was attracted to Mistry’s earlier work, Tales from Firozsha Baag.

Under Amit’s direction Prayas has staged two plays by other playwrights: Charandas Chor in 2005 and The Terrace in 2007.

One of Mistry’s stories related the problem of a migrant from India who moved to Canada but found the contrast in toilet experiences hard to take.

Rather than just re-tell that story, Prayas went out into Auckland’s migrant community to collect their stories and experiences.

With the rich collection of anecdotes, Amit wove them into a play that is now Khoj – The Search.

It is the story of Jamshed Balsara (played by Rahul Gandhi) who leaves Mumbai for Auckland. His grumpy father (Bhavnesh Soni) and pining mother (Rashmi Pilapitiya) miss him badly, but hope their son makes it big in New Zealand.

Like many parents of migrant children, they have only a vague notion of what New Zealand is. Contact is by mail and the occasional phone call from a public phone service in Mumbai.

Jamshed’s experience of New Zealand suffers from the sit or squat toilet problem that Mistry reveals occurs to migrants.

The play owes much to community input, both at the time Prayas was collecting stories to later, when play readings were held and later, when it went into rehearsal.

“We found a nuance here, an expression there and improvised every time we came together for rehearsals,” Kolkata born Amit says.

“The play boldly challenges both the migrant community as well as local New Zealanders regarding preconceived ideas about people and cultures.”

The topic might be serious, but Khoj – The Search comes with humour and compassion.

“Khoj raises some serious questions through humour. Jamshed’s ‘toilet issues’ are used as a metaphor for adapting to the adjustment issues in a new country,” Amit said.

This is a line from the play which sums its up: “New Zealand has embraced us with open arms, given us our home. But it is a pity that that we still feel we are outsiders.”

Prayas was founded by Aucklanders Sanjit Dutta, Nilanjan Ghoshal, Aloke Ray, Sanjay Bhowmick, Rati Bhowmick and Amit with the objective of staging an annual production. The idea was that these would be the works of noted Indian playwrights, but in English, or “Hinglish” as the Indian English is known.

Prayas branched out in 2008 when the Auckland City Council invited it to join a kaleidoscope of Auckland ethnic groups to write and perform Our Street.

A culturally rich and diverse play, Our Street

combined a multitude of modern performing arts including krumping, hip hop, film, Indian dance and a 33-piece Tongan brass band.

There were two plays within one where a North Indian and a Samoan family prepared for the weddings of their eldest girls. It was set in Auckland’s Wesley, Mount Albert and Mount Roskill suburbs.

The story followed two couples trying to make sure their mixed marriages go off without a hitch. Only an elusive caterer, a missing guitarist, a meddling aunty and one little secret stood in their way.

It won warm reviews and interested media coverage, but for the growing Indian community of Auckland, it opened up links with other ethnic groups.

Migrant Indians, for example, found themselves dancing to Samoan songs – and a bewildering array of other migrant groups found themselves tapping their feet to the rhythms of India.

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