The myth in Mumbai local

Ever wondered how the daily objects we use can relate to our history and connected to our past? Puja Sarup and Sheena Khalid stumbled upon such an object and decided to device a play on that. And that object is not a small thing lying in our house, it's related to every Mumbaikar who travels by train. Yes, that object is local train!

"Puja read this book called The Pregnant King by Devdutt Pattanaik. The story of the pregnant king intrigued us both. The whole concept of how a man becomes a woman in the day time and changes to being a man at night due to a curse put upon him by Shiva is very interesting," says Khalid. And they connected this idea to local trains! "Yes, we thought how there is this whole thing about ladies' compartment. How men are not allowed in ladies compartments at day time but later in the evening, it's okay. The king in the story also gets cursed by Shiva because he entered the jungle where Shiva and Parvati were together and the jungle was not open to the men," she explains.

The play basically looks into the gender issues. It raises the pertinent questions like what does it mean to be a woman? And who defines manhood? In today's world the roles of women and men are being renegotiated. The gender narrative is frequently rewritten and retold, sometimes with new belief systems and sometimes with the rediscovery of ancient woman/man wisdom. "We are constantaly bombarded with stereotypes: Ye male hai, ye female hai, this is gay, this is homosexual. But there may be men who effervescent and women whose masculine side is very strong. We try to break the boundaries here," says Khalid who is also directing the play.

When and Where: December 4 at NCPA from 7 pm