CHERISH with HARISH

7:30 am, Delhi It was early morning and I was still on my bed. Up, but still not awake. There was a watsapp tone which shook me, but as I checked my phone, I saw that there were more than quite a few watsapp messages. It was a series of messages from different places which questioned my existence in a time-space dimension of 'X', 'Y' and 'Z'. I had recently shifted to this new village inside Delhi, but my cousins were in Hyderabad, sending me images of the Biryani party they had celebrated, but what was bigger than the taste of Biryani was the long and interesting chat which followed. But before I could read the whole thing, I had a very dear cousin of mine visiting Europe, sending some amazing images. Heaven she was in with the brilliant architecture. But before I could gather myself, I heard a cock crowing. This was surreal. It was straight out of a Salvador Dali painting in the surreal era in Notre Dam, as most of the readers won't believe that th...

A short film, which we have recently submitted to Megacities-Short Docs, Paris has been uploaded by Megacities Youtube channel. It is a 4-minute documentary called 'DILI CHALO'. If you like it, please have a look and like it on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s4qLF_DKWio&t=156s It was a pleasure making it. A senior of mine asked me to make a film on our present initiative. It was slightly tough for me as I have never made a film on 'Myself' or 'My-work'. This initiative was my advisor's and I had to re-look at this again, as a film. Hope you like it...

11 pm, Gurgaon. Was a lovely workshop. So, I had a lovely time with the senior citizens of an organisation, which had called me to take a theatre workshop for them.They had called it 'HAPPINESS THEATRE WORKSHOP' and my idea was to make them play some games, which made them happy. I ended the workshop and while coming back home, this idea crossed my mind. The idea, I would like to call 'Circles'! May be it would be clearer if we call it 'LOOPS'. Our life is full of so many loops. When I looked at these older people, I realised that our lives are a combination of loops. To explain it further, one loop is the 'day'loop: We get up every morning, get ready for work, do our work every day, have coffee time every day, have lunch every day, come back in the evening, have dinner and we sleep off. And when we get up, the same music begins again! There is nothing wrong in it. May be I had a problem with it, always. I have so many of my friends who are wor...

As a little kid, sitting right next to the tape-recorder, while listening to the song, I would look at the cassette cover, and wonder that the voice is of the singer singing, sitting inside the tape recorder. How wonderful! But as I grew up, I was taught and told, that there is no singer sitting inside the tape-recorder. All my dreams crashed, Now, I just wish, I had not grown up. Why?

The Moon story As a kid, some friend told me, that on the moon an old woman sits under a tree, with lots of stories. Whenever I would look at the moon, I would imagine, the old woman, sometimes scary, sometimes mischievous. But as I studied more about it, my lovely story was lost. The child in me was sad. That there is no 'Old woman', but just rocks! I just wondered, why did I grow up!

Gurgaon, 10:44 am Last Friday I woke up a little early. I was called to a government arts center, for a selection interview to improve the condition of theatre teaching in the capital. They had actually selected a list of theatre directors to take a summer workshop in some school for the month of June. I was very happy. They had called only those people whose plays had been funded by the government center. ('DRAMA JANTAR KA', our last play was funded by them). So, it was a big thing for me. I was getting ready for the interview. I had taken out an ironed T-shirt and a formal trousers. I had taken out the originals of the photocopies I had submitted. Three days ago, I had got a call to be there for the interview at 2 p.m. I got to know about this kids' workshop, through this official who was dealing with Kamaan (my group). He asked me that I can apply for it. He said only directors till the age of 40 can apply. Isaid, I will be 30 this year. He said, "Bahot time...

11:06 pm, Gurgaon. My uncle (my father's real brother) called him after centuries and he wanted to talk with me. He asked a simple question, "Harish, I have a doubt, what do you do now?" This was a question which shook me and because of lack of answers, I simply smiled. An old friend had asked me that day that I don't work anywhere,I have my group's rehearsal only on weekends, I just need to teach slum kids twice a week and now there is a summer vacation now, so the college work is closed for sometime. So how am I so busy, always? But when I look inside, I like having so much of work that there is stuff left after the day too. But where does this work come from? I guess I love 'inventing' work for myself. I have been busy writing a street play, writing a new stage play, and directing a short film, but the worst part is that I like being busy. Only the film part gives me money, and all the rest gives me more pleasure than money. I also get plea...