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Ok, I believe I have some explaining to do…

I am in New York at the moment, with my teacher Sri Chinmoy, meditating and generally learning more about myself and the world. Saturday night meditation functions with my teacher are invariably given over to spiritual plays, and various groups take their turn to go on and perform. One of the newest groups is directed by Canadian Udar Robinson, and has gained quite a reputation over the past year or so for the quality of their plays: Sri Chinmoy gave them the name Udar: the Unbounded Troupe. There is a core of five people in the group, but they often need guest actors if there are many parts, and they are often in especial need of people willing to die quickly and without fuss. And that is where I came in.

Last Saturday, the play was a retelling of the ancient Mahabharata story of Drona and Drupada. As a child, Drona and Drupada were best friends, and Drupada (who was a prince) promised Drona (who was not) half his kingdom when he grew up. Of course, time and politics intervened, and Drona found himself out on his ear when he went to ask for his half, so naturally knives were sharpened in revenge. My job was to rush on stage to where King Drupada was holding court, announce that Drona’s army was making mincemeat of us, and then die (no better way to reinforce the point that Drona was making mincemeat of us.)

So my clothes were supposed to be all bloodied from battle, and I had these arrows stuck in my back. And I had a bottle of ketchup mixed with water. I was thinking about tipping the ketchup over myself just as I entered stage, but Dinesha also suggested I could take some ketchup in my mouth, and then when I said my first words it would all come out! Beside me in the photo is the king’s minister, played by Budhsamudra, who was shortly to suffer from a mild dose of stage death himself.

Note to self: Next time I die, I will try to die in a position where I can actually see what is going on in the rest of the play. Also, if I am dying on a gritty surface, I will try not to land ketchup side down.

Big thank you: Salil for taking these photos. He is actually one of the core group of five in the play, and was supposed to play the mighty Bhima, warrior of warriors, but unfortunately he came down with a most un-Bhimalike sniffly cold, and retired to bed whilst we were rehearsing all cuddled up with his teddy bear, who he fondly refers to as Cuddles. (All of this is said in the knowledge that Salil is too much of a gentleman to sue me for outright libel).