HYDERABAD: Each time dancer/activist Mallika Sarabhai visits Hyderabad, she says, her heart fills with joy and delight. “It is a historical city with wonderful audiences. Each time I perform here, there is pride and joy,” she exults, an hour before her session on ‘Gender Conundrum’ at Manthan Samvaad 2015 held at JRC Convention centre. She performed along with her troupe at a session in the morning at the centre.
Dance and activism have been her twin passions and she has been marching ahead with the power of her inner voice. “Just as being a mother or daughter are not two separate parts of a woman, being a woman and an activist are not two parts of me,” she states. The foundation to have her own identity and thought process began when she was young. While calling society hypocritical, she recalls an early incident in her life. “I was 12-years-old and there was a situation in school. My father said, “Mallika, there are two kinds of people. Those who follow others and those who stick out their necks to do what they want to do but you get lots of brickbats by following it. Your mother and I have been the latter kind. You are able to live with your own conscience and say to yourself, ‘I am doing what I believe is right’. So, you have to decide which kind you want to be,” she recollects and adds, “And, I remember going away a couple of days and coming back to him and saying, I think I have to say my own truth.”
Has it been easy being a straightforward and forthright person?
“No it has not been easy because I have got so many brickbats,” she retorts. “At least I can live happily with my conscience and do what I do which I genuinely believe in. The last song that I ended with today’s performance says, ‘ Aise rawaazon se kyon daroon main, Aise samaj se roz ladoon main, Apna desh hai apna vatan hai, Phir bhi yehan pardesi banoon mein. Aise samaj se roz ladoon main…”
Mallika has been vociferous about her viewpoints on gender equality and the need to sensitise boys to bring in change.
Her Darpana Academy of Performing Arts is now at the forefront and committed to initiate sensitivity, she avers. Having conversations, talking about it and spreading the word are the only way out. “A lot of men don’t even realise what they are saying. Because it is so much a part of a culture they are brought up in. How many sisters sit down with their brothers and talk to them and say, ‘When a man whistles at me or says something dirty, it makes me feel very demeaning. Do you do it to other girls and women? If you do that, it is awful. And, if you get upset when other men whistle at me, why do you whistle at other women?’ These conversations are not happening and we are trying to get these conversations at home,” she states.
There is anger in her tone when she talks about the rising incidents of violence against women in society. “The news makes me depressed. Women have acid thrown on them, raped and murdered and not one politician comes out and makes a statement saying this will not be allowed. We live in a country where somebody is bludgeoned to death because he is suspected of eating beef, and not one politician comes out and says that hate crimes will not be allowed.”
However, the tone in her voice changes when she talks of her constant interactions with youngsters. “It is empowering,” she points out.
She talks of her new dance production, a collaborative effort. “One version of it came 10 years ago. This production will have Pakistani lyricist Samia Malik, Italian Butoh dance and African American contemporary dancers and my own dancers. We are talking about the one thread that joins across the women in the world and that is violence. We are hoping to bring it to Hyderabad in February,” she shares.
Mallika is to turn into a producer soon with a feature film. “We had created a show called ‘Kadak Badshahi’, which is actually a tea. It takes its name from Ahmedshah, the founder of Ahmedabad who was called ‘kadak badshah’ and his favourite tea brewed over hours and hours with ginger and spices was called ‘Kadak Badshahi.’ It was a hugely successful production and we are making a feature film on it. I am trying to get every single actor who is in Bollywood and has an Ahmedabad connection. The hero and the heroine is the city. My mother, architect B.V. Doshi will be playing themselves,” she says.
Before concluding, she talks of the pets at home. “I have six dogs and when the world of human beings is driving me crazy, they keep my sanity. That’s the truth.”
