"My Body is My Weapon": Review of Le Mashale

“Le Mashale” is unconventional, high on emotions, an out and out amazing rhetoric which initially takes the audience away from the closed theater dome to gracious lands of Manipur, thanks to the beautiful descant by artist about the natural beauty, people and culture of the this state in north-eastern part of India.

And in the later half, the very confident and talented actor swiftly changes the mood. Assembly of viewers walks down the roads of Manipur once again, but to everyone’s astonishment, this time they only see painful feminine screeches, small ponds of blood and unspeakably horrendous accounts of human-to-human abuse.

I feel there are 2 particular reasons for which “Le Mashale” befalls in the ‘must watch’ category:

A) It touches that part of India which may be politically integrated with the country, but certainly has a long way to go before it earns acceptance and brotherly affection from mainland India. The play also opens numerous chapters in life of Manipuris, including the sufferings as by-product of a draconian law named AFSPA. I believe this single play can be very important in initiating a much-delayed and much-needed country wide debate on whether AFSPA has any value in some North-east regions of India and could it be made a bit more flexible/liberal eyeing current situation.

B) Second reason is undoubtedly Ojas S.V., the lone actor of “Le Mashale.” In my 3 years of indulgence to theatrical drama, only few performances could move me. This was one. This young girl from Pune, with the backing of an unscribbled script, makes you believe in the end that you have observed life of Irom Sharmila at close hand, even if it’s only the first instance one has ever heard of her. (Personally the scene involving vigorous stuttering of newspaper portraying the plight of a tormented woman took me away completely.) I also sense that immense potential of soliloquy as a medium of drama is yet to be discovered by major theatrical stakeholders.

My regards to the Iron Lady of Manipur and wish she becomes Iron Lady of India too.

 -Siddhant Nowlakha

Le Mashale Comes to Jaipur

We have been lucky enough to host the performer Ojas as she has come to Jaipur to perform Le Mashale, her remarkable play about the famous activist Irom Sharmila and her decade-long fast to bring justice to Manipur.

The play is a one-person performance which uses drama, multimedia, and other elements to tell this important story. Irom Sharmila has been fasting for over ten years to protest the AFSPA and other unjust elements of the armed forces' actions in Manipur.

Ojas, a native of Pune, has been performed this play over 90 times, in all regions of India. She has spent the past week in Jaipur to spread this story and message to audiences throughout the city. PJI, in collaboration with PUCL, Sarthak, and Sangram has facilitated performances in IIIM, SWRC Tilonia, Sankskar School, JKK, MGD School, and SV Public School from April 22nd-25th. Jaiveer, Ashutosh, Abhishek, and Akshay worked intensively to make these performances possible.

The performance has generated rave reviews and taught many people new things about this important issue. Information about acts of violence and brutality by the Indian military has been spread in this innovative manner, and has led to many audience members adopting new viewpoints about the topic.

Ritansh Pandey, a PJI volunteer, said "The play was really nice and really touching. We got to many things about the northeast that we never knew before, things that are not covered by the media. We got to know the really inspiring and touching story of Irom Sharmila, and it inspired us to join hands for the movement."

PJI has also facilitated question-and-answer sessions and discussions with Ojas after many of the performances. These discussions have allowed audience members to learn even more about the conflict and better understand different aspects of the performance.

Visit to Gurudwara and Our Seva in Society

A group of 15 PJI volunteers visited the Guru Nanak Pura Gurudwara in Raja Park last week, on April 14th, for the Sikh festival of Baisakhi! We joined crowds of attendees to perform seva, helping to prepare food and clean the cooking area. We  also sat down for a langar, sharing a meal of roti, daal, sabji, and halvah with the hundreds of others in attendance.




After the visit, the group sat down for a discussion. Many volunteers talked about new experiences they had at the Gurudwara, and we all learned about the concepts and symbols of Sikhism. We spoke for a while about the ideas of seva and langar, and how these relate to the religion.


The discussion progressed towards the idea of looking at things that all religions share (like attitudes of service and sharing), and how this can sometimes be more important than just focusing on the differences between them. Very similar is a concept from the Self-Awareness Workshop--that we actually share 95% similarities in personality and ideas between people, but we spend so much time on just the 5% differences. This also led into a talk about how we can perform seva in society as a whole.


Our trip and discussion were very valuable in terms of learning new things and further exploring concepts that we've already known. PJI hopes to continue exploring diversity with sessions on different religions and other groups.

Deep Self-Awareness Workshop

This Saturday and Sunday, 19 PJI volunteers took part in the Deep Self-Awareness workshop, doing activities to better understand deep questions about themselves and their path in life. The workshop was facilitated by PJI Director Meenakshi Bhanj Deo and Neha Buch, and was conducted at the University of Rajasthan in collaboration with the Department of Adult and Continuing Education.  At the end of the two days, the participants had gone through an intensive process of self-reflection and sharing, coming together as a community and also going through the process of look at themselves.

The group was led through this journey through a number of activities such as discussions of paradoxes, individual inventories, and group sharing, and learned about topics such as fear, language, and assumptions we make about others. Participants made personal identity maps, looked at their personal systems for reaching their goals, and investigated themselves in many other innovative ways.

PJI volunteer Shyam Bansal said, "The workshop was a really effective tool to get to know self, because usually the poeple tend to ignore certain things in their life, but through the workshop we came closer to those things and we thought about them."

We also mixed fun with this reflective work, using dancing, music, and energizers to help build group cohesion and enjoy our time together.

Shashi Sai, director of the Department of Adult and Continuing Education, said "The modules were so intensive and so good that the students remained interested. And the small sessions to re-energize were really interesting. In all, the whole two day program was a great experience for the students and the department also."

We hope to continue this process of self-reflection going forward at PJI. Let us know what you thought of the workshop!

Bhangra at PJI!

PJI held an Open Space meeting yesterday to learn Bhangra dancing from our facilitator and expert Mr. Tejpal Dhillon!

Around 30 members packed the cafe to learn some new steps and learn about Punjab from Tej and Maneesha. Tej is a Bhangra competitor who was brought up in the U.S. but has family roots in Punjab. He taught us all a number of Bhangra moves, told us about the origins of the dance style, and led us in dancing to his personal Bhangra tracks.

After the Bhangra, we sat together and learned a little about the state of Punjab from Tej and Maneesha. We also discussed upcoming PJI events and awarded certificates to all of those who donated blood as part of last month's "Save Life By a Drop" blood donation camp.

Thanks to Tej and everyone who came to make the event such a success. And let us know what you thought about the Bhangra!