Have you ever been treated differently from your brother? Although a ‘career woman,’ did you have to be back home by 7 pm? How about the tonnes of choices you are faced with, but all of them (surprisingly) dictated by safety and security, parents’ expectations or the rape culture? Enter the ‘reason’: Sanskar.
Two women — Nupur Saraswat and Kate Black-Regan, from opposite sides of the world, now based in Bengaluru, take on this word and the connotations that come with it, and deconstruct it through theatrical poetry, song, and movement with Two Sanskari Girls. Here, they tell us why they want everyone from a 14-year-old boy to a 65-year-old woman to witness this redefinition on July 7, 7 pm at Shoonya — Centre for Art and Somatic Practices.
A hard-hitting performance by Nupur and Kate, “This show is about defying expectations, redefining lines that are carved out for us by society, and the choices we make in doing so,” says 32-year-old Kate. Being from Marlton, New Jersey in the States, she tells us that she needed to educate herself about the meaning of the word and how it was rooted in the word ‘culture’. “It seems that sanskar, by Indian cultural standards, may imply a ‘good’ woman/one who follows the guidelines passed down to her,” notes the multidisciplinary artist and expressive arts therapist. “I guess what it originally meant was a girl who had learned all the Vedas, and had become culturally developed enough to pass on her learning to her offspring. Now, it has developed into this dichotomy where people want a sanskari girl to be a ‘career woman’ but also be back home by 7 pm. They want her to be modern enough, but also conservative enough. They want a woman to be free and liberated, but not too liberated. And that’s where they use ‘sanskars’ to police her back into her boundaries,” chimes in Nupur, a spoken word artiste and an environmental engineer. In the show, they use the word ironically to imply that they aren’t traditional, not following given ‘rules’ and are constantly forging a path based on their own values, never shying away from speaking their thoughts, feelings, and experiences openly.
The duo believes that this performance comes at a very important juncture in history because, according to them, women are getting free access to education and money. “If the barbaric restrictions continue, then she will, some day, have to choose between sanskars and success. And I just want her to have the choice to choose success,” says Nupur, nailing it on the head. The show also features cameos by poet, dancer, and trans-rights activist Shilok Mukkati, and fierce dancer, MMA fighter, singer, and expressive arts therapist Karunya Srinivasan.
Other than that, “People can expect to see things they haven’t seen before – the micro aggressions that are invisible, the sisterhood of women that would have been formed if they were taught to compete for better jobs than to compete with each other for positions in a patriarchal society. They can expect to see a transcending and dynamic performance by four completely different women from four different walks of life,” says Nupur. Their hope is that audiences see a new definition of a woman and, “I hope this also helps to open up dialogue around issues brought to the forefront, and that folks leave the show feeling energised and empowered from the shared experience,” says Kate in conclusion.
