DESCRIPTION:
This vivacious and zesty 28 minute musical brings together two quirky voices – Kabir Das from the 15th century and Dr Seuss from the 20th – both playful yet deeply humanistic in their concerns. Vishakha Chanchani and a group of inspired school teachers from Valley School in Bangalore create a charming Hindi adaptation of Dr Seuss’s ‘Horton Hatches an Egg’, stitched together with songs of Kabir. This play was devised as part of a series of classroom exercises to infect children with the upside-down world of Kabir’s mind-bending ulatbaansi poems and Dr Seuss’s whacky genius.

Vishakha says about the experience - "What fun it was hatching eggs with Seuss, Appu & Kabir! The Valley School has been one of my earliest nurturing grounds in Bangalore, not only as art teacher, but also as an educator who was truly not defined by boundaries. Languages, mathematics, social sciences, science and the arts all came under the banner of creative enquiry; play and study took a happy stroll together and no eyebrows ever got raised. And best of all, one became part of a large and lush undulating landscape surrounded by the sounds and smells of nature.

My first introduction to Dr. Seuss happened in the primary sections of this school, I was to discover later that Dr. Seuss was not just about beginners books, his prolific writing included a range of subjects situated in the most unusual of landscapes. Dr. Seuss’s Horton was a lovable elephant who took to hatching eggs and stole his readers hearts. Through seemingly absurd verse, so cleverly crafted, the messages sneaked in without sounding too moralistic. Dr. Seuss makes us look at our idiosyncratic selves in fun ways.

The idea of Dr Seuss and Kabir coming together on the same platform had come to me a while ago. Then Hindi teacher Meenal Dhawan's poem 'Appu baith Ande Par' based on Dr Seuss's story, became an excellent excuse for me to weave Kabir in, in ulatbansi mode. Kabir song getting united with Seussian verse ~ crazy, wonderful opportunity. It was an ambitious play that ended with all the characters taking a bow to the Kabir song - Tu ka Tu…

I wonder if Kabir and Seuss were sitting around somewhere, albeit invisibly, having the last laugh!"

Vishaka Chanchani is a well-loved illustrator with a Masters in illustration from MS University, Vadodhara. She has written and illustrated many books for children and is also an art educator, craftsperson and workshop facilitator in Bangalore. During 2010-12, with the support of the Kabir Project, Vishakha devised a series of pedagogic experiments to bring the spirit of mystic poetry into classrooms in creative ways. This initiative was supported by Wipro Applying Thought in Schools. Teachers interested in working with this play can write to us for the script at thekabirproject@gmail.com. You can contact Vishakha at +91-95914-68366.

This is one of a series of uploads for Ajab Shahar, an upcoming webspace dedicated to mystic poem and song, currently under construction by the Kabir Project team (www.ajabshahar.org; www.kabirproject.org)

Performed by: Std 5-7 Students of Valley School, Bangalore
Script & Direction: Vishakha Chanchani & Valley School Staff
Inspirations: Dr Seuss’s book ‘Horton Hatches An Egg’
& Kabir’s poems ‘Ulat Ved Ki Baani’ and ‘Tu Ka Tu’
Heartfelt Gratitude to Malwi folk singers Prahlad Tipanya & Kaluram Bamaniya, for bringing these poems alive in song!
Cameras: Smriti Chanchani & Sharanya Gautam
Editing: Radha Mahendru
Editing Inputs: Yashaswini Raghunandan
Sub-Titling: Prashant Parvatneni
Collaboration: Kabir Project
Supported by: Wipro Applying Thought In Schools

Collection: The Kabir Project
Date of Performance: December 18, 2012