A Hindi play 'Yahaan' was staged at Ravindra Bhavan on Friday. The play marked the conclusion of theatre festival.

The play is written and directed by Vinay Sharma. It was wonderfully performed by the artists of Padatik Theater, Calcutta.

Two women- twin souls- begin moving in a timeless space. They await any signs that may tell them who they will be next. 

They find themselves entering the lives of other women in other times and places.

The play witnesses the thoughts and feelings of these women through different episodes: at times surreal or meta-real, these episodes are always rooted in the human need to connect with the Other and with oneself.

This play does not emphasise as much on story or character as on states of experience, extended moments, an instant or an anubhuti which seems to extend over days, years, lifetimes, ages. What ties them together is their exploration of the feeling or rasa of yearning. Now and again the words ruminate on aspects of time, space, light and breath, on the hidden and the revealed.

In some parts, the play is inspired by the spirit and essence of the writings in the Therigatha which is an anthology of poems in the Pali language by and about the first Buddhist women, composed more than two millennia ago; the Gathasaptasati.

Gathasaptasati is an anthology of Prakrit love poetry reputed to have been compiled by the Satavahana king Hala in the second century CE; and the Sufi lyrics of Bulle Shah, the iconic eighteenth-century Punjabi poet.