Play Nirbhaya left Delhiites teary-eyed as the real-life survivors of sexual abuse presented their testimonies along with the horrific tale of the Delhi gangrape.By Karan Bhardwaj
Clad in a white salwar-kameez, a girl walked on the dark and gloomy stage singing stanzas from Chalte Chalte (Pakeeza). As she took the centrestage, other actors — with their right hands up showing the thumb, index and middle finger, a sign of defiance made popular by protesters after December gangrape — joined her from the audience. They were Poorna Jagannathan, Priyanka Bose, Sapna Bhavnani, Sneha Jawle and Ankur Vikal, all draped in black.
In the next hour, they not only enacted the horrifying gangrape that shocked India and the world but their own personal stories of abuse that remained undercover so far. “I was tormented when I read the news on Facebook. Poorna, who was my friend online, shared the pain. We got in touch and decided to break the silence,” said Johannesburg-based director Yael Farber.
Audience took a while to fathom that the stories performed were real, and these celebrated faces actually mustered courage to share it with them. Before coming to India, the play was first performed at Edinburgh Fringe Festival last year and later received Amnesty International’s Freedom of Expression Award.
Groping incidents, verbal expletives and sexual assault, were all used prominently, but in a subtle manner that left the audience stunned. Sapna Bhavnani, better known as a vivacious hair stylist, recounted her gang rape as a student in Chicago. “Since childhood, I never cared for society and lived on my own terms. I was called a ‘whore’ in my neighbourhood but that didn’t dampen my spirit. During my stint abroad as a student, I was walking one night on the streets wearing my favourite red-dress. Four college students, all fair-looking with blue eyes, groped and thrashed me on the floor. They took turns to rape me. When the fourth guy showed reluctance out of humanity, the other three mocked him and challenged his masculinity. He turned into a beast and crushed me twice. They dumped me and left,” shared Bhavnani with pain and anger in her voice.
Sneha Jawle, who was burnt alive by her husband over dowry demands, can’t help but break down several times as she continues to search for her lost life. “They started beating and torturing me mercilessly after three weeks of the wedding. When I gave birth to a son, I found the reason for existence. One day, my husband splashed kerosene and set me on fire. Soon after that, they threw me out of the house and stole my son. As I wander in this world, I hope a young boy would walk up to me and call me his mother. That’s the only reason I am still alive.”
There was utter silence among audience as Priyanka Bose revealed how she was molested and raped by multiple men in her house as her parents became mute spectators out of “shame”. “Today when I look back, I don’t blame them, but the system. It’s the society pressure that forced them to keep mum. They thought their silence would never let this matter come up,” she said.
Apart from their testimonies, Nirbhaya brought back the devastating memories of the incident when a young girl went through the unheard, brutal human act that also claimed her life.“All we can do is develop a new world where we can raise our voices and have a dialogue with the family over sexual abuse. Parents need to defy the conservative ideas and must stand by their kids in testing times when they share their ‘bruises’,” said Farber.The play was brought here by Teamwork.