38 Krushna Villa & Ud Jayega Hans Akela
As I type my feelings, Ud Jayega Hans Akela is in the background. A poem by Sant Kabir, sung by Kumar Gandharva.
I discovered this beauty, thanks to the play. What makes it special is the ‘when’ it played. And because of its timing, I cannot reveal more.
Imagine, on a fine evening a lady knocks on the door of a renowned writer to accuse him of being a fraud. He has just won India’s most prestigious literary award and she has just sent a notice.
She’s very confident that the novels he has been writing since his second book is stolen from her husband.
Shocked by the accusation, the writer dismisses at first but sets to reason her out. In the next 45 minutes, the lady’s arguments fall flat- one after the other- logically and legally.
Finally, the writer asks, ‘ What’s the proof you have that makes you so confident?’
‘Gut feeling’ she replies
‘Gut feeling? And nothing else?’
‘Only gut feeling’
There’s a pause. What happens next is the mystery part that I shouldn’t be revealing. But the pause…it was something.
The second act is a masala of sit, watch, listen carefully & emote. The writing is filled with one-liners that are easy to understand yet deep in its meaning.
For when the writer says, ‘life is like a set of cards- we don’t have control over the cards we get, but what we do with the cards we have brings us happiness’, the unanimous aahhs filled the theatre.
It ends on a bitter-sweet note. Whatever the characters desired and wanted to achieve, they got. But there was more that they wished for which they won’t be getting. And that’s where Pt. Kumar Gandharvaji’s song, Ud Jayega Hans Akela, Jag Darshan ka mela plays. The writer sits on the sofa, lets out a sigh and the curtains slide to cover him.
But the song plays on. A summary of the story follows me home- the writer, the lady and the song.
