New York : As a freelance journalist in New Jersey I got a chance to attend the media preview of a great show named ' Draupadi - Will my spirit live on ? This event was hosted by the prestigious organization ' Indo-American Arts Council ' based in New York City. This organization is dedicated to organize and sponsor high standard cultural programs mainly from India. Through their activities they built a bridge between the west and the east. East is the land of variety and multiplicity and here in USA we have the presence of people from all corners of India... Whoever wants to spread their cultural influence in USA, IAAC is a good platform to do it.

Draupadi show is only one of their extra ordinary shows being staged in this area. 'Draupadi - Will my spirit live on ? ' is produced in India by Shivani Wazir Pasrich production, a Delhi based entertainment company. In this play Shivani and team are not trying to tell the real story of Draupadi. But they are telling a reinterpretation of this significant Mahabharat character...

In the beginning we can see Draupadi is arguing and later fighting with Lord Krishna. Draupadi asked Krishna why the status of the women remains the same as in her own time in history ? Draupadi explained her own situation as not able to achieve Moksha ( Salvation) because of her past Karmas ( Actions) .Krishna then lead her to an ordinary house wife in our era and gave her advice to interfere in the struggles of that young lady's life.. Later Draupadi appears as an ordinary lady and tries to interfere in the life of this young wife who was ill treated by her mother-in-law and brother-in-law. That lady's name was Maya. Her husband ( Arjun Aggarwal ) was a naive man and he met with an accident in their family runned company. His body was carried to their house and all others thought he was already dead. Actually he got terribly sick and later due to the good nursing and medication he came back to life. In the meantime his brother tried to capture the complete power, control and wealth of their family business. He forced their mother to sign some documents claiming that it will help them to get lots of money from the insurance company. His mother refused to sign the papers in the beginning and later agreed to do it because of the immense pressure from her son.

Maya was abused sexually and emotionally by her own brother-in-law for quite a long time. She was scared to inform this to her own husband because of fear and ill fame. Her husband was physically and emotionally a weaker character and and she knew he won't be able to protect her. Maya was angry and depressed at the same time. She was seriously thinking about suicide. Draupadi came into the scene at this period of time. Draupadi is appearing as a mentor to Maya. Drupadi was encouraging Maya to take up a position and retaliate against her brother-in-law by using the support of legal system. At this point Maya got courage to do revenge and her plan of revenge is to kill her brother-in-law Kaurav Aggarwal. Draupadi discouraged to do revenge in that way and tried to convince Maya there are other options. Draupadi admitted her own experience of doing revenge against the Kaurava's was not the right way to do revenge. Draupadi still insisted Maya to use legal support and otherwise she will go to jail and loose her own life. But Maya already made up her mind and eventually she killed her brother-in-law one day. This is the brief description of this play.

Shivani Pasrich - Ex Miss India, Actor, TV Presenter, presented this great feminine figure the Drupadi on stage. She is also the producer and co-director of this play. Shivani is also a renowned oddissi dancer and model.

Tina Johnson is the co-director of this play. She is an American artist and well known director in the theater field. She has worked in South Africa, India , Netherlands and the United States.

Charu Shankar presented the character ' Maya' . The names of the actors and their characters are as follows. Dilip Shankar as 'Krishna', Sanjit Bedi as 'Kaurav Aggarwal', Supriya Manchanda as 'Ammaji', Ashish Paliwal as 'Sukarna Bheduri', Anirudha Das as 'Arjun', Arjun Fauzdar as 'Arjun Aggarwal' .

There are some great artists helped to make this play to become a grand success. Their names are Ritu Kumar ( Costumes ), Aman Natch ( Set Designs ), Anjolie Ela Menon ( Paintings ) Shubha Mudgal ( Songs ) ,Milind Srivastava (Lighting Design), Aanchal Nandrajog ( Sound Manager ), Renaud Lessard ( Production ) and Anand Dayal ( Production ).

After seeing the play I was thinking . Is it a feminine play ? Answer came right into my mind. It is not at all a feminine play. It is not a replaying of the incidents in Draupadi's life ... But there are resemblances in Maya's and Draupadi's lives...

Draupadi was considered to be the cause of the great war....Women becoming the cause of war is not a strange thing in other parts of the world also...

Draupadi is a symbol of oppression in a way. It is also a symbol of outburst. Draupadi is like a Volcano... a Tsunami and an Earth Quake..... When the pressure within reach out of control it will explode. That is what we can see in the life of the real Draupadi. She was Submissive, Obedient, Faithful and Responsible. But fate has played it's role on her life in a cruel way. She had suffered a lot and at the end she found her own way of revenge.

There is a Draupadi in all of us. Draupadi in You, Me and everyone. Whether you are male or female there is an influence of the character 'Draupadi' in all of us. The status of women is still worse compare with the status of men in many countries. At the same time we should not close our eyes against the suffering men also. There are women who treats men very cruelly. The real Draupadi was submissive to the law and order of her time. That is how she had to serve five husbands in all their needs. That wasn't her choice or fault. In a way we can say it is the fault of her mother-in-law.

We can also see a different version of Draupadi throughout the ages. These Draupadi's have more than one husbands and it was their own choice. They went after several men to satisfy their needs in various forms. Money, lust, power, position, luxury and so on. Who will correct these Draupadi's and bring them back to justice?. Men are also not different. Some of them are leading the same life styles. They also have several concumbants of their own. Let me conclude at this point. Like Draupadi in this play we all should play the good sides of the character ' Draupadi'. Then we will have a peaceful life....

.. We should listen to Shivani's words of inspiration, "If you feel you have suffered then she ( Draupadi ) has suffered much more than you. But if she survived, why can't you ? ". It is truely an inspiration for all people who have their own sufferings and pain....

You should see this play one day... I am not sure it will come back to USA in a near future or not ..... But if it comes please don't miss it....Or try to see it in other countries.....

That is the limitations of the stage plays.... Cinema can be seen in many places at the same time.... But drama by the same actors and artists can be viewed in only one place at a time...So may be we can request this company to permit other companies to stage this show or make it available in TV screen or in Cinema.