The Show

Performers

William Dalrymple is an absolute wonder. I am left speechless by the amount of knowledge he accumulates - and remembers! - as well as his great sense of humor and the interest he displays for such varied subjects as the Mughals of India, the Tibetan Buddhist refugees of Dharamsala, the Christians throughout the Middle East and the Sufis in Pakistan. He’s known as a historian and a broadcaster, yet he’s a wonderfully personal writer, with a voice that feels very much like a journalist - and that is a compliment, since I find books written by journalists always so much more enjoyable and contemporary. Within his unpretentious lines and basic human stories lie the thoughts and words of a true soul poet, someone who simply craves and adores knowledge and culture. If I appear to be gushing, make no mistake, I am!

I’m both proud and lucky to have read his writing, to have attended his fantastic Literature Festival in Jaipur, and now to have been privy - twice! - to his traveling cultural performance ‘Nine Lives: In Search of the Sacred in Modern India’, which also coincides with the launch of his latest book, by the same title.

I caught the performance in its more Indo-centric version in Jaipur this past January and enjoyed it then, under the dark sky sprinkled with more stars than I ever imagined existed… It possessed its own kind of magic there, something impossible to miss due to the larger than life setting of the Diggi Palace front lawns, at night, surrounded by a crowd of thousands.

Then I watched it again, this past Friday, at Asia Society, in an auditorium with assigned seats, where the performance included the Sufis of Pakistan - absent from any performance in India due to the obvious reasons! - and the Theyyam Dance Group, featuring Hari Das, both part of the unforgettable stories in Dalrymple’s latest oeuvre. I have to say that, stars in the Jaipur sky notwithstanding, the performance at Asia Society was even more mystical than I remembered the whole thing to have been… That’s quite an accomplishment in this world of ours, where most experiences seem to get more watered down and worse for the wear.

The performance, complete with book signing and a wonderful after-party with William Dalrymple and his accompanying friends, was presented by the Indo American Arts Council and SAJA.

Dalrymple’s sense of humor filled the Asia Society auditorium with laughter from the audience, when he confessed that during the tour “everyone has been arrested at some point or another”. He went on to talk about Paban Das Baul’s ordeal with the Australian authorities, since his instrument is made from a gourd. Apparently, Australia has half the diseases of the rest of the world and they’d like to keep it that way, so even Hari Das’ costume - containing pieces of bamboo and palm - was confiscated, which left Das looking for replacements at “the Botanical Gardens”.

He also talked about each of his accompanying musicians and dancers, which included Paban Das Baul and his partner Mimlu Sen, Hari Das and the Theyyam Dance Group, the Shah Jo Raag Fakirs and Susheela Raman with Sam Mills and Aref Durvesh. Each performance was introduced by Dalrymple reading excerpts from his unforgettable stories which describe in depth the full background of each musician and dancer. While not all stories may have referred in particular to the artists on the stage, they all give a glimpse into their very special worlds. Perhaps that is why the performance captured my imagination even further the second time around, after having read ‘Nine Lives’. The book created a bond between the grand personalities mentioned and the audience.

The musical performances included Paban Das Baul accompanied by Mimlu Sen, who brought the infectious rhythms of the Bauls of Bengal - Baul literally means “mad” - as well as their great style and nonchalance to the stage. The Sufi musicians with their beautiful instruments and falsetto voices were haunting and mystical, while Hari Das was like nothing I have ever witnessed before! And of course, closing the evening was the bigger than life Susheela Raman, whose deep voice and strong stance truly defines womanhood in my book!

Finally, I’ll leave you with the introduction to ‘Nine Lives, posted on the FB group page. It’s possibly the best motivator for urging you to buy this book and then try to catch the touring performance when it comes to a city near you. Keep reading and keep dreaming!

“A Buddhist monk takes up arms to resist the Chinese invasion of Tibet – then spends years trying to atone for the violence by hand-printing the best prayer flags in India. A Jain nun tests her powers of detachment as she watches her best friend ritually starve to death. A woman leaves her middle-class family in Calcutta, and her job in a jute factory, only to find unexpected love and fulfilment living as a tantric in a skull-filled hut in a remote cremation ground. A prison warden from Kerala becomes, for two months of the year, a temple dancer and is worshipped as an incarnate deity; then, at the end of February each year, he returns to prison.

An illiterate goat herd from Rajasthan keeps alive an ancient 4000-line sacred epic that he, virtually alone, still knows by heart. A devadasi – or temple prostitute – initially resists her own initiation into sex work, yet pushes both her daughters into a trade she now regards as a sacred calling.

Nine people, nine lives. Each one taking a different religious path, each one an unforgettable story. Exquisite and mesmerising, and told with an almost biblical simplicity, William Dalrymple’s first travel book in a decade explores how traditional forms of religious life in South Asia have been transformed in the vortex of the region’s rapid change.”

Excerpt and some photos courtesy of the ‘Nine Lives’ Facebook Group. Join them by clicking on the link. N-joy!