Catch this tale of women, narrated through Kathak

Does the one who breaks from the traditions of yesterday necessarily become the tradition of the next generation? It’s a quandary that ‘

Trishanku

’ seeks to answer.

‘Trishanku’ began life as a work of fiction, and has now inspired a piece of choreography. The author is Mannu Bhandari, among India’s most feted progressive writers (and a part of the ‘Nayi Kahaani’ literary movement, alongside Nirmal Verma, Rajendra Yadav, Bhisham Sahni, Mohan Rakesh and Kamleshwar), and the choreographer Rachana Yadav.

Rachana is Mannu’s daughter, and in ‘Trishanku’, she uses

Kathak

to weave a tale about women’s journeys, from being the daughter of a mother to becoming the mother of a daughter. It’s a tale of conflicts and contradictions. (The title alludes to a character from Hindu lore, one who hangs in the middle; a representation of balance, if you like.)

“My mother has written this story from my point of view, when I was growing up, when I was a teenager,” Yadav told TOI. Mum, she reveals, was a “bit of a rebel” who ran away from home to study, and married out of caste (and late). “In her head, she was fairly liberal and progressive. She brought me up quite independently, and proactively sent me to a co-ed college. She encouraged me to make friends with guys.”

Yet there were limits to her liberalism, resulting in many a bewilderment. ‘Trishanku’ attempts to shine a light on the confusion of the generation that is growing up. “It is the dilemma of the middle generation. She has written this story from a point of view of a girl who is always confused, who thinks, ‘Sometimes my mother is liberal, sometimes she’s not – how much advantage can she take?’

“Because the middle generation is confused, I guess somewhere we pass on that confusion to our next generation.

“Now that I am a mother of two girls, it is about how I am confused. I am the one who broke traditions, I was fairly liberal in my thinking, and I thought I was bringing up my daughters very liberally. But their definition of liberal is different from mine.”

Indeed, the definition of the balance point, and of modernity and liberalism, differs widely not just between generations, explains Yadav, but from household to household. “But whatever the scenario, the middle generation is always in this tug of war.”

And in ‘Trishanku’ is reflected the push and pull between life’s contrasts and opposites.

The Rachana Yadav Kathak Studio will present ‘Trishanku’ (music by the Gundecha brothers and Samiullah Khan), a Kathak choreography, at the Kamani Auditorium, on April 1.