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There
is a saying in Sanskrit, "Matru Devo Bhava", that is, 'Mother is God'.
To say that Maa retires from a family is therefore like saying that
God retires from the world. Like most families, the protagonist family
in the play is emotionally embattled. There are the sons whose part
of the world lies beyond their mother's home; the husband who believes
that he is responsible only for the material part of the home and the
daughter who had eloped and thereby shunned the home. But what is Maa
left with? What is that she would seek to protect? A new journey must
begin; after all she is as much of a human being as her children and
her husband.
Sudha, the protagonist of the play, chooses to retire. It is a journey
away from home that symbolises the essential loneliness of every human
being. The play leaves us with the question whether the belief that
each human being is an island can ever bring peace to us. Or, do we
need to expand the walls that we have created around us by limiting
of our compassion? That is, can we feel at an emotional level the concept
of, 'Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam' (the world is a family)? |