IIT-Kanpur students get their act together

Students of various streams of engineering at IIT-K have a new found passion in theatre. That’s why 22 students of the institute have got together to perform the famous play Dus Din Ka Anshan written by Harishankar Parsai on June 21. In a first of its kind initiative of the Cultural Council of IIT-Kanpur, the idea behind staging the play is to develop the confidence level of the students and to also inculcate feeling of team work and hone their management skills through such events.

Dr Omendra Kumar, a prominent theatre artist from Kanpur is the coordinator of this theatre workshop. “Initially I thought that training engineering students in theatre will be tough. But I was pleasantly surprised when the students participated in the workshop with full interest and also came up to me with interesting and creative ideas,” says Kumar.

“Dus Din Ka Anshan is a contemporary play as this shows how today people take the help of anshan (protests) to fulfill their personal or political agendas. It’s the story of a young man who falls in love with a married woman and when she shuns him, he sits on an anshan. And in this he gets the support of the local political parties,” adds Kumar.

The students, meanwhile are excited as the day of the staging of the play nears. Their month-long practise sessions are on in full swing and now the youngsters are excited about performing on stage. Anuj Jain, pursuing B-Tech second year, is playing the lead role in the play. “I was always interested in dramatics and that’s why I readily agreed to be part of this workshop to learn about acting and get over my inhibitions,” says Anuj.
Interest in theatre also made Saurabh Dubey, a first year student of BS Mathematics take part in the play. “Since I have to remain focused to get into the skin of my character, this has helped me focusing on other things in life better,” says Saurabh.

For Sohil Saifi, a BTech first year student, the workshop turned out to learn about team work. As an assistant director, Sohil’s job is to gather the team and work with all of them behind as well as those on stage. Says he, “The experience of donning director’s hat has been fantastic. I’m learning how to make a team work towards a common goal.”

Abhimanyu Gupta

, enacting another character in the play, says, “During rehearsals, we are encouraged to give our creative inputs. We, students, have added our own punches in the play to make it more contemporary and interesting.”

Devansh Pathak

, a first-year student of Aerospace engineering, says, “The rehearsals of the play have made us confident. This kind of exposure will help us greatly in our professional life later on.”

The group doesn’t want this to be a one-off stage performance and is planning a series of nukkad nataks based on social and political issues once this play is over.