Salt Licks and other plays

The plays in Volume 6 reflect on the continued Western orientation of Indian communities till today. As a character in Salt Licks says: ‘Go West, young man, to rediscover the East. And don't be in a hurry to get back’. The first play in this publication series refers to a peculiarly Bangalore society of elders fixated in the Raj, calling themselves the Empire Loyalists. If it was ‘Great Britain’ at one time, it was the American Dream later. In the pre-liberalized economy, young people went to extremes to get admission in American colleges and universities. Any university, any course, any location, it was only important to get there first. And yet... there was something so human in their dreams. The collection in this Volume can be called Vijay Padaki’s early plays. The stories are set in the period early ‘seventies to early ‘nineties. The ubiquitous 2-in-1 music system in the plays creates a special place for itself. Two plays in the set need further explanation. Gold and Silver was written at the time of an exchange project with the Royal National Theatre celebrating India’s Golden Anniversary of Independence. Evening Shadows is an original English language adaptation of Sandhya Chhaya by the Marathi playwright Jaywant Dalvi. The loneliness of an elderly couple is compounded by the son not returning from America.