The Tribune, Chandigarh, India

Using theatre to rebel without a pause

Theatre artiste and activist Madeeha Gauhar (left) feels all proponents of hatred should be thrown into the Arabian Sea. — A scene from her play Bullah

Madeeha Gauhar — actress, director and activist — is one of the few voices of sanity that was raised against the tyranny of former president Gen Zia-ul-Haque in Pakistan. At the receiving end of a brutal lathi charge, she was jailed for participating in an anti-government demonstration led by Azma Jahangir and dismissed from her job subsequently. She finally emerged victorious with her recognition as coveted awardee of Tamnaga-e-Imtiaz Award in 2002 by the Pakistan government. Madeeha talks about Pakistan society, her trials and tribulations to Rashmi Talwar. Excerpts from an exclusive interview:

How did the acting bug bite you, especially in a conservative society ?

I was 17 and studying in Kinnaird Christian College, Lahore when I made my first foray into acting in TV serials. My father Ali Gauhar died when I was just 14. The most touching play on TV was Neelay haath about imprisoned women.

How did your relatives react to your career ?

They were shocked, annoyed, upset, and very disapproving. "She will never find a groom," they had admonished me. Soon, my sister followed in my footsteps. We faced limitless remarks. They were proved wrong when in 1987 I finally married producer, writer, director Shahid Nadeem. The barbs were exhausted by then.

How did you conceive, nurture and sustain Ajoka theatre?

Ajoka’ emerged out of extreme diversity. From being a lecturer in a government college, I became jobless after a jail sentence. Angry and full of fiery zeal to bring about a change, spurred me on to set-up Ajoka theatre in 1984. Our first play was performed in the lawn of my mother Begum Kadija Gauhar, a famed English writer and poetess, in Lahore cantonment, as my father was an army officer. (Twinkling) Our activities were not discovered by the intelligence until the last portrayal of the week-long performances.They, however, banned the second play we were to perform there. By then we approached the ‘Max Mueller’ institute. The German institute accommodated us by lending us space to perform. In the meantime I also went to London to get a Masters degree in theatre from University of London.

How did you manage nearly 40 plays with meagre finance?

Both the private and public sector shied away from financing us, due to stringent Shariat laws and the Hadood ordinance enforced there, that degraded women in every possible manner. We made plays that had strong social themes and sent out messages of awakening against repressive laws. Some voluntary donors who did come forward then, attached conditions. It was a no-win situation. Whatever little we earned from staging plays was put back in while all actors, till date, voluntarily act in my plays without remuneration.

Tell us about your brush with Pakistan rangers in 1999?

On August 14, 1999, while shaking hands with noted writer Gulzar sahib and journalist Kuldip Nayyar on the narrow strip of zero line at Wagah JCP mounted Pakistan rangers pushed me harshly and I fell in a ditch nearby. I felt very angry and humiliated. Security will only behave the way government wants it to. (Lighting-up) This time it was a warm welcome. The government allowed visas to seven destinations in Punjab to our Pakistan troupe of 26 members here for staging the play Bullah. It may be a new beginning and my proudest moment.

What is the state of music in Pakistan?

Changes in India have a direct impact on Pakistan. Like it is in India, double-meaning songs have emerged on the music scene. However, the bright side is that Sufism too has surfaced in contrast. Internationally famed Pakistan groups like Junoon of Siyoney fame have returned to the rich legacy of sufi poetry. Sufi poetry is being appreciated. Indian singer Hans Raj Hans’s Sufi-gayaki has caught on in India. Sukhwinder Singh’s scores are a hot favourite in music circles here and in Pakistan. The bigotry, fundamentalism and mullah-culture have jointly suppressed Sufism to negate the feelings of tolerance, secularism, peace, humanity which Sufis preach to elevate themselves. It is time that the Amritsar-Lahore bus service be started to join the twin cities of two Punjabs.

What are the other productions under the banner of Ajoka?

We have an audio-visual wing that produces telefilms, TV serials, documentaries, audio and video of plays on women’s rights, honour killings, illiteracy, family planning and the environment. Besides, we also holds workshops in thousands of communities across Pakistan, using theatre for socially relevant messages.

How did successive Pakistan regimes react to your activities and what is your vision for Pakistan?

After Gen Zia-ul-Haque, the Prime Minister (PM) Nawaz Sharief heading a democratic government banned our play Takkey da tamasha. Another democrat PM Benazir Bhutto was tolerant. While present-day president Pervez Musharraf has so far been liberal even as Zafar-ullah Khan Jamali has banned fashion shows while neighbouring Afghanistan proudly displays its fashion queen. My vision of my country is that of a liberal, progressive, vibrant, tolerant society — free from fundamentalism and hatred. Defence spending should be cut down to make way for literacy, economic elevation and thriving arts. (vehemently) All those who propagate hate-wave should be thrown into the Arabian Sea.

How do you manage to wield the whip?

I handle all my artistes with maturity and take a personal interest in their lives. Whenever they need me, I am there for them. I feel blessed to receive so much respect in a male-dominated society.

Your likes and dislikes... How do you handle your family along with work?

I love Amritsari paneer pakoras, Lahori fish and mithai, Thai and Chinese cuisines. Being from similar backgrounds, my husband and I share the same zest and intellectual waveleng. We make lots of adjustments for work and time spent together. Our joy is in our two children. (Not surprisingly, her two boys are named Nirvana —ultimate peace and Sarang a raga).

What is your biggest achievement?

It is a fight to the finish. Not only have I won the respect of people of Pakistan but also won over hearts in Amritsar, a big achievement indeed.

Do you envisage a political role for yourself?

I see myself only as a giver of political messages through my plays. Elections are not my cup of tea.

What is your message for women?

A women should stand up for her rights as a daughter, sister, mother, wife and in any other role she plays. I am a firm believer in gender equality. My guiding philosophy is! ‘Work for a better tomorrow".

Teaching children sense and sensitivity
Inderdeep Thapar

Instilling emotional intellligence is an important parental responsibility

As I saw my eight year old drawing a card, I was immediately curious as for who the privileged one was. The answer moved me as she quoted that it was for her friend's brother who was a special child. The entire class was involved. The incident triggered a chain of thought. Many years ago when I was in school, a class fellow of mine was severely injured as a result of the roof of her room collapsing. Our teacher told us to take turns to write a weekly letter to her, apprising her of all that happened in class. After a few years, when we were in college she remembered the gesture and said the letters cheered her as she remained confined to bed. It made her feel as if she was not missing anything. I bless the teacher who planted the seed of sensitivity in us when we were in that stage of receiving. How conscious are the parents of today, with their overburdened schedules, about making the child sensitive towards the feelings of others ?

Manmeet , who runs a successful boutique, feels that communication of the parent with the child is must. Caring for her grandfather who is ill by not letting her friends shout while playing came naturally to her daughter Seerat.

How to inculcate sensitivity?

Parents should show a respect for each others’ feelings, to begin with. If there is verbal or psychological violence in behaviour, a child will automatically be predisposed towards following the same behavioural pattern. Children who grow up in households where there is abusive behaviour are four times more likely to follow it as adults.

Avoid making remarks ridiculing someone’s physical traits or deformity. Teach them never to make fun of or mock children who wear braces, spectacles, calipers etc. Avoid referring to any one as ‘ugly’. Discourage judging or mocking of peers on the basis of looks alone.

Consciously avoid bigoted or negative references to any caste, community or religion. Prepare the child for a plurality of cultures, customs and traditions that need to be appreciated and understood

Do not pass on your biases and prejudices to the child. In fact, avoid discussing family politics and negative traits of relatives in front of growing children. It can damage their interaction for life and prevent them from relating to people.

Focus on the fact that material or academicsuccess alone does not matter, with utter disregard for the means used to achieve it. How you are as a human being is important and not what you do, possess or is your station in life.

Keep a check on behaviour and insist on decorum and politeness of speech, especially as far as treating servants goes.

It is important to participate and not to win. Teach them to compete in true sportsman spirit and learn to take setbacks and failures in their stride. Competitiveness should not ruin the fun of doing things. It is the journey and not the destination that matters.

Expose them to those who do not have the same advantages. Stress on charity and teach them to contribute in some form or other to society. Good citizens are, after all, made at home.

Religious or spiritual training in the early years will not only prove a solid support in later years but also give a child moorings in stressful times and inculcate compassion.

Teach tolerance of divergent points of view and if you see signs of inflexibility in attitudes, try to work upon them. — AN

"She must have picked it up by observing us. Being in a joint family has made her tolerant and sensitive to the feelings of others. She can't help feeling low when any of us is low. She has faced death in the family and that has made her realise the value of human life."

Sensitivity in the child is not something that can be doctored, nor are there any packages for it. It is something that the child imbibes by observing or by training impartred by near and dear ones. A parent cannot keep up the rhetoric "be nice to others even if he or she is being rude to you". The first school of the child is the home. Competitive parents who want to push their children ahead often forget the value of this quality. Others try crushing it under the mistaken belief that it will make their child weak (emotionally) and therefore vulnerable. Making the child emotionally intelligent is not a crime, rather it is an asset. Parents forget that by stunting this important aspect in a child they will be the first ones to suffer. When they grow old it is not financial or material comfort that they are looking for, as most of them have made arrangements for their graying years, but emotional props. Learning which was not given in childhood can not sprout suddenly in maturer years. The same children who are not taught value of regard of the feelings of others will face adjustment problems when they enter into matrimony for they have been conditioned to think only about themselves.

There is more to the child than his career or his studies. How many parents really know their child, but they do know what is wanted of their child. True, it is important to be successful in life but an explanation of the requirement is often more effective than hammering it into the child in a negative way or inculcating a sense of unhealthy competition (for instance hiding notes or not sharing books).

Numerous instances can be used to instil emotional intelligence in the child. Whether it is sibling rivalry or entry of a new child in the family, the ability to look from the point of others is what constitutes emotional intelligence. It is for the parent to see and monitor where the child requires guidance.

Society is becoming more and more individualistic. Individualism has to be balanced with flexibility and introspection. The children of today are the individuals of tomorrow. The world has been and will be a jungle where each is striving to carve a place for himself but in teaching the skills of survival, it is for the parent to see that the personality of the child does not get dented to such an extent that he becomes a misfit and later on a liability for the society.

Ghalib had made the distinction between a homo sapien and a human being (aadmi and insaan), and the line dividing the two is sensitivity—towards others.

Communication with the child has to be encouraged. Whenever he wants to or feels like, a child should discuss the events of the day with the parent, who should listen and respond with attentiveness. The response of the parent will mould the personality of the child. It is only after developing the quality of introspection and inculcating need for communication can a parent aspire to fulfil the needs of child-rearing.

Fitness file
Problem pill
Sandhya Srinivasan

The manufacture and sale of the abortion pill RU486, allowed by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare last year, has become a matter of serious concern for both gynaecologists and health activists today.

Although the pill is being promoted as a safe and effective method of non-surgical abortion, there are fears it will be misused because of unethical pharmaceutical promotional practices and easy over-the-counter availability of prescription drugs. The drug can even kill if used without proper medical supervision and access to emergency treatment.

RU486 (mifepristone) has been available in India for some time, first as part of clinical trials and later as an import. Currently, at least, four companies are marketing it in urban and rural areas, and there has been talk of it being introduced into the public health system.

Women opting for a non-surgical abortion are administered a combination of drugs to terminate a pregnancy. While mifepristone blocks the availability of progesterone, a hormone essential for the foetus to grow, misopristol triggers off uterine contractions so that the foetus is expelled.

The process takes some days and requires at least three visits to the health provider—one to confirm the uterine pregnancy (with a sonography) and take the mifepristone, one to take misopristol, and the third for a repeat sonography to confirm that the abortion is complete. In approximately 15 per cent of cases, a surgical abortion is required to complete the procedure.

The bleeding takes place over a number of days, and can occasionally be very severe. "I admit my patient for the day so that she can be supervised when the bleeding starts," says Mumbai gynaecologist Reshma Pai. The increased number of doctor visits and the price of the drugs (the

mifepristone dose costs about Rs 1,000 [1US$=Rs 46] and the misopristol Rs 50) together may make the RU486 option (medical abortion) more expensive than a surgical procedure done by the same doctor.

Medical abortion is contra-indicated if the woman is more than seven weeks pregnant (it is less effective), if she has an intra-uterine device in place or if she has an ectopic pregnancy, which could be fatal for the woman. It must not be used if the woman is taking certain medicines or has

bleeding disorders, if she does not have access to emergency medical help including transfusions and resuscitation, or if she cannot return to the doctor for two follow-up visits. Some doctors also conduct a blood test to rule out medical problems including anaemia. The risk of improper use includes death from excessive bleeding or incomplete abortion. Sanjay Gupte from Pune notes that Indian women have the right to a safe abortion with medical supervision. "RU486 is a well-tested drug and might seem to assert that right but the ground realities in India may change that."

Rational drug activist Anant Phadke feels that the pill should be available but only under strictly controlled conditions. However, unethical drug promotion practices, an inadequate regulatory system making prescription drugs available over the counter, the desperation of women seeking

abortions and limited access to essential emergency services - all of these combine to create a potential disaster.

Some gynaecologists comment that the promotional campaigns for the pill highlight its benefits and downplay its risks. There is insufficient information on what happens if the drug does not work and the woman chooses to continue the pregnancy. Pratibha Kulkarni, Pune-based gynaecologist, holds that mifepristone is a very good drug, but should be administered only to those who meet the selection criteria, and only by a competent doctor with access to appropriate monitoring and emergency facilities. She reports that some medical representatives - in violation of marketing regulations - have suggested that doctors can use lower doses of the drug to cut down on costs. The lower dose is still under trial and has not yet been proven safe and effective.

"If doctors ask us, we tell them that other doctors are getting results with just 200 mg of mifepristone (instead of 600 mg) and they can give this if they wish," says one medical representative, who didn't want to be named. "But we never directly promote one tablet."

According to the 1971 Medical Termination of Pregnancy (MTP) Act, only certified and registered practitioners are allowed to administer the drug in MTP-certified and registered centres. But it is believed that some companies promote the drug through chemists. Many chemists are known to dispense even schedule X drugs without prescriptions.

Gupte fears that the drug will become available over the counter. "Students are aware of it and will demand it. It will be misused and the consequences are serious."

Sunil Kaul of The Action North East Trust in Assam was concerned to see pamphlets on mifepristone in doctors' offices there and he too believes that it will soon effectively become an over-the-counter drug. "Do women know that it's not as simple as described in the pamphlets?"

"It is in the companies' interests to ensure that the drug is controlled strictly," says Dr Reshma Pai, who has participated in educational programmes for doctors sponsored by the drug companies in order to ensure its proper use.

Health activist Jaya Velankar claims the drug is already available over the counter. The fact is that about 50 per cent of Indian women are anaemic; severe blood loss after RU486 could be fatal for them. Further, the possibility of an incomplete abortion is fraught with danger. Gynaecologist Kurus Coyaji, who conducted some of the mifepristone trials in India, notes that the majority of abortions performed in India are illegal and unsafe. The majority of registered clinics lack the equipment or staff trained to do even a simple manual aspiration. Access to safe abortions is a woman's right and a public health need. Medical abortions expand women's access to abortion, especially when surgical facilities are in such short supply. Coyaji argues that the poor quality of health services make it all the more necessary to provide women the option of medical abortion. However, it "brings its own set of service delivery challenges to address".

Indeed, it is difficult to say whether RU486 is a solution or a new problem. — WFS