Shekkhopir-deshe Scroll: Conversation

In this conversation, the timeline of the famines in England (between 1550-1600) and the context for Shakespeare’s plays were discussed. Dukhushyam was interested in the contrast between the famine in Bengal, which was a result of drought, and the one in England, which was caused by excessive rain. Ayesha explained the topography and layout of England, the difference in climate and living conditions between the northern and southern regions, the structure of the parish and its administrative framework.

Much of the discussion focussed on the reign of Queen Elizabeth, as her fast dwindling power and increasing ill-health, along with the threat of war posed challenges to an already fraught Britain in the 1590s. During this time, the scientist Hugh Platt experimented with agriculture and crop production in the hopes of finding solutions and alternatives to combat crop failure, recording his finds in notebooks. Shakespeare wrote satirical plays about the government’s corruption and ineptitude during this time of crisis, creating the character Falstaff to embody social and political failures which exacerbated the famine. There are intervals of several days between the conversations as the patachitrakars needed time to digest and reflect on this history which was unfamiliar to them.

As Dukhushyam Chitrakar was most interested in literary and performative culture in this context, most conversations between him and Ayesha Mukherjee focus on the literary outputs, particularly Henry IV, part 1 and 2, the records kept by Platt in his notebooks, and contemporary writers’ works on the famine at the time. Ayesha translated excerpts from these into Bengali to make the texts as directly accessible to Dukhushyam as possible. In his comments and reinterpretations, Dukhushyam likens the monstrous figure of Falstaff with Shani in Hindu mythology who is considered inauspicious and thought to bring misfortune and loss.

Several prints of the portraits of Queen Elizabeth and Shakespeare, an early modern map of England, archived photographs of performances of Shakespeare's Henry IV, and paintings and images of the character of Falstaff were provided and discussed with Dukhushyam, along with the translated summary of the research notes containing key historical information. Based on this he composed the first draft of the poem. Further discussions followed: Sujit and Dukhushyam talked about how to improve upon the poem’s rhyme scheme and musical variations. The painters would need to consider adaptive possibilities of the form and styles of painting. The historian Wendy Singer's expertise on Indian oral narratives also helped the project team find a way to translate British history into an Indian narrative form. The final version of the poem was thus reached and, subsequently, set to a tune.