Totakahini (Parrot's Tale)

The Story:
The short story by Rabindranath Tagore begins with a parrot being captured and taken to the king. As the bird is unruly and is prone to flying and singing, the king and his court (the general, the pundits and the ministers) decide that it must be tamed. A grand plan is drawn up to educate the bird.
As the first step, a great golden cage is built and scores of scribes are employed to produce enormous textbooks. But the bird's progress is not to the satisfaction of the court. In an effort to hasten its erudition, it is fed with pages from text books instead of the usual ration.
But it still tries to escape, though in vain. As a punishment, its wings are cut off. The bird ceases to move, and, to sing; and the priests assure the king that the bird’s education is now complete. Actually, the bird is dead.

The Play:
The short story, though written about a century ago, has not lost is relevance even today. We have chosen this in order to explore the inadequacy and inhumanity of the education system. In our interpretation, the play explores the complex relations of power that work through coercion, corruption, greed and consent.
We have adapted the story keeping intact the structure, characters and dialogue. Nevertheless, the play seeks to situate itself in the contemporary reality. While keeping the fairy-tale-like characters of the king, the pundit and the kotwal, we have transformed some figures according to our needs. Some Bangla dialects have been used along with the standard Bangla of the original. Occasional English words or references to recent events are to be found in the performance.