Tumhari
Amrita played in our city for a few shows. By Ms Shabana Azmi and Mr Farookh
Sheikh. I missed it. As I have missed Putul Khela and Kallol and
even Raktakarabi. I was searching the net one day for whatever glimpses of
these that Mr
Google had to offer. It was then
that I found, that Tumhari Amrita was an adaptation 
of Love
Letters, a play by Mr A R Gurney.
There was a lot of material on Love Letters, some video snippets and show
timings even. Only the shows were not in my part of the
world. But the video snippets
reminded me of a line by Ms Azmi in
Tumhari Amrita I saw on TV. It was a very short glimpse of one
scene in some programme on Ms Azmi. " Us angan ke kone me
ek bargat ka perh tha", if I remember correctly. Her
reminiscent happy voice haunted me to read the
English play. If anyone can tell me more about Tumhari Amrita, the book or the
play, I will remain ever grateful. 
Now more about Love Letters. I quote about the play from the
book.
" This is a play or rather a sort of play, which needs no theater,
no lengthy rehearsal, no special set, no memorization of lines, and no
commitment from its two actors beyond the night of performance. It is designed
simply to be read aloud by an actor and an actress of roughly the same age,
sitting side by side at a table, in front of a group of people of any
size. The actor might wear a
dark grey suit, the actress a simple expensive looking dress. In a more formal
production, the table and chairs might be reasonably elegant English antiques,
and the actors area may be isolated against a dark background by bright focused lights. In performance the piece would seem to work best if the actors
didn't look at each other until the very end, when Melissa might watch Andy as
he reads his final letter. They listen eagerly and
attentively to each other
along the way, however, much as we might listen to an urgent voice on a one-way radio. coming
from far, far away."
All through the 55 pages of the
drama and for a considerable time thereafter, I remained transfixed on the
lives of Andy and Melissa. I shared their childhood affection, their teenage
romance and, their quarrels, their
hide and seek uneasiness in adulthood
and their love, which Andy could
admit only after her death.
Andy's last letter is a
revelation. He summarizes his entire life in a tragic canvass of the
innumerable moments where he and Melissa came together and went away in
different directions throughout their lives. I quote from the concluding part
of the play where he writes to her mother after Melissa's death and we hear
Melissa's soul suffering from the pain of his admissions.
"
Andy : Dear Mrs Gardener, I think
the first letter I ever wrote was to you, accepting an invitation for Melissa's
birthday party. Now I am writing you again about her death. I wish to say a few things on paper I
couldn't say at her funeral, both when I spoke, and when you and I talked
afterward. As you may know, Melissa and I managed to keep in touch with
each other most of our lives, primarily through letters. Even now, as I write
this letter to you, I feel I'm writing also to her.
Melissa : Ah, you are in
your element now, Andy....
Andy : We had a complicated
relationship, she and I, all our lives. We went in very different directions.
But somehow, over those years, I think we managed to give something to each other. Melissa expressed all
the dangerous and rebellious feelings I never dared admit to.....
Melissa : Now he tells me
....
Andy : And I like to think I gave
her some sense of balance ......
Melissa : BALANCE ? Oh
hell, I give up. Have it your way, Andy ; balance!
Andy : Most of the things I did
in life I did with her partly in mind. And if I said or did an inauthentic
thing, I could almost hear her groaning over my shoulder. But now she is gone, I really don't know how
I will get along without her.
Melissa : ( Looking at him for the first time) You'll survive,
Andy.............
Andy : I have a wonderful wife,
fine children, and a place in the world I feel proud of, but the death of
Melissa suddenly leaves a huge gap in my life...
Melissa : Oh now,
Andy......
Andy : The thought of never again
being able to write to her, to connect to her, to get some signal back from
her, fills me with an emptiness which is hard to describe.
Melissa : Now Andy,
stop.....
Andy : I don't think there are
many men in this world who have had the benefit of such a friendship with such
a woman. But it was more than friendship, too. I know now that I love her. I loved her even from
the day I met her, when we talked into that second grade, looking like the lost
princess of Oz.
Melissa : Oh, Andy,
PLEASE. I can't bear it.
Andy : I don't think I've ever
loved anyone the way I loved her, and I know I never ill again. She was at the
heart of my life, and already I miss her desperately. I just wanted to say this to you and
to her. Sincerely, Andy Ladd.
Melissa : Thank you,
Andy. "
The format of the play is unique.
It takes you through fifty years of their lives, their journey and their
escapades as they grow up and try to live without each other. Their families,
though never appearing in person, are ever visible in the background. Melissa
writes less. She is more action oriented. But she portrays Andy in the few
lines she pens. And I quote again.
" Senator and Mrs Andrew M.
Ladd, III and family send you warm holiday greetings and every good wish for
the New year.
Melissa : Andy Ladd, is that YOU ? Blow dried and custom-tailored and
jogging trim at fifty-five. Hiding behind that lovely wife with her heels
together and her hands folded
discreetly over her snatch ? And is that your new DOG, Andy ? I see that you
have graduated to a golden retriever. And are those your sons and heirs ? And -- Help! Is that a grandchild
nestled in someone's arms? God, Andy, you look like the Holy Family! ......"
She is also very direct.
"
Andy : .....Jane and the boys join me in wishing each and all of
you a Happy Holiday Season.
Melissa : Dear Andy. If I ever get another one of those drippy
Xeroxed Christmas letters from you, I think I will invite myself out to your
ducky little house for dinner, and when
you are all sitting there eating terribly healthy food and discussing terribly
important things and generally congratulating yourselves on all your accomplishments, I think I will
stand up on my chair, and turn around and moon the whole f...ing family!"
Andy loves to write.
"Andy : O.K. Here goes. The reason I'm writing Angie Atkinson is because I
just don't think I can stop writing Letters, particularly to girls. As I told
you before, in some ways I feel I am
most alive when I'm holed up in some corner, writing things down. I pick up a
pen and almost immediately everything seems to take shape around me. I love to write. I love writing
my parents because then I become the ideal son. I love writing essays for
English, because then I am for a short while, a
true scholar. I love writing letters to the newspapers, notes to my fiends,
Christmas Cards, anything where I have to put down words. I love writing you.
This letter which I'm writing
with my own hand, with my own pen, in my own penmanship, comes from me and no
one else, and is a present of myself to you......"
I loved reading the play. As
happens with age, you will find some of their experiences common to yours. Most
of these will make you smile, some may be sad. But you will surely cherish them
and revisit them. Please do. Happy reading! And if you can find Tumhari
Amrita
for me to read or listen to, nothing like it!
p.s. I was so overwhelmed by the
play that I made a recording of it in my untrained voice, playing both Andy and
Melissa. I have separated the characters by inserting a bell sound, single bell
for Andy and a double for Melissa. I
attach two portions. Please bear with them.
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