Solapur days

Because of Arwind, I had joined 'Natya-pushpanjali', an amature theatre group run by Nandu Kirpekar, and we started moving about the amature thetrical circles at Solapur. Majority of the members of these groups used to meet in the evenings in a 'Satkar' a small Hotel opposite Solapur railway station. It was here that I met Chandrabhushan Kulshreshtha, a dramatist whose frail appearance bellied his heavy sounding name. He was a sensitive & creative writer. Unfortunately, he never got the break he deserved, and may not be known beyond the amature theatre groups in Solapur.

The amature theatre groups used to participate in two main competitions every year-organised by the Cultural Affairs Ministry of the State Government-one was open to all and the other was reserved for workers. As we could be fitting in both the catagories we competed in both. The first stage of competitions was the regional level, and the two best entries were selected for competition at the state level. These competitions have a lot of prestige, and have given many good directors/writers/actors to the professional theatre in Maharashtra. We had hopes of making it to the State level, by winning the first/second position at Solapur, which was our only chance of getting noticed-and to make a jump to the professional theatre.

Drama thus became a major activity for me. In the competition season, there would be rehearsals every day, and discussions on the actual enactment of play, while for rest of the year there would be heated debates & discussions. And apart from the competitions, there were many other opportunities for presentation of the plays for various events, which kept us all very busy.

It was thus I got into the play "Prompting" by Chandrabhushan Kulsreshtha. I was hero's sidekick. Actually Chadrabhushan Kulsreshtha had written a one act play "I say no prompting" which had this hero rejecting "prompting" of any kind, was a rebel, and wished to move ahead in life with original thinking. The play "Prompting" was an extension of this.

We competed in the Workers catagory, got second place at Solapur for play, and got a chance to compete in the finals at Nagpur. I remember carrying all the drama property-the sets, drapery and son, with all the members of the team, and the long train journey to Nagpur. At Nagpur, somebody told us that the venue (Dhanvate Rangmandir) was very near the railway station (which was far from truth-as we found out later) and we walked all the way with all that luggage.
We did not win any prizes at the finals, but had a chance to see good plays staged by other amature groups, and there an ambition was born, which resulted in 'Al Komero', the first & only play conceived & written by me with Arwind Kulkarni as co-writer.