The Story of Gunadhaya Part 3

The Story of Gunadhaya Part 3.

Gunadhaya, in a strong and sustained state of shock at the injustice that transpired, trudges through the country side of pratishtana. After staying a few weeks in the palace he realised that not being able to speak any of the three court languages made him persona non-grata. The masses can be so fickle. From most loved 'janakpriya Gunadhaya' he went to 'whose that guy sulking in the corner.

Its not as if he had a choice. Even if he chose to not honor the terms of the bet, given that such an injustice was perpetrated. If he spoke, what would he say? That the King was part of a conspiracy to make him lose? That the King had been dishonest? Could he even say this to Vaishnavi, 'that you were also made complicit in the conspiracy.' Vaishnavi, who thought she had interceded in the court proceedings in the names of fairness to protect her favourite and most trusted pundit. Only to ask a question that was already known by Devaki?

Sadness knows know bounds, and Gunadhaya's feet carried his sadness into the deep dark jungles on the border of Pratishtana. At some point, Gunadhaya stops, and looks around, only to find himself lost in the middle of a forest. Suddenly he hears some music in the distance, and slowly follows the sound to find a group of tribals celebrating - something - in song and dance.

He watches from the side, trying to stay discreet. But he's not exactly in camoflage fatigues now is he? And to an eye familiar with a forest, he probably stood out like a neon sign. Kanabhuti, a tribal elder, brings him in, noticing that he is troubled deep within, and amidst much curiosity and fun, determines that Gunadhaya should be allowed to stay here until he sorts himself out. The tribals of course can't decide if he's a mute, or if he's just shy. Gunadhaya of course, says nothing. He doesn't understand this very fast, sing song, language that the tribals are communicating in (we're using an unnamed dialect from the kannada-andhra border, tullu, and konkani here).

After much argument, and about 10 minutes of other languages on stage... Kanabhuti declaims (on-stage in perfect kannada).

"No its not that he's dumb. He's not talking because he can't speak our Paisachi language!"
Replies come in thick and fast...

"Oh he can't speak our paisachi"
"I still think he's dumb"
"shut up what do you know"
"How do we communciate with him?" come the replys from the tribals (once again, in perfect kannada on stage).

"Tell you what, I'll teach him" determines kanabhuti.

And then proceeds to start to teach a willing Gunadhaya Paisachi (kannada), a whole new language in which he can communicate.

Much to the awe and amazement of the tribe. Gunadhaya picks up the language rapidly (about 3 minutes of stage time - in a song that starts with naming the various parts of ones face, and develops into full structured sentences with an ultimate declamation - I can speak Paisachi).

Gunadhaya settles into life, there. Watching as members of other tribes come in and out, meeting Kanubhuti, sharing stories, (Kanabhuti turns out to be an accomplished Griot), telling them of thier problems.

One tribal elder comes to tell Kanubhuti of the impending distruction of his tribe and thier way of life - given the constant encroachment on thier land by plains dwellers. Times are bad for them. Kanubhuti worries about thier stories.

One day Gunadhaya sees a kid riding his uncle who is pretending to be a lion. His memories go back to Satavahana, the oath, his life in the court - all of which he doesn't mind leaving - but Vaishnavi - his close friend - he misses very much.

Kanabhuti asks him where his thoughts are.

"Oh from my past life before I came here."
"You must miss it"
"No, not really - I realise now it wasn't that important."
"Then why the sadness?"
"I miss one person from it."
"Ah"

"Kanabhuti, you seem to be a much loved leader of your people".
"Leader!! HA HA HA HA HA - I can't even get Kaalava to listen to me, you think I could be a leader?"
"Then why to people always come to you and talk to you?"
"We share stories. I collect them." -He says proudly."
"They're a collection of all of our wisdom, and knowledge, they are who we are. Sometimes I think we were only made so that we could tell stories to each other, so that the stories could live through our telling them."

Kanubhuti sees the tribal elder from the other village.

"But I worry. Our tribes are diminishing. After us, who will keep these stories alive?"

"Kanubhuti! I could easily devise a script and write these stories down."

"Write?"

"Yes Write, put them down in symbols on paper, that anyone can read. I would love to write all the stories of your people, and preserve them. I keep thinking when I hear them, that they woudl be enjoyed so much by my friend.. if I were to ever meet her again."

Kanubhuti is skeptical. Read a story? Off a page? Where is the life in that? How can a page give expression? How can a page tell the story with life, like a Griot can?

"Well, if you feel this is what you want to do, then you must do it. Thats how all of us operate here. What can we do to help."

After a brief discussion with the hunters, and leather makers, a plan is hatched to create pages from leather and bark and leaves, and after trying a few opitons, Gunadhaya settles on using his own blood as ink.

The story writing starts, the tribe being demolished is particularly interested in having thier stories preserved.

Pages are made, the stories, keep coming, gunadhaya grows week from the amount of blood he uses, and the tribals start to pitch in. Giving thier blood into these stories, as he sits thier dilligently and writes them.

Seven years pass.

Gunadhaya has now written 7,00,000 verses. Of all the stories of all the tribes in the region. Its quite an achievement. He determines that it is now time to take these stories out into the world, to share them, first with Vaishnavi, and then with the world.

He heads back to the court of Satavahana.

The other side of the breakthrough.

Sometimes, one should temper ones excitment about crossing a boundary, about the other side of which they have no idea. Or something like that. I wonder how many explorers went Yay! Uh-oh. After that wonderful breakthrough I find myself in a whole other medium, through which we progress like mollasses. In this case, the medium of the musical play, where the story's entire progress is done musically.

I didn't know what we were going to do next - yes, I knew where the story needs to go - but how do we establish these tribals, the world that Gunadhaya stumbles upon. The quality of 'difference' between his world and thiers, yet holding onto the potential for interaction between the two. Music was the answer.

I decided that as much as the first section is grounded in realism, and in the representing a world of the court of the king. The second act would be qualitatively entirely different. It started with watching the actors perform Kollatta in a morning class (its kind of like dandia, but its very fast, and thier are a thousand different patterns).

The actors just standing in space, balancing the stage, became the forest, it looked like one, I got them to go into the nearby woods and to just sit with trees and get a sense of them, not just what they looked like, but what they evoked in the actor. They all created thier own bhangi's for the essence of the tree they chose to emulate. So, we have actors, standing across stage, in various poses, with kollatta sticks in thier hands. Eyes closed, quietly making the sounds of the forest. Insects, birds, the occassional animal rustle.

Gunadhaya enters the forest, lost in thoughts of his unjust defeat. Realises while his mind has been preoccupied, his feet have perhaps, wondered a bit too far. I thought that even if he was more cognizant of the forest, his attitude would be, "I have pretty much nothing to live for out there, so I may as well go here, and if it marks the end of me, big deal. I can't speak any known language in the kingdom, I have all this knowledge now rendered useless, I have been uncerimoniously removed from pride-of-place position in court, and I don't get to hang out with the Queen, whose company I have rather enjoyed all these years. (Oh yes, we had a big debate about whether I was turning this into a love story between Gunadhya and the Queen - there's all kinds of Love, I argue, not just the type all you young hormonal adults are thinking about. Good, another moment of learning.)

He enters the forest, and the tree / actor / tribal characther of Kanubhuti starts to sway in the wind, and his branches start to hit those of the tree/actor/tribal characther of Kaalava his wife around whome he's entwined, in tempo. He begins to hum, next thing you know, the two of them break out into a kollatta song, and start a two person kolatta, which immediately develops to a four person kolatta, and then the entire center of the forest joins in, and the tribals are now doing a kolattta with Gunadhaya hiding behind the outer trees, who join in as the tempo rises and gunadhaya has no where to hide.

That - is what made me decide the second section woudl be all about song.

Progress?
- Well, we've got past the forest to Kolatta moment.
- Had the tribals bring gunadhaya into the kollatta
- Then since he's feeling a bit like a fish out of water, go sit on a stump and watch.
- Then the rest of the tribals finish thier kolatta and celebrate a dance nicely done, and then sit around Kanabhuti to hear one of his many stories.
- Kanabhuti tries to start, but everyone is very interested in this new stranger, Kanabhuti recognizes him clothing. (Its similar to the clothing a kings entourage once wore when they came into the forest and killed Sata, and took one of the young tribal boys away).
- Then after instructions by Kalava, the tribals leave Gunadhaya alone for a while, giving him a chance to acclimatize.
- In the meanwhile a tribal family from another space come and visit. Tell Kanabhuti new stories. Which everyone is very excited about. All this is happenning in regional dialects of around karnataka, Tullu, (Some konkani), another variant which the actor insists has no name.
- Gunadhaya is mesmerized by the story telling and slowly shifts to in the circle, so he can try and ge ta sense of the stories being told, even though he doesn't understand a word...

We've also separately out of sequence worked on the song in which gunadhaya learns to speak paisachi (Actors use kannada there - to denote paisachi, the idea of which is communciated imlicitly in the dialogue).

We've also composed the key song of the second act about stories, a huge choral number - so now I just have to block them in place. My lessons in Musical theatre from the New Wolsey in Ipswich are coming in handy.

But god is it so much slower that crafting the first half!

I think the other problem is that I can only articlate this half of the story in point form, and maybe I need to write here the story of Gunadhaya part three to help me get a better flow and feel for the story I'm trying to tell here.

So, expect part 3 soon.

Breakthrough!

Woo hoo! Ok, after trying many many different ideas, status games, trying to get them to create an outer symbolic manifestation of relatoinship between two people. After trying to find inner emotion n- ala gestus - doing a whole bunch of fundamental theatre exercises and re-reviewing the scenes uptil now - all in an effort to avoid dealing with a key scene where Gunadhaya leaves Satavahana's court because he has no language to communicate in.

I've thought up a thousand different ways.. long one sided converations between Gunadhaya and the queen. Gunadhaya silent and another gunadhaya behind him providing inner emotional commentary. Gunadhaya walking thorugh the court, meeting people, getting ignored. The slow journey from "popular and much loved gunadhaya" to "whose that guy who never speaks?"

After trying a thousand moments of directorial procrastination in rehearsal. I sat down and charted out the rest of the story with the musician - just in an effort to get him to come up with songs (we'll be using a lot of music and dance in the second half). Finally, walked back in, told the company the rest of the story, and got them ready to do some costume research and some research on tribals - amongst whom Gunadhaya's second bit of the story is set.

When I was left with no recourse - but to deal with what happens NEXT - in that damn moment after Gunadhaya looses the bet due to this amazing conspiracy by Sarvavarman's wife.

"...ok everyone freeze after the third 'long live the king' wherever you are.
Now give me the bhangi (a outward physical manifestation of an inner state - a symbolic body pose) of your charachters reaction to Gunadhaya's silence."

Hmm i wish i could see them all, they're all obscured by each others positions...
ok everyone come to a line a few feet from the front..of stage.

Just so I could see them...

"Oh wait.. that looks good!"

"Gunadhaya! Quick! walk center stage! and face them.

Now everyone give me the bhangi.

Ok gunadhaya tie a cloth around your mouth.

now leave...

OH ONE SEC... QUEEN.. stay back!

Ok. Gunadhaya walk to your spot and turn and face the rest of the actors at exactly the same time as they reach thier line.

Tie the cloth on your mouth.. actors go into your bhangi s at this point.

Gunadhaya leave - queen come forward to where he was center stage as he leaves and reach out to him as he walks into the audience...and when it feels right, just say his name.

"Arun can you give me some flute here please?"

We ran it. The actress playing the queen was in tears when she said

"Gunadhya".

:-) :-) :-) :-) :-) :-) :-) :-) :-) :-) :-) :-) :-) :-) :-) :-)

*jump jump jump*

Such glee I cannot even begin to tell you!!

Rural Life

Of course, there are many little things that remind me that I am
entirely in an all together different kind of world.

Waking up in the middle of the night after the moon has set and
waiting for my eyes to adjust to the darkness. Waiting. Waiting.
Waiting. Physically checking my face to see if I've opened my eyes.
I'm staring into pitch black, because the nights are ... pitch black.

Bucket baths with water from, get this, an LPG powered geyser. Your in
your birthday suit, in the bathroom, and you first turn on the
cylinder, then fire up the geyser, and run the water, and its HOT -
thank god!

Playing "Whose the Bigger Monkey" with real monkeys. I have to worry a
bit about leaving my windows with bars open when there's fruit in
the room even if I'm IN the room. A troupe of monkeys tend to head
over the guest house roof around 8.15 in the morning each day. One of
these monkeys decided that coming into my room and taking my fruit was
perfectly fine. After threatening sounds and large gestures involving
me flapping my arms under my bedsheets to make me look bigger were
exchanged by us, I am proud to say, I AM the bigger monkey. I have
been advised by one urban friend over the phone that splashing water
at them gets them to run away no matter how many threatning sounds
they make.

"Umm... you've done this right?"
"Sure plenty of times!"
I'm not so sure I want to piss off growly monkeys any more than they would be.
Have a mug of water next to bed just in case. Why though, I have no
idea, the windows are now shut tight.

Home remedies from your village chemist. You have to love that. Who in
very fluent english asked me what was the problem, - I've got a mild
fever - gave me crocin, vitamin B with C in it, and while I'd gone to
him for listrine for my throat and teeth, he said, I don't have it,
and you don't need it, salt water will disinfect just as easily.

The fact that the KSRTC bus conductor who does the overnight Bangalore
- Heggodu drive, parks his bus outside - literally - my door, and
sleeps on my verandah every day. Different conductors sleep thier on
alternate days. (I felt tremendously out of sorts yesterday when they
parked the bus in front of another building yesterday and not in its
usual spot). I think I am begginning to get the sense of a need for
routine and expecting things to be a certain way. Today morning when
the bus showed up at 8.30 instead of 7.30 - again to my consternation,
thankfully he parked where he was supposed to - i tapped the wrist
where my watch should be. He smiled and explained how he had to stop
in sagara to change the oil filter, and we both commiserated with each
other over the maintainence needs that cause minor delay as this one.

Plunging away at the block.

Blocked blocked blocked.

Slept badly last night. Couldn't figure out how I was going to work the next scene. We've got as far as the king succeeds in his exam.

Instead of trying to push past it and come to a point of inspiration - cause none is forthcoming - I went back a bit, and ran over previous stuff, getting the actors to understand staying in the moment, work on knowing what it is they're doing at every point, being receptive to the events transpiring around them, or things happenning to them. We ended up talking about Brechtian choise points. Not this but that. For some reason it really triggered something in me and I went at them with this, in great detail. Watching them come to terms with it, and how it could offer such a wealth of possibilities in performance was highly exciting. I had forgotten about the scene we have to do, and just worked with them on this scene purely using it as an example in which to experiment and try the ideas out.

Breaking down motivations into smaller and smaller parts, understanding the choices your character makes at each point, keeping the charachter and the actor separate. The idea that acting is hard work, showing them all the thought and all the doing that goes into a rehearsal in order to build a performance... i found myself saying to them, the whole point is to not know where the journey is taking you, to have an idea of where you want to go, and get up in rehearsal and try something, be open to things, and be open to failing, and through each expermiment, and observation of each experiment, and each re-experiment, find a way forward.

Wise words for a director who needs to find a way forward in the story he's trying to tell. Its pretty much the only reason I haven't posted part 3 here yet.

:-)

This afternoon will all be about improvisations. What it is to be speechless, voiceless, in a court where everything is communicated through speech. The politics of language begins.

Rough Thoughts

Rough Thoughts.

Firstly, its brilliant to be in this environment. (Did I mention that?) I wake up around 8, shower, get my room tidy (its nice to come back to a tidy room after a day's work. Read the newspaper in a room whose purpose - i think - is only to have newspapers read. Head down to have breakfast at 9.30 (either idilis or dosas) with the students, who have finished thier 7am to 9am class and have showered and got ready for breakfast by now.

We assemble on stage in the main procenium arch theatre for a start at 10. The first few days I tried the various spaces availiable at Ninsasam, the intimate space, with a pit stage in the center, you can either seat audiences in traverse... actually you can configure audiences in any direction there. But the centre of the space is the lowest area. With two steps running the length of the room down to it. I should take pictures shouldn't I? There's also the studio, a flat long space in which they do most of thier morning work. I'm using the proscenium space now.. I love it, 19 actors in space is just.. goregeous to play with. And i'm tryin gto take full advantage of. Its not every play that you get an opportunity to spend the entire time rehearsing on the stage upon which we will inevitably be performing.

Rehearsals run till 1.30 - if I'm reminded that its 1.30. We have a way of getting involved in what we're doing and then having the mess staff get quite annoyed at me showing up with a batch of students for food at 2. IF we break at 1.30 we re-commence at 3. (By which time I have napped, and dealt with digesting the tonnes of rice, and have had a coffee). We then work from 3 till 5.30-6 then tea, then the students pop off to a study session where they do written work from 6.30 till 9. Dinner at 9.30 and then sleep. In a few days, I'll be getting more time with them. Still working on pushing that.

A visitor today to ninasam said to be, so basically you wake up, eat, direct, eat, sleep, direct, eat, relax, eat, sleep and then do it all over again. To which I said. Yep. Isn't that just brilliant!

Its a directing/teaching gig for sure. While we forge ahead and plot through the scenes of this story of Gunadhaya, I have to remind myself sometimes that I'm not working with finely tuned and trained actors.. quite just yet. They have all the skills, but they're still working out how to use them. So time is spent getting through to them, getting a sense of how to get each of them to achieve thier potential, and giving them a few pointers in ways *I think* will help improve thier performance.

The language is turning out to be a total non-issue. I work in Hindi, most get it, for the few that don't, they get a simultaneous translation as I speak... to kannada. Once a scene's 'route-map' is charted out, with who says what to whom and who wants what from whom.. they just go at it. And I check that there's a logical progression to the thought, and then it all seems to naturally fall into place.

Dialogue is being thus devised, and looked after by the students - in particular one who puts down everyone's thought sequences - and a very careful faculty member who later-on with fastidiousness and deliberation, helps them polish it to final performance level. (I'm trying hard not to worry about the fact that I'm on scene 7 in devising and final version dialogue is on scene 1 - though i think it will hit stride at correct times).

The thing that is difficult, and its the problem I knew I would have to consistently contend with from the time I first set foot here. Is working in the regional performance idiom. I'm working with a very western head on my shoulders. My training is directly traceable back to stanislavskian methods and other western methods -brecht for example. To get them to play for realisim or heightened realism on stage, with real motivation, awareness of given circumstances, constant engagment with relationships with other charachters, and keeping the fourth wall intact (for the most part). Its where I"m coming from. I know i don't want to stay in that space. Yakshagana, Kuddiattam, other performance forms here in which there are conventions for representation ... and physical movement and breathing techniques that evoke heightened emotion, all appeal to me.

(There's as much conventional symbolisim in the west, they just don't document them, that a drop of the shoulders means dissapointment, a hand to the mouth could mean hesitation, silencing)

The problem is, how do i invoke these forms - of which my familiarity is minimal - in any informed manner into a play i'm directing. The audience here is a kannadiga one, it understnads these conventions, expects them. So now what?

Possible solutions.

Direct as is, work at it from the realist standpoint. As long as my play is - in my mind - watchable, and has truth in its story telling, and between the actors, it will work. But then, step back and let instructors from ninasam who have been following the process, step in, and heighten what we have. So the actor works from a real impulses. Engage with each charachter and thier own character using the work i've done, but then push the impulse to a more heightened sense of drama.

Direct as is. Once the structural logic is in place (based on what i've provided) relinquish it entirely to a more melodramatic (for lack of a better word - for now) style. Indian theatre has key moments which are severely punctuated. Music, dance, movement, look, pose, all come togehter in intense point forms in order to push a point across.I'm being a bit vague here, but its late, and I'm exhausted, and these are ... rough notes.

I think we'll try to push thier performances within the structure i have provided, with the Ninasam teachers doing a bit of that for me.

I recall a system where the visiting director at a drama school would do the main notes, and then students went off to thier usual instructors for a set of subsidiary notes. Provided the director and teachers stick to set areas of commentary, I think this would be a good way at run - through stage to achieve a more unified performance, suited to audiences here, yet with the structure that i have brought to the table.

In the meanwhile...

We've finished the defeat of gunadhaya in the court. I now have to do a scene which portrays how his inability so speak any of the court languages - renders him invisible.

I've been stumped about this.. but as i write.. i think i'm going to have a second actor who plays gunadhaya as well provide 'gestus' while gunadhaya plays the dumb mute..

He can't speak, people chat about things, he's left out.. and it all comes to a head when the queen cancels his discussion sessions with her... she tries one.. but it doesn't work... obviously.. second one.. she talks of her dissapointment with the king not talking more than a few sanskrit things at anytime.. the third one.. she cancels...

he leaves...

i think he refinds motivation in the forest .. to bring these stories to the queen... - ala somadeva in the KSS - and when he returns ... she's gone, dead..

thus prompting the burning... oh.. but i haven't told you that bit yet... ;-)

The Story of Gunadhaya part 2.

{{Note, I'm writing this as we continue devising the play. We're
working in Brechtian Episodes. 15 of them, each titled. The following
section is called Sarvavarman's Victory". We 'write' this during the
rehearsal, based on the points we want to reach in the story. The
quesiton of how we get to those points come from the actors who are
working on thier charachters behalf in the areas of backstory,
understanding thier given circumstances, and outlining and following
what it is they want in each scene and at each moment. ) The kids are
going to kill me because i'm going to go in this afternoon and change
the scene before this a bit more to highlight Sathavana's ability to
agree to such an evil scheme. As for Gunadhaya. well his journey only
truly begins after this. Both Vaishnavi and Devaki are actreses who I
first just assigned the role of 'this one's wife, that one's wife -
Vaishnavi, I wanted her to be the paragon of good behaviour, graceful
and charming, so that when she looses it with the King during the
water sports she really looses it - its worked, she's taken to the
charachter like a duck to water ... pun intended. But Devaki, who
didn't even exist (well kind of does in the KSS - I need to check if
she has a name in there and if she does, use it) she has taken on a
charachter of lady macbethian proportions, from her moment of empathy
with the king in the first scene where she explains to a new comer to
the court why the king doesn't know sanskrit, and in it says 'not
knowing sanskrit here is like a curse" to having a charachter who
wants to push her husband to points of greatness, and is now faced
with a moment where she has to confess her own deep secret in order to
ensure his victory) we did that scene today, and i .. :-) :-) :-)
) }}

Three days pass, Sarvavarman seems to have taken on the kings recent
charachteristic - that of inaccessibility, his brahmin colleagues
wonder why he won't talk to them, he's seen pacing up and down in his
chamber non stop and the only person who ever gets to talk to him is
Devaki (we like the name-so it got used) his wife, that to for two or
three minutes at a time max.

Things are bad. How did he get into this mess. Gunadhya Gunadhya
Gunadhya, always winning sanskrit debates. Always using his wisdom so
easily...

"Swaami?"
"Leave me alone, I'm trying to think".
"You've stopped thinking, now you're just worrying about your impending faliure"
"Does everyone think I'm going to fail?"
Devaki doesn't reply.
"Oh God... all my years of service in this court, from the time of
Deepakarni, are all going to go down the drain".
"The whole court is talking about the challenge you posed, but what I
don't understand is why did you do it."
"The King had just promised Gunadhaya anything he wanted, when he
suceeds he would be the most honored of Brahmins! I couldn't just sit
and watch, I had to do something! Gunadhaya, he always comes up with
the solutions, he makes wisdom look so easy, in his presence I feel
like all my efforts amount to nothing..."
"You need to stop worrying about this. I have the solution"
"Solution, what solution could you possibly have?"

Devaki hesitates before making a confession that could end her life as
she knows it.

"Sarvavarman, when I first saw you, I didn't know any Sanskrit, but I
fell in love with you, and wanted to be your wife. So in the six
months I had before officially meeting you. I went to a pandit and he
got me to learn-by-heart a number of sanskrit answers. So that I would
always have a standard answer for you when you asked me anything."

"Learn by heart? "
"Yes, I mugged up Sanskrit Sholkas to impress you"
"The wife of Sarvavarman, one of the foremost authorities on Sanskrit
Grammar in this country! His wife learned by heart?"
"Please! before you say anything or do anything Rash.. listen! That is
how it started, when we first got married, and I didn't know the
correct response.. I would just stay quiet, you used to think I was so
shy. But after staying in your learned presence for a few years, I got
better, and now, today, I speak it fluently and you are happy."
Sarvavarman is speechless.
"What I did with you works! The king can do this with the court as well!"
"How will we get the King to agree?"
"He just wants to impress the queen... he'll do anything to do it as
quickly as possible."
"What about the Queen?"
"You leave that to me."

Convincing Satavahana was easy. And in a few days, the King was busy
mugging up appropriate Sanskrit Shloka's for various occassions. In
the mean while, Sarvavarman and his cotire of Bhramins arranged to
feed the king predetermined questions at the time of the examination.

Vaishnavi, excited to find out about the process asks Devaki, her
trusted friend and confidante about the progress her husband is having
with Satavahana.

"Its good, the king is a very fast learner! It will be wonderful for
you to have discussions with him in sanskrit wouldn't it? "

"I don't even dare to dream it lest it may not come true!"

"What would the first thing you would like to hear from your King in Sanskrit?"

"To hear him express his love for me in Sanskrit would be the most
wonderful thing. I would ask him to discuss Love."

Immediately Sathavana is schooled in a number of Shloka's about love.

6 Months pass, and the time of the exam is at hand. The whole court
has gathered, and the King - ready to perform is asked questions. All
of which the Bhramins are reading of prearranged question papers (one
would think they could have mugged that at the very least).

Gunadhaya sensing something is amiss stands to ask a question. He is
immediately put down by the Sarvavarman's coitere.

" This was not the predetermined structure that had been agreed upon
for the kings exam. Plus you are not a disinterested party. You nor
Sarvavarman may not ask questions!"

The king doesn't object.

Gunadhaya insists, "well if I can't ask a question, at least allow the
Queen, it is in her interests that this entire exercise was started!"

All is tense, what will the queen ask?

She asks him to comment on an aspect of Love.

Sarvavarman wins! For Gunadhaya, all is lost!

From that moment, he stops speaking the three languages of the court.

...next Gunadhaya leaves a court where his silence renders him invisible....