Katha Ghera - कथा घेरा

With this post, we introduce you to Katha Ghera - कथा घेरा. After much thought and quite a wait, we finally decided to take a leap of faith and start this group for several reasons.

For the last two years we've held several identities, which has sometimes bewildered our family and friends. We are Playbackers of Nepal playback theatre group नेपाल चाैतारी नाटक समूह and believers of Madalenas Nepal. We are professional Theatre artists but also teachers, trainers, translators and educationists. One of us has an invisible identity of being psychologist too. In all of our identities, we've discovered that what really drives us forward are stories. We love to listen to them, work on them, enact them and live them time and again. While we have been relentlessly building all these identities with foremost initiation in different groups, we've always felt something missing. The search always went back to ownership. Of literally owning something we do and also represent it wholly.

Therefore, Katha Ghera. We are everything we have been doing and more. "Katha"/ story is the fundamental thread which connects us to humanity. "Katha" is not only our stories but also those of people and places that have inspired us. "Ghera" represents the circular safe and sacred space where we respect these stories and deliver with care. In Theatre, we usually begin and end in a circle. Thus when we share our thoughts in this circle the idea of equality gets reinforced as everybody is seen and heard.

We want to kick start our journey this year with the very cause that has empowered us as women. The Vagina monologues has been an integral part of our lives for many years now. Last year we reclaimed its space here by adapting it to Nepali language as "Yoni ka Katha". We had five successful shows which garnered great reviews. This year we will have an exclusive show on the 8th of March to collect funds to reach out to the communities in Nepal in need of compassion, healing and empathy. This will be done through a travelling Playback Theatre troupe doing shows across the country. We believe in the transparency, accountability and productivity of self-run initiatives driven by passion. We believe in meaningful, genuine processes and tangible reaching out.

Thank you everyone who has supported us in this journey and believed in us more than we have.