Who are Bondili Rajputs? Who am I?
I grew up in one such family, which was a part of a small community in Andhra Pradesh but we had 'SINGH' as a surname which raised many eyebrows.
I have a north Indian name... I can speak in good Hindi, ok-ok Telugu and fine English. My complexion is of a pure south Indian, but my language is not. I don't even have a hint of South Indian-ness when I speak any other language, but when I speak in Telugu, it is Telugu!
I had always had this doubt about our roots.
Being 'Kshatriya Harish Singh', a typical North Indian name, my North-South complexity was always silenced with some warrior hero's story from history and I was believed to believe in the story.
It took many years for me too actually find out the truth. It was when I started digging my past, I figured out the concept of my next documentary. I write and direct plays in Delhi.
I wrote a play ('Jantar') in 2016. It was an ok-ok performance. I had always believed that the play needed to be performed more and the artist/writer was somehow not satisfied!
After a year's research on my documentary about, I got back to my play, 'Jantar'. I rewrote it this time.
Bored of the Delhi mess, I took a week's off to Macleodganj (Dharamshala), and I re-titled the new play as 'Drama Jantar Ka!'. It was received well in Delhi and I was way happier as a writer-director.
I left for a trip to Hyderabad and this was a good relief from my busy schedule in Delhi. I met my nephews, my cousins, from Bangalore (the nephews' mother), the cousin who had arrived for a holiday from Colorado and my third cousin who stays in Nagpur. I had met the nephews and their mother more than a few times recently. It was fun meeting them. I bid them good-bye. I shot the second trailer of 'ME!'
The trailer's link:
https://youtu.be/PmcJgutOeHQ
But it was nice meeting Chunmun, who had come to India 2 years after her wedding and we chatted day in and day out. Was good enough for the next meeting. And the icing on the cake was Renu didi whom I had not met 'properly' in centuries. We have been missing each others' presence and long hours of talking, sometimes sense, sometimes non-sense (Same as with Chunmun!).
So, I am presently in Delhi and I have got a call to take lectures on video and sound editing in a Communication college. I am enjoying my part, along with my Dissertation on Bondili Rajputs.
So, we come back to the same question, but I am happy that I have interesting answers to my questions. I had picked up this Masters in Anthropology from IGNOU, has made me explore more.
I don't know how and when is the film getting made, but it has definitely travel back into time. I can experience things which the people might have fought for back then, around 1000 years ago.
But has the fight stopped?
Who are Bondili Rajputs?
Who am I?
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