Other States - Orissa   

Passion for theatre turns him into a book-seller

BHUBANESWAR: His appearance gives an impression of any other ordinary road-side book-seller.

But, he is certainly not an ordinary bookseller, but a committed theatre activist. In fact he always move with a missionary zeal, displaying his mobile exhibition of theatre publications with a mission to promote awareness among the people about the rich traditions of Oriya theatre.

Meet Ajay Kumar Pati, a young man in his early 30’s and a member of the city-based well-known theatre group ‘Natya Chetana’.

He has been organising exhibition of his precious collection of books, which is nearly 700 books and journals on Oriya theatre at different venues during cultural festivals in the city.

“It was just a coincidence that I got involved with the theatre. About seven years ago, I joined Natya Chetana as a volunteer when I found that the group was using theatre as a tool for bringing social change in society.

As I came closer to the theatre community, I heard frequent complains that there were not enough good scripts for staging Oriya plays.

This prompted me to start my own collection of Oriya literature.

I wanted to develop a resource centre on Oriya theatre,” Ajay recollected.

With the dream and determination, Ajay toured the State, meeting writers, publishers, theatre activists and drama festival organisers to collect books and journals. “Some people gave me their collection as gifts but most of my collection has been brought by me, which in turn has exhausted my meagre income,” he revealed.

Ajay’s collection includes the works of almost all legendry play writers in the State like Baishab Pani and Gopal Chhotray.

He is the proud possessor of ‘Babaji’, the first Oriya play that he loves to show to the visitors.

Besides exhibiting his collection, the young theatre enthusiast also sell books and journals on theatre to make the materials easily available to the people.

“Chief Secretary Mr. Ajit Kumar Tripathy has helped and guided me a lot over the years in my modest mission of collecting books on Oriya theatre,” acknowledged the avid collector who has been felicitated by a few theatre organisations in the State on various occasions.

Printer friendly page  
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Stories in this Section

Passion for theatre turns him into a book-seller
Simulator designed to train cadets
Exhibition on Ganesha
Poster exhibition
Sand sculptor’s tribute to 9/11 victims
Three killed as buses collide
Proposal for medical college
Support price for ‘bhutti’ increased
NAC employees call off strike
Man stabbed to death
Diamond rocks found in Nuapada district
Assembly marshal arrested
10-month-old elephant falls to death

Copyright © 2007, The Hindu. Republication or redissemination of the contents of this screen are expressly prohibited without the written consent of The Hindu