Desi News Corp - Index

Desi News Corp - Desi News - Feb 09 - Index

“The discrimination will stop when
we stop advertising for fair brides”
Jasmine Sawant is the
general manager of Sampradaya
Dance Creations.
She has a lengthy and varied
background in theatre and film
and is the co-founder of
SAWITRI (South Asian Women’s
Inter-cultural Theatre and
Research Initiative). She has
written, directed and acted in
several plays for SAWITRI
including the highly engaging
Meri Saas Meri Jaan, The Kallus
Next Door and Satish Weds
Savita.
Sawant started her theatre
work in India with actors like
Paresh Rawal and Shafi
Inamdar but took several
years off for marriage and
motherhood.
While in Mumbai, she
wrote, directed and acted in
plays in French and German.
She has lived in Canada for
about 13 years. Before moving
to Canada, she has lived and
worked in Bahrain and Saudi
Arabia, where she continued to
work in theatre, writing and
directing several plays for
children.
“My passion for theatre goes
way back,” she says. “Theatre
for me is the telling of a tale in
the most dramatic way. And I
have always loved stories –
watching them, reading them,
listening to them, telling them
and sometimes writing them.
When I went to college, I
continued to participate in
plays. Unfortunately, I was not
allowed to pursue theatre
professionally, and with marriage
and kids, it all sat on the
back burner until I g ot to
Saudi. I went back to acting in
plays and when I got to Canada
I said to myself, ‘I need to
pursue this on a regular basis.
It’s now or never!’ That is how
SAWITRI was born.
“I have found theatre very
therapeutic. I used to be
painfully shy and nervous as a
child, but when I got on to the
stage I became the character
that I was chosen to play and
all my trepidation went away. I
also used it as a teaching tool
when I taught a very diverse
class of 40 or so first and
second graders in Saudi. I
found that even the slowest,
least attentive or most playful
student learnt well and more
quickly when taught through
theatre games and story-
NITIN SAWANT
telling.”
Sawant doesn’t need to think
when asked if reverse
racism exists.
“Desis definitely discriminate
against other
desis. And I have experienced
it. No, not the
caste system-based discrimination.
I was fortunate
to have been born
in the ‘privileged’ caste
and have never experienced
caste discrimination
while in India, but
did experience the discrimination
of the
‘haves’ for the ‘havenots’.”
She has also been in situations
at shops, restaurants or
airports where she was made
to wait while others who came
room WITH A POINT OF VIEW
February 2009 Desi News 17