the naqqals are e communitit ofofofsiders in india whwhare performersrs and their partrtular form of t tater to be female impersonators, to t t tthe e eaealelends ofofhe punjab, but whwhe men play women. [music playing] what's fascicicing about t e naqqals is that t themselves they seem to me to be virtually all the strands of my life. they have journeyedd frfr one state now, pakistan, another, and thenenrom there to another part of t t countntt suppose it's one ofofhosesese times whenen think, "i wish i was an actor." i wish that was all i was doing--to o t,

to reproduce these millions of selves consnsntnt, becacae i think that at's sort ofofofolutely what a migrant is. you put ononask after mask after mask aftererask. some of the masks are e e y, some are sad, provoke,, but eachchch i isuggestive of another plala, anototr time, another story. look at your face in the mirirr, cause e at lies, but if you loooo in the brassssong... am m mnsing chowdhry is a f fend who runs a theaear companan in her b bk garden in chandigarh, and a theaear company which h think very sisilar to tara. what she's trying to d d is to connect rural india with urban india. the naqqals e rural component

ofofeelam's companan who are workingg with her u uan actcts on a version of jean gigiudoux's the mamaomomomf chaillot. the play is largely in the original setting of a parisian cafe. the notion o o oat kind of circumscribed public spspe is quite foreiei. in the indian context, the publicicnd the pririte shift around virtually effortlessly, and sosoor herer it became fascscating totory a a reinvent this frererevision, this french image of a c c c in an ininan context. what i'm trying to do is to o nnect bebeg englishh withthnother memory whicicis not e elish.

m leaving the pupuab by trtrn for delhii and then o oto london and home. over 60 yeyes ago,o,o, my father, too, lele the punjab by train somewhat like this for delhi and then on to bombay and by ship to a aica. of course, unlike me, he wouldn't haveveraraled first-class caususatathat time, e britititwowodn't have allowed him in first-class. this was perhaps ththkiki of view h hhad as h h too, lookokokorward to anothth home. my father left the punjab by train to g gdownwno o mbay on his way to east africic where he j j jd eaeaeafrican railways. most of his s rkinininfe was spenenworking ononhe r rlways, flflng t tmombasas and lake victoria, and ththth when he migrgred here, he joined british rail, d that is in fact

ere he fininhehe workininlife. in the making of t ts film, i think i have come e osos my fathth, t thatat partly alsoso cause i knowowis timim is now very short, and hihimemory is only of his childhood and of a aica, and i am kind of traveling down with him, down that road, so i am kind of constantnt reimagaging myself his shoeses somemeing g ich i i d no impulse to do for a numbmb of years. soso know i'll go to my y neral pyre wiwi that sort of seesaw constantly in me. what are you doing? that's rude! stop it! i knkn why you'u' got that snake around youououck. don't be stupid.d. nobody knows why

i'veveot t ts snake around my neck. it's my secret! lllli can smell ur s s st. once u un a time... when your mother was a young g man ananyou, shiva... in a aumber ininof european legends, the nose appears as a mark of punishment, as a kind d m malalin. in a number of indian and jajanese stories, the nose---- a kindndf extra-longngose-- appears in a somomhat more ambivalent light. it becomes the seat magical p pperties. [humumngng so what we've donene is to weave totother quite a number of diffefent sources and construct a story called sniffer ganesh.

i i n't, shiva. elephants neveveforget. goododod. gogo-bye. ganesha descscded d wnwn down, , , beneaea the clolos, and ththfinal sight his parents saw of t t t boy was the tip of his trunk as it t sappeared under the clcldsds

no, no, no, no. i cocodn't live in i iia bebebee i don't feel atatome in india. you u elelt home with your aunt. thth's different. that's momentary, isn't it?? i'm there e holiday, ople arereooking after you, et cetera. you speak hindi better than i dodo oh, , u're right there, and d at's a shock to you, isn't it? ererinly was. well, i just feel when i'm i iindia, you're constantly under scrutiny in terms of what you do,, how you dress,s, how you speak, whatatou say. at least here, i do what i wawa to do,, whehei want to, coco back when i want to. because it's.... as a woman? nonoi think it's's a cultural thing.

that w w my firsrs unter wiwi india. i i tetete because i was told couldn't wear a skirt, i wasn't to go out alone, i couldn't go to the cinene on n own. absolutely awful. i did come bacac feeling as if i'd been imprisoned, and d thought, "never again." g a migrant for r is to have been a changed d n. obviously changed because i've come from india to africa totongland,, and chanananeans that i can do no other an to consnsntlylynvent a world which is comfortable for me, in which i feel at home. i think k e particular placece totohich that i'veveigrated,d, england, alsososons up another thinin whwhh is the connectioio between england and d dia and africa. so pererps the most important ththg about bebeg a migrant

is to be always on theheove, is to o a nomad-- not nenessssssy litetelly to go o omomlala to place, but that you haven't'tot a fixed sensnsof home. 's impososble. lololos an ever-present shadow aroununyour heart. captioning made possible by the e nenberg/cpb project cacaioningngerformed by the national captionong institute, inc.

funding for this program was provided by.y.