pre-cafe prep
Please take a few moments to go through this page before the first cafe. This will help save time during the cafe. Your response on the Google form will be anonymised.
1. What are you hoping to find in the cafe and what makes you feel safe in a cafe space?
Note:
Please enter your answers on the Google Form below. You will need to do this on a computer/laptop - the form is not available on mobile website. Directly place your cursor on the line under Question 1 to start writing -- you do not need to try to open the form on a separate page.
2. Select an object/image/audio ... -- whatever best represents India to you
Please bring it with you to the cafe. We’ll use these as ice-breakers.
3. On a piece of paper, draw the 'staircase' below with all 18 steps
We will be using it in the cafe.
4. Meet the characters
Some of the characters you will meet in the plays in the cafe are given below. Getting to know them now means you will be more familiar with them when you come across them at the cafe.
All the characters featured here are students aged between 20 and 30 years, at a prestigious British university in the south of England.
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Akhilesh “Akki” Jha
The only son of an Indian land-owning (zamindar) family, Akki has always been pampered. While he grew up shuttling between Patna and New Delhi, home was always the zamindar ki haveli. Akki has two elder sisters and a younger brother, but he knows that he will have to take on the responsibility of the family, the business and the family lands one day. But for now, he is enjoying studying Management & Economics at this British university. Akki’s family has a conservative outlook, steeped in the mainstream patriarchal culture of Bihar, which Akki has never questioned. He revels in the respect and perceived adoration as the “zaminder’s son and heir” both from his extended family who look up to his father and grandfather, and all the people in his district.
Hari Ramakrishnan
Hari is from New Delhi and doing a MA in Big Data Studies. His career goal is a tenured chair at a university, teaching and researching. Hari is a proud Hindu Indian and believes in the superiority of his religious beliefs. He visits the local temple in the university town as often as he can. But he also has made a small temple on a table in a corner of his room so he can seek God’s blessings every morning. Hari is comfortable with the social norms he has grown up with but loves the freedoms he experiences in the university, now that he is no longer living under his parents’ eyes. So Hari’s favourite pastime is debating and a member of the same student association as Sam. He frequently participates in campus discussions around life in India, which he defends to the best of his ability.
Latha “LG” Guruswamy
LG is a third-generation non-resident Indian (NRI), the youngest of two daughters of her doctor parents. Her family and Sam’s are neighbours in a small tourist-attraction town close to the university. She has been friends with Sam and Lisa since high school. LG is studying law but takes a keen interest in sociological topics and belongs to a sociology study group. Latha is in a live-in relationship with Zara, a journalism student at the university she met in the study group. Latha’s parents are unaware that she is a lesbian, or that she is in an existing relationship, and are scouting around for a suitable boy for their beloved daughter.
Lisa Holmes
Lisa is studying sociology. She is Black British. Her grandparents came to Britain from the Caribbean on the Windrush. Lisa grew up in a single parent household, with her mother working two low-wage jobs to keep the family together.
Lisa is well clued into the social pressures and concerns that come with her background and is determined to fulfil her grandmother’s dream of having an academic in the family. But she knows how to keep her life well-balanced and has been together with Sam since high school. They live together in rented student accommodation. Lisa also loves gospel singing and is part of her local church choir.
Manu Mathuru
Manu is from New Delhi and came to this university four years ago for his MA in Anthropology on a scholarship and has stayed on do to his Doctorate in Development Studies as he was won a grant for it. He did his Bachelor’s rom St Stephen’s College in Delhi. Manu enjoys debating and that’s how he met up with Hari on campus. They hold opposing views on many subjects, but their mutual respect and common Indian background has resulted in an unlikely friendship.
Samir “Sam” Kulkarni
Sam is a second-generation NRI with a liberal upbringing, doing his MA in Management Science and Engineering. Sam’s father is a wealthy corporate and his mother is a society lady, on the board of many charities. Sam has bolstered his limited first-hand exposure to India with reading, watching films/documentaries. He loves discussing many aspects of India with his friends and family back home. Lately he has joined many WhatsApp discussion groups, which he thinks helps him understand current affairs quickly.
Note
Everyone in the cafe may not receive a speaking part in the plays. Those who don’t receive a speaking part, will be the audience and listen/observe some key aspects for discussion time later. So everyone participates.