Yet Untitled 137 - Speech! Speech!
Speeches at release parties make for instant YU instalments!
Dearest Yet Untitler,
As many of you know, a drama series that I co-wrote and co-directed dropped on Amazon Prime Video this week. You can watch it here!
The week was a drama series in itself - controversy (look for it and you’ll find it + it was stupid so I’ll not amplify it), anxiety, prayer, encouragement, jubilation, tears, brotherhood, sisterhood and relief. I cannot expand on every aspect of these past days here, but, at a gathering with a group of fantastic cast and crew, I gave a speech.
I thought I’d share that speech with you today.
I stand on the shoulders of giants like Steve Jobs and Baz Luhrman, whose poignant speeches have been constant compasses for me. The reason I share it here is because I was asked to give it at a time when it was most apt - when it felt like an arduous process of six years had finally turned a corner. But I had nothing prepared! All I had was a bucket of truths that I dipped into.
For what it’s worth, here it is:
I have a report card lying at home somewhere in my mother’s cupboard in which a kindergarten teacher wrote: “likes to sit with the girls”, so I think that doing this show alongside all these wonderful women who I worked with was already written into my DNA; so even longer than six years before I commenced working on it, I was destined to do this show!
When Ishita and Rangita (Nandy of Pritish Nandy Communications) asked me to write a show set in an all-girls college, I wondered why they were picking me but they just seem to be very sure. So I packed my bags and went on a research trip to Delhi University. Initially, I thought that I’ll wing it by talking to people I went to college with and others I know. I presumed that my biggest challenge would be trying to figure out what’s different about college life today and how the way I experienced it back in my day; but this whole journey became something a lot more. You see, when I became a parent to twin girls, I was frightened out of my wits. I was scared that I was getting two innocent people (for whom I bore full responsibility) to face a very ferocious world, and I frankly didn’t know what I needed to do to teach them how to negotiate it.
As I went about my research, something amazing started to happen: I met a bunch of young women, barely out of their childhood, now entering adulthood, faced with humongous challenges. Some of the challenges that they faced were completely out of my purview, a product of their times, and I couldn’t even begin to see how to solve some of the problems they faced. But there they were: facing up to them, standing up to their problems and fighting hard. They did all this while laughing, being themselves, discovering themselves, and taking small steps forward, just as I had done when I was at the same stage in my life. I was so inspired by what I saw in these young women who so generously opened up their lives to me that I could come back to my life feeling secure that my girls would have fantastic role models to look up to when they grew up. I was comforted because I had breathed in their spirit, and I carried it back with me to Mumbai.
The spirit of these young women that I had breathed in became a perfume on my person that attracted all of you so that together we could crafted this show that everyone’s able to watch today.
These two fantastic people standing next to me (co-writers and co-directors Shonali Bose and Neha Veena Sharma) were my kindred spirits on this journey. Neha responded to everything that I had brought from my research and from my life and opened up the vault of her own rich experiences for the show. She put what she stood for into the material and lifted it way higher from where it was. Then came the juggernaut of Shonali Bose, who identified with what Neha and I had put on paper in a way that completely astounded us. When she, about 15 years our senior, responded in this way, I felt that we were really on to something special. Something that could cut across gender and age and become a story that carried something important forward.
I think the important something that the story carries is LOVE. From the first day, it brought lovely people together and inspired more and more love between them. It’s true. When I look at each of you, I smile, and I feel very lucky that we were able to pack in so much love into something that we now are sending out into the world. Being able to do this, in itself, justifies all the effort, all the wrong turns, all the brick walls, all the anxiety, all the frustration, the despair that we also encountered along the way.
In the end, what goes out today - with all the love it carries - makes it all worth it.
Thank you.
Thank you, Yet Untitler, for being with me on this ride. Some of your love also went into what goes out with Ziddi Girls.
Did you see it? Drop me a line with your thoughts!
Lots of love
V
My son is in 4A too, and starts his final exams tomorrow. I take this as a sign that it'll all go well! I am amazed that with almost all marks over 90, the teacher still writes 'Room for improvement'! Haha! Enjoyed reading this.
Such a wonderful speech. Wishing you game success and satisfaction in your creative work ❤️