The Strength of Our Wrists

Premanand Gajvee writes with a fierce urge to expose unspoken histories and set right historical wrongs. His plays, never complex, have the unerring ability to br>unsettle and move the reader, and compel us to reckon with discomfiting realities. The three plays translated from Marathi in this collection—each representing a distinct style in Gajvee’s oeuvre—probe contentious questions of contemporary relevance, often evoking widespread debate. The one-act Ghotbhar Pani (a SIP of water), performed over 3, 000 times, fuses a folk idiom with absurdist, nameless characters; the Greek tragedy-like Kirwant explores the plight of a sub-caste of ‘untouchable’ Brahmins who are despised for performing death rites; and Gandhi–Ambedkar stages the clash between two titans mediated by an irreverential, imaginary, interstitial Clown.