MEGHADOOTA, The Cloud Messenger , is universally acclaimed as Kalidas’s greatest poem. Written close to 2000 years ago, in this poem of 110 four-line stanzas, a Yaksha exited from his home asks a cloud to take a message to his beloved wife from his place of banishment to his home in the far north.

The poem is a combination of man’s desire, the beauty of nature and the influence of the universe upon the Yaksha. The beautiful imagery, the fine descriptions of landscapes, the emotional dialogue between the human being and the cloud, tell us of ancient India’s perception of the natural surroundings and the richess of our country. Today, when we are so concerned with ecological disasters around the world, we fell this poem should be presented to every citizen so that they may understand their true cultural heritage.

Choreography : Mrinalini Sarabhai
Music : The Darpana Musicians

Presented in the styles of Kerala.

Darpana Academy of Performing Arts

From a small dance academy that was founded over five decades ago, today Darpana is a workshop for the arts where tradition meets technology to break down boundaries of art and life and where performers from the world over work together to open mindscapes through the arts. Established by Mrinalini and Vikram Sarabhai in 1949, for the last two decades the academy has been directed by their daughter Mallika Sarabhai. Today, it has a permanent staff of over 60 people and several hundred others on projects. Its departments range from performance and teaching of the arts to their use as development communication through face to face impacting and software production. Its audiences range from arts lovers to district and supreme court judges, the less privileged across the world, children, women, tribal populations and more. With over 25000 graduates, nearly 10000 performances, audiences in 90 countries and a vibrant arts environment, Darpana today is a centre for artists committed to excellence, innovation and the excitement of using the arts for change.

Darpana’s vision is a contemporary symbiosis affirming the role of creativity in culture, researching into our origins and reaching out to the unsaid or unthought of, with a language that is universal.