Dance-drama on Mahatma's childhood at writers' conference

The story behind Mahatma Gandhi's habit of often taking the name of Lord Rama, will be reenacted here in a dance-drama written by the Bapu's late grandson Ramchandra Gandhi.
The choreography titled "Mohan-Rambha", exploring the story of young Gandhi who was initiated into taking the Lord's name by the family maid Rambha, is set to be performed at the ongoing international conference on "Literacy through Literature".
"Gandhi had in his autobiography written about his fear of snakes and ghosts and how everyone used to make fun of him. He also wrote about Rambhabai, the untouchable maidservant who taught him to repeat the name of Rama to conquer his fears," kathak danseuse Shovana Narayan told PTI.

Shovana's one-hour long performance is set to mark the conclusion of the three-day conference organised by the Association of Writers and Illustrators for Children, on February 8.
"It starts with a 10 year-old Gandhi talking to Rambhabai and is based on a very amazing powerful script. It talks about issues like untouchability, gender issues and other values close to the Mahatma," the dancer said.
The dance-drama is based on the script written by Ramachandra Gandhi, the son of Devdas Gandhi, Mahatma's fourth son, who died in 2007.