About the Book

The plays included in this Volume represent two main periods of Vijay Padaki’s writing. The first is when he was deeply involved in social development programmes that had field projects in rural areas. They were all addressing the issues of human rights and social justice, although from different ‘sectoral’ perspectives. It was the absence of rights and justice that was coming in the way of development in real terms. Violence was not ruled out. Mandap is the play from that period. The dynamics of rights and justice are seen in the urban setting too. The next five plays in this volume represent a period of writing in which the writer was increasingly drawn to developmental issues in the urban setting. The plays form a set that came to be called Tales From the City. They are grouped in this Volume as two double-bills and one play by itself. Violence is the recognizable undercurrent in all these plays. Second Shift Muster is the oldest of the play scripts appearing in this volume. The one-act play is included in this volume for a variety of reasons. As with the other tales, this play explores a lesser known city-based occupation in changing times with changing value systems.

About the Author

Vijay Padaki is a Theatre Educator who has been part of the Bangalore Little Theatre since its inception in 1960. He has served the company in many capacities–as actor, director, trainer, writer, designer and administrator. A multi-faceted personality, Vijay wears many hats. He is a psychologist and behavioural scientist by training, and the founder-director of The P&P Group, a management resource centre. He was also instrumental in setting up of the first Indian Institute of Management in Ahmedabad and the IIM Bangalore. Over the years, Vijay has developed several long term programmes to strengthen the institution of theatre education and practice in India. Besides conceiving the highly successful Trainer-Training and the Directors Training programme at the BLT, he is also responsible for the annual summer workshop for newcomers to the theatre. More recently, the Ministry of Culture invited Vijay to initiate a programme of Arts and Heritage Management in India. Vijay has written over 50 original plays. In 1993, Vijay won the award for the best contemporary play script instituted by The Hindu for the play Credit Titles. He can be reached at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.