Voices from Youth Company: Art for the Planet in action
The Kaliya piece in this year’s school show “Jamuna Ke Tat Par,” retells the story of Krishna and Kaliya: Krishna enters the poisoned Yamuna River and engages in a battle with serpent Kaliya. The piece takes this classic story and uses it as a framework to develop an analogy for modern day pollution and effects of climate change.
As the young “Krishnas” exit the stage and the taal (rhythm) switches from madhya laya to drut laya, youth company—in black costumes, contrasting the white plastic bags they hold—take the stage, releasing each bag and letting it catch air and float, weightless until they hit the ground. Each turn leaves a bag behind, turning the barren stage—the symbolic river—cluttered and disrupted. By the end of the piece, the stage is no longer clean, it is scattered—polluted. As the “Kaliyas” end their piece, kneeling on the ground, the “Krishnas” re-enter, restoring the stage, picking up the pollutants, piece by piece.
In this production, Kaliya is not only a serpent, but also represents a system of actions—a pattern of repeated actions that have accumulated over time, mirroring the progression of pollution in the real world. Just like the original epic, the story doesn’t end with destruction, but a resolution, a moment we attempt to portray through the young Krishna’s not erasing what happened, but responding to it. Overall, the Kaliya piece reframes the story of Kaliya and Krishna as an ongoing story with modern implications.
While the story is framed around the Yamuna River—a tributary of the Ganges, now heavily polluted by untreated sewage, industrial waste, and urban runoff—it is important to note that the United States remains one of the largest contributors to global pollution. From high consumption rates to industrial emissions, the environmental footprint of the US plays a large role in shaping global outcomes.
This piece aims to highlight that there is not one "villain," everyone is a contributor, and together, as portrayed through the numerous “Krishnas,” has a role in restoring the environment. Here are five things that can be done by us as “Krishnas” to help restore the environment:
Reduce, reuse, repair and recycle: Producing any sort of product, releases carbon emissions within the environment, something that can be lowered by reducing consumption, reusing items, repairing them rather than buying new, and recycling. Try thrifting!
Use public transportation: Travelling from place to place through a vehicle leads to greenhouse gas emissions per trip per individual vehicle. Public transport, carpooling, walking, or riding, are all ways to consolidate and reduce the amount being emitted per trip.
Clean up your environment: Natural resources that have been polluted, lower their ability to serve their key and crucial purposes in a wide variety of natural systems.
Plant more native species: Plants are able to reduce the amount of harmful greenhouse gases within the environment by using them in their daily processes. Planting more native species can also increase the biodiversity within an environment.
Spread awareness: Educating others through different mediums, like Kathak, offer a way to get others involved and spread awareness, expanding efforts further.
By Aanya Gupta, Youth Company Member