Song of the Sike: Chitra Iyer and team
story telling: Kirtana Kumar

Leading everybody into the Court was the rhythmic beat and sounds of the Cike……the stick that is given in far off Ethiopia by the mothers to their daughters when they get married. A symbol of resistance; a power that she has over her own life; a form of dowry that lies docilely in a corner unless and until an act of violence from the husband pushes the woman to bring it out of the house and sit quietly with it in the centre of the village commons. Slowly the other women too abandon their household tasks and gather around the violated woman with their own Cikes in a non violent action of collective protest. They sit in an act of civil disobedience until the man, pressurised by the men of the village comes and apologises to his wife and takes her home.

This drama of concern, a circle of caring was transposed from Ethiopia and recreated in India by Chitra and her group of young student dancers who along with Kirtana Kumar and Ashok collectively cried out through their song, dance and the drum beats….we all need our own cikes too put an end to the battering, the beating, the burning of women!

Also blending into the circle were the participants of the Court including the members of the Jury who danced onto the stage with their own Cikes Listen…listen…listen entreated Kirtana the narrator of this drama to all those who had gathered for the Court…

listen to the sounds of their feet dancing.
listen to the sound of their thoughts flying…
listen… listen…….