Neeta Reshamiya is a writer, motivator and a soft skills trainer. She has written LAV HATHELI SHYAM LAKHI DAU, a play in Gujarati about Radha and Krishna. The play has been directed by Kamlesh Mota and opens on 8th October 2011 at the Tejpal auditorium. Here, Neeta talks to us about the play and of why she thinks it is different from other similar plays.  Deepa Punjani Which sources did you use to derive the story of Radha and Krishna for your play? As I am from the Vaishnav caste, Radha and Krishna have been close to my heart since childhood. I used to hear their stories as a child. I was especially fascinated by their platonic love for each other. But it was the Shrimad Bhagwat, which gave me real insights into the Krishna Raas and Leela and I became more curious to learn about Radha. I believe only those who can understand the meaning of true love can know of Radha's influence in Krishna's life. Using my imagination combined with what I had read, I wrote the story. You say that your play is different from other productions that have had the same theme because it sees things from Radha's perspective. Can you explain that? In a temple Radha-Krishna mayappear as two amongst the many symbols of the Hindu faith, but for me they are symbolic of universal love. When their love is seen from Radha's perspective, it becomes easy to understand the importance of balancing between the Dharma and Karma of one's life.Though the story goes back 5000 years, it stands tall and true, even in contemporary times. Why do you think your play will be relevant to younger audiences also? 'Krishna kare wo ras-leela par ham kare to character dheela.'This is jokinglysaid by young people when they speak about Radha and Krishna. It is very disheartening to see them co-relateRadha and Krishna's divine love with extra-marital affairs and such other misconceptions. Mutual understanding, stayingcommitted, respecting each other's decision and distinguishing between love and lust are some of the fundamentals of life. If young people can trulyunderstand Krishna and Radha's love, they would get the real strength to overcome any difficult and challenging situation without falling apart. Have you always written plays on devotional and religious themes? Writing is my passion. I write in Gujarati, Hindi and English.I have written many other plays, however AUM SHRIMAD BHAGWAT AKSHAR DEH RUPEH was the first play I wrote for our production house- C & N Productions. But for me LAAV HATHELI SHYAM LAKHI DAUis not just a religious play. What do you plan to do next? My dream is to build a place for artistes where that they can be supported and groomed. To make this dream come true, we would like to give a multi-dimensional growth to our production house. So next on the agenda is our project with International Standards in Theatre. 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Thakkar Jameel Khan Anupama Jayaram Lilelette Dubey Avatar Gill Dharmendra Gohil Rajesh Puri Kumud Mishra Kumar Shahu Meenal Patel Mujeeb Khan Anant Mudra Utkarsh Mazumdar Shekhar Sen1 Manav Kaul Rati Agnihotri Smita Jaykar Uday Chandra Rahul Da Cunha Atul Kumar Manoj Joshi Jaimini Pathak Boman Irani Mahabanoo Mody Kotwal Naseerudin Shah Joy Fernandez Kamlesh Mota Dinesh Thakur    Discussion Board

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