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HEY NUNGSHIBI PRITHIVI (MY EARTH, MY LOVE)
Prologue
Hey Nungshibi Prithivi opens with Shikaplon Ishei (prayer song in distress) to
the accompaniment of pena, a traditional Manipuri bow and string instrument,
asking the Almighty for forgiveness. Seven dignitaries armed with spears and
shields perform war dance bidding to narrate a part of the never-ending story of
bloodshed.
Seven females with golden masks enter slowly, dancing to the tune of pena. The
song in the background introduces them as seven sisters, celestial nymphs
(mythological characters) who can assume any form they want. Assuming the form
of birds, they had flown all over the world and carried out their duties,
incarnated as human beings.
Scene - I
The sisters, while weaving a cloth, recount their experiences and sightings -
the frightening scenes of multiple deaths all over the globe. Unable to bear the
ghastly acts of the humans, even nature seems to have shied away from them.
Dead worried about the gruesome scene on the Earth, the nymphs acting as Maibis,
priestesses, try to communicate with the Unseen Force to foresee what the future
holds for mankind.
Puwari, an old man personifying history, relates the prophecies of Nostradamus -
the birth of Hitler, the leader of the Nazis; putting hordes of people to death
by slowly starving them in concentration camps; dropping of atom bomb at
Hiroshima
Puwari re-enacts the scene of the B-29 bomber's flight to Hiroshima to drop atom
bomb.
Hí Leima, the third nymph, flies off to Japan to collect first hand account of
the war.
Scene - II
Hí Leima, incarnated as a survivor, describes the tragic incident of the
dropping of atom bomb at Hiroshima and the agonizing scene in the aftermath,
before her eyes. Trapped under a fallen tree, she is immobile. She ultimately
manages to free herself and flies back home. She reaches home, parched with
thirst.
Scene - III
Puwari fixes crosses at the graves of war victims, offers flowers and reads out
the epitaphs. He then pays homage to martyrs.
Scene - IV
Puwari pays a visit to the nymphs' house. They talk about the sorrowful state of
the Earth caused by the never-ending war and bloodshed. Yai Leima, the fourth
nymph, informs about her intension to visit Angkor Watt and see the genocide in
Cambodia, during the Khmer Rouge regime.
A worried Hí-pokpi, the eldest nymph, tries to stop her. Puwari forbids her to
do so and consoles her by saying that he too is going to Cambodia. He pulls away
Yai Leima in his cart.
Hí-pokpi muses about the wisdom of the human society and untold sufferings
caused by war. She expresses her desire to listen to soothing lullaby.
Scene - V
Yai Leima, incarnated as a widow, a victim of Khmer Rouge regime, laments and
tries to nurse her starved and dehydrated child. The child, already dead, does
not respond to her loving care.
Four of the younger nymphs fly off to West Asia and Europe to see the remnants
of devastating wars. Hí-Pokpi is worried that her four sisters may land into
trouble.
Soldiers chase four women, war victims, incarnated by the four nymphs. After
capturing, they are kept in prison cells and tortured. Because of the soldiers,
their enemies, forcing their way on them they become gravid. They love and hate
the babies they carrying in their wombs. They take the extreme decision and
discard the babies after giving birth.
Unable to bear the pang, they commit suicide. Mother Teresa enters and accepts
the discarded baby.
Epilogue
The sisters complete weaving the cloth. They cut it from the loom and offer it
to the Almighty with a prayer for forgiveness and depart. Puwari bids them
farewell with a request to spread the message of LOVE and PEACE all over the
world.
Puwari, crippled with the atrocities on the wicker sections, is reduced to an
open History Book in a wheelchair, with the flags of the UN on the platform. The
nymphs, messengers of PEACE, white doves, frozen in flight, with green twigs in
their beaks, are also there.
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