Delhiwale: Kailash Colony’s actor-cum-poet

Isolated within home in Kailash Colony, actor Siddharth Sethi, 20, is away from fellow actors and rehearsals, away from the audience and the stage. “Theatre was my escape into a reality other than mine,” he says on a WhatsApp video chat. With the city in lockdown, he is flailing about in only one reality.

While Delhi passes through one of its most tragic times in living history, it has citizens distilling their experiences into art.

There are online classes to stay busy—Mr Sethi is a literature student in Delhi University’s Hansraj College.

Isolated within home in Kailash Colony, actor Siddharth Sethi, 20, is away from fellow actors and rehearsals, away from the audience and the stage. “Theatre was my escape into a reality other than mine,” he says on a WhatsApp video chat. With the city in lockdown, he is flailing about in only one reality.

This reality too is rich, comprising of his “dada,” parents, and younger sister, Suhani, who is holding his mobile for this photo shoot. There are online classes to stay busy—Mr Sethi is a literature student in Delhi University’s Hansraj College. Plus, he recently acted in two plays performed on zoom; the virtual audience were encouraging college mates and folks from DU’s “theatre circuit.” He also penned a poem in the ongoing isolation “as a let out to reassure myself that this too shall pass.” Mr Sethi chose an uncommon word for the title. We won’t give away its meaning. Go and flip through your heirloom dictionary or read the poem.

Kadota

This fire burns my belly

The cries mar my sleep

These silences give me shivers

The spirits wound me deep

Away from the chains of my being

My freedoms lure me strong,

Rotting in my sickness, desolate

I struggle every breath,

I struggle to belong,

But not any more.

My skies crave my warmth

My seas swallow my desires

These thorns on my skin, thrive on my memories

My pains suck my soul, they loathe my fallacious attire.

My fears conspire against me

With the evils that reside in my eyes

My sanity give me shivers

My truths worship my lies

But not any more.

My boundaries set my lengths

My eternity fiddles with my hope

My touch, longs for a vent

My sighs, my desires grope.

Barren deserts mock my stories,

With glee, they imitate my tears,

The storms sing me lullaby

The tot within though,

Restless it appears.

But not any more.

My chest enthrones my past;

With pride, with power, with care

My touch comforts my soul

On my body, my scars lay bare.

I’m struggling, for the good I believe

For I’m struggling for myself,

against myself

To be who I am, and not who I am.