Flies Have Conquered The Flypaper !

By Manuwant Choudhary

I am definitely not a talented actor like Alia Bhatt.

In school I did not even know `a' of acting but a dear friend who is no more literally compelled me into a small role of an army captain in the American play `The Moon Is Down' By John Steinbeck.

It was a real tiny role but I do not know what I did in it that got me selected for the main school play `The Death of A Salesman' again by Steinbeck. In it I had another tiny role Biff's studious friend...

In all my life the best compliment I received was from my English teacher cum play director, he said, "Your diction is very good."

Except then I did not fully know the meaning of `diction'. But I guessed it all came from the 11 years in an English medium boarding school.

In real life I was hardly studious and so I remember the plays more than the physics and math lessons in school.

If I sat for any exam today then like Biff I would flunk Math.

Although John Steinbeck is not an easy playwright to understand fully in school nor is the American English easy for an Indian who has not even dreamt of travelling to America, yet the play The Moon Is Down has stayed with me...deep somewhere.

In quieter moments I think of my friend and the play and also wonder why Steinbeck would ever think of writing a play like this...until ofcourse 2019...August 5 when Modi abrogated Article 370 in Jammu & Kashmir and virtually turned the Indian army into an army of occupation and Kashmiris - a people under siege..

The Moon Is Down is the story of occupation of an unnamed nation in Europe by the enemy of England much like the Germans occupation of Norway during World War 2.

The occupying army thinks of a novel way to rule over the town by using its mayor to implement its sadistic directives....

The play is about character of not just the mayor but the people of the town and their resilience in the face of occupation - a free people.

Its also about the human needs of an occupying army.

Just when the Generals felt victorious over an entire town, an officer blurts out `Flies Have Conquered the Flypaper !'

This spreads fast into town and across the barracks and most of  the occupying soldiers too join the chorus on the futility of war and supremacy.

What happens when flies conquer the flypaper?

They all die.

(The Moon Is Down film should be watched by all Indians)