Our world seems to be fast becoming a space where segregating between cultures, people, races and genders has become the call of the hour. Politicians of some of the biggest and oldest democracies are winning campaigns based on hate speeches. At a time where we need to be inclusive some are opting to be exclusive.
As an artist, a responsible citizen, a father and above all, a human being I wonder, was this the world I inherited? Is this the world I created? Where did we go wrong? What am I leaving behind for my children? What world will we leave behind for our children? Do they deserve to live in a place where what binds us together is not love, but a forced oppressive order, that wants to ensure that we live in ghettos, with people of ‘our’ kind? But what is my kind? What is the other kind?
Somewhere I feel the time is passing for only dialogue and discussion to be the one source dealing with such cracks in our human foundations and what we need is action.
TIFLI (Tifli means Childhood, is ASSITEJ India’s International TYA festival) thus is our attempt to create a world where acceptance, tolerance, sharing and caring become our keywords. TIFLI means childhood
Tifli is our attempt to journey back into our childhood, to find that child within us, who possessed a heart of gold. A heart that was malice ridden and love loaded. A heart that looked for friends and searched for dreamers, and never wanted a rationale behind friendships and never made us chose sides on the basis of caste, colour, race or gender. Tifli is our action to help heal this world. By the time you’ll be reading this message we must have already started the process of searching that child inside us, through performances, through art, through next generation and more importantly through dialogues.
Let’s celebrate childhood!! Let’s revisit the child in us!!
Imran khan
A human who wants to live with all of you.
