The Play That A Director Saw

As a footloose college student, I was considered the most likely of my family to have oceans of free time on my hands, and so the entertainment of foreign guests usually fell to my lot.

The one who offered the greatest challenge was a young director fresh from London with an acute case of shyness that prevented him from telling us what he wanted to do. We tried everything: the Qutab Minar, the many tombs and monuments, the bazaars, Hindi movies, dinners at the homes of intellectual friends, and when we gave up and left him to his own devices, he spent his time moping on the sofa, perusing newspapers glumly.

 

Two days before he boarded the return flight home, I belled the cat.