New Delhi, Nov. 25 -- It was a foggy winter morning in 2011. Shrouded figures on the streets were warming their hands on the dying embers of small fires lit overnight. Beauty and adversity made their presence felt in Delhi simultaneously. At this dramatic hour of the day, when the city was still waking up, I found myself at the end of a serpentine queue at the National School of Drama (NSD) waiting for the tickets to the annual Bharat Rang Mahotsav to go on sale. The lineup featured an assort ment of non-verbal, gibberish, experimental and multilingual productions from India and abroad.

Being part of the queue was an education in itself. Veteran theatre goers held forth on the history of NSD and the plays staged during the time of Ebrahi...