Theatremaker Bidyut Nath from Assam’s Nonoi village is busy building bamboo tents when we catch up with him for a short chat. These makeshift stage props might not be grand and fancy, but they are vital to the story he has to retell this weekend on stage. “As a child, I remember seeing these structures pop up every year around monsoon to help villagers after devastating flood water from the Kopili and Sampawati rivers swept their homes away,” he recalls.

Elsewhere in Madhya Pradesh’s Chattarpur, director Swati Dubey remembers the sound of water, this time trickling into glasses, clearly marked and set aside by her mother to serve guests from the lower castes. “The practice was to first enquire about their last name. That would give away their identity. I don’t know how it is in Mumbai right now, but in many of India’s villages, the glasses are still marked,” she reveals.