Our stageplay starts from where "Jungle Book" the movie left off, with Mowgli on the fringes of the jungle, peeping into windows of the human world. Drawn to a little girl, Asha, he follows her out of the jungle straight onto a train, bound for New Delhi, "Rajdhani", the capital of India. Mowgli's journey into an urbane nerve centre is a commentary on our times... bow civilized are we really?

Through his escapades we see the aggression man perpetuates on man, the insensitivity, the injustice, the callous layers of our lives are revealed. We witness him thrown into a prison for not wearing any clothes, where he meets the police warden "Chakmakchaku", a blustering megalomaniac. The underworld Don, "Hemraj" only- wants to exploit Mowgli's innocence and put him to the work of pick pocketing immediately.

Breaking out of the prison, Mowgli meets a bunch of kids on the block who mock him. They taunt him because he is different, unable to see the tender good hearted boy inside. His only real friend turns out to be the policeman, "Bhikmagan Singh". who looks like a lion on the outside but is the most human and flawed, and accepts it! Unlike Asha who comes and goes at will, exposing Mowgli to different sections of society, while Bhikmagan Singh extricates him out of society's selfish crutches. Soon, we see Mowgli embroiled in a political rally lauding the virtues of Progress, Development, Family Planning, the very essence of which they do not practice themselves. When Mowgli points this out to them, they attack him into silence ....

The crowd tries to make a man out of Mowgli by cleaning him up, dressing him up and then finally leading him to the religious pundits who will show him `the way'. At every turn, we see Mowgli's disillusionment with the human world as opposed to the peace and harmony of Mother Nature. At the end, he is left asking himself, `where do I really belong?'. We journey with Mowgli, laugh and cry with him, and ask ourselves the same question.

Kids World has directed, scripted and traveled with numerous productions. Started in 1987 in New Delhi by Lushin Dubey and Bubbles Sabharwal, they have brought to life stories familiar to both parent and child. In 2000, they started `Theatre World' that works with adults.

A Note from Directors
Workshop productions always differ from public performances in that we use all the children who enroll for the workshop and there is no auditioning or selection process. Workshops are aimed more at overcoming inhibition, gaining confidence and working as a team - more a group graph than an individual one. The idea is to introduce children to the threshold of stage demands. As we believe at Kids World, "the circle completes itself when what the children learn is seen on stage".

About Lushin Dubey
Lushin Dubey did her Masters in Science in Childhood and Special Education in the US (after a Masters in History from Delhi, India). She was deeply involved in teaching mentally challenged kids. In 1986, she set up Kids World with her cousin, Bubbles Sabharwal... a pioneer of youth theatre in India. Lushin has acted as a lead in several serials, the most recent being `Kashmeer'. She has completed 4 films, yet to be released.

About Bubbles Sabharwal
Bubbles is the co-founder and co-director of Theatre World, a well known theatre group based in New Delhi. She is a theatre artist and a script writer. Bubbles has started a "Book Club" at India Habitat Center. It is a podium for book lovers, readers, authors and artists. Bubbles says, "I am the sum of my parts, one part mother, one part wife, one part director, one part writer. What we do is a reflection of what we are, what we are keeps evolving."