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Latest pictures of the "Dr. Q?" dance drama... please scroll all the way below to read the story...

Sat June 21, 2008 from 2:30 to 6:30 pm
Ashbury Hall Auditorium, White Plains, NY 10605
250 Bryant Ave, White Plains, NY 10605... open to the public...
Admission and parking are FREE

Story, Dialogue, Direction and Music selection by Gargi Bagchi, Co-director - Chandon
Vocal and Kathak performance by Gargi and her students of Asavari and drama performance by the friends of our American & Indo-Pak community

Asavari will like to give thanks to all those who have helped make this years Annual Concert possible:
A special thanks to our Guests of Honor: Ashok Vyas of ITV and ITV Camera man ChandraMouli and also Bill Chestnut of the Clearwater Walkabout for the theatrical lights.

And to all the family & friends of our Asavari students in Hindustani Classical Vocal, Kathak and the Drama participants, your constant support has made all these wonderful years of our school grow into a fruitful vision of honesty, integrity & creativity.

Harmonium by Gargi and Hussain, Tabla by Hari ji, Manjira/Tambourine by Khurram, Hussain and Yogesh

Performers: Maanasa, Srishti, Stephanie, Navya, Riik, Keshav, Ashni, Neil, Apu, Isha and Krishna

- accompanied with harmonium/keyboard played by Maanasa, Srishti, Apu, Keshav and Ashni

- by junior group

Ethnic songs:

5. "Chalat Musafir" - UP/Bihar: by junior group

6. "Jibon Khunje Paabi" – Bengal: by junior group

Performers: Gargi, Nabeena, Madhumita, Satish, Hussain, Suresh, Chandon, Smita, Anjani, Rajani, Vidya, Pallavi Ram, Kavita, Mamta, Stephanie

1. Bandish - "Suhavan Laage...Mohe Garwa...Payeliya Ki" with tarana in raga Asavari: ---by Nabeena and Madhumita

3. Bandish - "Tero Rup" with tarana in raga – Darbari: by Satish and Gargi

6. Bandish -"Meher Kiye" with tarana in raga – Kalavari: by Suresh and Gargi

8. Bandish - "Bat Chalat" with tarana in raga – Bhairavi: by Satish, Suresh and Gargi

10. Ghazal - "Aaj Jaane Ki Zid" by Smita

11. Bandish - "Aaj Rang Lagayo" with tarana in raga- Kalyan:

by Anjani, Rajani, Smita, Vidya, Madhumita, Nabeena, Pallavi Ram, Kavita, Mamta

12. Dadra - "Rangi Sari Gulabi" in raga – Gara:

by Anjani, Smita,Vidya, Madhumita, Nabeena, Pallavi Ram, Kavita, Mamta

13. Qawali - "Damadam Mastkalandar"

by Anjani, Smita, Vidya, Madhumita, Nabeena, Pallavi Ram, Stephanie, Gargi, Chandon, Kavita and Hussain

Hindi and Urdu poetries - students of Rajani ji and Hussain bhai are Saharsh, Keshav, Ramya, Navya, Maanasa, Stephanie, Srishti, Rajani, Anjani and Gargi

These are the best pictures of the event from the rehearsals... chosen by people... you may send me your feedback...

Role	Name
Master of Ceremony	Sangeeta Pic1, Pic2 and Chandon
Dr. Qureshi	Satish
Naaz	Aparna
Liz and Editor	Rene
Hritik Pic1, Pic2, Pic3, Pic4	Chandon
Vishal Pic1, Pic2, Pic3	Shubir
Sushila Pic1, Pic2	Nabeena
Parmananda ji	Dilip
Priyanka Pic1, Pic2	Gargi
Rhea Pic1, Pic 2, Pic 3	Surya
Journalist Pic1, Pic2	Anjani
Brochure Design	Gargi, Stephanie
Technical support	Kalyanaswamy, Gargi
Logo	Yogeeta
Bollywood style dance	Chandon
Ballet and Contemporary dance	Stephanie and Cornellius
Costume Design	Yvonne, Jassal
Decoration and Mehndi	Anjani and Kalpana
Photographer	Mohammed Tariq

The dance participants are Maanasa, Nidhi, Keshav, Srishti, Sreyashi, Dolly, Stephanie, Surya, Cornellius, Chandon, Taara and Gargi

Scene 1- Journalist Anjani from the newspaper Views of India reporting.
Scene 2 - Dr. Q's entry as a crazy psychiatrist and Dr. Q and Naaz at their home
Scene 3 - Priyanka's introductory track (as a mental patient)
Scene 4 - Priyanka with Dr. Liz in a mental hospital
Scene 5- Dr. Q meets Vishal and he requests Dr. Q to take over Priyanka's case
Scene 6 - Flashback starts - Priyanka with her father Parmananda ji
Kathak performance 1 and 2 - Basics and Kalavati Tarana
Scene 7- Sushila feels jealous of Priyanka
Introducing Hritik - performance (Bollywood style) - "Maria Maria"
Kathak performance 3 - "Pehle Pehel"
Scene 8 - Priyanka meets Hritik and falls in love
Scene 9 - Hritik and Priyanka enjoy each others company - performance (Bollywood style) - "Naughty Naughty, Aaja Naachle, Laboon Pe"
Kathak performance 4 - "Salaam"
Scene 10 - Sushila and Hritik meet Priyanka's father for their engagement
Scene 11 - Priyanka argues with her father about Hritik
Scene 12 - Love Triangle - Hritik-Priyanka-Vishal - performance (Bollywood style) - "Pehli Nazar"
Scene 13 - Vishal meets Priyanka and expresses his love for her
Kathak performance 5 - Kalyan Tarana
Scene 14 - Priyanka misses Hritik
Dance sequence - performance (Bollywood style) - "Dard-e-Disco"
Scene 15 - Hritik avoids Priyanka
Dance sequence - performance (Bollywood style) - "Sawaariyaan"
Scene 16 - Priyanka becomes a mental patient and Anjani calls the ambulance
Scene 17 - Dr. Q cures Priyanka by music therapy with Naaz’s help as well
Dance sequence - performance – (Ballet/Contemporary)- "Main Aagar Kahun"
Scene 18 - Priyanka recovers and accepts Vishal
Scene 19 - Sushila admits her defeat and Anjani warns the audience
Kathak performance 7 - "Mere Dholna"
Scene 20 - Vishal marries Priyanka

Dr. Akbar Qureshi, a middle aged psychiatrist, lived in New York, but originally was from Karachi, Pakistan. Since many Americans could not pronounce his last name properly, he was popularly known as Dr. Q. He was very famous in the field of psychiatry, known for his use of music and art therapy. He was a very affectionate person, fun loving, and took enjoyment in small things. His wife Naaz was very affectionate and fun loving just like her husband. They live in Queens, NY and have two grown up children who were in college.

Priyanka was a young woman who suffered from severe depression, interspersed with bouts of erratic behavior, such as pulling her hair, crying out loud, and beating herself with her hands. She was a musician and Kathak dancer by profession and also ran her own school. She was a patient of Dr. Elizabeth Saxsena. Dr. Saxena was unable to control Priyanka's behavior with conventional methods, and was afraid that she was going to injure herself severely. Therefore, she had advised shock therapy as a course of treatment.

Priyanka's friend, Vishal, and her father, Parmananda ji, were extremely concerned about her condition. There was hardly any sign of improvement despite the beginning of electric shock therapy. They brought the case to Dr. Q, begging him to help Priyanka. Dr. Q initially refused to treat Priyanka, since she was already the patient of his colleague, Dr. Saxena. But he saw that she was not benefiting from the electric shock therapy, and in fact was becoming progressively more depressed and erratic. He strongly believed that since Priyanka was a musician and dancer, she would benefit from his approach of music therapy rather than shock therapy. Priyanka's family begged him to take her on as a patient and he studied her history and agreed to take the case.

Priyanka owned a highly regarded music and dance school named Nritya Darpan. She was a diligent and a devoted teacher, performer and a choreographer. She and her students used to give outstanding performances in local and national concerts. Her dance troupe was the best one in the area. Priyanka's success was envied by a rival dance teacher, Sushila Bhat, who ran a school called the Performing Arts Center.

Sushila's school had a much bigger music and dance troupe but always lost in dance competitions to Priyanka's group. She also did not receive invitations to perform at prestigious venues, as her students were not well-trained.

Sushila spent a lot of time plotting ways to destroy Priyanka and her school. After a lot of thought, Sushila felt that since Priyanka was a sensitive and emotional person, the best way would be to do something that caused her heartache and pain. Sushila and her brother, Hritik, came up with a plan. Hritik was a very handsome and charming young man, and a physician. However, he was good at flirting with women and enticing them with his killer looks. Hritik planned to pretend to fall in love with Priyanka and distract her from her work at the school. His charm and good looks captured Priyanka's heart and she instantly fell in deep love with him.

Hritik inundated Priyanka with flowers and attention, and spent so much time taking her out that her work was neglected. Her students missed her sorely, as she then hardly paid any attention to their learning. They began to talk about leaving her school. Meanwhile, Hritik and his sister Sushila met with Priyanka's father to fix a date for their engagement. Her father was very experienced and knowledgeable, and could sense some wicked motive behind the engagement plan. He loved his daughter dearly and knew how emotional and naive she was, and he wanted to protect her from any harm.

Parmananda ji always wanted Priyanka to get married to Vishal, the son of a close friend, who was a computer scientist and was in a directorial position in a software company. But Priyanka had not wanted Vishal as her husband because she thought that Vishal was old fashioned and conservative. But Vishal had always admired Priyanka's artistic talent and secretly loved her deeply. Sushila knew of Vishal's love for Priyanka, and was extremely jealous of that as well, as she had a crush on Vishal. Parmananda ji tried everything he could to convince Priyanka to reject Hritik and see the good qualities in Vishal instead. But Priyanka's passion for Hritik was so intense that she fought with her father and went ahead with her engagement. Priyanka became more and more entranced with Hritik and gave up everything for him, including giving him money and buying things for him.

Shortly after the engagement, Priyanka noticed an abrupt change in Hritik. He suddenly started to ignore her and argued with her with small issues and even stopped returning her phone calls. She was out in a cafe one day and saw him in the company of another woman with whom he was flirting.

She discovered that Hritik had been involved with several other girls before and had broken many hearts. Her friends had tried to tell her of his faithfulness before, but she had not wanted to believe them. She also came to know that his character was to flirt with women and finally desert them after he had taken their money and used them. Heart broken, Priyanka suffered a nervous breakdown and tried to commit suicide.

She was rushed to the psychiatric hospital, where Dr. Saxena took her as a patient. She recommended that Priyanka stay at the facility as she was in danger of taking her own life or doing serious damage to herself. Vishal visited her daily and tried to show his love for her to help her overcome the heart break over Hritik's infidelity and callousness. Parmananda ji was very impressed with Vishal's devotion and understanding, and tried to help Priyanka see these great qualities in him.

When Dr. Q took over Priyanka's case, Vishal felt a lot of relief and became hopeful that she would recover from the trauma become her normal self again. Dr. Q's method of treatment was completely different from Dr. Saxena. Dr. Q send Priyanka home with her father and recommended music therapy. Dr. Q's wife Naaz was a ghazal singer and started inspiring Priyanka to return to her music career. Slowly and steadily Priyanka regained her interest in dance and music, and was finally cured of her depression.

Very soon, she resumed her dance school and with the full support and cooperation of her students, she once again won the championship in a dance competition. It was a tremendous blow to Sushila Bhat, the director of Performing Art Center. Priyanka also fell in love with Vishal and married him, which made Sushila insanely jealous. Meanwhile, Hritik's reputation had also sunk as everyone found about how he was a good-for-nothing who tried to leech off unsuspecting women.

Sushila's jealousy and rage became so intense that she lost her temper with everyone around her. Her students deserted her as well as other supporters in the community. Sushila ended with a severe mental illness and ended up being in the mental hospital. Priyanka's students did outstanding performances once again, and she had a happy life with Vishal. Her school grew in reputation and was highly regarded once again.


Priyanka, Parmananda ji	Hritik, Sushila	Priyanaka, Hritik	Dr. Q, Priyanka	Kathak dancers	Vishaal, Priyanka, Hritik	Priyanka, Vishaal