Logline: A coming out experience for a first-year University student travelling back homesick from Brighton University to Birmingham. Through an accidental chance encounter with a fellow passenger on the train, hope is restored, and feelings of acceptance and not being alone transform. Sometimes all that is needed is a small glimmer of hope.
The Wandering (2023) | Writer
Logline: A Sikh Indian male in his 50’s, leaves his house to look for the place where he and his late partner first met. He has been holding on to a secret that has been weighing him down. Whilst sitting on his own in the bar he shares a few drinks with first a younger Indian man and then a younger White British man. Sometimes a chance encounter, when we are not judged and listened to, is all that we need to feel less isolated.
Stage Plays
My Punjabi Mother, Her Dog and Me (2023) | Writer
This play about the acceptance of ill-health, ageing, belonging, and embracing uncertainty, takes place over one afternoon, six months later and a final flashforward of one year. The story is between an elderly mother and her son. They are both struggling with long term health conditions, hearing, and memory loss for the mother and visual impairment for the son.
The son visits his mother but questions whether he should update her of the impact his long-term health condition is having on his eyesight. He also has another secret he has been hiding from his mother. The mother also has a secret she is hiding.
During an afternoon visit, he lets his mother know that he is getting a dog. She is negative and dismissive at first but then begins to recall her fond memories of her family dog from her childhood village in the Punjab, India. She reminisces about her childhood, her father, and memories of her beloved dog.
The son is afraid of letting his mother know about his failing eyesight and the other secret he is hiding, for fear she will worry unnecessarily, and that this revelation will further affect her own potentially significant ill-health challenges ahead of her. The Mother is already aware of her son’s secret, for mothers always know. She too has a secret that she wants to share.