About the Book

All the plays included in this volume are original scripts by BLT.The Prophet and the Poet is based on the historically significant exchanges between Mahatma Gandhi and Rabindranath Tagore. Tiger! Tiger! On the life of Tipu Sultan is based on a play by Dina Mehta. Finding Ananda was commissioned by the Ministry of Culture to celebrate the 150th birth anniversary year of Swami Vivekananda. Monsters in the Dark is based on the Pulitzer Prize book The Emperor of All Maladies by Siddhartha Mukherjee. Einstein’s Dreams is an original adaptation for the stage of Alan Lighman’s novel, based on Einstein’s early struggles.

About the Author

Vijay Padaki is a Theatre Educator who has been part of the Bangalore Little Theatre since its inception in 1960. He has served the company in many capacities–as actor, director, trainer, writer, designer and administrator. A multi-faceted personality, Vijay wears many hats. He is a psychologist and behavioural scientist by training, and the founder-director of The P&P Group, a management resource centre. He was also instrumental in setting up of the first Indian Institute of Management in Ahmedabad and the IIM Bangalore. Over the years, Vijay has developed several long term programmes to strengthen the institution of theatre education and practice in India. Besides conceiving the highly successful Trainer-Training and the Directors Training programme at the BLT, he is also responsible for the annual summer workshop for newcomers to the theatre. More recently, the Ministry of Culture invited Vijay to initiate a programme of Arts and Heritage Management in India. Vijay has written over 50 original plays. In 1993, Vijay won the award for the best contemporary play script instituted by The Hindu for the play Credit Titles. He can be reached at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.