St Bede’s students bring S R Harnot’s ‘Nadi Gayab Hai’ to stage, deliver strong environmental message
Shimla, September 15: The Girl Students of the prestigious St Bede’s College, Shimla, a staged an original theatrical adaptation of renowned Himachali writer S R Harnot’s acclaimed Hindi story Nadi Gayab Hai on the occasion of Hindi Diwas, turning the college stage into a reflection on environmental destruction and the consequences of unchecked development.
The play, adapted and performed by students of B.Com, B.A. and B.B.A. programmes, brought to the audience the central concern of Harnot’s story—the disappearance of rivers and the growing threat to nature caused by human greed and indiscriminate development.
With only a few days of rehearsal, the students displayed impressive creativity and stagecraft, using Hindi not merely as a language of cultural expression but as a medium to raise contemporary social and environmental concerns.
The performance also underlined the wider relevance of Hindi beyond the customary Hindi Diwas celebrations.
Harnot’s writing has consistently brought Himachal’s environmental concerns into public discourse, and Nadi Gayab Hai presents the conflict between development and destruction through a deeply human and sensitive narrative.
Dr Devina Akshayvar, Assistant Professor, Department of Hindi, St Bede’s College, said the dignity of Hindi could not be confined to one day and stressed the need to explore how the language was giving voice to contemporary challenges, particularly the environmental crisis.
“Hindi is not merely a vehicle of culture; it has the power to question, sensitise and make society confront the challenges before us.
Through Nadi Gayab Hai, our students have shown how Hindi can become a strong voice for nature and for a future in which development does not come at the cost of destruction,” she said.
The students’ adaptation received appreciation for bringing a serious environmental issue to the stage in an engaging and creative form, while also demonstrating the growing possibilities of Hindi as a language of contemporary expression.
