KHEYECHISH?

Written and Directed by Meghna Roy Choudhury

Format: Theatre and Live Cooking
Duration: 80 minutes
Language: Hindi, English and a tasteful dash of Bangla

About the Play
Kheyechish? ("Ate?") is her mother's daily question, usually met with a groan. But today, the truth spills out: "I haven't eaten all day… or days." With a monthly income of ₹18,000, ₹11,500 goes towards rent, and the remaining amount is stretched thin across groceries, commute and unpaid rehearsals, where dinner is often the only guaranteed meal. But tonight, there is no rehearsal. No dinner. Just another evening in a city that demands everything and gives very little in return.

It's been a year since she last ate Alu Posto and Phena Bhaat, famine-born dishes that carry the memory of hunger through generations. She goes to the store, carefully selecting only what is necessary. But when the bill is tallied, she sighs, shakes her head and quietly walks away, empty-handed.

Later, as she cooks, this time in front of an audience, she tells the story: "If I stop showing up where food is laid out, they may think I don't need anything. But if I turn up every day and show them that I can't buy, maybe they'll know how it is."

As she stirs the food, she wonders: Can the hunger born out of her chosen migration be compared to her grandmother's hunger born of Partition and the Bengal Famine? Of course not. But then, is her hunger even valid?

This piece sits at the intersection of theatre, storytelling, oral history and shared ritual. Garbed as a tragic comedy, it is a deeply political work that explores not only hunger for food, but also the hunger for dignity, recognition, belonging and community. Through live cooking and the sharing of a meal, the performance invites audiences to gather, reflect and continue the conversation long after the play has ended.

Kheyechish? is inspired by Bertolt Brecht's poem The Shopper and was developed with the support of the Niloufer Sagar Drama School Mumbai Alumni Production Grant (2024).

Director's Note
When I began working on Kheyechish?, I was simply hungry.
Not just for food, but for connection, clarity and catharsis. The title, Kheyechish? ("Have you eaten?"), is a question my mother still asks me three times a day. A question I often brushed aside. Until one day, I broke down and admitted that I had not eaten. That moment became the seed for this play.
What followed was a deeply personal process that merged humour, hunger, heartbreak and a kitchen. At first, we were hesitant about cooking live on stage. It seemed impractical. Rehearsal venues had restrictions, and the cost of ingredients, especially posto, was daunting. My dramaturg also cautioned that cooking might overwhelm the performance. But something in me insisted. So I cooked. And it worked.

The play is rooted in the mundane. A missed rehearsal, an empty purse, a cancelled class, a crow on a window sill. But it is within these moments that truth lives. Kheyechish? is built around that moment of standing at a grocery store checkout with trembling fingers and a cart full of comfort you cannot afford. It is in this moment that the performer decides to cook her favourite dish, Alu Posto with Phena Bhaat, ironically dishes born from the Bengal Famine, for the audience, live. It becomes protest, ritual, memory and theatre, all stirred into one.

Cooking live did not just become feasible. It became the heart of the play. The sounds, smells and textures of the kitchen brought an intimacy I had never anticipated. More importantly, it gave the audience a reason to stay back. They do not just watch. They linger. They eat with me. And they talk. That exchange after the performance, over a spoon of Alu Posto and Phena Bhaat, has become the soul of this piece.

The character speaks with Shashikant, a crow she has named after her late father, part companion and part conscience. A voiceover of Bharatamuni shadows the play like a judge from another world. These unlikely observers mirror the audience as they watch her navigate the absurdity of survival in a big city with one hundred rupees a day, unpaid rehearsals and evaporating hope.

Theatre is often accused of being insular. But the most beautiful thing about Kheyechish? is that people who are usually far from theatre, engineers, neighbours, friends of friends, somehow find their way into the room. They come. They relate. They stay.

Blending the rhythms of stand-up with storytelling, realism with satire, and cooking with confession, this play is my letter to everyone who has ever been tired, broke, replaced, hopeful or simply hungry. It is for those who have lied to their mothers about what they have eaten, and those who have survived on dreams and vada pavs.
This play was made through trust. Trust in mentors, in collaborators, and finally, in instinct. I hope it feeds you the way it has nourished me.

Cast and Crew
Writer and Director: Meghna Roy Choudhury
Performers: Dhanesh Gopalakrishnan and Meghna Roy Choudhury
Mentor: Akhshay Gandhi
Dramaturg: Siddhesh Purkar
Set Designer: Ravi Choudhary
Light Designers: Rahul Rai and Utkarshh Babbar
Light Operator: Utkarshh Babbar
Sound Designer and Operator: Sagar Dahale and Yashit
Poster Designer: Aakriti Chandervanshi

An essay by Meghna Roy Choudhury, published in On Eating, tracing the personal experiences, economic realities and inherited histories of hunger that led to the making of Kheyechish?

Read the essay:
https://www.oneating.in/kheyechish-story-of-a-play-born-from-hunger/