CES Presents One Woman Play “They Call Me Q”

On Feb. 15 at 8:15 p.m., CES presented students, staff, and the public with “They Call Me Q,” in Lane University Center’s Alice Manicur Assembly Hall.

The Bottom Line was in attendance to view the coming of age story of the Indian-American actress, Quarrat Kadwani. The ARMAH was decorated to fit an Indian theme; there were tables and couches. Curry chicken was available free of cost to attendees. There were small takeout boxes for guest to enjoy the food in.

Close to the time Kadwani hit the stage, the lights were dimmed, and the room was filled with about 70 people. The crowd was a predominately older crowd. There was a handful of students in attendance.

Kadwani appeared on stage, with black jeans, a white t-shirt, and a jean shirt. She began the play with jokes about the year she was born and her birthplace, Bombay, India, now Mumbai. Even with her amusing style, she educated the crowd on where her name originates from. Kadwani then began discussing the difficulties about living in the Bronx, N.Y. and the struggles of being one of the only Indian families in her community.

She expressed her tough situations with so much humor. Kadawani played the role of her bullies and her middle school teacher who physically harmed her. The different New York accents that she portrayed is how she received chuckles from the crowd.

These incidents of bullying and feeling like an outsider was what led to the actress to want to conform to her environment in middle school. She saw the Puertorican, Black, and other Latin kids wearing certain clothing, and she wanted to, as well.

“When I entered junior high school I thought about who I could be, and then it came to me; I wanted to be like everyone else,” she told the audience.

“Well I wanted to be like my Puertorican classmates; not be like them, but be them,” Kadwani continued.

“I wanted their gold-plate necklaces; I wanted their curly hair and nose rings,” she exclaimed.

In high-school, life in the Bronx did not get any easier for Kadwani. However, she joined the debate team, and she met a really good friend. The scene where she describes a night out with this friend was highly entertaining to the audience.

After graduating, she decided to leave the Bronx and attend college five hours away from home. College was when she realized that she missed her Indian roots, and that she could not cook as well as her mom. She called home to try to recover recipes from her mom. It was then she realized all of the time she spent conforming could have been used on learning cultural dishes.

The last step in Kadawani’s journey was returning to India on a trip. She had not been to her birthplace since she was a child. Therefore, it was a lot of culture shock when she stepped off the airplane in the Mumbai airport. She told the crowd what she saw while in India in such an engrossing way. The people’s faces, the roads, the houses, and the sounds were all explained. Returning home gave her a since of belonging because so many people there resembled her. She did not feel like an outsider in India. Yet, the trip gave her an appreciation for the life her parents created for her in the United States.

She ended the play letting the crowd know that she is Quarrat Kadwani, the Indian girl with the name that is complicated to pronounce, but she is also Q from the Bronx, who is proud of all of her identities.