He loved the idea of travelling the world, and "doing something useful in a developing country." Most of all, he loved the idea of living in the land of spiritualism, yoga and Pandit Ravi Shankar.

It was the year of The Beatles, bellbottoms and beads. It was the age of men wearing their hair long.

"We were very revolutionary -- anti-war, anti-materialism, anti-money... We were the consequence of the war. I was born in 1946 -- my father's celebration after returning from the navy after World War II," grins Barry John, sitting at his spacious office in the western Mumbai suburb of Andheri.

What Barry really loved was theatre. And it was the one thing that was never encouraged at his home in England, even though he was already teaching drama by the time he finished college.

His passion was watered when he came to Bangalore. He took part in amateur theatre for a year, before a friend invited him to Delhi.

"I never thought of returning to the UK. I did not go back for 25 years! I could not afford to," he smiles. "Flying back to the UK was an expensive proposition especially on a theatrewallah's salary. I was earning only Rs 400 in 1970. I went back to the UK after 25 years, and only because I got invited by a theatre company in Glasgow."

Barry founded his theatre group called Theatre Action Group in 1973.

"The 1970s were a golden age in theatre," Barry says fondly, focusing on a spot in the wall without really looking at it, lost in his memories. "People like Roshan Seth, Sushma Seth, Khulbhushan Kharbanda and Om Shivpuri were very active in theatre then," he says.

TAG was born with people like Siddharth Basu, Lilette Dubey, Pamela Rooks, Mira Nair and Pankaj Kapoor.

Today, Barry's memory remains fresh as ever. He remembers his students, and even the names of the plays he did with them.

Text: Ronjita Kulkarni

In the picture: Students rehearsing for a Barry John play

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