The Indian American

The plot centers on members of a tight-knit Punjabi community in a small town called Raymond, in Wisconsin, where everybody knows everybody else; life is an open book. The local gurdwara is the most prominent, and only place, for community members to gather for occasions, to find solace, revive and keep tradition intact. It’s where the majority of the action in the play takes place. The Batras, whose family emigrated from India generations ago, is set to celebrate the wedding of Iggy Batra (played by Sathya Sridharan), to his sweetheart Lovi (played by Lipica Shah). The parents of Iggy, Sunny Batra (played by Alok Tewari) and Deepa Batra (played by Purva Bedi), who were born and brought up in Wisconsin too, are in a joyous, festive mood, but there is crisis brewing in their household. Basminder ‘Boz’ Batra (played by Shazi Raja), 29, the headstrong older sister of Iggy, has plans of her own to escape the small town life where she is deluged and besieged by bitter memories, including a broken romance and a sibling who died tragically in India. Boz seeks freedom, with her own bar in Madison, which would also fulfill her desire to emulate the greatness of one of her fore- fathers, ‘Brownbeard’ – a notorious Punjabi pirate who ran India Pale Ale beer from India to England. To complicate matters, Boz hates the fact that her ex-boyfriend, Vishal Singh (played by Nik Sadhnani) is Iggy’s best friend, and an integral part of the wedding celebrations. There is nowhere to run from him in the small town. Boz finally gets to do what she wants, goes away, and opens a bar in Wisconsin. But even before she’s settled in, comes the news 39 THE INDIAN AMERICAN OCTOBER-DECEMBER 2018 Sathya Sridharan as Iggy Batra and Lipica Shah as Lovi, in the play ‘India Pale Ale’. Photo: Joan Marcus. Nate Miller as Tim and Shazi Raja as Basminder “Boz” Batra, in ‘India Pale Ale’. Photo: Joan Marcus.

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