New Delhi: He calls himself the 'white-bearded-specy-balding man'. But for his students he is simply Keval - the man who revived Players, the dramatics society of Kirori Mal College under Delhi University (DU), in 1981 and is the force behind the thriving theatre scene of the campus ever since.

Sitting on one of the low stools at the Shri Ram Centre in the capital and sipping tea, Keval Arora reminisced about the bygone days and shared his excitement over the upcoming grand festival - the golden anniversary of Players, one of the best dramatics society of the campus.

'It's been 27 years since I have been a staff advisor to the Players. But to say that I have been associated with Players for that long would be wrong. I am an ex-student of Kirori Mal College (KMC) and an ex-Player myself.

'So if you start counting, I have actually been associated with Players for 32 years! That's nearly a life time!' he laughingly told IANS.

After doing his graduation and then his masters in literature from KMC, Arora started to teach at Ramjas College. But he soon came back to his alma mater, as a teacher this time.

'The year was 1981. When I appeared for the interview, our principal, N.S. Pradhan, took me into the faculty on condition that I had to take on the responsibility of being the staff advisor for Players.

'I was of course thrilled at the prospect but from the state that I had left Players in, four years back, there was a sea change. The dramatics society simply was not as vibrant as it had been,' Arora said.

The tough work started -- pepping up the students, deciding on a script that would maximise their potential and pushing Players to restore its glory on the stage.

The first production that they put up was Howard Brenton's play 'Weapons of Happiness' which was about a Czech communist seeking political asylum in England.

'The play was about a generation conflict, about political consciousness and for a while I couldn't find anyone fitting the bill for the central character. One day a student came up to me and said that he wanted to do the role.

'While everything else was fine, this guy had a very heavy Assamese accent. This, as I later realised, was perfect because the character, the Czech, needed to have a different accent from the rest of the crew. The student's accent was a fluke master stroke.'

The play went on to become a huge success. Encouraged, Arora directed seven more plays by Brenton. IANS