Compassion Conquers Centre Stage

AAOMA and Parindey’s Twin Plays Confront AIDS Stigma and Transgender Lives at LTG Auditorium

By Aaoma- The Third Space Foundation | Mandi House, New Delhi |  8 May 2026

On the afternoon of 8th May 2026, the Blank Canvas stage at LTG Auditorium, Mandi House, witnessed theatre at its most purposeful. In a double-bill event organised by Parindey — The Dramatics Society of Mata Sundri College, University of Delhi — in collaboration with AAOMA – The Third Space Foundation, two performances confronted audiences with stories of stigma, courage, and the quiet power of human compassion.

 

MERCY: When Illness Meets Indifference

The evening opened at 3:00 PM with MERCY, a stage play by Parindey that unflinchingly depicts the social isolation faced by an Indian father living with AIDS — not through any personal fault, but through tragic circumstance. His wife, friends, and community abandon him at precisely the moment he needs them most, replacing care with judgement and compassion with rejection.

At the heart of the play stands Karuna, his daughter, whose unconditional love becomes her father’s sole anchor. Yet even she is not spared society’s cruelty. Her boyfriend, paralysed by fear and ignorance, withdraws from her — revealing how stigma reaches beyond the individual to wound entire families. MERCY builds to a quietly devastating conclusion: people living with AIDS do not need pity. They need dignity, understanding, and their full human worth restored.

The Parindey cast delivered emotionally raw performances that held the audience in visible tension throughout, earning sustained applause at the final curtain.

“People suffering from AIDS do not need pity — they deserve understanding, acceptance, and humanity. And those who live in the margins of society deserve not our sympathy, but our solidarity.”

 Through its deeply emotional storytelling, the production urged audiences to confront the fear and misinformation that continue to surround AIDS in society today. The play’s strongest message lay in its insistence that compassion must always come before judgement.

Anarkali — Naam Toh Suna Hoga? One Voice, Infinite Courage

At 4:30 PM, the stage was stripped to its essentials as Sufyan Khan — Artistic Director of AAOMA – The Third Space Foundation — stepped forward alone. His solo performance, Anarkali: Naam Toh Suna Hoga? traces the life of Anarkali — a transgender individual whose existence, equal in beauty and human worth to any other, is nonetheless lived under the long shadow of inequality and social exclusion.

Khan’s performance moved through joy, grief, defiance, and quiet tenderness — sometimes within a single breath. Beginning with a disarmingly simple provocation — isn’t it remarkable how we grieve over small things when life is, in so many ways, beautiful? — the play pivots quickly to something harder and more necessary: what of those for whom simply existing as themselves is a source of daily suffering?

As AAOMA’s Artistic Director, Khan brings both artistic grace and deep institutional commitment to the material. The performance functioned simultaneously as art, testimony, and social advocacy. Audiences were visibly moved. Many remained in their seats long after the final moment, as if reluctant to leave the space the play had opened within them.

“What does it say about our society that some people must fight every single day just to exist as themselves? If love, dignity, and humanity belong to everyone equally, then perhaps the real tragedy is not Anarkali’s pain — but our silence in the face of it.”

 

Felicitation & Certificate Ceremony

The event concluded with a warm felicitation ceremony outside the auditorium, where AAOMA presented certificates of appreciation to the cast, crew, and collaborators of both productions. The gathering — performers, organisers, and volunteers’ side by side — offered a fitting image of the inclusive, community-centred spirit that defines AAOMA’s work.

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