Kamal Ghorui
The story of humankind underlines that truth has more facets than are normally perceived. Tesseract: The Geometry of Truth, unveiled through allegory and animation, movement and music, colour and contemplation shows that our future survival hinges on pure intelligence being tempered by empathyWe live in the age of information. It comes at us from all directions, enveloping and overwhelming, an accumulation and consequence of the sum total of human experience and endeavour. It is exhilarating and disorienting, often both at the same time. Yet the human mind has always been on a quest for truth, seeking it in a myriad ways since before the dawn of history and expressing it just as diversely. But we have been limited by our own power of perception.
The patterns of successive epochs—the archives of human ambition and enterprise—are there as prescient, silent witnesses around us. Who or what can analyse and interpret their geometry? The human mind can, but to do so, it needs to become aware of and open to the fourth dimension that parallels our 3D world, always offering perspective and choice. Its possibilities are embodied in the Tesseract, a theoretical 4D hypercube that exists only in abstraction.Also read: Interstellar, Einstein and the strange elasticity of timeAs a chronicler, The Times of India has built a matchless archive of the human story over the past 187 years. Its news headlines, articles and photographs have borne witness to and documented countless quests. Now The Times of India has taken the human story to the next plane by conceptualising Tesseract: The Geometry of Truth, to reveal the possibilities of alternative choices via story, song and dance— all time-rested facets of human creativity— at the NCPA in Mumbai.
As the Voice of the Archive reveals, down the ages, truth has been sought in many ways, by many people, in many ‘rooms’, from artistes and philosophers to fighters and feminists, from empire builders to iconoclasts. History itself is animated to reveal what many have forgotten
It is not easy to open minds, and nor is the fourth dimension a simple construct. But there is epiphany in journeying with Sophia and her alter ego through the ages of human history wherein advances in art, literature and the sciences were matched by exploitation of our planet and people, where revolution and evolution were not on the same track yet there was an inexorable onward march. And somewhere along the way, compassion fell by the wayside.
In each ‘room’ of human history, Sophia encounters different versions of herself and changing perceptions of truth. Eventually she awakens to an all-seeing and all-knowing presence around her, guiding her to the fourth dimension
As colour and rhythm pulsate on the stage, expressing human thoughts and emotions in its many shapes with glorious Broadway panache, the contours of true sapience emerge. Truth finally reveals itself as a Tesseract—tangible yet metaphysical, radiating a mysterious force that can be called empathy. That it awaits us in the fourth dimension, at the edge of human perception becomes blindingly apt. Sophia finds her truth; we need to seek ours too.“Tesseract: The Geometry of Truth” is produced by The Times of India, with concept and visualisation by Meera Jain. Experience “Tesseract: The Geometry of Truth”, running from 16 to 22 March 2026 at NCPA Mumbai. Book here
