"You must read Harry Potter," a friend of mine told me when I was in the eighth standard. I glanced at the book lying on her desk and nodded. The book she was so impressed by was not yet available easily in India. A relative had given it to her and she was passing it on.I postponed reading - for an incomprehensible reason that I wonder if anyone would understand. I thought Harry Potter was the name of the writer and I had a deep-rooted prejudice against writers who put their own names in font that is far larger than the name of the book. Who was this Harry Potter who used one-fourth of the book cover for his own name? A lot of writers did that, I knew. I did not like the idea of it at all. I did not want to read this new author, this Harry Potter.So another friend read it before I did and said to me, "You must read Harry Potter!"I was curious now, so we spoke a … [Read more...]
Nritya Tarangini
Day 1: I wondered whether I would get anything out of the workshop conducted by the Dhananjayans. I wondered whether it was all worth it. We were learning a piece that was getting totally jumbled in my head. There were too many episodes and at the end of the day, I could not even remember the music.Day 2: I knew it was worth it. I understood why Dhananjayan Anna and Shanta Akka have played Rama and Sita so often. Anna's gentle humour, Akka's quiet poise. I remembered when I went with my teacher to their place while Akka was taking class. I could barely take my eyes off her. 68 now, and still so beautiful. In her own words, Anna is the architect and she is the engineer. I watched her teaching. I realised how similar she is to my teacher and I realised once again how blessed I am.Day 3: A performance at Tilak Smarak Mandir. Of course there were parts I did not enjoy. It's part of the … [Read more...]
The Great Gatsby
Is it fair to compare a book with a movie? Especially a book with such a strong narrative voice? I was a little put-off by the idea of Nick talking to the doctor. But then, that was one way of getting the narrative voice loud and clear, I guess. It was exactly like the book and nothing like it. Long, rambling sections where I was bored. While reading a book, I can just skim, skip and flip. At a cinema hall, I couldn't fast-forward, so I took of my 3-D glasses and yawned. But there were parts that I thought were perfect. Gatsby's beautiful, flawed dream. The green light. And above all, hope.Daisy... Ah, Daisy, Daisy. With her voice full of money. What a description that was, and how well done! The carelessness, callousness, shallowness - all of that came through.It was long and overdone in so many parts, but it left that bitter-sad, yet fragile-hopeful taste in the mouth. … [Read more...]
The Life of Pi
I like to get involved when I watch a movie. I like to feel with the character, hold my breath during moments of anticipation and cry during moments of sadness and joy.That did not happen with The Life of Pi. Not because of the movie itself but because of the cinema hall.First of all, we were in row H. I thought, "Hmm! Not bad." We were in the third row from the screen. There were only ten rows in all.A couple that came late, walking in when the movie had already begun. They had seats at either end of row H. In the true spirit of adjustment, the usher asked all of us to move one seat. I felt as if we were in a bus. The whole row got up and moved, next seat, next seat, next seat. So that the couple could sit together.Children squabbled, laughed and shouted in the rows behind us. Even then, I tried to get engrossed. I tried to enjoy the beautiful 3-D graphics. I tried to get into … [Read more...]
The First Year Away
I remember the time the house got flooded and I put my mattress up on the fridge. I shared a bed with my flatmate, and we watched dead cockroaches, plastic bags and coconut shells floating around us.I remember the time when a thief came to my window in the middle of the night. He did not make a sound, but I woke up and saw a man with a stick at my window, reaching into my room. I was too scared to scream.I remember the time when a cat jumped on my feet when I was in bed. A white cat. In the middle of the night. It woke me up and streaked past. I wonder how I was sane enough not to think that it was a ghost.I remember the time I fell down a manhole.I remember the time when a bag - with my PAN card, library books, library card and wallet - were stolen from my room during the course of the night.I remember how I woke up with a huge cockroach on my face. I picked it up, threw it … [Read more...]
Faerie Heart
Incredible. As a child, I did not like novels that were not divided into chapters. I have no idea why. The only exception was Mary Poppins. I somehow think this one would have been an exception too.What a visual treat! The imagination just blew me over. A coverlet and a bed made of insects' wings. Weaving ropes out of spider threads. Threading cobwebs together to sew the insects' wings. Curtains parting noiselessly - like clouds. Droplets of water hanging from grass - and whole shimmering worlds within.Livi Michael. I'll look out for the name. … [Read more...]
Easter in France
The good thing about being a foreigner in a French family is that they do everything to give you the true French experience.My family could not control the weather - it was cold and there was hail that spring - but they did make Easter special!Traditionally, children are sent out into the garden with baskets to hunt for Easter eggs hidden for them.Even though I was 24 (and not quite a child), my family wanted it to happen. But it was too cold. The garden was wet and not very clean. So they did the modern commercial version of the event for me. They bought chocolate bunnies and hens, and packets of Easter eggs that we could find quickly without getting too wet and too cold. As soon as I woke up and went downstairs on Easter Sunday, they told me what I was supposed to do. Shivering with cold and excitement, I went out and happily collected my eggs and bunny. They had even marked my … [Read more...]
Désirée
Have you read Désirée by Anne-Marie Selinko?I read it when I was in school; I think it was the first really thick book I read.Yes, it came even before Gone with the Wind.I loved it so much that I read it again. And, I think, again.And then, I found an old, old copy of it at my grandparents' place, and how could I not read it again?It's the story of Napoleon's first love - the daughter of a silk merchant, Désirée Clary. When I read the book, all those things were just names to me. Marseilles, Stockholm, the Tuileries ...And then I went to Marseilles.There I was, thinking only about Alexandre Dumas and how close we were to the Chateau d'If. We went, of course, by metro. And guess what we found?It isn't easy to tell, but the second station on the line is Désirée Clary! … [Read more...]
Manjri Adventure
The bus-driver looked at the traffic piled up on the road ahead. We had to get to school and we were late anyway. The traffic was impossible, so he suggested that we take a detour through Manjri village. That's when our adventure began.We passed custard-apple orchards and a stud farm. We passed tiny nondescript nursery schools. We passed fields after fields, bumping our way through roads that had probably been created by bullock carts. I wondered what we would do if a bullock cart came towards us from the opposite direction. There was enough room for two carts to pass, but surely not a bullock cart and a bus! I was mistaken. Villagers are far more confident than city-dwellers when it comes to cheerfully getting their vehicles off the road and driving on, without even losing the thread of conversation with co-passengers. We passed a tractor that merrily went right off the road to let us … [Read more...]
Counterblast to Tobacco
While researching the history of the Stuarts, I discovered some delightful pieces of information.Elizabeth I did not trust tobacco - it made her sick. But she was also intrigued by it. Once, she bet Raleigh that he would be unable to tell her the weight of the smoke.Raleigh was, always, a performer. He weighed an ounce of tobacco and cheerfully smoked it. When he had finished, he weighed the ashes. The difference between the two weights was, he declared, the weight of the smoke.Laughing, Elizabeth acknowledged defeat, paid up and commented that she had often seen men turn gold into smoke, but this was the first time she'd seen a man turn smoke into gold.The rational James I disapproved of smoking too, but there's a reason why he's called the 'wisest fool of Christendom'.He published an anonymous pamphlet titled Counterblast to Tobacco, where he said that tobacco was 'loathsome … [Read more...]