Coming back from France in 2006, we had an Alitalia flight via Milan. Everything until Milan was fine - except one thing. This is an aside, but I must say this. In Milan, like in Vienna, I was asked to take off my belt and lay it in the tray to be passed through the X-Ray machine. That's okay, acceptable. Then, I was asked to raise my hands as I walked through the security gate. If I was comfortable enough to lift my arms wearing jeans without a belt, I would not wear a belt at all, I wanted to tell them. I now make it a point to wear a salwar kameez or tighter jeans. Coming back. Our stopover from Paris was at Milan - and there, we discovered that the flight ahead was cancelled. All kinds of reasons were given to us. 'Technical snag', 'staff on strike', 'no co-pilot'... We had no idea when we'd get a flight back and our visas were due to expire that day. That, we were told, was not a … [Read more...]
Travel Woes
I could write a whole book about things that went wrong while I was travelling. I have a very dear friend who says that my poor guardian angel is always overworked because I make him work overtime keeping me safe through everything. In some AC trains, there's a little metal box above the berth that you can open for light. 'LIFT FOR LIGHT', it says. As a child, I never needed it - I was not allowed to read in bed. When I became a little older (quite a bit older, actually), I excitedly lifted the cover. And the light bulb burst as soon as I opened it. It did not burst in my face, thankfully, but I had pieces of glass in my hair right through the long train journey. I was not able to comb all of them out of my hair - every time I ran the comb through my hair, more tiny pieces emerged. I finally managed to get them out only when I got home and had a shower. I don't use those things any … [Read more...]
Fire Drill
I remember how, a few months ago, two girls came excitedly to me in dance class. "Miss, we had a fire drill today!" "The whole period went in the drill!" said one child, immediately pointing out the highlight of the exercise. "Oh?" I said, interested. I was glad things like this were being done. "So what did you have to do?" "They told us how to leave the building in a proper way," said one girl. "So we had to form lines and all." "And they explained to us that we should never enter the building again, until the fire has been put out." "And we should leave immediately on the stone staircase not the wooden staircase." Impressed, I said, "Good! I'm happy that they're teaching you that!" Emboldened by my interest, one of the girls piped up, "And the teachers know how to use those cylinders also to stop the fire." "The oxygen cylinders," explained the other one, … [Read more...]
More Readers?
I, Varsha Seshan, author of The Story-Catcher and English teacher at your school... ... donated two books to Vishwashanti Gurukul library. One for the primary school library and one for the whole school. I also spoke to the principal about the way I've done readings in the past at St. Mary's, and she seemed interested. At the library today, the librarian was entering the details into the system. Does this mean that more children will actually read the book? I wonder! … [Read more...]
Naughty Boys
Everyday at school, I learn something new. Yesterday, the boys in my class did something that I can't help laughing at, even though I know that the joke is on me. I don't like wearing a watch and haven't worn one for several years now. In school, though, I do wear a watch because I don't find it very ethical to carry a cell phone everywhere when the students aren't allowed to do that. Since I'm not used to it, I take off my watch at the first opportunity I get. I did it as usual when I was in class yesterday. The class was smooth, not one of the bad ones. When I finished what I was talking about, there were just five minutes left for the class to end, so I let them off early instead of starting something new. "What's the time?" one of the students asked, innocently. "4:10," I replied, putting my books together. We left the classroom and another student asked, "Ma'am, what's the … [Read more...]
Talking to Children
In one of the places where I used to teach dance, children from various backgrounds often had trouble communicating with me. They spoke little or no English and sometimes, little or no Hindi, Tamil or Marathi. Problems occurred when they spoke just one language if that one was not one I understood. I remember one such girl. She spoke just Telugu, and perhaps because of her language difficulties, she was extremely diffident. She stood very still, watching and listening, never contributing to conversation. She listened to children asking for permission to go and drink water. Finally, mustering up her courage, she came up to me and asked, "Miss, mumblemumblemum water?" I smiled and granted permission. That was the first time she had spoken, so I merely said, "Yes." The next class, once again, "Miss, mumblemumblemum water?" Once again, I replied, "Yes." When she asked me the … [Read more...]
Chenonceau
The little castle that appears on the Disney logo is, I am convinced, Chenonceau. The château de Chenonceau has to be a Disney castle. In the World War II, the castle marked the boundary between war zones and safe areas. People were often smuggled through the castle to the other side - the idea itself adds the element of romance and adventure I love! We chose not to take the audio guides, but we missed nothing, simply because there was just so much to see. The castle brings to mind all the Georgetter Heyers I've read with its magnificent rooms and four-poster beds and all that. The maze, in typical touristy style, is very simple. It's impossible to get lost there, which takes a little joy out of the idea of a maze. Though the wax museum was a huge disappointment, the rest of the castle had a beautiful feel of people. It felt lived-in, with shiny copper utensils, a quaint pulley to draw … [Read more...]
Classes at School
I had an awful class yesterday. A teacher was absent, so her class was clubbed with mine. I was not particularly sceptical; I did not think I needed to be. How wrong I was! I did not know what to do with sixteen-year-old children determined to take advantage of a new teacher. There was a whole bunch of them, shouting across the class, drinking and spilling water, sitting in couples, professing to headaches... The works. I had planned seven points of discussion that I thought we would not even begin to finish discussing - beauty, marriage, alcoholism, prostitution, feminism, madness and racism. I wanted to discuss these ideas (or at least some of them) and then relate them to the texts we had. I began with beauty. It disintegrated into commenting on the beauty of several girls in class. I talked about marriage. It disintegrated into ideas of celebrities and marriages, and then into how … [Read more...]
Wide Sargasso Sea
Post-colonial literature frightens me. When I think of it, I wonder whether I have to read it closely and carefully, and then pretend to the whole world that I understood it perfectly. I have to talk about how good it was, and what I felt and thought. More than anything else, with great literature, it becomes important to have an opinion. And that is why I avoided reading Wide Sargasso Sea for so long. The greatest famous book is one that makes you forget about what you are going to say about the book. Sometimes, when I read famous literature, I plan my opinion as I read, page by page. I feel stupid doing that, but sometimes, I have no choice. Wide Sargasso Sea was a world away from that. From the very first page, I forgot about the world. I forgot about the 'post-colonial' tag. I forgot about the careful formulation of opinion. I even forgot that I was reading it to teach it. I … [Read more...]
Getting Lost
Sometimes, I look back and think, "What a foolish, foolish child I was." We lived in Vashi when I was very young, and like all children, I was always happier playing outside than being indoors. Unlike most other children, though, little Varsha loved to go and check that Mamma was still there. Just a little peek and a little hug were enough to keep me going for a long time. Once, my mother took my sister and me with her to visit friends of hers. As usual, my sister and I went down to play. We were inattentive little children and did not notice that even though we lived on the first floor, these friends were different - they lived on the second floor. After playing for a while, little Varsha decided to check on mamma. She went up to the first floor and saw that all four doors were locked. I still remember my heart thumping in my head with fear. I went down and told my sister. She came … [Read more...]
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