I wrote, some time ago, about how we hunted for, and eventually found the city garden - https://varshaseshan.com/blog/burggarten-bitte/. In English, somehow, people we spoke to called it the 'Rose Garden' rather than the 'City Garden'. Not unnaturally, we expected to see roses, but we saw none. The garden was truly beautiful, but we saw no roses; did we not look hard enough?We went after that to a place that stands out in my memory as a unique experience - a Schmetterling Haus. We were told it was a kind of greenhouse, and speaking no German at all, we had no idea what 'schmetterling' meant, and no desire to look it up. The people who told us to go have a look at it perhaps lacked the vocabulary to explain what it was too because they told us no more than that. They told us it was a greenhouse that was worth visiting, and that's all we expected. We went inside the greenhouse and had a … [Read more...]
Power Cut
I remember going to a creperie in Grenoble a few years ago - an important part of my French experience. I was in a large group of Indians for once, and soon after we had placed our order, our delicious lunch was served to us.And then, there was a power cut.We were surprised, but power cuts are not such a new experience for us. Particularly since we were out for lunch and not dinner, we calmly continued to eat, merely commenting on how bizarre it was for this to happen to us in France.What drew our attention away from the food before us though was everything else that happened. The reactions of people all around us were priceless! The people in the restaurant were astounded that something like a Power Cut could possibly take place. They came to us and apologised for the inconvenience. "What inconvenience?" I wanted to ask, amused at the waiter's bewilderment. A candle was placed on … [Read more...]
The Golden Rule
During our exchange programme with a school in France, my sister formulated for me The Golden Rule. If you don't know a word in French, pronounce the English word that you do know in the French way. The likelihood of its being the real French word is very high. We used it for the first time with the word 'superstition', and I marvelled at how well it worked.My sister herself broke the golden rule once, though, when we were with French friends in Calcutta. We were in an area dominated by Chinese restaurants and Chinese shoe-makers and I wanted to point out the fact that there are tanneries everywhere. It's a locality that's noteworthy for that, but I didn't know the word for 'tannery'.My sister did not know the word either. 'Tannery' does not sound like a French word. Glaring at me for wanting such a complicated idea explained, she launched into a detailed story of the whole process of … [Read more...]
A Train to Vienna
Why do people like us? Why do random people whom we will probably never meet again come up to us and do things for us? I wonder if we look young and innocent and vulnerable - if so, how long will we stay that way?I remember our journey to Vienna from Venice. I have photos to remind me of it, even if I do forget.A lady on the train was immensely curious about us and naturally, about India. We spoke to her for a long time about everything. We told her about our exchange programme, about backpacking in Europe, and about how wonderful our experiences in Italy had been. We told her what we did in India and answered hundreds of questions about Indian culture. All this was normal - people have all kinds of questions all the time. Then, she invited us to eat with her at the dining car of the train. Knowing it would be ridiculously expensive for us, we refused. She insisted, saying that she … [Read more...]
Experiences on Stage II
I remember the first time I performed with the Senior Girls - the Big Girls at Satara. We were doing a dance drama to recorded music. That's always a challenge because we can't let our emotions run free, expressing ourselves the way we want to and letting ourselves get carried away. We were performing Draupadi Vastraharan, and I was Dusshasan (a role now perpetually associated with me) for the first time. Draupadi, whom I was to drag on to stage, was far senior to me. We'd practised innumerable times, of course, and I knew that once I had mimed the pulling of her sari for a bit, the song changed to a heart-rending call to Krishna to save her.Somehow, things on stage worked differently. We got too involved with the story and lost track of time. Draupadi, thrown amidst the gamblers, had no time to plead with the spectators to save her; she had no time to build her emotions at all … [Read more...]
Dress Rehearsal?
Last evening was the first show of our cultural programme at Sanskriti. Everyone in charge treated it as a kind of exalted dress rehearsal. Everything was practised - giving gifts to the teachers, standing for a photo, everything. For them, it was just a complete, thorough rehearsal before Saturday.For me, though, yesterday was the real thing. My guru was there. And as always, no one's reaction is important except for hers. The whole world could be in raptures, but if she is not happy, the simple fact is that the programme was not successful.Guru Mythili Raghavan was not impressed, but she was pleased. She was proud of us - I could see that much. She was unhappy with the sound system, but the girls were, in her words, 'not bad'.I'm happy. For me, now, Saturday's show is a dress rehearsal. We can just turn time around a bit and pretend Saturday's performance came first. … [Read more...]
The Circus Boy
I did two more book-readings yesterday - The Circus Boy and The Old Yellow Scooter. The reactions were completely different! Children never stop surprising me.The first reading (The Dictionary) was wonderful - I got questions about reading, writing, publishing, drawing... The second reading (Dreams) was strange - I wondered whether the girls understood the story at all. I got all kinds of questions that were totally random - about how many languages I spoke, about what my mother wanted to be when she grew up, about who my class-teacher was... The third reading (The Circus Boy) was lovely. The questions made me feel that the girls really enjoyed my story. They wanted to know what happened after that. What did Girish feel? What did Ravi say? How did Jatin react? It was heart-warming. The fourth reading (The Old Yellow Scooter), with class II instead of class III, was grand. The children … [Read more...]
Performing tomorrow and on Saturday!
I teach dance at a school run by the Army Wives' Welfare Association (AWWA) - and they have their annual cultural programme tomorrow. Beginning with a Ganesh Vandana, there are several performances on the programme. My girls are going to be doing a Kannada folk dance and Swarajati (Raag Hamsanandi). I'll be concluding the programme with a thillana. The programme will be repeated on Saturday simply because the expected audience exceeds the capacity of the hall. Some parents will be asked to come tomorrow, and some on Saturday.It's a fairly standard programme, but for the first time, my guru is coming to watch! I'm going to be playing the nattuvangam too - and I'm trying to figure out what is making me most stressed - my guru watching my girls, my guru watching me dance, or my guru seeing how I play the nattuvangam!Hoping things go well, and as always, the only reaction that matters … [Read more...]
Why I Write for Children
My first reading at St. Mary's school yesterday told me, yet again, why I love writing for children. The number of questions they asked me and the way they interacted with me for a whole hour was simply wonderful. Writing, editing, publishing, marketing, illustrating and designing - they had questions about all these things. They wanted to know what an illustrator's options are. They wanted to know whether children can get books published. They wanted to know why sometimes books are not available in shops.If I have a big painting on cardboard, how can I send it to a publisher? How can I make an audio book on a CD? How can I ask the shopkeeper to sell my book? How long does it take to publish a book? They wanted to know everything - it was splendid!At the end of my four readings for the girls of class III, I am to write a small piece about the experience for the school magazine. I … [Read more...]
Book-Reading in MY School!
Once upon a time (in 1995, to tell the truth), my wonderful school-librarian encouraged us to write and illustrate books of our own. A friend and I sat and wrote a book of stories and poems. I forget what it's called. We illustrated it painstakingly - and one important lesson that I learned from that was that even if I could write, I could never draw. At the back of the book, we proudly put in little biographies - About the Authors. Mine says 'Varsha Seshan is 8 years old and studies in Standard IV A.' What else was there to say?My teacher kept that book. She got it rebound when it started falling to bits. And eighteen years later, when I have a 'real' book published, she wants me to go back to my school and talk to children about making it happen. She wants everyone to look at that book and then at my new official one. She asked me if I was willing. I'm not just willing - I'm … [Read more...]