The blog
An assortment of thoughts, opinions and stories
Books I’ve enjoyed, notes from my workshops, and stories about writing, dance and travel
A Problem I Never Solved
“This is my favourite! I like it more than you.” This argument always bewildered me as a child, and bewilders me even now. I can never know how much anyone else likes anything. The rose…
Flat-Hunting
I think flat-hunting is one of those jobs that is most tedious, yet most adventurous, when done alone. After one year in Calcutta, armed with my knowledge of Bangla (largely restricted to daily words…
Thank you, Santa!
Yesterday, I went to my old school to meet my librarian and give her a copy of The Story-Catcher. She still had the book in her hand about half an hour later when children from…
Toto Funds the Arts
Long-listed (but not short-listed) three years in a row. Surely, that’s a record of sorts! For The Story-Catcher (now published) and Vanilla: http://totofundsthearts.blogspot.com/2011/01/toto-awards-2011.html For Ridhima and Sacrifice: http://totofundsthearts.blogspot.com/2012_01_01_archive.html For Laying an Old Ghost to Rest and Ethics: http://totofundsthearts.blogspot.com/2012/12/long-lists-for-toto-awards-2013.html
The Generation Gap
Children who know me as didi, a senior in dance class, often have trouble figuring out whether I belong to their generation or their parents’ generation. Sometimes, I have trouble with it too. I was…
Detective!
From the time I was about seven, I wanted a mystery to solve every vacation. It was not fair that only Enid Blyton people (for me, they were people, not characters) got to solve…
Surviving in the Jungle
Eight safaris with the same guide ensured that we became friends of sorts, and once he realised that three people out of five in the jeep understood Marathi, he opened up fifteen long years…
Tadoba
Our guide at Tadoba said, “All these people who come from big cities – Pune, Mumbai and all – they take photos of anything!” He laughed incredulously at me when I was awestruck by…
An Old Lady in France
Having performed at Aix-en-Provence (close to Marseilles), and being readers of Dumas, we couldn’t not go to Marseilles and visit the Château d’If. We had read and heard enough about it to want to go…
Pirated Books
I don’t like pirated books. I have repeatedly been very vocal and passionate about my criticism – I don’t like the quality of paper, I don’t like the quality of ink, I don’t like…