Time flew. I simply could not hold on to it. When I thought about an 11-3 workshop, I confess I did think, “Hmm. There’ll definitely be parts where I’m bored.” I was wrong. Travelling from my school in Loni to British Library on Fergusson College Road, I realised for the first time why all the […]
Storytelling!
The difference between storytelling and drama is that the audience actually exists. The actor engages with the audience, can hear the audience, see the audience and speak to the audience. And what a wonderful experience my first storytelling experience was! Burd Ellen makes the mistake of going widdershins; Childe Rowland rescues her. We don’t have […]
Day Three – Reading is Fun!
I always tremble when I talk about my book. But somehow, today was just perfect. For once, I felt that the children simply loved the story and were still eager for more! Today was a grand day. I bit my lip controlling my laughter as a child read a little excerpt he had written about […]
Swarada Datar
Where does the beauty of dance lie? When it comes to Bharatanatyam, particularly the Pandanallur style, surely it’s in the lines, the perfect geometry and the crisp, precise body movements. Whatever else may have been lacking, the geometry in Swarada’s dance was certainly perfect. Her performance was excellent. It’s rare for me to use a […]
Working, Working, Workshop!
Reading is Fun! Day One Day Two And now, I’m excited about the next one, coming soon …
Day Two – Reading is Fun!
Yesterday was the second exciting session with eager young children, waiting to be entertained. I began with a presentation on the process of the making of the book – from the mind of the writer to the hands of the reader. It was a long (yet brief) detailed explanation of different aspects of the process. […]
Sophie’s Lucky
The perfect children’s book is not one that you read and say, “Oh, I would have loved it so much if I had read it when I was seven!” The perfect children’s book is one that you read and say, “What a truly delightful book!” And that’s what I feel when I read Sophie’s Lucky, or, […]
The Prince and Other Modern Fables
Prose poetry at its most beautiful. I never thought I could enjoy stories like this so much. Every story is so rich, so intricate, so charming! It’s supposed to be for children and adults alike, but I wonder how much I would have taken in had I read it as a child. Reading it now, […]
The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar
Perhaps it was the right to time to reread this book and realise that Roald Dahl, genius beyond compare, never intended to be a writer. In the last-but-one story, he talks about how he happened to get a lucky break and things did not stop after that. He also writes about a little notebook in […]
Day One – Reading is Fun!
And fun it certainly was! I had 21 children there in all. Apparently, after 20 registrations had been made, someone wanted to join. The child was told that there were no seats left, but she could try her luck, show up at the workshop and see if anyone backed out. The child diligently showed up […]
Yesterday
Yesterday, we performed again. We were early. The audience was late. We started half an hour late, after our lovely organiser called out on the mike to the society and large, “Green Acres, come on, wake up! Get up and come to the clubhouse!” We took our own music system – a largish one that […]
Performing today!
When we performed on Ganesh Chaturti for our society, despite all the hitches, we were asked to repeat our performance. We’re not quite repeating it; we’ve chosen different pieces this time. Our encore will be performed today; I hope it’s better than the last one!
Last Evening’s Performance
I have no pictures yet, but I can’t resist sharing yet another performance story. First of all, we were ‘late’. Apparently we were expected there by 7:30. Except that we were told we would begin at 8. Being the children of the society (well, we were children when we performed 13 years ago!), we were […]
Performing this evening!
It’s been ages since my sister and I performed together at a programme organised by our society. I remember the time, ages ago, when the two of us practised on the little round stage in the lawn. It was in 97 or 98. How far we’ve come since then! We played our music on audio […]
The Lion King
I belong to the generation that was addicted to The Lion King video game. I loved jumping on the giraffes’ heads, and loved to get the bonus points for a golden lion that did not look like a lion at all. I loved moving from level to level of jumping colour. However, I also belonged to the […]
13 registrations done!
Thirteen children will be part of my reading workshop that starts on Sunday! Seven seats left . . .
Reading Workshop
I spoke to Ms Sugandhi from the British Library last Sunday, and she said that 11 children had already registered! There are just 20 seats in all; now is the time!
Teachers’ Day
What a novel Teachers’ Day experience! The children impersonated the teachers; that was a treat. How funny it is to see how students see me! I couldn’t stop laughing. Another wonderful part of the day was a quiz about the 12th grade students, prepared by the students. And a treasure hunt in the block. I […]
Treason
The year is 1539. King Henry VIII is King of England. All three of his wives, Katherine of Aragon, Anne Boleyn and Jane Seymour are dead. He has three children: Mary, Elizabeth and the long-awaited heir to his throne, Edward. Henry has broken away from the Church of Rome because the Pope would not allow […]
How Green Was My Valley
I read the book when I was eleven or so. It was among the very few books that made me feel I was too young to tackle that kind of emotion. I remember thinking that I would be able to feel everything better when I was older and did not need to look up words […]