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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
On the Expressway
Driving to Mumbai last evening, I noticed all kinds of things that bewildered me. People do the strangest things, and make my imagination soar. In the middle of nowhere, there was a man walking on the divider, in the direction of Mumbai. I wonder, was he walking all the way? On the ghats, returning in […]
Not Just a Witch
I sometimes feel that a book that is easily read and easily forgotten cannot be a great book. Easy to read is always an important factor, but when it’s also easy to forget, I begin to wonder… Not Just a Witch by Eva Ibbotson is simply charming. It’s old-fashioned in its ‘moral’ idea of doing good […]
Another School, Another Life
I began another life today. I am to teach English at MIT Pune’s Vishwashanti Gurukul. I felt awkward listening to staff room gossip. How funny it is that I had to open yet another bank account in the same bank. What a beautiful campus! What an awful bus journey. What a lovely library! (I want […]
Will I ever call it junk?
How do teachers throw away cards they receive? The children I read to gave me so many cards. Some were beautiful; some were thoughtful; some were sweet. How can I throw any away? Just a sample of those gems… THANK-YOU FOR SHARING SO MANY THINGS I LOVED […]
The Dame who Hated Plants
Another original story by seven-year-old Varsha. This one won the first prize in a story-writing competition and was published on my mother’s birthday in 1994. The word ‘dame’, for those who have not read Enid Blyton, meant nothing to me except ‘woman’ (often magical/ evil). I wonder if this story could be psycho-analysed. There was […]
Surprise Farewell Party
A new life begins for me on the 1st of March. I’m going to stop all my hundreds of classes here and there and teach full-time in a school. Last evening, the girls from one of my classes gave me a surprise farewell party that was truly heart-warming. Thanks to their excited whispered planning, there […]
The Oberon Trio
Wow… In class III, I learned a poem about five kittens in a basket. There was one line that said ‘Each one when I pet it seems surely the best’. As The Oberon Trio played, each piece as they played it seemed surely the best. At the end of their Haydn, I could not decide […]
Gulaal – a festival of expression
Day one of Indian Rhythm and Arts Association’s Gulaal was wonderful. We went essentially for Alarmel Valli’s performance, but were blown away by the second part of the evening – Nandita Das’s Between the Lines. Valli, in keeping with the season, performed two pieces on spring and concluded with a Nritta Lahiri. The upper part of her body was […]
Experiences on Stage III
Performing in Chidambaram is an experience that any dancer would cherish. Mythologically, it is the place where Lord Shiva came and danced the Ananda Tandava, at the request of the sages. The golden temple of Chidambaram finds its way into many traditional songs, thanks to its splendour and history. When we danced there, one of […]
Book-Reading – A Different One
An acquaintance who is part of the Teach for India programme asked whether I would be willing to come to a small government school in Chandannagar and talk about my book, about writing and about dance. I was tremendously excited by the prospect, and agreed immediately. When I got there, though, I realised how different […]
The Special Green Tile
In the hall where I teach at Sanskriti Cultural Centre, there’s one Special Green Tile. It’s different from the other tiles. For me, all it does is mark the centre of the hall, which makes helps children orient themselves when we have performances. For the children, not so very long ago, the tile was special. In […]
Raising Children
Every so often, I realise just how difficult it is to bring children up. Of course, there are all the financial aspects of parenting, and the tension of finding a school, monitoring TV, internet, books… The list of things parents do for children is simply endless. Recently, I was introduced to another side of parenting. […]
Getting into the mood
Before any performance, my dance teacher encourages us not to talk about anything unrelated to dance and the programme ahead of us. She asks us to be silent, thinking about what lies ahead of us, meditating in our own ways. In keeping with the idea, if ever we dance to recorded music, I try and […]
Southern Adventures
Travelling with two friends in the south of India was the experience of a lifetime! Our plan was essentially to go to Pondicherry, but friends convinced us to go to Kodaikanal as well. Buses to and from Kodai were very frequent, so we were willing to try it out. Going to Kodai was longer than […]
Trains in India
I remember when two friends of ours were coming to India from France, and wanted to travel across the north. We warned them that reserving tickets on trains here is necessary, unlike in Europe. We had to book two months in advance (it was two then, not four, as it now is). They were surprised, […]
After the Burggarten
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; […]