I've taken a while to write about Raghavan uncle. There's so much to say, so much to process. People call and ask me how Mythili Mami is, how everyone is. And each time I talk to someone, I remember another anecdote, another special moment with Uncle. Because there were just so many of them in the 27 years that I've been part of the Academy.A few years ago, during his birthday celebrations, some people spoke about how much he has supported the Academy of Indian Dances. For me, to say that he supported it is to put him outside the Academy. He was - and is - at the core of the Academy. As individual dancers, we've missed performances. I was not part of the temple tour of the south, for instance. But Uncle was there. In 2013, we performed at IIM Indore. Several of the dancers who are now an integral part of the troupe weren't there. But of course, Uncle was. … [Read more...]
Books and Important Conversations
No, I don't believe that every book needs to teach us something. Absolutely not. I read to laugh, have fun and unwind. Yet, every so often, I come across a book that invites discussion and makes me think.At my reading programme for ages 9 and 10, we're reading Flying with Grandpa. Yesterday, we were to read the section where Grandpa refuses to eat. He makes a fuss and keeps banging his fork on the table.I paused as I reread this section in preparation for my reading session. The children at my book club had clearly said that they had never encountered adults behaving like children. The idea, to them, was absurd. I knew we needed to have a conversation - about dementia, Alzheimer's and growing old. There would be no better time than this, but how could I go about it? A StoryI lost my grandfather six years ago. He was a remarkable man, a retired Air Vice Marshal, whom I … [Read more...]
Indywood Media Excellence Award
My father Sekhar Seshan received the Indywood Media Excellence Award for magazines at the Indywood Film Carnival held at Ramoji City, Hyderabad!The Indywood Film Carnival is a four-day festival with fifteen major events, including Golden Frame Awards, International Film Business Awards and Indywood Excellence Awards. … [Read more...]
Kayani Bakery
If you have not been to Kayani Bakery on a Saturday afternoon, you cannot have any idea what it's like. I cannot describe the way people crowd around the counter that they can reach, and around the counters that they cannot. I cannot describe how the red-faced men behind the counter serve customer after customer, cheerfully ignoring other customers who insist on shouting out their orders. Some of the men behind the counter smile and converse. Others give you withering looks. Still others lecture you on how you should wait for your turn. It's all part of the experience.Today, I was in Kayani Bakery, peacefully waiting, and amusing myself by watching how people cope with the crowd."Yes, ma'am?" came a cheerful voice.I placed my (rather large) order. As he put my order together, the gentleman explained to me the difference between plain cake and mawa cake. "You'll need two bags for … [Read more...]
Of Education and Breaking Traffic Rules
My signal turned green. I began to move - and banged into a motorcycle going the wrong way, and breaking the signal into the bargain.With my hand and foot mildly grazed, I was more than a little angry. I had not yet noticed that my bike was damaged, or I would have been still angrier. The rider was a little sheepish and did not say much, but the woman riding pillion was enraged with me."My signal was green, couldn't you see?" I fumed. "I was in the right! Why do people who cannot follow rules ride?"In turn, she asked me if I could not see, if I was blind.Even more angered, I repeated that the signal was green for me.Her eyes blazed. She accused my of flinging abuses at her. She said she could ensure I was beaten.Angry, helpless and bemused, I had nothing else to say. I could only repeat that I was in the right!"Green, red, green, red," she threw at me. "If you cannot even … [Read more...]
Diwali
We were in mourning this Diwali for my grandfather who died earlier this year.I remember, as a child, feeling so bad for people in mourning. I remember someone telling me about her father-in-law's brother's death, because of which the entire family was in mourning. And I remember feeling a little guilty about thinking about how pointless it was to mourn for a faraway relative.This time, though, it was not like that. I realised the difference between mourning and grieving. I think, to me, mourning is remembering.Each year at Diwali, my grandfather gave us 1,200 rupees: 300 rupees for each one. As a child, I was excited by it. As I grew older, I smiled at the diligence with which my grandfather remembered each one of us every year.I remembered how we put up lights at my grandmother's window during her last few years.I remembered how, when I was very young, and my sister and I … [Read more...]
Great-Great Grandmother
Anyone on Facebook knows that babies are born all the time. Pictures are put up and everybody makes appropriate appreciative comments. But not everyday is a great-great grandmother born.I had the privilege of knowing my great-grandfather, who lived to be a 105. His amazing life spanned from 1895 to 2000. He supported Gandhi during the freedom struggle and stopped wearing leather slippers, choosing instead to go barefoot. This, for me, was particularly incredible because he was a lawyer in Madurai, so he walked those scorching roads day after day barefoot. When I knew him, he was a slightly deaf old man who used to watch cricket with commentary at so low a volume that it grated. I admired the fact that someone so old could actually live, but did not quite comprehend why everyone was thunderstruck at a 103-year-old-man climbing the gate to pluck flowers for his daily puja.My … [Read more...]
My Favourite Female Characters in Fiction
A question that always bothers me when I'm writing is whether I should concentrate on plot or character. Plot has the power to transport me, make me gasp and thrill me. But characters... Ah, they're the people who become lifelong friends.1) Pollyanna: Too good to be loved, but how I love her! She should be a saccharine goody two-shoes, but she's not. Her glad game changed my world.2) Anne: Anne in Anne of Green Gables is the best of the lot. That's where my beloved "Carrots" emerges as the imaginative and dreamy spitfire I long to befriend.3) Deborah Grantham: Faro's daughter - she won my admiration the very first time around. Independent, headstrong and dignified - the woman in control of her life. What's not to fall in love with there?4) Darrell Rivers: No, I no longer think she is magnificent, but I cannot deny the role she played in my life as a ten-year-old. Passionate and … [Read more...]
Goodbye Gurukul
I had decided what I would write about today, but was moved to tears more than once by everything students and colleagues from Vishwashanti Gurukul said to me, wrote to me and gave me.One student said, "I used to hate Shakespeare, but you made me fall in love with Macbeth."Another confessed, "I have never taken English seriously but thanks to you, English is one of the most interesting subjects."Yet another wrote, "You have changed my view towards English as a language."And finally, the cake they ordered with the most charming message ever: … [Read more...]
Happy Birthday, Shakespeare!
An achievement I sometimes hide is that I won two medals for having topped a course on Shakespeare. I hide it because despite the medals, I can't quite say that I know much about Shakespeare. It was a course where we studied about Shakespeare without studying texts. The thing about Shakespeare is that he's such a grand and mysterious character that there are so many things we are unsure about. With his multiple signatures and the fact that he even changed his name to Shakeshaft once, we really don't know much about him. Maybe that's why I topped the course. Because writing about him uses imagination and knowledge in equal proportions.I received a letter from my university inviting me for the convocation. None of my friends received a letter. I thought that was normal, considering I was the only one who had to make my way from across the country.I went there, collected my orange robe … [Read more...]