Finally, here are a few photographs of the baby that everyone loved so much. It's a doll, yes, a doll, made by my French mother. It's not a real baby, no. We dressed it (her) as Baby Krishna for our performance in December - here are a few pictures! … [Read more...]
Vierge Noire
The Vierge Noire - the Black Virgin - how little I know of her, but how enthralling it is!When I visited Chambéry for the first time in 2004, I am sure we visited the chapel with the Vierge Noire, a black statue of the Virgin Mary, but then, I did not quite understand its import. I had no idea about the significance of a black Vierge (Virgin/Madonna), nor about the complexity involved in keeping the statue of the Vierge Noire underground, with a golden Virgin dominating the chapel and even a wooden statue of Jesus and Mary above the Vierge Noire.Yet, legend says that it was the Vierge Noire who protected the people of the region.Visiting the same chapel again eight years later, I was more sensitive to the ideas that govern a black depiction of Mary. More importantly, I was with someone who drew these ideas to my attention. There are Vierges Noires all over France and they are … [Read more...]
A Conversation in Paris
A few years ago, I was alone at Paris airport. Shortly after I landed, I went to use the washroom. Sitting on a wheelchair was an old, old lady with wrinkles all over her face.As I stood there, managing my hand-luggage, coat and all the other hundreds of miscellaneous things I was carrying, she dropped her face in her hands. I looked at her uncomfortably. I did not know if I spoke a language she knew. I did not know whether she was crying. I did not know whether I was expected to do anything, whether it would be intrusive.Thankfully, another old lady emerged from a washroom cubicle just then and came quickly to the lady in the wheelchair."What happened?" she asked, a little worried. "What is the matter?"The lady in the wheelchair looked up. I remember the tears glistening in her eyes, but I could not help eavesdropping on the conversation. "I can't believe it," she said.The … [Read more...]
Seatbelt
During an exchange programme with a school in France, I noticed something I had never noticed before - rickshaws do not have doors!The first time I went in a rickshaw with my French correspondent, my eyes widened. How comfortable would she feel? Would she be afraid of a vehicle like this without doors? I glanced sideways at her.But like a true exchange student, she had come with an open mind. I saw her steel herself and deliberately remain silent with respect to this doorless wonder.I breathed a sigh of relief.Inside the rickshaw, she looked around, confused."What happened?" I asked.She looked at me in horror. "There are no seatbelts?" … [Read more...]
Performing in Renage
A very dear friend of my sister's organised a performance for us at a chapel in Renage. That was when we learned what effective publicity is.Michèle, who, I should mention, is in her seventies, did absolutely everything to make people come for our performance. She, helped by two friends, went (literally) from pillar to post putting up posters. She made signs to direct people to the chapel, and went and put them up on lamp-posts. When we drove towards the chapel, we saw our own faces everywhere. Every wall, every lamp-post, every pillar had a poster of our performance thanks to this formidable lady. She sat and folded the programmes for the performance - easily a hundred or more - insisting that she had nothing else to do, while we, the dancers, ought to rest. She went individually to each neighbour and convinced all her friends that they would not get the opportunity to watch a … [Read more...]
Impure Veg
'Pure veg' is such a uniquely Indian concept. I used to mock it. My grandparents are pure veg. (Somehow that sounds odd. A pure veg restaurant is different from pure veg food, which is different from pure veg people. My grandparents are people, not food or restaurants. Just making things clear.) When they went to Greece, the vegetarian sandwiches had tuna butter, so both of them ate only peaches and oranges in their time there. They explained that they were "pure veg, you see". For me 'vegetarian' used to cover that idea.But then, I realised that I'm probably impure veg. I love vegetarian food. I prefer to eat vegetarian food to crocodile kebabs (which my father has eaten) and insect soup (which my uncle has had). I also prefer it to good old chicken. I choose to be vegetarian, does that not make me vegetarian? But then, I'm not pure veg! If it's inconvenient or socially inappropriate … [Read more...]
Easter in France
The good thing about being a foreigner in a French family is that they do everything to give you the true French experience.My family could not control the weather - it was cold and there was hail that spring - but they did make Easter special!Traditionally, children are sent out into the garden with baskets to hunt for Easter eggs hidden for them.Even though I was 24 (and not quite a child), my family wanted it to happen. But it was too cold. The garden was wet and not very clean. So they did the modern commercial version of the event for me. They bought chocolate bunnies and hens, and packets of Easter eggs that we could find quickly without getting too wet and too cold. As soon as I woke up and went downstairs on Easter Sunday, they told me what I was supposed to do. Shivering with cold and excitement, I went out and happily collected my eggs and bunny. They had even marked my … [Read more...]
Travel Records
My sister and I looked around.Things seemed perfect.It was a beautiful morning. It was not raining. Shops were just opening; restaurant-workers were setting their chairs and umbrellas.In the middle of a square, we looked around for the perfect spot.We sat on our haunches and put our arms around each other. People on their way to work threw puzzled looks at us. We giggled.We weren't looking at our backpacks, so we threw an arm around them, just in case. Passers-by frowned. Some even stopped to look. We laughed out loud.We were in a public place, sitting awkwardly and uncomfortably in the middle of nowhere, hugging our bags and laughing delightedly. We were foreigners - very obviously so. I think some people were even getting bold enough to come and talk to us. We continued to laugh, holding each other tighter.The self-timed camera carefully positioned on a chair in front of us … [Read more...]
The Dahu
Do you know the dahu? What a fascinating creature it is! A friend in Grenoble told me the story.The dahu looks like a deer, you know. A deer with a difference. It has two short legs and two long legs and lives in the mountains of France and Switzerland. The most intriguing thing about the dahu is that there's no system that defines which legs are short and which long. If its two right legs are short, it can go up a mountain only clockwise, not anticlockwise. You can imagine why. But the poor baby dahu that has alternate legs short won't survive. How will it? How can it run from danger?Rarely spotted and therefore much coveted, hunting the dahu was considered great sport in the 19th century. Capturing one of those rare beasts was a source of pride indeed! Dahu hunts are still conducted as outdoor activities, but on April 1, 1967, the Prefect of Haute-Savoie (France) … [Read more...]
Experiences on Stage IV
Every time my sister Nisha and I performed in France, we had far less time to practise than usual. The last two performances were easier - we practised long distance on Skype before meeting and practising. Before that, it was individual, separate efforts, followed by coordination once I reached France.I remember the time we performed at Aix-en-Provence. We practised, of course we did. But there's some amount of choreography that changes every time we perform. Even when we perform the same piece with another dancer, we do not perform it in exactly the same way. We keep the other performer in mind, if nothing else.For this particular performance, as a duet, there were several things that we did in a kind of mirror-formation. I did the right side, while she did the left. I never practised the left side; she never practised right.And then, somehow, we got disoriented on stage.We … [Read more...]