Bharathanatyam

I've just come back from a Bharathanatyam performance . Nothing remarkable really about that - except that it was by two youngish girls who are married and mothers to school going children and belong to an extremely conservative community. As people said, kudos to their families to let them learn after marriage and travel to Coonoor for 4 years to do that.

I hadnt taken my camera or I could have posted a pic of these two pretty young girls; which is half the battle it seems in Bharanatyam. The looks, the jewellery, the technical perfection, the strong voice of the singer , the smiles on their faces (even if they are called rictus grins it is nice to look at a smiling face) all made it a wonderful performance. Their guru being from Kalakshetra the dance was so good to watch - not the filmy kind at all.

I then realized it has been years since Ive seen a live performance - it seems such a treat so why doesn't it happen more often? One is Ooty is rather a cultural desert - and the second, i dont make an effort to go in other towns .

This evening just happened. My friend called about this performance. I didnt know the family at all but what the heck, all performers need as big an audience as they can get. And after two weeks of being mostly housebound I needed a break. And it was wonderful meeting friends and enjoying what Ms.Geetha Srinvisan termed 'a technically excellent performance'. She was moved to talk about her 'athai 'Rukmini Arundale too. And her regrets over not being allowed to learn this 'devdasi' art form long ago.

I had to feel a bit regretful because I was 'forced' to learn for many many years and never enjoyed it at all. While my elder sister looked forward to the classes, I would go hide when the master appeared and had to be dragged out. Naturally no results.

But I did think happily that a few effects had lingered on when last week a used-car salesman asked me 'Madam are you a Bharathanatyam dancer?" Pleased, I had to say blushingly 'No, no what makes you say so'. Darshini cut short my beams by saying 'Ma, can't you make out he is trying to sell you a lemon'?

Well, I guess we need both - the salesmen to make us temporarily happy and kids to bring us down to earth.

And lovely Bharathanatyam dancers for the occasional high.

Stray stuff

- with the blast of patriotism on TV on Aug15th and statements like 'you can take an Indian out of India, but you can't take India out of an Indian';
it made me wonder how NRI s feel on such days.Do they feel connected or nostalgic or just have gone past all this?

- Women have to keep listening - to their parents, then their husbands, and then their sons (Im not too sure about daughters ) about how their lives should be run.
Sharadha and I were discussing this - but how true is this truism?
Asking around, it seems to make a difference if the woman is working.
Money is power?

Learning Time

This is Kantharaj, a soldier whom I was tutoring in English for a month.Kantharaj is studying to pass some exams hoping to make it to officer grade or to quit the army after a few years and take up a civilian job.He wants to be ready then with the right credentials.

I learnt quite a bit from him about Nagaland, the North East, Kashmir and Siachen where he hopes to be posted next. So far, I haven't interacted personally with any soldier and this has been very interesting.
He didn't seem to have any qualms about killing which was the first thing that came to my mind. Working conditions, the people he interacted with, the places he visited and getting ahead were what were on his mind.

But what really struck me was his acceptance of everything- people and their customs and their habits and their outlook. While he was talking about people in the North east eating practically everything that moved including cats and dogs- I did feel a bit queasy. But he took it in his stride and said the army trains them to survive in the forest on almost anything.

Kantharaj did teach me to be a bit more open and less judgmental.

Brenda does me proud

Last post has inspired Brenda and doesn't that make me grin like a Cheshire cat.
Brenda, you pick the right thing all right.

Just a little comment on your Show. I wish I'd been there to see it.

SAME DIFFERENCE

Children standing in a row,
Putting on a little show,
Looking solemn and severe
Showing just a bit of fear.
All determined to succeed,
Showing they can all take heed,
Show in ways both dress and facial
Differences that are racial.
You show children standing there
In their saris with dark hair.
And I see that they are Asian,
Not from my Australian nation.

But, as soon as children giggle,
Give a good excited wiggle,
They could come from anywhere,
Any country, they don't care.
As soon as children 'fall about'
They're just KIDS there is no doubt.

Star Struck

Only a mad woman would decide to put on a skit involving 20 excitable kids a week before the date in a language they are not too familiar with. Of course that mad woman is me.
But to my credit, I very quickly decided against a story from the freedom struggle. Since both the players and the audience don't understand English, it would be wasting everyone's time. But it had to be in English since I was conducting English classes for them.

So it became a medley of little vignettes- all connected together by a TV watching , channel surfing family. The news - both local and national; a dance show; a singing choir(tough- this one); sports and a comedy show.

A couple of friends whom I was consulting thought the ideas were sizzling.
The News show had little asides - like a leapord being caught and a new violet rose..
The dancers were to wear blue jeans and white shirts and rock to Venga boys and Stayin' alive. The choir had Do-re-me ( the only song both I and they could manage) word perfect. The sports channel was great- with a terrifically non-stop incomprehensible cricket commentary. The Olympic games had a few boys doing kuttikaranams (for acrobatics) ; tennis, 100m run and boxing. All backed by a angelic faced commentator whom I longed to whack .

Well, today..
The news readers forgot to bring their scripts and extempored a bit.. but the asides did their bits very well not bothering about the news being read.
The dancers had dressed in bright sarees for another dance and were to change but in the incomprehensible way of programs this one came first so they did their break dance in all their finery.
The choir got all the lines mixed up but of course no one really knew.
The sports and comedy show got a lot of cheering ..

So altogether, a fun show. and..all the kids came up to ask ..how did I do?

If one reaches for the stars; then one does fall far short but its still worthwhile.
The Choir!!

The News- with the leapord crawling in at the wrong moment

The GAMES

Dancers

Some of the actors..


In their natural state..

Thavamai thavam irunthu

This is a good movie but one that you keep putting off because its so sad.

The first half shows the fiscal troubles that beset a poor, upright man trying to do the best for his family.He works night and day; his wife and he take very little for themselves and their only pleasure is in giving it to their two sons. What sets this father slightly above the rest is that he is willing to go to any length to do the best for his sons. And keeps thinking ahead of what is best for them. The scene where he cycles in the burning heat to the next town with the two boys to give them a better education all the while instructing them in tidbits of knowledge gets etched in memory mostly due to Raj Kiran's wonderful deep voice.

The boys of course don't realise the extent of their parent's sacrifices for them and take them for granted. So hurt and tribulation pile up on the old couple.

Cheran is driving home a message here.How wonderful it is for children to live with their grandparents and bask in their loving care. And what a loving son can be.
My only grouse is he's neglected to etch out the character of his wife. Although she is professionally educated and has a job; she hardly matters except as 'wife' and 'daughter-in-law'.

Recently my sister was sighing because she couldn't be in two places at the same time and saying maybe she needs a driver/helpful man to do some of her jobs. And I thought that before we had grandfathers, brothers and cousins around the house who could be deputed to do these jobs. Now, with nuclear families we have to pay and find someone to do them.

We had Thatha, a gentle, kind man who could be depended on to escort us to libraries or shops and buy us the pencil/geometry box secretly to replace the one we'd lost. And chocolates too. And be ready at a moment's notice to read us the comic strips and tell us long stories.
Grandma took us to movies , temples , shopping and wherever one needed a backup to fight a battle.
Mama s were around to tell jokes and cheer us up when we were in the sloughs after a fight or after being thoroughly scolded.
Athais cooked whatever we desired at that moment cheerfully and happily.

My mom never stepped into a shop or paid a bill all her life. She had all these people around to do her bidding. Of course she looked after them in return.

It does seem a good life in those days filled with the comfort of people.
But are we willing to go back? I don't think so.

Does everything become male or female?

This sounds like a query on a language lesson-French or Hindi where everything has a gender.
But its just a thought that rises after reading GVK's post 'Is blogger male or female?
We have glass ceilings at work- do we have to discover them in the anonymous world of blogs? I dont think we should be so competitive in every sphere.

Bloggin is fun and cathartic and lets you blow off a little steam and a little on your trumpet. Lets keep it that way.