Tanzerin

Remember when we were in school and the morning of an exam we fantasised that some extra terrestrial monster would descend and exams would be cancelled? Nothing of the sort happened. We wrote our exam, went home and studied for the next and again wished for ET the next morning. And at the end of a bad exam we wondered why our wishes were never granted- boring lives we had no?! We went to school, played in the grounds, came home to eat our snack, did homework, watched "little wonder" on TV, fussed over the boring dinner and went to sleep. On days that my parents had to be out late or were travelling, they'd inform a neighbour to keep an eye on the house. We ate out of a stocked fridge, watched TV and walked the dog before going to bed. Such boring lives no?! The neighbour's car got robbed of the stereo at 2 in the night- my dog went to chase the robbers, but they had taken off. Now THAT made for a good showoff session at school the next morning, "You won'

I grew up in a safe Bangalore. At least I didn't have to be taught at 3 what "Good touch" and "Bad touch" was. But I'm not sure I can say that about my daughter's life. With the next door school brushing aside rape allegations, I am agitated and enraged and like several other parents have embarked on a education spree. Several tips have cropped up over the past few days on how to teach your child to be safe. But at two and a half, I may be prematurely killing her innocence, not to mention how confusing I may seem to her. "Why are you screaming? If you scream that Bhoot is going to jump into your room." and I follow it up later in the day with "If someone touches you, scream with all your might and run to your teacher." "You must respect the aunties in school. Say thank you - they help you in the class, take you to the swing..." "If aunty takes you out of the class, shout out to Ma'am that she's taking you.

In recent times I have realised that several people feel obliged to apologise; apologise for being Hindu, apologise for a ‘Hindu’ party winning the elections, updating status messages on facebook or tweeting that while they may be called Hindu, they should not be mistaken to be fundamentalists. ‘I am not a religious Hindu. I am secular!’ I was raised in a Tamil Brahmin household. I remember spending my afternoons hearing tales from the Siva Puranam, the Ramayana and the Mahabharatha from my grandmother. I remember learning to draw a 18-pulli Kolam , making strings of mango leaves for festivals, learning Carnatic music and bharathanatyam, making a compulsory visit to the puja room after a bath every morning. As a young child, the stories of Parvati or Rama were fascinating, festivals were a lot of fun, rituals were intriguing and practices were just that- a way of living. In my growing up years I asked a lot of questions- why do we do this? How will it matter if I don’t do thi

It's School Time. It started with... "Hah! My granddaughter is so smart- she should go straight to Kindergarten- why are you putting her in Playgroup and Nursery and God-knows-what-else!" Ya Sure Mom, May be I'll just ask the school if she can directly go to say Std 1? And then came activist friends "What are your views about home schooling- Children will remain un-corrupted by the System." Sure- Home schooling is fine with me- If it's YOUR home she can school in. And then that  Aunty "So are you going to send her on the school bus-It'll be convenient. But did you hear about that recent incident in XYZ Nagar about that ....God....I don't know what kind of animals become school bus drivers. Nowadays you can't trust anyone. I heard from someone else that some...." OK No school bus then! And Daddy J "My poor baby is going to school- how can she stay for 3 hours? It's not fair to such a small baby. She'll cry no

Election fever ain't over yet 'cos all you hear on the news is allegations of corruption, communal tension, money laundering, bla bla...So much for "Hear no Evil. Speak No evil. See No Evil." in which ever order you like. Since the only TV I get to watch now is the news other than Chotta Bheem, I realised I should be showing my child more positive things. I'd rather not introduce these horrible ideas of theft, corruption etc to the young mind. Right?? Wrong. To my utter dismay, I realised I already had! Yep. You have to believe me. All parents are guilty.  OK let's take it one by one. 1. Well, Dear mothers, when was the last time you said, "Drink your milk, I'll take you to the park." OR "If you have a quick shower, I'll give you a star." OR when you are at your highest point of desperation "Please let me work for 10 minutes, I'll buy you KinderJOy." When was the last time the traffic cop asked for 200 bucks ins

We almost didn't go. But thankfully Passport Seva Kendra asked for a little too many things to get our complicated passport issue resolved. So there we were, Chennai bound; to go on to Paradise. Kala Paani, Sirai Chaalai, History text books- I vaguely remembered the gory history of Cellular Jail. It was far worse in real. The Hanging, the pits to collect dead bodies, the sadistic punishments... If you pooped more than a tiny earthen pot could take, you'd have to make more oil than you did everyday (which was an unreasonable 15 kilos). If you wanted more than 2 glasses of water (yes- the daily quota of water), go lick the Jamaadar's shoes dry. If you thought that all this made the freedom fighters stronger in will- get an Indian to torture another Indian, feed him food in an iron bowl- the rust will kill him anyway. We live in a time when many friends, even relatives are of different nationalities- British, Japanese, etc etc. After all these years, it seems ridiculous t

Someone once asked me if I liked travelling... And after a lot of deliberation I said.."Well, I like being at all kinds of different places but if I have to take a 36 hour train or a sweaty 8 hour bus drive, I'm not sure I'd like that bit." I'm sure the person thought he was having the most inane conversation with the most spoilt brat around! Being a dancer predisposes you to all kinds of travel- luxurious ones, budget ones, in-between-luxury and budget-ones. You also get to live like that- budget hotels, luxury hotels, 1 star to 5 star (OK very rarely 5 star unless I book myself into one!). I once lived in a 'guest house' in Raipur where there was no running water in the bathroom, food was served in sticky plates and the table was cleaned with a cloth that could send a rat running to the ENT. A week back, re-visiting the holy temples of Shiva in the Tanjore belt, I realised how things had changed, yet some things don't ever change do they! The la