I am currently reading MM Kaye’s The Far Pavilions. Because it is close to 1,000 pages long, and because my reading time these days is relegated to the late evenings, when I’m so sleepy that sitting down to read inevitably leads to drooping eyes and a slipping book, “currently” has been going on for a [...]
Archive for the ‘Moments’ Category
The book as object and time capsule
Posted in Books, Moments, Observations, tagged books, memories, The Far Pavilions on February 3, 2012 | 6 Comments »
Dance oasis
Posted in Dance/Arts, Moments, tagged ankle bells, Chhandika, dance class, dancing pregnant, Gretchen Hayden, kathak, Varsha Yeshwant on January 26, 2012 | Leave a Comment »
A couple of years ago, a photojournalism graduate student from Boston University named Varsha Yeshwant approached Chhandika, the dance group with which I am closely affiliated, asking for permission to create a multi-media project around our dance. Specifically, she said: “I want this to serve as a small window into the world of Kathak and [...]
Storms past and present
Posted in Moments, Writing, tagged Calcutta, memories, storm, writing on June 1, 2011 | Leave a Comment »
A powerful storm ripped through Massachusetts tonight, bringing raging winds and ceaseless, sky-illuminating lightning as well as a short but torrential downpour. Watching it from the window of my home, I was vividly reminded of the sights, smells and sensations of summer monsoon storms in Calcutta and Bombay during my childhood. The cawing of the [...]
Charlotte
Posted in Moments, Observations, Writing on September 29, 2009 | 2 Comments »
A couple of weeks ago, I attended the inauguration of a garden at the Acton Memorial Library (in Massachusetts) in memory of my grandmother, Charlotte Sagoff. Two years ago, at her memorial, I read a piece I wrote on the theme of a garden; how lovely that my very last sentence should have come to [...]
Loss of control
Posted in Moments on August 27, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
My first thought was that he must be very hot. Black jeans, black denim jacket, black baseball cap. And sitting in a black wheelchair, in full sun. The whiteness of his big sneakers and of the T-shirt visible through the open front of his jacket was dazzling. There was no one with him. Despite the [...]
