Simultaneously there were other things happening at home. Vidya and her friends decided to take to art and start learning Tanjore painting. Vidya took classes when she went home to Chennai and when back in Cairo started on group projects, one of the hall mark creations being Goddess Durga a mix of styles but done in Tanjore style.
British schooling emphasised on few things Language, History, Maths and arts. Regular events, festivals needing participation from each child, sent kids and mothers on a creative spin – Easter, Halloween, Sham-el-naseem, Christmas, annual day, international day…they kept coming.
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| Asterix Pranav |
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| Easter bonnets |
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| Easter bonnets |
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| Pranav in Boudicas revolt |
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| Thejas as Good Shepherd |
The urge to preserve of inculcate our culture ran deep with
the moms, as is natural, and Vidya started bal vikas classes for the little
ones. It was fun how the kids took to it – the interested & not so
interested, the serious & naughty ones. It was a small group of at peak I
think about 12 kids, but it was great for the mothers and kids. The magnum opus
of this group was a Dussera dance-drama choreographed to Pal-Pal-hai-Bhaari
from Swades. From costumes to Raavana’s head gear and monkey’s tails it was
creative task creating them and what a wonderful show the kids put up.
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| Misr in effect finishes |
Not to be left behind I had my own little shots at creating
stuff – two paintings which went to office and continue to remain there. One
inspired by the pyramids & ganesha, the other a wave that somewhat charted
the graph the company was taking as a freewheeling wave of colours. And then
came a whole lot of decorative finishes from the laboratory at work and as
attempt to use them for art rendered the map of Egypt an interpretation that
turned out to be divine…
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| Pyramid art |
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| Scib's journey @ 25 |
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| 2004 Grand Chaturti |
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| Balvikas kids @ chaturti |
One of the biggest gathering we had at home was Ganesh
Chaturti in 2004. We had a person in the Indian community (I am forgetting the
name, he was from mangalore) who said he will make the ganesha and what a
masterpiece it was. In our family we always had a tradition of having a
handmade clay ganesha which we would buy or manage to make, but this one was
very special. And also special was the falooka ride in Nile to do the visarjan…
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| Dus Bahane by Pranav & Thejas |
Pranav and Thejas grew up planning on their own creative
performance of songs and dances mostly Bollywood with Pranav advising choice of
song and choreographing the dances. Thejas would perform them adding his own
funny twists and naughty acts. How and when they planned and practised these
was a surprise to me and often to Vidya too.
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| Alto and Palto in their pokemon (Ash) scooter @ the Suez canal |
For me the most interesting and challenging creative task
used to be back home post dinner. Pranav liked books being read to him and by
now had started doing more himself, but Thejas has to be told stories – not
from books but imaginary and he would add situations and twists to be captured
and built upon. We would have gone through a few hundreds of these bedtime
wildly imagined stories. Unfortunately, none of this recorded or captured
anywhere and don’t know if once can recreate them. It was the age of dragons
and dinosaurs and the most popular characters were Greedy & Goldie
(Dragons) and Altosaurus & Paltosaurus (pseudo dinosaurs). Greedy was the green bad dragon and the chief
trouble maker who took help from various monsters from Yeti to Kalinga to
Lockness monster etc. Goldie was the good dragon who could be called upon.
Altosaurus and Paltosaurus were Pranav and Thejas with dinosauric powers on
their favourite ride vehicle – a pokemon scooter or skateboard. The one in
danger and being attacked often by Greedy is Dear mom Vidya (I am busy at work)
and so Alto and Palto have to swing to action to save her from Greedy and her
monster friends taking the help at time of Goldie. It was exciting, action
packed and exhausting by the time it was over.
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| Thejas- Self portrait |
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| Archer by Thejas |
Vidya has expanded her art to Kerala murals, Tholulu
Bommulu, Tanjore, Chitrakatha, Madhubani … and keep herself busy.
Thejas has taken to animation itself as his area
of study..,
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