Places can be special for many reasons – memories of an important event, historical or cultural significance, or their unique qualities. Jantar Mantar is one of those places that represents all three of these for me. When I first arrived in India, I wandered around New Delhi by myself, trying to figure out the country…
It’s not often that I’m able to attend Indian cultural events locally, but I was fortunate to see a performance of Naga-Mandala, a production created by a famous modern playwright. The plot, by Girish Karnad (1938-2019), was based on Indian folktales that featured an unhappy wife, a taciturn husband, and a magical cobra, or naga,…
I recently attended a master class in Odissi Indian classical dance taught by Bijayini Satpathy. That’s her, in the photo above, kneeling in front of several of the other students in the class. My novel, India Interlude, contains a scene in which one of the Americans, Diane, attends a performance with her Indian friend, Josh,…
No, this isn’t about adolescents. Teen Darwaza is an important historical and cultural site in the city of Ahmedabad, India, the location where much of India Interlude takes place. In this case, “teen” means three in Hindi and Urdu, two languages spoken in India. “Darwaza” means gate or door. Thus, Teen Darwaza means three gates,…