Chilligavva

After noticing that her hoarse, high-octave vocals didn’t have an effect on me, she upped the ante: she started screaming another song, this time at a higher scale. I wanted to take a rock and smash her mouth but all I did was shift on my feet and flash this really stupid smile.

After reading Suman’s article “Circus Monkeys“, I had to laugh. It even got me thinking about my childhood. My teen years were fraught with dread of meeting those two. Those two were the sons of our family friend. The uncle I liked, as he was extremely witty and fun. His sons were difficult. One was extremely introverted. The other was into Capitals. And my mom stirred the situation by telling them “Our Lakshmi likes to read a lot. She is good at quizzing.” My fate was sealed. Every time I crossed their threshold, I was in for it. We had to interact with those two, as the elders spoke in the living room. And then the nightmare would begin for me. “Akka what is the capital of Khazakstan?” “Do you know which country’s capital is Warsaw?” etc. etc.

Cut. To the USA.

Scene: Get together cum Pot Luck Party [God how I hate pot luck parties! More on this later.]

“Ma ammayi dance nu music nerchukuntondi andi. Shobha Naidu gaari disciple. Chaala baaga nerputaarandi. Emane. ”

[Translation: My daughter is learning dance and music. She is Shobha Naidu’s disciple. She teaches very well. This is her.]

An introduction followed by an invite to a dance program at the temple or auditorium. At the program, two dance pieces later, I was so out of there. Irrespective of where you learn dance, and what style of dance you follow, there are certain basics to dancing such as holding your hands aligned, grace, precision that need to be there. And when its sadly lacking, it is a mockery of the art form. “Pippi gantulu” is the summary. [Translation: Crazy Jumping.]

My take is that we have a whole new breed of dads and mums who think its Uber cool learning the arts, with no reality check and unlimited funds. Add to this the technological leaps. We now have proud parents taking digital movies, burning DVDs, and mailing them to even prouder grandparents. Hail technology. But hey, wheres the talent?

Art is not science. Either you have it or not. Period.

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