She held my hand and taught me how to walk. Today, I hold hers and take her around the world. Amma was like any other middle class orthodox homemaker in Kerala. Her life revolved around her 3 kids, husband, kitchen and home. I had taken it for granted that this was her world and she…
When I was barely a year old, my parents discovered that I wasn’t responding to their screams while standing in front of the Television. A test revealed hearing loss. At the age of one, when no child goes to school, I was enrolled in Bala Vidyalaya School, a school for the deaf. After four years…
2004. I was 17 when I saw a new girl walk past my classroom. I couldn’t stop staring. I had never seen anyone like her. Over time, we became friends but my heart sulked every time I saw her with someone else.
I have played far more male roles and my friends tease me to be more feminine. I am an Yakshagana artist and teacher. I grew up on Yakshagana. As a child, we were always either supporting artistes or helping with logistics before a performance. There would be the children of other performers and we would…
Growing up in gubbi village, my childhood was a struggle. At the age of five, I started helping my mother in household chores and later juggled as a coolie, quarry labourer and a farmer.
When I was in class 5, I read a book “My Early Life” by Mahatma Gandhi and I was fascinated by it. I did not understand it then but much later understood its significance. ‘Harijaan,’ a weekly tabloid run by Mahatma Gandhiji carried news and his views which evoked the sense of freedom.
I was 19, when I got married to Captain Shafeeq Ghori in 1991. It was difficult in thebeginning to accept the fact that he was constantly on the move and had to leave mealone for long periods, but he sat me down and explained what it was like to be an armywife. There were no…
