My fascination with the Arts

One of my favourite memories growing up was listening to my parents share stories about growing up in India and Trinidad. There was something so fulfilling to learn about our history and ancestry and it definitely shaped who I am. My Mom shared stores of her fearlessness, climbing mango trees to the very top and roaming around in the countryside- they were inspiring.

However, one of the stories I was fascinated with growing up, was from my Dad. He was born in Calcutta and was a young boy during Partition in India. Calcutta was one of the cities which experienced a lot of strife and division and the State of Bengal was divided with half remaining in India and the other half, to form East Pakistan, later known as Bangladesh. My grandfather owned one of the first Bata shoe companies in India, and had gone to the Czech Republic, for training, before opening the store. However, as a result of Partition, the store was burned down. There was no insurance and the family was struggling as a result.

The folklore is that my Dad was on the verandah singing, when a movie director was walking by and heard him. He was looking to cast a young boy in a movie and my Dad was chosen. It was the answer to the family’s financial problems. My Dad was pulled out of school and made this film. The money was used to rebuild the family business. My Dad’s love of movies, was born and then passed down to me. However, my Dad did not get to enjoy the earnings, and he was asked to leave the school he was attending at the time, because he missed so much school to do the movie. The experience really fostered in my Dad a reliance on self education and constant learning, but I digress.

My Dad’s cousin brother, lived in the family compound. He went onto become a huge Bollywood star and growing up, we used to watch him in both Hindi and Bengali movies. Hindi movies were iconic for us, growing up and to know that we had a relative who was a movie star was “mind blasting”. We learned one of his songs, which we would perform and became one of my favourites – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kru9g_K5IPo

And from there and this legacy, my fascination for movies and the Arts was born. As previously described, I love movies. I love the process of making movies and learning about the origins of the movies, the production process, the direction of the movie by the Director and the actors. I love to hear the stories about the process about making the movie – the trials and tribulations and then I devour the promotion of the movie, the opening etc.. I love music and I don’t think a single day has gone by without music in my life. I love singing and enjoying great performances – it is soul fuelling.

It is curious because I was bit by the performing bug early on. My Dad would have me performing at cultural shows from the time that I was 4 before an audience of 200 plus people. My dance performances left much to be desired, by my singing and acting performances, really allowed my inner creativity to shine! I participated in school musicals and plays and was very active with our school’s music program- both singing and instrument wise. My Music teacher actually made an application for me to a New York Performing Arts school and I was accepted. But I knew that as much as my Dad loved this world, my parents would not support me pursuing this as a vocation. I had to be sensible and choose an occupation which would give me a steadier path and so I chose the career I have now, with no regrets.

But my choice in vocation did not temper my fascination for the Arts. I find the Arts and the creative process so fascinating. I find for me, music, movies and the history to be meditative, because I can immerse myself in it so fully, that my mind actually shuts down and enjoys the beauty. It is my escape. I have tried to learn to knit, sew or garden as beautifully as my Mom did, but it must have skipped a generation. It definitely did because my Son is right now focused on growing his Cherry Tomato plant. But I am so lucky that I have my passion for music and movies. It really allows me to keep my creativity going and given the chaos in the world, isn’t it nice to have an escape?

But that’s just one Diva’s view.