Who am I ? Why am I doing this?

My name is Medhawini Anand. This blog  will be the second venture that I will embark upon under this name. The first being a book of poems that i published here.

My parents chose the above name for me and then completely forgot about it while filling official forms. A different name stuck. 

Under that name I am a graduate in chemistry,hold a postgraduate degree in mass communication , a conservatory type three year course with a specialization in acting from the National School of Drama, a fellowship from a Buddhist guild of monks (who cannot be named) to learn woodcarving and another eighteen month fellowship from the Universtity of Maryland for Scenic design.

I construct works in three languages English, Hindi and Marathi, I think i write well enough, in each of them to bring down the house in tears, or evoke a standing ovation. My poetry in Marathi has been read and performed on the radio, and my plays ,independent new works ;or collaborations have been internationally put up from Palo Alto in the West Coast of USA, and Off Broadway New York, the kennedy center, washington dc, to Singapore, and various places in India

I also am a visiting faculty at the National School of Drama where I teach budding theater designers the principles of Indian Aesthetics.

I write, direct, read, paint ,photograph, teach, cook ,raise kids, work on shows for my own company and for others, and rinse and repeat.

The work I am about to present is not my cup of tea by the usual boundaries that the above qualifications would predict. Yet it has held me in thrall for a good part of six or seven years. 

Firstly for various personal reasons I do feel a longing to reclaim and own a name that was originally meant for me.Secondly there is a need being felt to  compartmentalise work that pays the bills and work that is meant as service or made with a sense of giving back.

There is no other way to explain my involvement in this work than to frankly state that “the work chose me”Or in a more dramatic fashion so to say “Once I saw what it could be I could not unsee”

This  is thus dedicated to my professor of Indian aesthetics, Nibha Joshi.I still quake each time the school calls me to fill her shoes and her absence of insight is still strongly felt.The singular most important thing she managed to infuse in me is a sense of the Adbhut /the wondrous, while appreciating and trying to extract from works of art may it be from the Indus of from Byzantium. Its the same sense that I have strived to create in my classes while introducing the themes and discussing beauty.

I would not want to get into whether it is a reflection of the times that we live in or the confusing state that art education is in, but the last few series of my lectures, that sense waned, and was replaced with the accusatory political, that was both uninformed and out of date.

This is an attempt firstly for myself to re-invent the wondrous(EVEN) in the current circumstances, and hopefully for others who read through it. 

Gratitude for stopping by.