by Nirmala Nataraj | Feb 1, 2015 | Cover Story, Features
The notion that desire contradicts ethics either makes people wilt in terror or it transforms them into greedy little children slavering over all the delights at the candy counter. The truth couldn’t be more different. Desire has the power to be our strongest moral...
by Nirmala Nataraj | May 3, 2014 | Features
My life, like those of most people I know, has been dappled with chance encounters, unpredictable twists and turns, and the kind of non-linear narrative that reads like a stream-of-consciousness novel rather than a tidy memoir with a decisive beginning, middle, and...
by Nirmala Nataraj | Sep 15, 2009 | Entertainment, Fiction
It’s been two years. There is a clean incision that cuts you off from that time, as if the person you were prior to the visit finally reached his expiration date; spoiled a little. Sometimes you forget things; on other occasions, all of it surges back—violent and...
by Nirmala Nataraj | Aug 17, 2009 | Entertainment, People, Profiles
The dancer is surprising her audience. Shoes sprouting all over her simple black outfit, she is a whimsical, straight talking, high-heel wearing, fashionista spider, looking for unsuspecting victims. The piece is “Carrie’s Web,” and her audience is delighted and...
by Nirmala Nataraj | Apr 2, 2009 | Entertainment, People, Performing Arts, Profiles
Indian classical dance has largely been restricted to the sphere of “cultural” events and localized ethnic pride. There’s no real vocabulary in our national lexicon for dance forms like kathak or bharatanatyam, so they are generally relegated to the generic category...
