You can take the girl out of…
It may have taken me 25 years to come home to the arts, but that’s where I’m going to stay. Because you can take the girl out of art, but you can’t take art out of the girl.
Watching this reel Bucklesweet did with me in 2023 was a fun walk down memory lane!
In the beginning
For Indian students in an ICSE school like I went to (this is one of the major national secondary school certificates), you get a broad and rigorous education in both the humanities and the sciences.
Once you’re in the 9th grade, you level up. Because this is where you start to “streamline.”
While most subjects (history, geography, etc.) are still mandatory, you now get to choose an “elective,” such as art, computer science, economics, etc. The idea is that you start to explore your interests/aptitude, so that as you graduate high school and start college, you’ve gotten a lot of the basics covered, thereby (hopefully) setting you up for academic and career success.
At the time, two of the electives my school offered were art and economics. I loved language, history, and everything to do with the arts, and was thrilled with my first art class where our teacher, Mr. Mishra aka “Billy Goat” (thus christened because of his goatee), started us off on drawing still life.
“You chose art?”
As we were doing the typical lunchtime roundtable of “here’s what happened today,” my dad (his office was close enough that he could come home for lunch), stopped my excited recounting of how to draw an apple in its tracks.
“You chose art?” he said, in a tone that managed to convey befuddlement, disapproval, and disappointment all at once. “Why did you do that? What will you do with art?”
My heart sank, and I knew that, whether I liked it or not, I would be changing my elective to economics (we had a week or two if we wanted to switch). Because in my home, much like in many Indian homes, you didn’t argue with dad. They loved you and knew what was best for you and that was that.
Time for college
I switched to economics, and did well enough. I continued to study it through high school, and it was one of the two majors I applied for when it came time for college. The other was English.
I got into both courses at a few very good colleges in Kolkata, and again, at my dad’s behest, enrolled in Economics rather than English (which was what I really wanted to do). Because, again, “what would I do with English?”
Now, there were parts of my Economics degree that I really enjoyed, including some parts of my “subsidiaries” (aka minors) of Political Science and Math.
But what really got me through college was the community theater I’d fallen in love with in high school, and which became what I lived and breathed.
That’s 18-y-o me in rehearsal for “Smike,” where I played Fanny Squeers. It’s a little-known but great musical.
It was where I felt at home. It was where I—shy by nature—could become someone else, learning more about myself as I inhabited someone else’s skin. It was where I could explore different worlds with others wildly different but as curious as I, and where experimentation wasn’t just allowed, it was welcomed.
Bohemian(ish) rhapsody
Despite my dad’s deep desire for me to pursue my MBA—again, he was not uncommon among Indian fathers in this wish—I was very clear that I would not. So, after spending a hellish year interning at a financial services firm, I applied to the National School of Drama to pursue further studies in theater.
Now, NSD was notoriously difficult to get into back in the day (and probably still is). There are certainly several options for theater training in India and Asia today, but back then, it was pretty much the place to go. I was wildly out of my comfort zone in the initial, and then final, auditions and interviews. In fact, I was so convinced that I would not be accepted, I didn’t even wait to get the admission results before taking the train back to Kolkata from New Delhi.
But I did. And it set the stage [sic] for the rest of my life in a way I could never have anticipated.
Theater dad
As much as he’d hoped I’d move into finance, or become a doctor, my dad was very proud that I’d been accepted into NSD. As strong as his prior persuasions had been, once I made theater my chosen path, he never once tried to dissuade me.
Through the years I was a student, and then a working repertory actress, his work would frequently bring him to New Delhi. And if we were performing when he was in town, you bet my dad would be in the front row. His transformation to MBA/doctor dad to theater dad was quite remarkable.
Note: my mom was always a theater mom. It’s my dad’s transformation that was remarkable, which is why the story is about him.
One of the best experiences of my life was as a voice actor for The Action Players, India’s first troupe of deaf actors, founded by the late, great, Zarin Chaudhuri
I continued to work as a theater actress and director for several more years before emigrating to the United States. Once here, I segued into PR & marketing, primarily for theater and the arts, and then into broader mission-driven work.
And, if you’ve followed my career through the years, you’ll know I developed a deep fascination and love for data and analytics, which started to inform and shape my ideas on brand, strategy, and how mission-driven organizations could increase their impact.
Those Economics and Math classes didn’t go to waste after all!
Coming full circle
When I joined Arena Stage in 2021, I felt the serendipity of a full circle moment. With a head for data, and a heart for storytelling, I was right back where I belonged. I could use everything I’d learned along the way to not just tell the company’s story more effectively, but to make better connections with our audiences, so they in turn could feel more connected to the magic of the stories being told on our stages.
Because that storytelling was how we—art makers, teachers, and administrators—changed the world.
I don’t know yet know where I’ll find my next home (I’m working on it!), but I know this: it will be in the arts.
The arts are where we explore, and try to make sense of, life and the world around us. They help us understand, and appreciate, different perspectives, and enrich the social and economic fabric of our communities. And they are a massive value-add: the National Endowment for the Arts estimated the arts contributed 4.3% of GDP to the U.S. economy in 2022, when we were still recovering from the pandemic.
If the arts changed your life in some way, as they did mine, I hope you’ll continue to support them. As for me, now that I’m home in the arts, that’s where I’m staying. It’s who I am, and where I can be of greatest service.
If my MBA-doctor-theater dad (he passed away a year ago Feb. 5) and mom (7 years in October) were still alive, it’s exactly what they’d want, and expect.
And I’m nothing if not their daughter.
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