Saturday, May 22, 2010

A Bollywood Shakespeare

You will be a witch said Sister Magdalene to me.

She was talking about Shakespeare's Macbeth and giving me my first stage role in a school play.

She must have had something in mind for me and that started my rather bizarre connection with Shakespeare.

An Indian Shakespeare? You've gotta be kidding, right? That's why it's a comedy routine I love.

You can see some of my comedy routines on my youtube site and access it through my website www.theumahuma.com

Thursday, May 20, 2010

Gunpowder vs Milkpowder

by Uma Thakar also known as TheUmaHuma on YouTube

Open up or we shoot, shouted the bandits.

I was five years old, huddled behind the flimsy door of my Catholic boarding school in central India. One of the poorest regions of the country, the small town of Sagar was run over with bandits. A bunch of my school mates aged five to seven were crouched alongwith me, shivering with fear and excitement.

Are they going to kill us, asked Mara in her funereal voice.

Get to bed girls, said Sister Mary Martha.

The bandits pounded harder on the door.

We survived some days on donations of milkpowder from the USA. The bandits were so hungry, they'd trade their gunpowder for milk powder.