Page 53 - English Class 08

For nearly two years in Paris, I attended one of the French Catholic Schools. It was so strange

for me! First of all, because I was just learning French, I was placed in classes with children
several years younger and I didn’t know very well how to get along with the other children.
The boys seemed such brutes, strong and nasty little devils, so I preferred to spend my time
with the girls. I fancied myself far more cultured than any of my classmates and in many

ways, I really was. The way the European children were brought up to behave was so unlike
our Indian customs and it was difficult for me to adapt myself to this new way of thinking
and acting. I don’t think I learned a great deal in those years in the French School and I was
happy when I finally was given permission to have private lessons instead and to spend the

rest of my time either with the troupe rehearsing and touring or by myself, reading and
inventing other things to keep busy. My mother went back to India in 1932 and at first, I felt
a little lost, but I soon adjusted to this not very happy kind of life. I spent much time listening
to records of every sort of music-Indian, Western, Classical even jazz and took up more and
more the life of a trouper. By the end of 1933, I was going on practically every tour we made.

Even when we were still in Benares, I had

preferred more than anything else to stay alone
and play with my brother’s musical instruments,
lose myself in thrilling stories or act out plays in
front of the mirror, taking the parts of the hero,
the lover, the villain in turn. I had no brothers or

sisters close to me in age and there were no
other children of my age nearly. In fact, I didn’t
go to a regular school until I was about seven.

From then on, I carried around a whole world of
imaginative fantasies inside myself and the
more books I read and the more plays and films I
saw, the more intricate grew this invented
universe. Much later, this fantasy world, my

loneliness and my efforts to grasp something
unreachable, all found expression through my
In how many languages you could speak?
music. From when, I was quite young, I had a

particular fascination for the stage and
drama of all kinds. As I reflect on it now, I fancied : imagined
troupe : company of actors, dancers
see that I really couldn’t have done
imaginative fantasies : fantastic day dreams
anything other than be in show business ,
fascination : attraction
even if I had become a musician.
business : the business of public entertainment

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