You live your life so magically! Can you elaborate? …Interview
with Vani Ganapathy
I
can say for myself that I don't plan at all, may be because
of the kind of life I have gone through. Yes, we all plan for
a rainy day from the point of view of finance because, you know,
we don't want to be in a situation where we have to go to somebody
else to ask for help. So maybe you do a little bit of planning,
but even that can go haywire. People whom you thought would
stand by you, may probably themselves get into a situation where
they won't be able to stand by you. If somebody were to say,
'Vani, you do interiors also as a hobby. So now that you
are doing it and you're doing a couple of projects, why don't
you start a big company and employ so many people into it on
a larger scale.' I don't know whether I would like to even
take that risk because I don't want to be answerable to so many
people. I want to be answerable just to myself. I like to live
for the moment. Okay, here I have got this project in my hand
and I'm going to do it. I'm not the type who chases some goal
and maybe that's why I've been able to get ahead in life. I
mean, I still do admire people who have goals and work towards
that goal and achieve it, but left to myself I would just feel
it's too much of a pressure on me to have to achieve a goal.
I may probably keep small goals where I feel, okay I can reach
it. And then when I reach it, I make another smaller goal rather
than keep very large goals which make me feel that I am putting
myself under pressure. My life has been like that right from
my teenage days where everything I've done has been with not
too much of planning, and the magic part of it in my life has
been that even the things that I have not dreamt for myself,
friends have dreamt for me, and they have happened. So when
it comes to my dance, well, my mother dreamt for me and I have
been able to achieve it. For my interiors, my friends dreamt
for me in the beginning and that probably got me into it. Even
for my dance school, I would say I never dreamt for my dance
school. Again it was friends who dreamt for me and said,
"No I think you should give back to your art what art has given
you because there are so many children who want to learn from
you". And I think probably my initiator, my guru dreamt
for me, my teaching. There again it was something like moving
a magic wand and it just happened.
2. What fuels your sense of style?
Whether
it's home, whether it is clothes or whether it's lifestyle,
I've never followed fashion or the in-thing at that particular
point of time. Neither have I allowed other people to
judge for me. I am pretty critical myself and I do tend to ask
myself 10 times if I am doing the right thing. What really
fuels me is to want to be young. It's not the idea of
looking young, it's the idea of feeling young and it's not something
that I make an effort at. It is something that is probably natural
in me. I am very comfortable being with teenagers and with people
who are probably of my age group or even above. I am comfortable
in the most traditional of surrounding. I can sit on the floor
and eat on a leaf as comfortably as I can sit in through a 6
or 7 course meal and know which fork and which knife to use.
So I think it is the basic thing of always wanting to
be a student, a learner. The day I feel I've learnt enough I
probably won't grow, that's always been my motto since my teenage
days. I still fell I am a student when it comes to dance;
when it comes to interiors I feel I am an infant; but when it
comes to life itself, I feel I am a student because everyday
my eyes open to new things, new realisations and that's a process
of learning. So, I suppose, the fact that I like the process
of learning fuels this zeal to want to do things.
3. Which award or commendation do you value the most?
To me, when a dancer of very good caliber were to sit in
front and watch my performance, and at the end of it comes and
tells me, "You lived the part that you were playing and you
reminded me of young days when I was performing," I don't think
that any award or commendation could be better than that kind
of statement.
4. What would you consider your turning point in life?
Honestly,
I can't really pin point… I don't think there has been only
one turning point in my life. But there have been many events
in my life. The very first performance that I gave when I was
seven… After the performance I spoke to the audience on the
mike and I said, "I feel very happy today to perform for all
of you. If I have made any mistakes please excuse me because
I would like to correct myself, but I feel honoured that all
of you great artists are sitting in front of me and watching
me perform. This itself is my biggest and the best thing that
has happened to me in my life and thank you," or whatever. I
must have given a lot more speeches [after that one], but that
was probably one of those things that really gave me confidence
to speak to people. People who know me have always believed
me to be a woman with lot of confidence and strength. Maybe
that was my starting point to feel the sense of confidence,
to be able to communicate with people without fear. And then
I performed many more times and had many more occasions and
there was this question of Miss Teen Princess India. Again over
there, my winning built that confidence in me that I can do
things which people appreciate.
5. Your being Miss India in 1971 was path breaking, in the
sense, globally and regionally today we all accept modelling
as a legitimate career for women …
Honestly
I didn't even think about entering Miss India or Miss Teen Princess
India. It's one of those things that just happened. The editor
and assistant editor of Femina at that time just called up my
house and they said, "Why can't Vani enter". Somewhere
inside me there was always this thing to be good in whatever
I do. And there was also this little doubt, what if I don't
make it? Will it bring down my confidence level? It was a decision
that I took probably five days before the contest and just went
for it and it happened. In life, in anything you do, luck plays
a very important part. You can call it destiny, you can call
it preordained, because I'm sure there are plenty of people
in this world who are absolutely stunningly gorgeous and absolutely
fantastically talented, but they have not been at the right
place at the right time, the right opportunity. All this has
to come together and those are things which you don't have any
kind of a hold on.
We've talked about turning points. One was my winning the
Teen Princess contest and one was the decision I took whether
I wanted to continue studying further or whether I wanted to
take my art seriously. The following year I decided [that]
since I have come so far in studies let me do a degree, so I
took up to doing B.A after preparing for medicine, but other
than that I decided that I am going to take my dance seriously.
A very major event that was a turning point in my life was
my decision to get out of my marriage and to be single.
When I knew exactly that I have to fend for myself and if I
still wanted to enjoy the kind of position and status that I
had before and while I was married, then I have to work for
it and carve a niche for myself. Maybe God had a mission
in mind for me, in my art or interiors or teaching children.
I got a second chance [to be a dancer] all over again… an opportunity
to go back into the niche which you already had for yourself.
One of those performances ITC had in Hyderabad, which was national
integration through dance, was on a national level. So that
was a major turning point for me to get back into my dance in
full swing.
And then, of course, I got into teaching. Interiors, was
another turning pointbecause I knew I had an aptitude
for it. It started when my chartered accountant was building
a house for himself and came up to me and gave me his house
plan and asked me to make the interiors of his house. I asked
him how he can just give me such a responsibility, I don't even
have a degree and he told me, "Looking at your house is enough".
6. Can you tell us about some of your favourite things?
I don't have anything which is a favourite. I have conditioned
myself not be totally attached to one particular thing.
I like listening to all kinds of music at certain hours
of the day or certain times in the day when I like to listen
to something very soft. Yes, I have a partiality for instrumental
music, specially if it's Indian instrumental music. I love Hari
Prasad Chourasia, Shivkumar Sharma, Amjad Ali Khan, Kadri Gopalnath
and Mandolin Srinivas. I love instrumental [music] because it
doesn't break anywhere with words. I also love listening to
music like Vengaboys, Backstreet Boys and Madonna.
7. In which medium do you like to perform most on?
Stage
definitely. The response that you get is so immediate and the
perfection level has to be a lot more than it is for any other
medium, because on stage a mistake done is done. You can rectify
in any other performance, but what is seen is registered, whether
you have done a good or a bad performance. In films you can
re-shoot a shot and get a better shot but not on stage. If you've
done a good show, you can see it from the audience reaction…
the way the audience sits in silence, doesn't leave, there is
no shuffle or readjustment in seats. That itself is a major
response and immediate reaction to your performance. Film makers
and artists in movies shoot a film, they put in all their best
efforts, they re-shoot, edit and they still have to wait for
months together till they get the right theatres and everything
to see the result, and then at the end of it when the film flops
it is such a major, major let down.
8. Do you think Bangalore is supportive of the arts?
I
thought Bangalore would develop into a seat for art and culture.
It has the most perfect climate for developing your art without
tiring yourself, you don't sweat and it's not messy and you
have greenery around for you to feel energetic to practice.
But, unfortunately, it does not have patrons of the arts. In
places like Madras or Calcutta, the patrons of the art have
really promoted it and really pushed it to see that it takes
front seat. As in genuine patronising, I think it's more Madras,
I would say even Calcutta, to quite an extent Bombay and Kerala
also.
Do you feel the artist is for the audience or without the
audience, can an artist perform for him/herself alone?
They are two separate issues and you have to decide what you
want. You can be an artist and a performer or only be an artist.
I choose to be both an artist and a performer, so I definitely
need an audience. But if you only want to be an artist, you
can do it for the love of the art, to develop and live it. So
you have to decide.
9. Tell us about your personal and spiritual growth as a
person?
I am a very spiritual person but I'm not ritualistic. I'm not
bound by any religion. I would definitely claim that I am a
Hindu but that doesn't stop me from going to the church. I truly
believe from within, not just to make a statement that God is
in whatever manifestation you want to see him or her. You want
to see God as a him, you can see God as a her, in children,
in flowers and in birds, so I truly do believe in that.
10. Could you say something about Indian grace, beauty, femininity?
I believe Indian women themselves denote grace. When I think
"attires" the Saree is the most graceful and it depicts women
in all their beauty. For example, people who don't know me,
say foreign tourists, sometimes stop and ask - are you a
dancer? I feel, when you do learn dance there is a lot of
femininity, grace, and style that grows within you.
11. Your other interests.
I play golf because I enjoy the outdoors and it's something
that I'm doing which I don't feel bound by, that I have to do
it well. The perfectionist thing is not so strong there, so
there is less pressure and I'm able to relax with it. It takes
a lot of my time so I'm not able to play it very often. I used
to do a lot of cooking at one time, now I do more party cooking.
I love cleaning, dusting and pottering around the house.
12. Where do you get your ethnic jewellery and all the pieces
of your interiors from?
There
is nobody fixed. Sometimes I pick it up from dealers in Madras
who sell old pieces. Now I'm not so much into buying jewellery,
maybe because I don't get the opportunity to wear the kind pieces
I have. The art pieces in my home have been with me over the
years or I have bought it off hand. I haven't put everything
together at once. The house has just grown with time. My bronzes
for instance, I've had them for over 20 years! And the Shakespeare's
Lithographs, a friend and I split the cost to get it. The unique
thing about these is that they are Shakespeare in female role
wearing female garb.
13. What about the nightlife in Bangalore?
Well, I'm not a very night person. I do socialise quite a bit,
but basically I'm an early riser and I don't like to stay on
beyond 12:00 normally. When I'm in a party and I just look at
my watch and I know it's time to leave for me. …. if its 11:30,
I just get up to say bye. There is this general joke among all
my friends. If I'm looking at the watch or they are looking
at the watch, they say, 'Oh! Vani, how come you are staying
on? It's past Cinderella's time…..
As we leave, we spot in the corner showcase a single glass
slipper….
3:00:29 AM 
I
can say for myself that I don't plan at all, may be because
of the kind of life I have gone through. Yes, we all plan for
a rainy day from the point of view of finance because, you know,
we don't want to be in a situation where we have to go to somebody
else to ask for help. So maybe you do a little bit of planning,
but even that can go haywire. People whom you thought would
stand by you, may probably themselves get into a situation where
they won't be able to stand by you. If somebody were to say,
'Vani, you do interiors also as a hobby. So now that you
are doing it and you're doing a couple of projects, why don't
you start a big company and employ so many people into it on
a larger scale.' I don't know whether I would like to even
take that risk because I don't want to be answerable to so many
people. I want to be answerable just to myself. I like to live
for the moment. Okay, here I have got this project in my hand
and I'm going to do it. I'm not the type who chases some goal
and maybe that's why I've been able to get ahead in life. I
mean, I still do admire people who have goals and work towards
that goal and achieve it, but left to myself I would just feel
it's too much of a pressure on me to have to achieve a goal.
I may probably keep small goals where I feel, okay I can reach
it. And then when I reach it, I make another smaller goal rather
than keep very large goals which make me feel that I am putting
myself under pressure. My life has been like that right from
my teenage days where everything I've done has been with not
too much of planning, and the magic part of it in my life has
been that even the things that I have not dreamt for myself,
friends have dreamt for me, and they have happened. So when
it comes to my dance, well, my mother dreamt for me and I have
been able to achieve it. For my interiors, my friends dreamt
for me in the beginning and that probably got me into it. Even
for my dance school, I would say I never dreamt for my dance
school. Again it was friends who dreamt for me and said,
"No I think you should give back to your art what art has given
you because there are so many children who want to learn from
you". And I think probably my initiator, my guru dreamt
for me, my teaching. There again it was something like moving
a magic wand and it just happened. 
Whether
it's home, whether it is clothes or whether it's lifestyle,
I've never followed fashion or the in-thing at that particular
point of time. Neither have I allowed other people to
judge for me. I am pretty critical myself and I do tend to ask
myself 10 times if I am doing the right thing. What really
fuels me is to want to be young. It's not the idea of
looking young, it's the idea of feeling young and it's not something
that I make an effort at. It is something that is probably natural
in me. I am very comfortable being with teenagers and with people
who are probably of my age group or even above. I am comfortable
in the most traditional of surrounding. I can sit on the floor
and eat on a leaf as comfortably as I can sit in through a 6
or 7 course meal and know which fork and which knife to use.
So I think it is the basic thing of always wanting to
be a student, a learner. The day I feel I've learnt enough I
probably won't grow, that's always been my motto since my teenage
days. I still fell I am a student when it comes to dance;
when it comes to interiors I feel I am an infant; but when it
comes to life itself, I feel I am a student because everyday
my eyes open to new things, new realisations and that's a process
of learning. So, I suppose, the fact that I like the process
of learning fuels this zeal to want to do things. 
Honestly,
I can't really pin point… I don't think there has been only
one turning point in my life. But there have been many events
in my life. The very first performance that I gave when I was
seven… After the performance I spoke to the audience on the
mike and I said, "I feel very happy today to perform for all
of you. If I have made any mistakes please excuse me because
I would like to correct myself, but I feel honoured that all
of you great artists are sitting in front of me and watching
me perform. This itself is my biggest and the best thing that
has happened to me in my life and thank you," or whatever. I
must have given a lot more speeches [after that one], but that
was probably one of those things that really gave me confidence
to speak to people. People who know me have always believed
me to be a woman with lot of confidence and strength. Maybe
that was my starting point to feel the sense of confidence,
to be able to communicate with people without fear. And then
I performed many more times and had many more occasions and
there was this question of Miss Teen Princess India. Again over
there, my winning built that confidence in me that I can do
things which people appreciate. 
Honestly
I didn't even think about entering Miss India or Miss Teen Princess
India. It's one of those things that just happened. The editor
and assistant editor of Femina at that time just called up my
house and they said, "Why can't Vani enter". Somewhere
inside me there was always this thing to be good in whatever
I do. And there was also this little doubt, what if I don't
make it? Will it bring down my confidence level? It was a decision
that I took probably five days before the contest and just went
for it and it happened. In life, in anything you do, luck plays
a very important part. You can call it destiny, you can call
it preordained, because I'm sure there are plenty of people
in this world who are absolutely stunningly gorgeous and absolutely
fantastically talented, but they have not been at the right
place at the right time, the right opportunity. All this has
to come together and those are things which you don't have any
kind of a hold on. 
Stage
definitely. The response that you get is so immediate and the
perfection level has to be a lot more than it is for any other
medium, because on stage a mistake done is done. You can rectify
in any other performance, but what is seen is registered, whether
you have done a good or a bad performance. In films you can
re-shoot a shot and get a better shot but not on stage. If you've
done a good show, you can see it from the audience reaction…
the way the audience sits in silence, doesn't leave, there is
no shuffle or readjustment in seats. That itself is a major
response and immediate reaction to your performance. Film makers
and artists in movies shoot a film, they put in all their best
efforts, they re-shoot, edit and they still have to wait for
months together till they get the right theatres and everything
to see the result, and then at the end of it when the film flops
it is such a major, major let down. 
I
thought Bangalore would develop into a seat for art and culture.
It has the most perfect climate for developing your art without
tiring yourself, you don't sweat and it's not messy and you
have greenery around for you to feel energetic to practice.
But, unfortunately, it does not have patrons of the arts. In
places like Madras or Calcutta, the patrons of the art have
really promoted it and really pushed it to see that it takes
front seat. As in genuine patronising, I think it's more Madras,
I would say even Calcutta, to quite an extent Bombay and Kerala
also. 
There
is nobody fixed. Sometimes I pick it up from dealers in Madras
who sell old pieces. Now I'm not so much into buying jewellery,
maybe because I don't get the opportunity to wear the kind pieces
I have. The art pieces in my home have been with me over the
years or I have bought it off hand. I haven't put everything
together at once. The house has just grown with time. My bronzes
for instance, I've had them for over 20 years! And the Shakespeare's
Lithographs, a friend and I split the cost to get it. The unique
thing about these is that they are Shakespeare in female role
wearing female garb. 
