All posts in the ‘ Woodman Family ’ Category

Some time in the early 1970s, my parents met up in New York City with their friend Padmini, her husband, Dr. Ramachandran, and their son. As you may remember, Padmini (1932-2006) was the middle sister of India’s Travancore Sisters, wildly popular dancers and movie actors at mid-century. Although they are no longer with us, they still have devoted fans across the globe. My mom hadn’t danced for a long time, but Padmini tried to put her through her …Read More

We were not horsey folks ourselves, but our neighbors in Delhi, the Ensmingers, kept three horses, and allowed us to ride them.   I was very enthusiastic for a while, and I usually rode a large and phlegmatic creature called Shah.   With the Ensminger kids, we tried to use him in one of our theatrical performances.  We staged the play in the driveway so that one of us could jump on him and dash off, crying “Hi-yo, …Read More

This week brought the sad news of the death of South Indian film star Sukumari, whose career spanned over six decades. An accident resulting in severe burns led to heart failure on Tuesday, March 26, in Chennai. Sukumari’s year of birth is variously reported as 1938 and 1940. In any case, she was very young when she acted in her first film, Oru Iravu (1951), with her cousin Lalitha of the Travancore Sisters, appearing in scenes depicting Lalitha’s …Read More

In our family, it was taken for granted that you would dance. Here’s my mom at about age six, in Newton, Massachusetts, about to be the bride in a show called “A Kewpie Wedding.” My sister Lee at a performance in Delhi. Of all of us kids, she got the furthest in ballet, advancing from flat shoes to point. I didn’t escape participating in Woodstock School talent shows. In addition to classical dance, we learned ballroom dancing-—box step, …Read More

Hello, all. Here are some more Travancore Sisters pics from my parents’ photo albums. A formal portrait of Ragini and Padmini: A couple more of Ragini: The three informal snaps below are faded and scratched, but I can’t resist posting them anyway. All were taken in Chennai, c. 1954. Ragini with her brother, Chandran: Ragini with my little sister, Jane: Aren’t Ragini’s braids fantastic! Finally, Padmini with Woodmans: Padmini’s got me, and I’ve got Jane. Lee’s on the …Read More

We were the new kids on the block in 1953, the block being Edward Elliot Rd (now Dr. Radhakrishnan Salai) and the city being Madras (now Chennai.) It could have been a difficult adjustment–but instead, it was like falling into a warm bath. This was largely because of the kindess of our hospitable next-door neighbors–the mom, Saraswati Amma, her three daughters, Lalitha, Padmini, and Ragini, their brother, Chandran, and their cousins, Ambika and Sukumari. We were still learning …Read More

I’m just back from New York City, where I had a great visit with my childhood friend, Deborah Keehn. Debby and I were friends in Delhi, where we took Bharatanatyam dance lessons together. Later, we were Woodstock School roommates. Here we are on a typical Saturday morning, busily cleaning our dorm room. We had to pass room inspection before we could go to “the buzz,” as we called the bazaar in Mussoorie. See? All cleaned up! I had …Read More

Greetings for the Big Day–in other words, Merry Christmas! Christmas Eve in India, we hung stockings in preparation for Santa’s coming, as in this 1958 photo. My sisters Deborah and Jane are standing on three-legged stools that tended to be tippy, but somehow we escaped mishaps. The Nataraj on the mantelpiece (Lord Siva as cosmic dancer) witnessed many such ceremonies. The suitcase-y thing on the right was a reel-to-reel tape recorder, playing “White Christmas” and “let it snow, …Read More

Our house in New Delhi got flooded, in 1958. It was during the monsoon season, and a drainage ditch near our house overflowed its embankments, leaving a foot or so of water on the ground floor of the houses in our neighborhood. I hate to think of what was floating around in that water, but I ended up wading in it as my dad took pictures. You can see the high water mark on the living room wall. …Read More

Pictured above: My mom playing Scrabble in her later years. Don’t be deceived by that little smile, she was a ferocious competitor. Actually, the gene is on both sides of the family. I can still picture my two grandmothers locked in Scrabble combat against each other. Scary! One of my mom’s Scrabble weapons may well have been Indian words. I read somewhere that 900 English words come from Indian languages–Hindi, Urdu, Tamil, Bengali, and many others. At least …Read More