Join us on "Grief Untangled" as we have a candid conversation with Nandita Basu. Nandita is a comic book artist, Author and musician. She loves to daydream, eat gummy bears, play music and draw. She likes to have conversations with animals and children (in that order) more than adults.
Her first book, The Piano, received wide critical acclaim and her next book Starry Starry Night: A Graphic Novel That Explores Death, Grief, Friendship and Music which really fits into the theme of our podcast channel.
[00:00:00] Hello, dear listeners.
[00:00:11] Welcome back to grief untangled, untangling the threads of grief, healing and hope.
[00:00:18] I am your host, Kuch Didi and book is really fitting into our context and I'm really looking forward to this conversation with you. So how have you been doing? Are you doing good? Not too bad. Not too bad. And it's good to sit here with you on a nice Friday morning
[00:01:43] and have a nice conversation with you.
[00:01:44] And have a nice conversation with you.
[00:01:45] Yes.
[00:01:46] Yes.
[00:01:47] Great, great, great. So if I'm not making music, I'm pretty much drawing comics. So what is it about music then? I mean, do you play some musical instruments or is that a specific thing that you do? Yeah, so I'm actually a Western classical trained pianist and I also am a trained violinist.
[00:03:00] So these are the two instruments I dabble in and if I get my hands on other is the children, when I talk about the latest book that you have or the other books, which are... So can you just share some light on that? Yes, specifically when I write a story, I don't think a story is meant for a child or an adult.
[00:04:21] I feel like yes, a story, a good story, it can resonate with anybody.
[00:05:27] So that's why I mean I find it a very comfortable medium to work with and I feel like you know
[00:05:34] anybody actually to say only children that would be unfair even like you know as adults grow numb when we are looking at pictures it engages us in a different way and you can keep going back
[00:05:39] to it over and over again which you can't actually do I think with the most written stuff
[00:05:44] you know you can go back to it maybe one I think that would be very wrong. I think over a period of time, all of us find inspiration in different things and then how it comes together, that's a different kind of a story. I grief? So can you share some light on that? Oh yes, see the thing is as a society, we often think art is supposed to be a hobby
[00:08:21] and extra curricular activity.
[00:08:25] Unfortunately, what we don't realize is
[00:08:26] our entire life is we think it just has to be there. It's not something that we need but the truth is that's the thing that actually sustains us and that's how society has viewed I think arts and artists in that way.
[00:09:41] But because I dabble in music and I also like you know, when you talk about grief and depression, I think, you know, I have had my entire share of like, serious depressive moods and you know, it's very difficult. I mean, this and I know other people who have gone through it. And for me,
[00:11:03] the sustain and has been music. And it's very coming back. So what you said, allowing it, is really makes sense to me in that sense. Yeah, I mean, you see, half the things we block out ourselves, no, with our own ideas of this is how it should fit in or this is not right and, you know,
[00:12:24] if you give something space, then you can actually apply it to everything in life and what you're doing. And that's when everything can become music. That's is what is the flow state. But the flow state also happens, it is natural but you have to make an effort for it. You see it's not like okay I'm just going to sit there and the flow will come in. It's not as simple as that,
[00:15:03] there is actually ways to get to the flow have it and I'll tell you why. But to kind of start with what you asked me, we don't
[00:16:26] confront grief and death. as adults we start gearing towards alcohol and a lot of other substances also if it gets very deep we don't know what to do, Anandita. Thanks. So, now I'd like to actually address the grief, first thing is people need space. That's right. And in the book, that's what, you know, both the characters, they're trying to give each other space because both are dealing with death at different levels. So one has dealt with death many years ago, and for the other one, death is fresh. So again, they're very different emotions because death also changes
[00:20:22] flavor and color.
[00:20:24] Okay.
[00:20:24] It's not the same throughout.
[00:20:25] Right.
[00:21:23] make an effort to see because I think there is a lot of content about it.
[00:21:29] It's not like content is restricted and see how, you know, the child can be introduced to that content.
[00:21:30] It's very, very important to allow that person to talk about it.
[00:21:34] Sometimes, you know, somebody has lost a grandparent, say, or even a pet, you
[00:21:39] know, and a person talks about it.
[00:21:41] You will see people get very uncomfortable.
[00:21:43] They say, Oh, that person is not there.
[00:21:45] Let's forget it.
[00:21:47] Avoidance, avoiding the topic.
[00:21:48] Yeah.
[00:22:45] There is no weakness also in crying or there is no weakness in saying and missing a person. That's true.
[00:22:46] Yeah.
[00:22:47] So, you know, I think these are very small little things, but it helps in kind of making
[00:22:52] a person come to term with griefs and especially for children, you know, I mean, don't cry
[00:22:58] a bito hai ne.
[00:22:59] Why do we get into that?
[00:23:00] We don't need to get into that.
[00:23:02] Yeah.
[00:23:03] I'm missing a person.
[00:23:04] It's simple.
[00:23:05] Right. Wow, beautiful, beautiful. So Nandita, if our audience would like to get this book, what is the best way?
[00:24:20] Is it available on Amazon or how exactly?
[00:24:23] Yes, Amazon, it's always available but it on music, but there is art, there is drama and, you know, there are so many other areas as well, which are healing, you know, which, which has a lot of power of healing, but somehow they are undermined, you know, the society thinks that it is only for entertainment or for hobby. That's it. There is no one has no other role for that.