The Mind Creative - NOVEMBER 2013 NOVEMBER 2013 | Page 25

The Mind Creative Nov 2013

TMC: Do you have any favourite authors or any specific genre
that you prefer?
MANISHA: I read pretty much anything I can get hold of unless
it’s horror or war. I have lots of favourite authors – Jeanette
Winterson, Toni Morrison, PL Travis who wrote Mary Poppins. I
loved In the Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern. I am starting to
read poetry at the moment as well as a number of new Indian
authors. All of us read for different reasons - for fun, to sleep,
to make sense of the world, to comfort us or spirit us away –
there is an author and a book for every one of these moments.

Manisha Jolie Amin was born in Kenya; at any early age, her
family moved to Sydney. She grew up with a passion for reading.
She lives with her husband and son, and works full-time for a
children's welfare charity.
Her first novel, Dancing with the Flute, is the story of Kalu,
an orphan and a beggar on the streets of a rural village, who is
overheard playing music on a rolled-up banyan leaf by a
travelling healer. Convinced on his natural talents, the healer
suggests he meet his brother, a reclusive musician considered
one of the most gifted in all of India. After making the difficult
decision to leave behind his two great friends, Malti the servant
girl and Bal the buffalo herder, Kalu dedicates himself to fulfilling
his potential, but he is constantly drawn back to the place where
he grew up, and to the people he has left behind.
The story is based in part on the legendary life of 16th-century
Hindustani composer and musician Mia Tansen,The structure of
the novel is akin to that of a 'raag', the series of notes upon
which Indian classical music is based and the form which Kalu
is taught to master.

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