place where my mom said what did exist. i'm glad i didn't go back. making that conscious choice would have changed had i gone back would have changed the direction of the book a lot. >> when i saw it it was so different than how an imagined from reading your books. >> does that teach you never to look up things. always listen to the writer? [laughter]. >> we have time for one more question. >> can't be our essay question. >> she didn't give us a question yet. i wanted to know what made you think of the title like the samurai's garden? >> oh , know the title story. >> i'm sorry. >> quickly. this is actually a publishing business thing. i had written on the contract

because i was reading about samurais and gardens. at the time the contract. i looked and said, oh , the samurai's garden. now they would put untitled. i put dount samurai's garden not thinking that would really with the title. and what happened was when it was time to choose a title my editor had a god awful title she felt was the most brilliant title since the grapes of wrath. it was like this long and everything was in it but the kitchen sink. love, samurai, garden and sushi. it was a terrible title and i didn't like it and i didn't know what to say i had never disagreed. that was the first time i disagree. i said i don't want to look at my book case and see that book

and cringe in 30 years. she called me from new york and said, i don't know why we are going over the title thing let's keep it the samurai's garden. then i was saying, thank you, god and it became the samurai a garden which in the end worked when you decide hathat samurai is in your class you will see how it works. it works in many, many ways. i'm pleased it stayed the samurai's garden. not of anybody's choice but because it was the one we didn't want to fight over anymore. >> okay. >> [laughter]. >> thank you. i >> i think you wanted something else. >> well, i met the samurai and [laughter] >> thank you. >> thank you, gale so much for coming. >> [applause]. thank you.

[music] [applause]

good afternoon, everybody. thank you for joining us today. the first thing i will ask you to do is put your hands together

in front of our heart and bow slightly and say nanasta it means the good in me greets the good in all of you. who knows where is this is from? india. today we are sharing an form. we are members of the dance company based here in san francisco and we are taught by somebody who has been doing this art form for over 50 years much the ladies including myself we have been studying with him for a long time. you will see different things. lots of sounds with our feet. a little bit of story telling through mime and expression and you will learn about math in dance. who would have thought. today we will start, our next

piece means the coloring of the stage. dancers show the hindu aspect of the dance by using the positions of our hands we will show you we are decorating the stage and make a water picture and cleaning the stage with the water. plucking flowers and decorating the stage with the petals of the flowers. we will awaken the 5 senses through the blowing of a conch shell. we will demonstrate the 3 duty, creator, producer and the destroyer in order to make way for new creation. [music]

[applause] good morning. afternoon, actually. so, as you can see this is an elaborate dance form and has many hand movements which have a

specific meaning. in the piece we are about to show you and share with you we will actually pi lly teach you d movements. this means to tell a story. in old times they would travel and tell the stores about the events of the timeses. i need you all to stand up to learn these. excellent. take a stretch. lift our arms up high to the sky. we will start by creating trees. we will turn our arms into tree branches. our finger tips into leaves and we will sway in the breeze. when the wind picks up we will sway faster. we will make birds by taking our hands facing etch other, cross our thumbs and using our hands

like bird wings. the birds are flying high above the treetops. in the forest is a river. we will lift our wrists and lower them to make water waves. very soft. you can hear the water flowing. in this river are fish. we will take the right hand over our left and use our thumbs like fish fins and let your fish swim through the water it takes a big dive. >> and growing next to the river are a bed of flowers. opening one hand onfinger at a time watching the flower petal blossoms. we will take our other hand and turn it into a butterifiy much the butter fly will fly, fly, fly the and land on the flour and watch it fly away.

drinking can a deer. take your thumb and the outside a n antlers. the deer hears a noise and in the distance is a hunter with a low and arrow. he sees that deer and aims for it. see your target and takes a shot and he misses and the deer escapes. the hunter's frustrated. i can't believe i missed that. he decides that hunting deer is not a night idea next time he will aim for an apple. thank you participating, you can sit down. give yourself a clap. those are very basic hand movements we use to tell a

story. so, the next story we will show you is going to take place in this forest that we just created. i want you to imagine you are in the old forest and we will explain to you the story. >> that was namaste. the devine in me greets the devine in you. can you say that? very good. so, as joe anna was saying. this come from the word meaning to tell stores. this is a story teller. you guys i heard out there i was listening a birdie told me you thought you were going to see a movie; right ? >> you are. in the old days this comes from what country? india. thousands of years ago and

hundreds of years ago in india there were no movie theatres, no television, no radio, no comic books or no books for people like you and me to read. was this the same here? >> yes. all offer the world it was like that. ask your parents. they can tell you what it was like before the internet. so, people told stores. i bet you tell stories. did you tell a story today? >> yeah, i bet you did you went up to our friend and said, did you see that? your friend said, no, no he didn't. right? that's a story. so, i will tell you a story. in india, here we have super

heroes like, tell me a hero. >> super man. we have super heroes in india. krishna. lifts mountains and throws them to the ocean to create bridges. i will tell you the story about a super hero. krishna as a little boy in the village where the trees blow and the water flows and the birds fly and the grass grows, in this village there are cows. and people and they go to the river and they go to get their water. and they go to the river and what do they see? an evil demon is polluting the

river. callia. and they can't get water because it's killing the cows and the people. so, they go to krishna and say, please, do something about this this is not good. he says, he thinks about it and says, okay. he takes his friends to the river to play. they play ball. they play with the ball and then by accident or may be not, the ball goes in the -- river. and callia is in the river. krishna is swimming through the dark waters and sees the ball is in the tail of the serpant demon. he sees the ball and the demon is sleeping. so guess what he does? he picks up the tail and slowly pulls it and then -- he wakes

him up. okay. kruk na [music] [applause]

>> so was that at all like a movie? >> was it a story? >> yeah. you can tell stories with dance. did you know that? if i was going to tell you about something else, this dance evolved in the courts where kings and queens enjoyed the dance. she will tell you a little about this right now.

i will be back. >> all right. our next scene is going to move us from story telling that took place during the hindu temples and india into the mogel time in india this come from hindu and western cultures brought together. when the mogels came from persia to north india they saw the story telling and thought it was a beautiful art form. they were not engaged with the story but saw the beauty in the footwork and hand movement. they brought the dancers into their courts.

they were a form of entertainment. so, i want you to put your imagination caps on. we will go from the forest into a beautiful mogel palace. there are velvet carpets and peacocks walking around. there are beautiful paintings and everyone all of you, the audience have come to enjoy the court and the king sits on his thrown in the corner twirling his mustache and he called for his dancers and they come to the room. you are here to be entertained by them. this is called taught. taught is a highly stylized tuning of the mind and body together. you will see very fast turns ending in sharp stances and things with our eyes and eye brows and our