The Road from Bombay: Memories of an Indian Childhood at Settle Stories

Giggleswick’s own Sita Brand has been making stories happen in Settle and beyond for almost ten years through her work with arts charity Settle Stories. This month in Settle, she will be treading the boards once again and sharing her own personal story before hitting the road with a tour of the north.

Sita’s storytelling performance is heartwarming. Born in Bombay, she lived in India until she was fifteen, facing all the usual challenges of growing up. In the show she transports her audience to this dusty, crowded and vibrant world and shares traditional Indian folktales from her childhood. Lighthearted tales soon give way to darker, more painful memories - including her father’s gruelling exodus from Burma at the onset of World War Two, and the Indian Emergency of 1975 which precipitated the need for Sita and her family to leave India for Britain:

We lost all our rights - there was no free press, there was no freedom of religion, there was no freedom of movement and there was no freedom of speech. That was a formative time in my life.

After moving to the UK, Sita lived in Scotland for a while, but decided to make Craven her home after visiting close family friend Barbara Bowman in Settle and falling in love with the area:

I just knew I wanted to live here; I loved the landscape with its hills and managed to persuade my husband, Graham, to 'up sticks' and move to Giggleswick.

Sita is reviving a storytelling performance she first shared in Settle back in 2015. Local audiences can enjoy the show at Settle Stories venue, the Joinery, as part of the arts organisation's Autumn/Winter season of events, before it takes to the road to Wakefield, Lytham St. Annes and Huddersfield.



Memories of an Indian Childhood – The Joinery, Settle. Sunday 20th October at 3pm.

Further information/tickets: www.settlestories.org.uk/memories-of-an-indian-childhood-19 or call 05603 845693