ponders...

three years back on this very same day, was my big day. my arangetram. what do i remember of it? lets see..

1. practices.
starting early morning. i would walk around the lake/park to get ready mentally for the day ahead. rehearsal by myself with recorded music would start at 9. then on alternate 2 days, Jaya akka or Guna anna would come and watch (i suspect they came to keep me company) then sometimes, i would have morning rehearsal with my musicians (BAVANI, JAYA KA, MASTER). Break for lunch. Rest for abit. start on mym own at 3.30 again. an hour or so of that, then rest up again. around 7 i would get ready for rehearsal with the full orchestra (bavani, jaya ka, master, thava anna, shashi anna & arun). that would usually take about 2 hours. sometimes i would take class. but i always went home not earlier than 9pm.

2. people

master - was constantly there. was it scary? no. was it stressful? hell yeah! more than everything, it was soothing. i would dance better when he was around. a few words of praise would keep me pumped for days. i think he somehow could sense my wanting. so he was generous with it, more than i've ever seen before. times i would would never ever forget. those are times he'd given solely to me.

musicians - never had any problems with them. they came, they did their thing, played/sang full heartedly, blessed and came again for me. i would like to think that anyway! =)

mom - as usual she was silently doing her part. she let me be and she knew that i needed the space to walk on my own without external disturbance. to think about it now, the whole thing feels like i was on a pilgrimage. being the lively person that she is, she in a way did the socializing and marketing that i needed to do, for me. not in a typical 'my daughter's show is coming up so pls come' but elegantly..

aunty uma - now i have to mention this lady. she was the producer for Sutra until some years back. and she was Darn good at it. so once Vid (her daughter) finished her arangetram a year before, talks of mine came up. and she did it like she wud have for vid, maybe more than that. an arangetram is no joke, the expences are equavalent to having a wedding (a big one). but my parents didnt have to put in anything. the sponsors came pouring in. aunty uma one day brought a huge, n i really mean, HUGE box and said i have to finish it all. it was full of food! energy bars, yogurt, nuts, raisins, cookies, chocolates, name it.. it was in there! idea behind this? i was disappearing. i didnt have to worry about a single thing besides my dance. aunty uma, my mom n master took care of it all!

girls - of cos they were there! where else would they be? not because they had to, but because they wanted to. at times when i needed a break, they were always there..to cheer me up and keep me going!! of cos on the day itself i had to just dance n remember my speech!!

3. the repertoire
we usually given repertoires that reflect our personalities.. and until then i hadn't figured out which 'category' i was in.. the graceful kind or the strong kind.. my repertoires? had both.. beautiful beautiful compositions! the more i practised, the more i fell for it.. one wud think it'll be boring if done too many times..

ok i'm sleepy! shall continue some day i feel like reflecting again.

Its June!

May came.. and left. But i had a good summer. a really hot summer but definitely one spent well. Alarippu to Moksha saw yet another smooth-run-well-organised show from Sutra. i was really proud of the Bharata Natyam kids because all that shouting didn't fall on deaf ears! they were good and rose up to the occasion. i suppose all that work and stress was worth it after all!

It felt great to perform with all the girls again! Jan, Nish, Mei Mei, Rathi, Div, Gami, Geethika.. Don't know when that's going to happen again. AtoM also saw Jan's last performance before her voyage. it was an emotional performance for us all. But not the end, not the end!

Odissi by the junior students saw some new talents to look out for. Some coming out really well and overall a happy note to end AtoM 09!

Next 2 weeks of summer was spent with someone very dear to my heart, my love. what did we do? nothing! time was spent talking, cooking, driving, watching some inspiring movies, driving again, more driving, some work, some sorting out, planning, and basically just chilling. i didn't really want to do activities so it was perfect. i do count my blessings for having parents who understand and Karthik's parents too. I'm glad i went. though i should have done it sooner but no regrets. but chennai was hot!!!! so we ran off to Bangalore,Nrityagram and Coorg. that explains the many drives mentioned. met some great people during the road trip. Uncle Ganapathy and Aunty Jemmy. What inspiring lives the live ! at their age,(both in their 60's) they go around kayaking, mountain climbing.. name it la.. so Karthik n i are aiming for that.

aah well, now its back to classes and Sutra and the challenges and friends! the girls(darsh,vini, anu, mich, darshni, karthika) are back for holidays and its time to catch up again!!! can hardly wait! ohh and my final year! but i intend on having fun through it all!