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.