04 August 2006

Bharatanatyam

One of my passions in life is dance....esp Bharatanatyam..

In my 4th std, one fine day I told my Dad I wanted to study Bharatanatyam. He took me to Kalai Kaveri, the school for cultural arts at Trichy...

I have felt and still feel its one of the few places where I feel happy just being there. It is a big campus with trees all around . You can hear music everywhere and see students dancing. Class rooms designed like huts,love birds, students playing veena and miruthangam, a small lovely chapel inside... much different than a regular black board, rows of benches classrooms.

Apart from dance, punctuality and orderliness were given great importance by teachers. I learnt a whole lot of manners from this school. I craved for Sunday classes where we used to dance under trees and recited slogams....


I studied there for 4 years and though this art could not be learnt in 4 years, I learnt the basics thoroughly...And every day I spent in the school was wonderful ...Every day in the class, we learnt dance with utmost devotion..

One of the fond memories of these days was with my mom. She used to wait for me with my dance uniform and snacks at the dance school everyday while I had to finish my regular school classes and rush for my evening dance classes. We did this five days a week for 4 years and we used to always have this mother-daughter talk while returning back...Just chatting with her all the way back is wonderful if I think about it now.

But after leaving trichy I did not get a chance to continue my quest with Bharatanatyam as I got caught into the higher classes rat-race. Dance slipped out of my routine just like that and would resurface only few days a year in the form of college hostel day parties, office parties etc - not bharathanatyam ;-) Now I am thinking about getting back on my quest for dance.