A brand new beginning ... on an auspicious day!

GURU PAURNIMA DAY  19 JULY 2016

This is a new beginning, a restart, a renewal, a reset to zero, a recommencement !

For today I return to Kathak dance, as an active dancer! 

It was time … for too long I had been on the periphery of the Kathak world, attending performances whenever I could, talking endlessly about them when I did, and wishing I were on the other side of the footlights!

I knew, of course, from experience, that the “other side of the footlights” is hallowed space where one may not enter unless a lot of blood, sweat and tears have been expended on riyaaz!

Career obligations and increasing responsibilities meant I could no longer devote time to the practice of Kathak, much less to the performance of this art.

So, now, after triple bypass surgery in February this year, I decided to return to Kathak and hopefully bring myself to performance level before November 2017.

Yes, ambitious, but then I am an extremist in all things, as my friends well know!

So this afternoon, I stood with my eyes closed as the first notes of a nagma came from my speakers. The table throbbed Teental, and I started with the basic tatkaar in Teental – thaay, dugun, chaugun, and athgun in slow, easy progression.

I had of course prayed fervently before I stood up to dance. I recalled the hush before rehearsals began, and the satisfied sighs at their end. I could hear my late Guru, Pandita  Rohini Bhate lead the entire group of dance class students in our Tuesday evening prayer. And I knew I was ready.

I put myself through a series of exercises I had planned – for the wrists, the elbows, the basics that every debutant has to rehearse over many months! All the while, I kept up the tatkaar – thaay, dugun, chaugun –  in successive stages, repeating the pattern randomly.

Then I got more ambitious. I tried a vandana and tried to remember another! And then I stopped to review where I stood at the end of this first, momentous day of my rehearsals!

The positives – my memory is sharp. I remember quite a bit! The basic stances seem not too shabby, the bends etc will be streamlined soon.

The negatives – Diabetes has turned the soles of my feet to mush! Time was when the crack of my feet off the floor was loud and sudden! Now – nothing! Not a sound to be heard!  I lose my balance even at low speeds, and the chakkar were a nightmare! Not pretty to look at, no!

The takeaways – of course there is so much work to be done! A lot of repair, a lot of reconstruction, a lot of review, a lot of recalibration!  But it can and will be done! A bit every day, a chunk each week!

Because, I have some time (till November next year), some leisure (till the end of August before I start my semester), and lots of determination!

Astu!  Ainsi soit-il!