Liya Abil Bharathanatyam Arangetram

 As is customary when we are running late for an event, we were in Rally mode. Divya would say move three lanes over to the right, there is a gap there. The horse vision gets a stretch to the right.  We reached the hall late, and Golden Gate Sailing fame Ranjith was there to guide us in. He said walk through the double doors and you won't see anything. Someone guided me into the row seating in the middle of the pitch dark auditorium.  Just as we settled down, it was time for the program interval. 


Caught up with Shaji, Abil, Neenu, Binu, Old Ridgewood neighbors, Ajay (REC), Smitha (Divya's friend), chit chatted, had mango lassi, tea, cutlet, laddoo. Shaji had to leave early and we went back into the hall. 

My seat was at the edge of the row. Liya started performing her bharathanatyam dances, and I noted the synchrony between the song, and her performance. The live performance of the singer, and the violin, and the mridangam were really good. Two songs in, I just had to see the singer. So, I walked and sat on the other edge of the row to a more centered view. The singing was truly phenomenal. And Liya's performance demonstrated a lot of effort, passion, potential and strive. Of course, she is still a high school student, and has not had the time to build her craft to the level that the late middle aged singer has. At the same time, clearly Liya is on track for getting to that level and more. To perform three hours of dancing by herself, to learn all of those pieces amidst all her academic challenges certainly speaks about a lot of passion from her part. I know how hard it can be to get just a verse right, much less a sequence of so many dance performances. 

I have hardly any understanding of Bharathanatyam, and it was an excellent evening for me. The finale performance by Liya where she pays her respects to her guru, and her singers, and the audience, and I did feel my eyes glisten a bit. Post performance speech by Liya's teacher, Neenu's talk were all very heart touching, and very very nicely done. Everything was so well arranged.

Dinner followed the event.  Ample seating and nice food. Bid Abil and Neenu goodbye and drove home with `Enchanting melodies by Chithra` playing in the car. Kudos and good luck to Liya!

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