I counted my years
And realised that I have
Less time to live by,
Than I have lived so far
My time is short:
I want the essence,
my spirit is in a hurry.
I do not have much candy
In the package anymore
Yes, I'm in a hurry.
I'm in a hurry to live what the intensity that only
Maturity can bring.
We have two lives
And the second begins when you realize you
Only have ONE.
- Mario de Andrade
Brazilian poet and novelist
Happy New Year, everyone!
Here we are at the start of yet another year.
A year that brings with it all the hopes and promises of something better and brighter than the year that has just gone by.
Are you looking back at 2024 with gratitude, joy, delight? A twinge of
regret and sadness? Are you a better person today than a year ago? It is
a brand new start and moving beyond resolutions, there are 12 brand new
months to reset, pivot or simply get up, dust the knicks and scratches
off our knees and keep going-dancing!
For me, 2024 has been one of big ups and downs. A broken bone mid year
and weeks of rest put me in a reflective mood about my own journey. It's
been 60 years since my arangetram! How much and how far I have
travelled in my life and art! How many new initiatives, new platforms,
new brands. So perhaps 2024 has rightly been a year of pause, reflection
and perhaps a pivot!
My travels took me to many countries but in December alone I went to
villages, towns, cities, mountains and the seaside. I watched a gamut of
performances - ritual theatre, folk art, mythic plays, classical and
neo classical dance, performance art, film music orchestras,
contemporary dance and, skipping (almost) the entire Chennai Margazhi
season. I felt a huge surge of gratitude for the opportunity to
encounter new cultural experiences while staying curious with a
multitude of questions about walking the creative path.
To take the entire month of December off was always the plan. Knowing
only too well that Chennai would be drowning in too many Bharatanatyam
shows from morning to night, I intentionally planned to turn my lens
onto other kinds of creative endeavours. I wanted to absorb a greater
diversity in arts programming, to personally witness the push of
bristling young minds curating inter-disciplinary events with
courage and bravado - to acknowledge (with a wistful
twinge) the shrinking space for classical dance and to envy
classically trained musicians who are able to easily straddle so many
worlds simultaneously.
Read on....
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Anita Says...by Dr. Anita R Ratnam
anitaratnam.com
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FROM THE ARCHIVES
Interview: Shanta Serbjeet Singh
- Ananda Shankar Jayant
For me, the arts just happened. Not only because my father imported a
music teacher to live in the house and teach classical music and dance
to my two sisters and myself, then a child of six. But because the
template of one's sanskaras is too indelible over many lifetimes to be
denied in the one that is being lived.
Rukku: My mother
- Chitra Visweswaran
She never looked at the half-empty cup, only the half-full... gentle,
soft-spoken, dignified, she was an epitome of inner strength and
spirituality.
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BIRTHDAY WISHES
Vyjayanthi Kashi: Jan 1
Shila Mehta: Jan 1
Anuradha Vikranth: Jan 1
Satyanarayana Raju: Jan 6
Lakshmi Gopalaswamy: Jan 7
Srivatsa Shandilya: Jan 8
Savithri Jagannath Rao: Jan 9
Darshana Jhaveri: Jan 9
Leela Venkataraman: Jan 11
Janaki Srinivasan: Jan 13
Geeta Chandran: Jan 14
Vaibhav Arekar: Jan 21
P Praveen Kumar: Jan 25
Bijayini Satpathy: Jan 26
QUOTE
I'm clear about my choice in life, and it's to make dance and music,
because I believe those things make the world a better place.
- Hofesh Shechter
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