Today was the inaugural day of the Sanskriti Arts Festival at Thane Upvan and the ALAP Kathak Ensemble was given a wonderful platform to present Gazals on the Virasat Stage. I was joined by graceful ladies Trupti Chiwukula, Gayatri Bhat, Tejas Desai, Manisha Jeet and Paullumi Mukheerjee in presenting the different hues of love. Post performance, when hunger struck we wandered onto the upvan lake promenade and as we were eating, suddenly drifted to us the sound of one of my favourite songs 'Chowdhary' by Mame Khan. He was performing at the Tarang Stage and we finished our food and rushed to hear him. As we were swaying to his songs, he suddenly called on our group as he spotted from the stage that kathak dancers had wandered into the second row ( some of us still in costume ) . He invited us to come dance to to his laal meri followed by chhap tilak. Coincidentally chhap tilak was the closing piece of our kathak performance earlier in the evening. It was as if a greater divine force had conspired to bring us to that moment , unknown to us. As all of us danced away in uninhibited happiness ( Mame Khan ji being a total favourite among all of us) It was truly apparent that all we need is to dance ( taking a cute from the hit western number all I need is love).
Its moments like these that make all the hard work , pain and tears that go behind a performance , just evaporate into thin air and we reconnect with the reason we all began dance- just for simple undiluted joy! Leaving you with a small clip that was sent to us by an audience member who captured us in those wonderful moments...
