salangai pujai

Years of learning dance under a guru has to culminate in the public performance which is to be taken up in stages lest the artist gets consious of the stage and the audience and fails to do justice to the rigorous training received.

Salangai pujai is an etheral experience which only the budding artist would be able to relate to even though it is also an event when everyone from the family and close friends would be able to appreciate and experience the dance talent that would emnate from the frail petite soul whom they had always known as their sweet little baby.

This one is about one such sweet one Bala our neice and an iconic representation of the youth brought up independently in a traditional family unit of the ultra conservative Chennai environ.

The day was August 30 and the stage was set in Kareeneswara temple saidapet and the crowd was mostly from the near and dear of bala and her friends who were to don the salangai--the cluster of jingles which should rhythemically resonate with the feet and also sound as a warning in case of any aberration in step, the ultimate standard for dance. The tension was palpable and everything was going blank and the cacopony of voices stopped registering after some time as the three youngsters (Bala of course and her friends Swati and Jayashree) could think only of the mistakes that they could commit this evening! It is amazing that human mind just before undertaking a big task after considerable training always look at the fault lines and not the powerlines until the start of the job and after which no looking back, which is precisely what happened on this stage that evening hour.

The stage was a challenge as it was uneven and even had a gaping hole in the front which had to be factored in as the evening wore on. It was pushpanjali or the shower of flowers to the Nataraja followed by propiation of Ganesha through Ganapati Gauthuvam and the sublime alarippu the most beautiful expression of Bharatanatyam whence the beauty of the dancer would blossom forth, followed by the highly energetic jathiswaram and rounded up by Sabdam. Two quick padams followed winding up the show.

The show got over and phew, Bala has passed the first test before the audience though she says not to her desire. The next big one is there where she would go solo which is called Arangerram (Arangu means stage and Erram means performance) which is slated for July. See you there.