This weekend we celebrated India's 61st birthday !
On Saturday Mandir (temple) organized 'Swatantra Divas Mela'. A lot of us were in the spirit with Tri -color clothing and waving Indian flags. It floors me how the volunteers step up to make events such as these a great platform for bringing people together on a land which we have made our home. Amidst food, fun and cultural performances there ran a thread through all of us. People who did not know each other still said ,'happy independence day'. My favorite part as always was to watch cultural performances. As I sat with Avi and Neev and enjoyed the dance performances , a part of my mind raced back in time. Every Independence day, Republic day, School function was an opportunity to perform - folk dances and skits were my favorite and also my forte. I do not remember being an audience in any of the events from school to college. I was up there .....and I remember enjoying it .....immensely. Being on the other side is also fun when all you need to do is relax and enjoy and that's exactly what we did. Overall, it was a fun fiesta at Mandir !
On Sunday we were invited to join Mr. Harry Sidhu, councilman for city of Anaheim to celebrate India's birthday at his elegant old Yorba estate. This evening turned out to be a real treat. My only disappointment was forgetting my camera. As we entered the huge gate guarding his sprawling bungalow, Avi was quick to spot the enormous statues of Dinosaur, Elephant & Giraffe in the driveway. We were led to a big , open area in front of the house where the stage was set up. The whole area was elegantly decorated with Indian theme, tiles with Rajsthani art influence and cushions with batik and tie & dye prints. Something I could not get over was the view of Riverside from there . His house sat on the top of the hill so the whole city was in view. It looked beautiful in the backdrop of Sunset. The ceremony started with the guard of honor to the flags of America and India followed by national anthems of both countries. The councilman delivered a speech honoring our birth nation. The unforgettable part for me and most other people was a performance by 6 very talented girls. They performed the classical form of dancing 'Bhartnatyam' and the theme of the dance was 'Pushpanjali' (opening of the Lotus flower and offering it to The Divine). The girls rocked. It was a 20 minute performance and they did a lovely job of not letting their breathlessness show under their graceful gait and charming smiles. Their costumes, makeup and jewelery ...everything was flawlessly co-ordinated and their talent, admirable. I should mention that equal credit is placed to their Guru, whose calm and eloquent description was just as bit impressive as the jiggle of her student's ghungroo clad feet. It won't be an exaggeration on my part to say that this was one of the best 'Bharatnatyam' performance I had seen so far. To some, it was a show that they enjoyed , to me it was one of the things that make me proud , to be able to say, "that, my friend is a glimpse of India's cultural grandeur for you" !
2 comments:
hey neels.. if anyone wants to endorse ur craze for dance, i think there is noone better than me... i knw it rather too well...
btw, just noted a small thing.. did u mean to write birthday of india's independence? coz its not techncially india's bday on 15th august..
Thx Gauri - I still remember our encore performance on 'reshamm....' and all those dance parties and discos. Man, that sometimes feels like another lifetime.
Yes, I meant the independence day as India's birthday. Its my opinion that a new nation was born that day on a subcontinent ripped apart by a bloody partition and wreckage of British Raj.
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