He was there. As was Kamala ('Baby' Kamala) to cheer for her sister Rhadha, the guru to be honoured with the 'Aacharya Choodamani' title.
The other awardee, Shobana ( given the 'Nritya Choodamani' title) , was fidgety and somewhat tense. Butterflies on an evening to remember?
The swamiji hit the philosophical phrases often in his speech but wandered. Opening evenings need to be rousing affairs. This wasn't.
Writer and arts consultant Sujatha Vijayaraghavan, a guest on stage, mined guru Rhadha's career and her character. "She is at her class from 9 am to 9pm with a break for lunch," said Sujatha. "And she gives so much time to freshers because she wants them to have a good foundation."
Shobana is used to responding to titles at such functions. She has done them more often at the National awards for cinema.
She recalled her first recital 20 years ago at the sabha, at a time when people turned a nose at film stars who also performed classical dance. And she had warm words for her students and well-wishers who had helped her realise a project - have her own dance studio in the city.
The Shobana sishyas and fan club was in full strength this evening. And when it was all over on stage, they had gifts and flowers for their guru.
Rhada had all the well known dance gurus around her - Padma Subrahmanyam, Prof. C. V. Chandrasekar, Sarada Hoffman, Prof. Jayalakshmi.
Dancer Bharathi Shivaji, the convenor of this year's Natya Kala Conference, presented the programme themed 'Sangeetham in Dance', a subject she said she chose when she began to explore it in the dance forms of Kerala.
The hall emptied after the function. Three dozen rasikas sat back to watch Poornima Ashok Kumar, sishya of Anandha Shankar Jayant, perform on stage.
P. S. : The khicchidi at the canteen here is great. The supervisor promises more goodies once the fest warms up.
>> Enjoy pictures taken at this event. Click here.
>> Get ringside view of video excerpts of this event - Click here.
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