"Bhaavaarpanam" - an expression of devotion to Mangudi Dorairaja Iyer - was the culmination of over six months of planning and organizing.

The initial idea for 'Bhavaarpaarnam' came into being on a journey to Kerala, during a conversation with dance critic, Nandini Ramani about Guru Mangudi Dorairaja Iyer.

Taking the cue that the advice was directly from the 'Spirit of Dorairaja Iyer', the work for the celebrations began.

The thought that it had to be conducted as a two-day celebration was conceived when I discussed this at length.

Once a decision was taken on the function as a two-day event the hurdle of financing the function came up. At this juncture the parents of the students stepped in. They whole-heartedly supported the idea of celebrating the centenary and offered to help through contributions and sponsorships but for which we would not have had the heart to go forward. Once the hurdle of finance was dwarfed the next task was the formation of the council of advisors.

We requested Smt. Leela Sekhar, Advisory Council Member, IDA to be chairman of the council of advisors of our committee. We then approached Sri. Adyar Lakshman, Sri. Narasimhachari, Smt. Nandini Ramani and Smt. Revathi Sankaran to be on the advisory council and they readaily accepted.

The next step was to decide the format of the two-day celebration. It was strongly felt that prominence should be given to dancers other than those of Kalasadhanalaya, to give the celebration a wider scope.

The programme was to begin with "Pranaamam" a feature on the mridangam by D.A.Srinivas, a salutation to Guru Mangudi Dorairaja Iyer, followed by Suddha Nrittam.

A dance drama Thyagesar Kuravanji featuring Roja Kannan and Urmila Satyanarayanan , directed by Smt. Nandhini Ramani was finalized for the first day. Similarly, for the second day Meenakshi Chittaranjan, Priya Govindh Sheejith Krishna and Parvathi Ravi Ghantasala were requested to perform and they accepted.

Nirupama and Rajendra, Kathak dancers from Bangalore with whom I had performed on an earlier occasion for I.D.A. also accepted to perform.

Click here for schedule of Nirupama and Rajendra's tour of the US

We also decided to honour patrons of art, musicologists, eminent people in the art field and senior disciples of Guru Mangudi Dorairaja Iyer. After lengthy deliberations the 'honour list' was decided.

Critic Sri.Subbudu, who was a good friend of Guru Mangudi Dorairaja Iyer and had worked with him at the Gemini Studio, readily accepted. But, he could not attend the function due to ill health.

All the others - Sri Yegnaraman, Sri. R. Krishnaswamy, Sri. Pattabhiraman, Smt. Y.G.Parthasarathy, Ms. Darshana Jhaveri, Sri. R.Rajagopal, Sri. T. S. Parthasarathy and Sri. Emberumannar Chetty, accepted to participate spontaneously.

Ms. Darshana Jhaveri from Bombay, an internationally renowned Manipuri dancer immediately accepted to perform at the festival.

A morning session was planned, with the video presentation of Thirugnana Sambandar produced by Sri. N.Mahalingam and Intelivision Ltd.

We then had to decide on the chief guests. We requested Sri. T.T.Vasu, President, The Music Academy to inaugurate the function and dignitaries like Hon'ble Justice Sri K.S.Bhaktavatsalam, Sri. Sebaratnam, Dr. V. Chandrasekharan, Dr. N.Mahalingam and Sri. V.P.Dhananjayan agreed to participate.

We looked into the various areas that had to be addressed - Stage, backstage, mementoes, logistics, lunch, reception of artists, invitations and brochures (designing and printing), sponsorship collection, master of ceremonies, etc. <>Various subcommittees were formed, comprising students and parents and to look into a specific area of work.

As the day drew closer all arrangements were reviewed and the last two weeks was a constant 'Plan - do - check - act' cycle on a day-to-day basis.

On the whole it was a terrific team effort, which culminated in the event - "Bhaaavaarpanam"- It was the spirit of guru Dorairaja Iyer that conceived the show, planned it, executed it and concluded it. All of us were but instruments in the hands of the divine.