i don't like myself,
That's a joy, that is the secret of my happiness.
there is no room for disappointment
i have no principles, no goals, no intelligence, no wisdom
and no expectations of myself, no ambitions.
am i dead ?
nearly.
The entire human race has been disappointing, that includes saints, gods, philosophers, the wise and the intelligent. i sincerely believe that human race is a big blunder of the process of natural selection. Other species are doing their job well.
We are merrily marching towards extinction.
wait wait, please don't sell all your property and furniture and drink all the money.
Don't worry, i think we have another 500 years.
What has delayed our extinction is the growing love kindness and compassion.
What is speeding up our extinction is our intelligence and wisdom.
Is there any hope ?
There is no hope.
What ever steps we take towards helping the planet to heal itself are thwarted by human intelligence and wisdom. It is the earth which will survive, it is the earth which is going to win.
One thing that has made human race proud is performing arts, you can include, literature, music, arts and crafts and exellence in sports.
Long after we go extinct, after half a million years, the future species will have something nice to say about us humans.
i will not be there to hear that.
This is beautiful VAANMADHI, performing Bharatanatyam, daughter of my very old friend Ramdass.
This post is not about Bharatanatyam.
Welcome dear audience ! Thanks for coming, please sit back and relax
What followed was an inspiring and electrifying performance.
The dance recital begins with a puja, worship of some god or guru
i never liked Bharatanatyam. i was there just because my friend Ramdass invited me. Please believe me, i just wanted to sit for ten minutes, take a few pictures and leave,
but i stayed till the end. It was a stunning performance. The pictures do not show how magical it was.
This is Bharatanatyam for you.
The very format is not very graceful, unlike Indian Kathak or Ballet, which by default are very graceful.
It takes a natural talent like Vaanmadhi to bring grace to any performing art. Very few in Bharatanatyam have been able to achieve it, just a few out of thousands. Many have achieved technical perfection, but failed to make it graceful.
Grace comes from the heart, not from the mind. It is natural, its in the blood,
You have it or you don't.
You cannot learn or practice to be graceful, it cannot be aquired.
By design by default Bharatanatyam is erotic. It is supposed to be. Many would not agree with me, my friends who are in this field would be annoyed with my views,
honestly, i don't care.
what do you know about Bhatatnatyam ?
i don't know anything, i am not a dancer, but i can see the difference.
i don't have to know the details.
It is very very difficult to sit through the entire length of Bharatanatyam recital. Believe me it is very boring, Some dancers are very good in putting you to sleep, with all the noise and thumping. i have seen people blissfully snoring in very noisy concerts.
Its all about expressions, and how you render them, Vaanmadhi's expressions were coming from her heart. There is no hard work. Hard work is a poor substitute for natural talent. Vaanmadhi's expressions were natural, not plastic like the other famous dancers.
You can see the level of comfort on her face, absolutely no strain. Very few are gifted like Vaanmadhi, No need of practice or hardwork, though she has to practice with musicians.
Same goes in the field of sports. Many have achieved greatness with sheer hard work, very few have achieved with natural talent like John McEnroe, Stefan Edberg, poetry in motion, brilliant and graceful, so was the performance of Vaanmadhi, like the magic and grace of Ingrid Bergman, Audrey Hepburn or Gregory Peck.
Its not easy to achieve technical perfection of Pete Sampras, Sachin Tandulkar, it takes years of hardwork and practice,
But its a treat to watch Edwin Moses clearing the hurdles with grace, Strokes of Gundappa Vishwanath, Mohammad Azharuddin, David Gower and Brian Lara. Tiger Woods, Colin Montgomerie.
By design golf is very graceful and it takes a very bad player to make it ungraceful.
Some take their sport to a higher level, like Lance Amstrong, Micheal Jordan, magic Johnson, Karim Abdul Jabbar, Micheal Shumacher, Damon Hill, Emerson Fittipaldi or Ayrton Senna.
Micheal Shumacher does not need a Ferrari, Ferrari needs him to take their sports car to a higher level.
And so did Vaanmadhi, she took Bharatanatyam to a higher level.
Geometrical movements of Bharatanatyam make it boring to watch, here you can see Vaanmathi's hands and body language, she has departed from the usual stiffness of Bharatnatyam, elegance grace and style comes naturally to her. She is in a relaxed mode. performing for herself, no pressure whatsoever, making absolutely no attempt to impress the audience.
Head gear and the jewelry is known as temple jewelry used only in Bharataanatyam,
The tiny bells on the ankles are called Paayal, ghungroo in Hindi and Salangai in Tamil, are used in pretty much all the Indian classical dances
Most of it religious. i think all of it, This is depiction of dancing god Nataraja. Absolutely no strain on her face. Each number is a story from Ramayan or Mahabharat narrated with the help of expressions and hand gestures called mudhras. i am not writing about Bharatanatyam, please check Wikipedia for details.
Look at her face, she doesn't care where she's going to land, blissfully unaware that she is performing to a packed audience who were giving thunderous applause every five minutes.
it was a full house and many had no seats. Sad that i can't post all the pictures. More over i didn't want to waste time taking pictures missing the stunning performance, i was impressed, so were the audience, who gave a standing ovation at the end, i joined them in applause.
The pictures don't show how fast and brilliant the performance was.
Thank you, Thank you, thanks for coming, hope you enjoyed my performance
MERRY CHRISTMAS !
And
MERRY CHRISTMAS from me too, to all my blog friends,
and a very happy new year.
I am sorry it took a while to write a new post. I am fine, i was just lazy, no excuses.
Enjoy the Holidays, Have fun and be good.
i love you all
