Article - The lullaby that awakened - Dr. Lata Surendra

The First Gurus!

'To be is to know that you are not separate, but an ongoing flow of every history gone before.'

My father was the scholar and linguist who awakened me to the magic of words. Through scriptures, chants, and books, he introduced me to friends across epochs. He taught me to romance poets who charmed my soul, and philosophers who silenced the hunger of the dust. In his eyes, I sought to dance past every milestone; he made achievement so effortless that it became a habit. Yet, when I grew too lost in the past, he gently urged, "Close the books now, dear, and read from the pages of life." Growing up under British rule, his accent was flawlessly British - to me, he was simply the ideal, and he was my own.

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Anita says...August 2026

July has been 31 days of ceaseless unrest. Ablaze with arguments and heated rhetoric about issues of representation and race swapping. About translations, cinematic liberty and appropriation. The rumble became a roar with the student unrests in India that started in with a leaked examination paper and the subsequent student protests in New Delhi has rocked the government and the ripples continue as I write this monthly message. 

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Article - My Guru's greatest choreography: An institution that taught me to fall in love - Dr. Amrithasruthi Radhakrishnan

Every Guru Purnima, we celebrate the guru. This year, my gratitude extends beyond my guru to the institution she has cultivated over three decades: Natya Vriksha. I have come to recognise that the greatest choreography of dancer Geeta Chandran (Akka, as generations of us affectionately call her) may not be a work created for the stage at all. It is the institution she has built. To build an institution is among the most demanding acts of artistic practice. Choreographies conclude after the final applause, but institutions demand care every single day.

When I first entered Natya Vriksha as a young student, everyone around me believed I was rolling in a dance school, where I would acquire a vocabulary of movement and, one day, perform. Little did I know that this was where my becoming would quietly unfold. Today, whatever I have become, as a dancer, researcher, a teacher, administrator, and a cultural practitioner, has its roots there. Natya Vriksha gave me ground steady enough to take flight from, and a place to land each time I returned.

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Thoughts of an 82-year-old Kathak dancer: Column by Janaki Patrik

My hair has turned white and I've celebrated my 82nd birthday. It's now patently evident that I've been around for a while! So when young Kathak dancers and their parents discover that I've been a Kathak dancer... student, performer, guru, choreographer... for 60 plus years, they sometimes ask me for advice.

I suppose they expect me to tell them to practice tatkar every day for several hours, followed by an orderly regimen of bol parhant and repetitions of chakkurs, tukras, parans, paramelu, kavita torahs etcetera etcetera etcetera .......

But that's not the advice I give. I speak more about longevity in terms of sustaining our lives as creative artists within a supportive community, and of maintaining the "life of the mind" while sharing what we know and appreciating the gifts of others. 

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Article - Guru Purnima-From darkness to light - Bana Shastri Ramanath

Guru Purnima is a special full moon day that is observed once a year. It is also celebrated to honor the birthday of the ancient enlightened Hindu Guru Veda Vyasa who organized and compiled the Vedas and authored the epic Mahabharatam - an encyclopedia of the ever-evolving human drama. As Guru Purnima approaches, I feel moved to express gratitude to my Gurus, guided by faith and a sense of responsibility shaped by my upbringing in traditional Indian culture. People of Indian heritage around the world celebrate Guru Purnima through rituals, worship, gift-giving, and other expressions of respect. When my own students offer their gratitude and appreciation on this day, I cannot ignore the meaning and significance of Guru Purnima.

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Article - The thirty second sentence, How the 30-second loop is dismantling the Performing Arts - Dr. Lata Surendra

We have reduced the vastness of human expression, the agonizing architecture of art and the very rhythm of life to a fleeting thirty-second glance. In the modern cultural landscape, thirty seconds is no longer a mere unit of time, it is a violent trial. It is the maximum boundary of human attention before the thumb twitches, the screen changes, and the psyche shifts. Yet we wonder why a relentless, automated loop of these same thirty seconds leaves us completely reeled. We are caught in a hypnotic vertigo, spun around by a carousel of fragments that mimic depth but offer only a momentary spark. Time it was, when surrender to the aesthetics cradling art was ever so vital. To watch a classical dancer trace the geometry of grief across a stage; to hear a vocalist hold a single, trembling note until it fractured the silence, or to witness a theatrical monologue build its emotional scaffolding over the course of hours - these required a shared covenant of time. It was absolutely 'a transaction' of presence. Today, that covenant is broken. 

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Article - Guru and Sishya: The sacred bond then and now - Vazhuvoor Saravanan

A Modern Dilemma

A boy known to me was deeply inclined to learn the Veena. After consistent prayers, he found his Guru near Adyar, Chennai. Both considered themselves lucky - the Guru found a devoted disciple, and the sishya a knowledgeable teacher.

However, despite the boy's sincerity and perfect attendance, he soon experienced disheartening neglect. His Guru frequently took long breaks for personal commitments, leaving the student in tears. On one occasion, the boy confirmed his class by phone a day before and again an hour in advance, only to travel to the teacher's house and be turned away at the door by the Guru's husband, who stated she was suffering from a headache and resting. The young boy was shattered - not by the tiring public commute, but by the callous treatment and lack of concern. Today, this mutual loss of respect and devotion between teacher and student has become all too common. 

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