Category: Events

Spring

Since spring is now officially here, I wrote a poem about it. This is a sestina, made up of 6 stanzas, each stanza ending with the same words in different orders. I hope you enjoy!

It’s spring again
The flowers bloom, the birds chirp
Rain patters on the windows
The season of life,
that’s what spring is known for
beauty, not just in the eye of the beholder, but everywhere

The greenest trees, everywhere
Saturated by the rain again
whimsy bleeds through for
just a moment, as the chirp
of new life 
echoes outside the windows

The spring breeze, crisp, clean, wafts through the window
And for a second, everywhere
is united, under the life
and love of a new spring again,
where the buzz and chirp
just signify the land we all live for

Spring is cleansing, for
finally there are no cold gusts against the window
just the melodic chirp
that echoes from everywhere
Yes, beginning a new season again
truly brings some kind of life

And everywhere you see, the earth erupts with life
with no concession for
the ones who wish for winter again
The pollen will still coat your window,
maybe it gets everywhere,
but that is just the price to pay for another chirp

Life grows anew when you hear that tiny chirp
proof that spring brings life,
that spring brings joy everywhere
not just for one, but for
all, so open your window
and embrace the magic of spring come again

When you hear the first chirps of the season, winter is done for
Life blooms outside the windows 
and everywhere is bathed in the light of spring again

Golu

Recently, I went to view the temple’s Golu for Navaratri. Golu is described as a doll festival, where households arrange religious dolls on an odd number of steps. It’s one of the ways Navaratri, or 9 nights, is celebrated. Navaratri seeks to honor the goddesses- specifically Shailaputri, Bhramacharini, Chandraghanta, Kushmanda, Skandamata, Katyayani, Mahagauri, and Siddhidatri.

Throughout the nine nights of Navaratri, many classical performances are held with songs and dances centering around the above goddesses, or any female ones. This year, I performed Amba Shambavi, an item on Devi.

Being in a Production

Recently, I was part of a production of Kannagi, a classic Indian myth. I was part of the ensemble, playing small roles here and there, such as Kannagi’s friends in one section, or personifying bad luck in another. The entire production was around 18 minutes long, therefore being a shortened version of the story.

In the story, Kannagi meets Kovalan, a merchant, and the two fall in love and get married. However, when out on a trip, Kovalan meets the dancer Madhavi and spends all his money on her. Kannagi forgives Kovalan and gives him her anklet to trade and get money for. However, when he tries to get it sold, the jeweler charges him with the theft of the queen’s anklet, which had been missing and looked like Kannagi’s anklet. The king, normally just, orders the execution of Kovalan. When Kannagi hears of this, she is furious, opening up her anklet to prove that, unlike the queen’s, hers has rubies inside. She curses the city of Madurai to burn and becomes a goddess.

In our production, we played the role of Kannagi’s friends, dancing with her when she was joyous and celebrating the wedding, the role of bad luck, chasing Kovalan when he goes to sell the anklet, the role of soldiers, killing Kovalan, and the role of fire, showing the city burning down.

We learned this entire item in a week and I had class most days- Sunday, Monday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, and Saturday- leading up to the performance (Sunday the 8th). We learned the item in the first 4 days, using the last 2 as days to review and clean up the dance. Often, classes were 2 hours long including time to choreograph and practice.

The dance itself was a mix of styles from Southern India as the story originated from there. This included Bharatnatyam (Tamil Nadu), Mohiniyattam (Kerala), and Kathakali influences (Kerala).

During this time, I had the misfortune of injuring both my knee and my ankle. We made sure to order braces as soon as possible, hoping to alleviate the pain. Luckily, the braces did help, providing support for both areas and allowing me to continue to dance while still “resting” my leg. I wasn’t able to properly rest it with all the classes, but over time, as I continued to use the braces, the pain faded, though still there. For the final performance, I did end up wearing the knee brace.

While the performance wasn’t perfect, I was proud of what we’d learned and performed, especially at how emotional and powerful it was. It was an amazing item and I really enjoyed it and hope to learn something like it again.

The Summoning

I wrote this short story based on the prompt “Start your story with people arriving at a special ceremony”. I hope you enjoy!

Suspicious glances were thrown around the circle as everyone lined up in order. For a good reason, really. If anyone had caught word that they were here, that the ten people currently holding hands, cloak hoods drawn securely over their faces were traitors to the king, traitors to the country they stood for, well, there was no doubt. They’d surely be dead in a matter of seconds. No matter that the queen had called them there or that each of them were high advisors of the court. No, no matter their status, their heads would be adorning the wall the next day. A warning more than anything, proof that their king was all-mighty and to be respected.
In unison, the ten gathered around the fire, dropping each other’s hands and pulling out their letters. The queen had hand-written each one on the palace’s finest stationery, the cursive loops elegant, fitting of a queen. A quick glance wouldn’t procure anything out of place, no, everything would seem just as it should be. But reading the letter, even holding it, would be the worst form of treachery- conspiring against the king.
The letter was short, to the point: “Meet tomorrow. 11 pm. Summon whatever you must. Rid this city of my husband.” With practiced ease, as ten hands flung the letter into the fire, watching as the flames greedily gobbled up the parchment, the only remnant, ashes.
A figure stepped forward, the unofficial leader of the night. It was understood, without saying a word, that this was the spellcaster. The one who would be doing the summoning. They withdrew a handful of salt, tossing into the fire, chanting the words written oh-so-carefully on the back of the parchment. They were memorized to a T, their ancient words slipping off their tongue in practiced fashion.
Soon enough, a figure began to rise from the center, its body seemingly forming from nothing, the mist coalescing into a ragged shape of a figure. Its voice roared around the open field, more than one person clasping their hands over their ears.
“Who dares summon me to your pitiful excuse of a realm?” Looking around to see cowering figures, the brute smiled- a terrifying, ghastly smile, but a smile all the time, “Ah. I see. What a bunch of cowards.”
With a sweep of its arm, the pasture was set ablaze, the screams of the cloaked figures just white noise to its ears. It didn’t take long for the fire to spread, to burn throughout the town, to run up the buildings. A proclamation of chaos, a foreshadowing of death.
That was the last sight to many- a city on fire, the smoke choking the sky, the fumes thick and stifling. Within a few hours, it was all gone. The city was burnt to ashes. The ritual hadn’t gone exactly as planned, but, well, it had worked. The king was dead. Long live the queen.

Odissi

Recently, I watched an Odissi performance by Ms. Arushi Mudgal. Her performance was based around a theme of Aikya, unity. I really enjoyed watching her dance, along with her live orchestra. There was someone playing mridangam, the dancer’s sister who sang and did nattuvangam, another singer, and a flutist.
The dancer performed an invocatory item, then a Parvati Lasyam, which was about Shiva noticing Parvati dancing and how she lights up the world.
Next, she performed a story about Radha and Krishna. The dance illustrated the story of Radha dressing up as Krishna and asking Krisha to dress up as her too. She becomes so immersed in her role as Krishna that she goes to the village and call out for Radha, her friend. This item had more abhinaya and I really liked the details.
Her next item was a pallavi, a full nritta item (in Odissi), about the joy of dance. I really enjoyed watching her dance! I noticed that there wasn’t a lot of aramandi used in her dance. She used a step like Lolita (from Mohiniattam) in this item.
Then, she performed a full abhinaya item about a hero leaving a naiyaka. She interpreted it as a soul leaving a body when the body is on the cusp of death. I really enjoyed this interpretation!
Her second to last item was once again about Radha and Krishna, but it was a more fun item where Radha is telling her friends about an encounter she had with Krishna. I really enjoyed the playfulness of this item.
This performance happened at the Match theater!

Misery- Our Winter Play

The set for Misery!

For the past month or so, my school’s theater program has been working on the winter play- Misery by Stephen King. While I wasn’t involved in the play- either tech or acting wise- I did go see it recently and I really enjoyed it!

Misery is a play about an author named Paul Sheldon, who is famous for his Misery series, and his “number 1 fan”, Annie Wilkes. As Paul is driving back to New York, a storm hits and he is luckily saved by Annie. However, as he recovers, he starts to see the true side of Annie-someone who is prone to dangerous mood swings and wants him to stay with her forever. The play ends with Paul eventually killing Annie to make it back to his life as an author. However, she keeps haunting him, telling him how she’s his “number 1 fan”.

I loved watching the play, especially with how well done the tech was, especially the set and lighting!

A Streetcar Named Desire

Our final set which we had for performances.

Our theater program has been working on creating an adaptation of A Streetcar Named Desire for the past 2 months. I’ve been on tech, specifically lighting- working on focusing lights, building an LED sign, wiring lights together, and so much more. Other departments were tasked with as much, if not more work-set built a platform and a balcony, scenic painted said platform, costumes sewed and bought outfits for everyone (and as the main characters each had a new costume or costume piece per scene, there was a lot to do), props provided the handheld items, and sound found and assembled what was needed for the show. It took all of us working together to create something as amazing as we did.

We performed the last two weekends- the 3rd, 4th, 10th and 11th. Adding on to these scheduled evening shows, we added on an afternoon show on both Wednesday and Friday. All of our shows were sold out which was amaing!

It was really cool to be able to see the show come together. As I was on tech, I never really got to see what the actors did and vice versa. I remember the first time we got the actors to practice on the actual stage and the way that the play started to come to life then. We were able to go from just an idea on paper to a real life set and show, which was an incredible rewarding process

Our original set plan- we designed our set based off of this plan.

Recently, on Tuesday, we had our strike, which was when all the set was “knocked down” and taken down. For me, on lighting, this involved removing LED tape, taking down our fluorescents, taking down the sidelights (lights that shone from the wings of the stage) from the trusses, then removing the trusses themself. Other jobs included removing our balcony, removing the tarp and dirt from the stage, and organizing the piles of wood, tape, and nails. Currently, the stage is almost restored to its original look.

I definitely enjoyed my experience with theater this year and I definitely hope to continue in the coming years of high school!

The Upcoming School Year

Soon, in a week, I’m about to start high school! I’m pretty nervous, but I’m excited too, because this is a totally new experience.

This year, I’m taking my first AP class- AP Human Geography. AP classes are college-level classes, where the work load is higher and so is the material you learn.
Other classes I’m taking include Biology, English 1, Spanish 2, Algebra 2, PE, and Theater. I’m super excited to see my new school and start these classes and see what high school is like.

Over the summer, I’ve been completing the summer work required of us. This ranged from reading a specific dystopian book (English) to reviewing important landmarks (AP Human Geo). I’ve learned a lot from the work we’ve been told to do and I can’t wait to get back in a classroom and apply it.

Overall, I’m excited for this new experience and I know I will fully commit to it and do my best everyday. What was your high school experience like?

Crafts Over the Summer

This summer, in India, I’ve done a lot of crafts. These range from painting, to crochet, to embroidery, to balloon animals. They’ve all been a ton of fun and so I thought I’d go in detail about some of the fun things I’ve done this year.

Crochet:

I started learning how to crochet from my great-grandmother, who is a pro at it! We started small, with chains, then rubber bands, flowers, stars, and worked up to super cute bear keychains! I’m really proud of how much I’ve been able to learn in these 2 months.

Painting:

Using paints from my aunt, I first started painting in a coloring book. Currently, I’m working on a sunflower painting, but flipping the colors to their complementary versions (yellow is purple, green is red, etc.). I also painted a t-shirt using fabric paints! (also from my aunt).

PAPERCRAFTS:

Papercrafts are these dolls you can make! A game that I enjoy a lot- Project Sekai- offers up templates for these papercrafts for free, so I got to make a lot this summer! (8 in total).

Embroidery:

I started an embroidery project this summer, using a kit! I’d never really done embroidery before, but using instructions from my grandmother, I was really proud of the end product!

Balloon Animals:

This summer, I bought a balloon making kit. I learned how to make a balloon dog and balloon flowers! I got really good at making them and I still have a bunch of balloons left so I can’t want to keep making more.

What’s your favorite craft?

Mid Year Dance Festival

Recently, I went to see Chennai Music Academy’s Mid Year Dance Festival. I went on the second day and watched both Lekha Prasad (disciple of Guru Priya Murle) and P.V. Adithya (disciple of Guru Sudharani Raghunathy) perform a 4 item margam consisting of a varnam and a thillana, the other two items being unique to the performer. I enjoyed both dances immensely, especially with the more intimate area, with a smaller stage and a live orchestra.


The first dancer, Lekha Prasad, started off with an invocatory item composed by Chirumanavoor Muniswamy Mudaliar. Next, she performed a 45-50 minute varnam called Sami nee Rammana Ve composed by Tanjore Ponnayya. Her aadavus were clean and I especially liked how she used her eyes in the abhinaya sections. Her poses were also well done and were once again, clean. Her angashruti was really good. After this, she performed an Ashtapadi- Yahi Madhava- composed by Jayadeva, then ended with a thillana composed by the Tanjore Quartet. I enjoyed her performance a lot.


Next was a performance by P.V. Adithya. He started off with a Kriti composed by Mysore Vasudevachar, in which his angashruti shone. Next was a 50 minute Varnam- Sami ninne kori- composed by the Tanjore Quartet. I really enjoyed his aadavus, as they were crisp and clear. Each aadvu was completed fully and even the faster speeds were clear. I also enjoyed his abhinaya.
In conclusion, I really enjoyed the performances from the Chennai Music Academy. They were both well put together and presented and I am incredibly glad I was able to see these performances!