When I turned 40 and had learned Bharatanatyam for about 5 years, I decided to have my Arangetram which was not easy for a working mother of three boys - 15, 9 and 6 years old at the time. I performed in a group with them and had many solo performances too. In fact every step of the way I learnt a lot from the children in my class regardless of age. My reply was that one is never too old when it comes to learning. I still remember once someone asked me how I felt learning dance as a grown up among little girls. Though all of the students were as young as the age of my kids and new to Bharatanatyam, I had joined their group and started learning dance alongside them. I had started taking lessons with Ranjani Saigal, who had just started her dance school and had only a few young students at the time. By then, I really wanted to learn dancing seriously. I loved their outfits, their facial expressions, their hand movements-almost everything about them. I started loving Bharatanatyam performances the most. I had watched some Indian classical dances performed by high school students in my town. What were the challenges when you prepared for your Arangetram? To give her company, I decided to join her and started learning folk dances as well.Ģ) Tell us about your dance journey. As the girl was her teacher’s only student, she wanted someone to learn dance with her. When I was around 35 years old, our family friend’s daughter began to learn Indian folk dance in the same town. While I had been busy taking care of three school-going kids, I never had any time to think about myself. My husband noticed this and asked me if I wanted to learn dance as well. I used to feel sad when I would see people performing dances at parties and I did not partake. I had always enjoyed watching Bollywood movies and listening to Indian music and so the thought of learning dance was always at the back of my mind.

I was living a wonderful life with my husband and became a mother of three handsome boys. I came to USA with my husband after finishing my studies. While finishing my Masters, I had an arranged marriage. I studied diligently and got my Master’s in Operational Research in 1980. I kept my thoughts to myself and continued my education during that time I continued to not share any of my thoughts of learning dance to my parents.

While growing up in India, quite a few times I thought of learning to dance but I knew that my family would not approve of it. My mom was homemaker and my dad was working in a bank. I was born in conservative middle class Punjabi family in Delhi, India.

Indian dance show