“I was married off at a very young age, right in the middle of my college. So after marriage, I completed my graduation and masters and joined as a teacher at Lady Sivaswami School, Mylapore. Here, I would like to say I fulfilled all my wishes through my students.

I trained them in many arts and cultural activities and led them to so many competitions where they won prizes. It eventually led me to relook at my own personal interests as I had overlooked them by prioritising my students. So I went to my old childhood passion to learn Bharathanatyam.

I started learning at the age of 20, immediately after my marriage and between kids and family responsibilities and a full time demanding job, I couldn’t continue at a stretch but my dream was realised in my 40th year when I went onto the stage to give my arangetram.

My students who always look up to me, were there at my event helping me change into clothes and also helping me with my makeup! Life comes full circle they say and that day, I realised what it actually meant to have them help me get on stage to realise my dream.

In my honest opinion, one should always prioritize the journey rather than the destination. Winning or losing is never in our hands but we owe it to ourselves to give it our honest shot. My dream next is to learn Carnatic music and to take Bharatanatyam to each and every kid in this world.

We are often bogged down by different burdens that are enforced upon us so I want to make sure that no kid is denied the opportunity to learn the art. They can learn for a minimal to no charge from me and I would be happy to teach them nevertheless.

In all of this, it is worthy to mention that my husband has been of instrumental support to me and also my Bharatanatyam guru, whose immense faith in me helped me scale the unimaginable. Onto the next milestone, I tread forward with faith and hope.”