“The journey from a middle-class household in Pondicherry to the New York University and the Cannes Film Festival was a long and arduous journey but the universe conspired to make it happen!
Around the age of 9, I was taken out of my Bharatanatyam dance classes. Despite my many protests to pursue art, I was so deeply passionate about, my pleas fell on deaf ears. And, it wouldn’t be until I turned 28 that life would take a turn for the best but the years that followed my 9th year on this earth, flowed by as though out of force.
Around the time at my third company, I met my husband who’s family, values, and integrity molded me into the person that I am today. We met under strange circumstances and our marriage was spontaneous, but the life it bestowed me with is something I never deemed possible.
The first year, I was made to do the very basic Adavus. It was a testing period, for someone who was as old as me to be made to practice a move for a whole year, but I enjoyed the result of that in the coming years. Extremely grateful to my Guru for not giving up on me. I was horrible throughout that phase. But things change and the genes which remained dormant for years suddenly woke up in the light of continuous Sadhana.
I gave my Arangetram when I was 31, in the third year of my re-commencement into Art and soon after that enrolled for a full-time Masters in the Performing Arts program. Missing a close chance of being selected as one of the exchange students in a very well reputed International University because of my age, I set my vision and goals to delve into a stream that was not thought of. I decided to look at other streams of art instead of confining myself to the one I was practicing. This took me to New York University’ Tisch School of Arts, undoubtedly a place that has re-oriented me to my Life’s purpose.
Right from the SOP to the research paper, I drew inspiration from every incident in my life and I was selected to get into their performing arts program. For someone who had battled insecurity all through her life, this was life-changing! What followed were intense periods of utmost difficulty to get the necessary loans and papers processed for school but yet, the universe made it happen. I would even go on to film a three-minute cinema on my mobile which would be shortlisted to be screened in the Cannes film festival winning the 6th position globally.
I may have been thankful for a lot of things in this life but most of all, I am utmost grateful for the family I married into. The respect and the compassion of my husband, father-in-law, and uncle led me to believe in myself and that in turn, helped me travel halfway across the world to pursue my dream. What the three-year-old me failed to understand, I now see with utmost clarity and faith – believe, and it will happen! I am completely convinced into believing that all that takes to change the world is unconditional compassion. It is really hard to do endlessly for a person without expecting anything in return. But this trait (which Krishna mentions in the Bhagavad Gita) through my Men, is what has made me a woman that I am today.”
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