Naked in Eden

"Can you feel it in your bones? I felt like the forest had been awaiting my arrival" says Robin Easton in this true story about her and her husband who decided to go live in the a rainforest in Australia simply to get in touch with life. 

When i read those lines above, i remembered how i felt when i for the very first time in my life stepped into the rainforest at the National Park. While our guide was leading the way explaining something about the rainforest, i stood right in front of a gigantic bunch of bamboos and the beautiful path that so invitingly leads you deeper into the forest. In amazement i was mumbling over and over "oh my God! this is so beautiful!" And he smiled, nodded and coolly said "yes, it is" I was like how could you be so calm about SUCH beauty? Then i realized he has been going up and down that path for 15 years, everyday. It has become his home. He is not breathlessly crammed up in a concrete jungle like the rest of us in KL. No wonder he could be so calm about it! The forest is calm...and it is contagious! Its nothing like the little hills around KL where we go hiking. No this was really home! Every leaf, branch, trunk, flower, root, or fern was old...as old as life! and you could feel it your bones! yes after about 6 years i finally realised that is how i felt, in my bones! Thanks to Robin Easton for putting it precisely in her book, i didnt know how to explain the feeling before this :)

"Life is curious about itself" 

This is another line in the book which made me think. Its so true. We ARE life and yet WE are curious about life. We are looking for ourselves forgetting that WE ARE IT! what is there to look for? We've got to live it and be it. Nothing to look for....chasing our own tails as Osho says :)

 "Aah, the marvels we take for granted. Could you create a living butterfly? Life isnt only intelligent; it's dazzling creative in its self expression"

She says this after witnessing the miracle of a butterfly emerging out of its cocoon. How the very fragile life flutters out beautifully. Yes, do we even think about it as a miracle nowadays! We have take it for granted. But just for one moment pause to think how amazing a butterfly is! 

When the movie Avatar played in the cinemas, i heard some friends saying..."imagine there really was a world like Pandora" And i told them...what is there to imagine? If there really was a world like Pandora we would have gotten used to it and started destroying it just like what we are doing to Earth now. We wouldnt think it was beautiful or amazing or a miracle. If we can take Earth for granted...what difference would a Pandora make!?? 


"Mother nature doesn't judge, that's a human thing"

Yes, and that is why the human species is still surviving. If nature took revenge, we would not be here for we have been the worst pest infecting the surface. Destroying and polluting earth incessantly, and yet we go on wondering why all the chaos. Ever forgiving mother nature is only trying to help by balancing itself everytime we break her, still, if ever she looses her balance it is not her that is in trouble...she will just make adjustments and go on for another billion years. It is US who are in trouble. For we cant live without oksigen, or rain, or clean air or food. If any one of those changes happen...it is us who will be wiped out ...probably making way to a better species who will be intelligent enough to know how not to interfere with nature :)

Anyway, if you love the rainforest, you will love this book. Awesome experiences in the jungle especially the spiritual ones. How she is connected to the trees...the messages she received. The things she learnt about life. Its all inspiring and joyous. 

I sure loved it!! 
  

Went through Hell?

How often have you said or heard others say "I went through hell" or "i am going through hell"?

Just sometime last week, as i was reading a book, suddenly it occurred to me that no one says "I went through heaven" We might say...those were the good old times or those were memorable events or something like that but never that we went through heaven? Why? I questioned myself and an answer did pop up in my head. I decided to post it as my FB status immediately so i wouldn't forget the exact words.

So here it is:

"It is because heaven is always here, right at the center of our being, while hell is only the path to it. Once we reach the center, we stay, theres no going through it anymore. But because many do not recognize the center, they try to make a heaven halfway through hell and then go on wondering why they are not at peace. The trick is this, if you are not at peace then don't stay there. Just keep going. You will know it when you get there."

We have been asking another question for centuries "why do good people suffer while some evil ones seem to be better off in life? Why so unfair? Right?

But out of my own experiences plus some readings i realise that, we will never come out of our comfort zone and enter the path to self discovery if we are not put in trouble! We will be spoilt kids who have everything in life...yes we may live happily ever after and die. But then what? Why were we even here in the first place. We die not knowing head or tail of life. Who we are, what are our strengths, our limits, our capabilities, and above all the breathtaking beauty of life itself. No we would NEVER see it if we lived in our comfort zone all our lives. That is why Hindus call it "Sleeping" because it is like we are sleep walking, living in a dreamworld. Not seeing anything beyond matter. Not seeing ourselves...not feeling how we are throbbing with life. How beautifully connected we are with every atom of the universe. 

Nature does us a favour by throwing a few stones at our sleepy heads. To wake us up. And to SEE what really is going on. But problem comes when we refuse to wake up with the small pebbles, then we are hit with rocks and it gets bigger until we start bleeding These wake up calls become hell and we start wondering why everything is going wrong. 

It doesn't get better until we realise what is really wrong. Its not life that is wrong. It is not the people around us. It is not the place we live, not the weather, not the country, not the government, not the parents. husband or children. No, it is simply ourselves. We are lost. Groping in darkness, hitting ourselves on every wall and pillars and hurting ourselves unnecessarily. As life keep throwing stones at us....suddenly at ONE POINT we wake up! And it leaves us dazed for sometime not so much because we are amazed at what we see but because we can't believe what we have been missing! especially because it is so plain and clear! You don't need any scriptures to tell you what it is. You don't need to attend classes or meditate day and night. No you can see it simply just like that! You either see it or you don't...theres nothing in between! No almost there...or kind of...or on the way. Nope! when you see it ...you see it ALL! 

Some of you maybe asking "what is it that we see?" 

First of all, i SEE why no religion in the world is able to explain LIFE. There is NO possible definition to it. It doesn't even make any sense! But it is just there! And we are IT! 

Then i SEE oneness. No you...no me...no planets...no trees...no moon...sun or anything on its own. No...it is all merged in ONENESS. There are no boundaries...not even individual souls...everything is into everything else. Like ice cubes melting into water.

Then i SEE what controls this ONENESS. The energy called LOVE. Put love into ANYTHING and it grows. Gardening..cooking..music..painting..business..relationships...

The amazingly beautiful secret ingredient to LIFE! 

But you cant love your husband and hate your brother for instance..because that only means you are filled with both love and hatred. The tiniest pinch of hatred within us contaminates all the love we have and creates chaos in our lives. It doesn't get peaceful till we fill every nerve of ourselves with love and nothing but love. I know its easier said then done. Of course, but we can always work on the percentage for a beginning. Love is a stronger energy. A tiny bit of love will take over a large chunk of hatred. Then it spreads itself. 

Then i SEE beauty as a whole. Everything and everyone is beautiful. Everything is a miracle...from bugs to the galaxies, everything is beautiful beyond our imagination. 

Above all i SEE that what we SEE is just a fraction of the never ending mystery of life. Imagine we are ants. Can you explain to an ant how vast this world is! No matter what level of science or religious scriptures you use, no words will make an ant understand how big this universe is for it cant even SEE a full view of a human with its tiny eyes. 

That's exactly how big the TRUTH is to human beings. We cant see it...at least not with naked eyes. And this is where the most beautiful part of being human comes! Nature has given a telescope called the consciousness. The moment we look into it...we get to SEE it ALL! Its like an ant SEEING the universe. Crazy but true!

So getting back to the question. If you went through hell then, try to recognize the place you have ended up in. If it doesn't look like heaven to you, pack up and keep going! Don't dwell in the wrong place for too long. And don't worry about not knowing when you reach the center. YOU WILL KNOW. For you will feel like dancing all day, it will be a different world with NOTHING that you saw before. You WONT and CANT miss it! :D

So, good news IS...going through hell isn't bad after all unless you  stay stuck halfway. So, keep going!! Don't stop no matter what! 

Have faith in life. It always knows the best way!

Meanwhile...stay as cheerful and as happy as possible till it becomes the only reality!

And just in case you are wondering...yes, i went through hell.

Strings Attached

I was at the Big Bad Wolf sales 3 weeks ago....and i was lost the moment i entered the hall as there were thousands of books and i didnt know where to start! After about a minute or two of looking dazed, like a child who had just entered Charlie's chocolate factory, i finally regained consciousness and started looking at the Biographies.  

As i screened through the stacks of books...trying my best not to miss anything interesting hidden behind other books, this particular title caught my attention. "STRINGS ATTACHED" and the cover had an image of violin and a silhouette of a teacher and a young student. Though people say, don't judge a book by its cover, sometimes...covers do matter! Especially when you are having to pick from thousands of books....its the title and the cover which first catches your attention. First it was the image of the violin and the string which got me looking at it since Ive been learning how to play the Indian instrument Sitar for the past few months. So, i picked it out and read the title properly...it said "Strings Attached, One tough teacher and the art of perfection"! Ok now, i was even more interested in this book. Because the first person that came to my mind was not my music teacher but my dance teacher, Ramli Ibrahim from Sutra dance theatre. So, i turned to the back of the book to read the synopsis and it said...

"A Ukrainian-born taskmaster, who yelled, stomped and screamed and who, through sheer force of will, made them better than they had any right to be." 

By now i was like...."ermm...is this really not about Ramli Ibrahim?" hahaha...yeah it sounded so much like him. So in went the book into my trolley. It was the first book i picked out of the 8 books i bought that day :) and it was also the first one i read the moment i got home. 

And when i finished it, i thought ...you CAN sometimes judge a book by its cover :)

I enjoyed every page of it...and it made me realise that Gurus all over the world are just the same. They push their students beyond their limits...till it becomes unbearable for them but those students who are tough enough to endure and move on to continue learning from such gurus definitely become the best performers. Ive seen it happen at Sutra. I truly admire all my seniors there who have endured such discipline and have become tough by the years. And it shows in every production...the absolutely neat performance which comes not only from the endless practices but from the fear of a screaming guru. All senior students in Sutra knows how it feels when master praises them...something which happens SO rarely...you will stand there simply looking at him, too overwhelmed to even say thank you...almost like....ermm... say like how you might feel if you just witnessed the aurora happening right before your eyes! Believe me i am not exaggerating! 

I had the golden opportunity to be part of their major event only once....in 2008 when Sutra Dance Theatre hosted the international odissi festival and i danced at the opening of the event which was held in the Art Gallery of Petronas Twin Tower, KL. What an experience it was! Though the dancing part was joyous, it wasnt easy facing a Guru who roars right into your face! Scary! But then, after the rehearsals, he says to all the students "sometimes i need to push some of you whom i believe is capable of doing better" and i sit there shaken and in the verge of tears but feeling a tiny bit consoled about being screamed at in front of about 50 adults watching you during rehearsal. Yes it wasnt at all easy! And that was just ONCE! ONE beautiful, magical dance moment of my life...and below is a picture my hubby snapped...though not too clear its one of my fav :) And looking at it now..i remember what happened right after the performance. One of our friends who were there watching told me "Your master was standing and watching you as you entered and started dancing" and i froze! i asked her "really! he did that!!" ohh thank God i did not see him....if i had by any chance spotted him while i danced i would have panicked and been frozen just like in the pic below...hahaha. Truly it was by God's grace, i never realised he was watching! ..gosh...those unforgettable and (scary) precious moments :)

But just like how the students of this violin teacher in the book say...such difficult moments somehow eventually toughens you up. You become immune to it, you become stronger, more confident, not only when performing but also in life on the whole! 

Being human, we tend to take things for granted if we are not pushed with such fear. If teachers are too lenient, we decide not to practice and we become lazy. But having to face a tough guru leaves you no choice but to do your best. One day, all such students will thank these tough masters who have shaped their lives! For me, apart from Ramli Ibrahim himself...i have to thank a zillion to my class teacher Tan Mei Mei who assists him. It was because of her, i had the chance to be a part of this event. She really pushed us to finish up the piece which was suppose to be performed at the opening right in time for the audition. Never did i imagine i would have a chance to dance in an international dance festival! It was surely a dream come true!  

So if you want to know....how it is to be a student of a tough teacher....read this book :)

And ohh the other thing i love about the Big Bad Wolf Book Sale is their plastic bags....i usually take my green bags when shopping but this time...i just had to have one of these plastic bags :)

  

The Time Keeper

Ive heard about Mitch Albom and his books for so long but somehow didn't read any of it until last month. But after reading it...especially the part which says "It's never too late or too soon, it is when it is suppose to be"  i realised that now it was time for me to read it. I do believe nothing happens coincidentally. The whole universe is interconnected and is moving in a perfect coordination. So, no chance for accidents!

When i started writing this blog 6 years ago, my inspiration was TIME! Like how we measure everything by putting it in terms of pass, present and future but the only real TIME is always NOW! And what we choose to do right NOW determines what happens in the next moment. And then...all these little "NOWS" form what we call our PAST and eventually we call it LIFE. If you read my tag line for the blog...that's exactly what it says. I remember that was the first ever line i came up with to be written in my blog. But only after 6 years i happen to decide that i would read a book which speaks of TIME in the most interesting way!!

The story was SO interesting that i for the first time in life actually finished a whole book in one sitting! AND theres something else really weird and interesting which happened when i finished the book after 3 hours of reading non-stop. I decided to share about the book on my FB and after posting my message on it i realised that the time was 12.30am! which means i should have finished reading the book around 12.25am!! If you don't see why that's weird......have a look at the picture of the book above. The clock shows 12.26!! Seriously i was shocked! I mean what a coincident....or was it really a coincident?? Or was it a sign / message to prove that TIME is always perfect. Just like how it says in the book "It's never too late or too soon, it is when it is suppose to be" 

The thing is, if we understand that everything happens at the right time, we will not regret our actions in the past. Some mistakes were necessary simply to delay us, so we divert into another dimension of life, guided by all the obstacles we finally reach the place we want to be but we often see the past as mistakes which should have been avoided. But the truth is, without those mistakes we would never get where we got. And once we understand this, we would instantly feel lighter.

I always wondered, how might life be if we never had clocks! And interestingly enough this book is about life when there were no clocks and human beings were not living according to time until this character in the story discovers how the shadows fall on exactly the same spot everyday at certain point, and he started keeping record of it and thus created TIME. The rest of the story is about how he paid for his action for the next few hundred years. How life changed, how people became obsessed with time which eventually led them to stop living altogether. 

We ARE obsessed with time..aren't we?? We eat simply because its lunch time! hungry or not....and we refuse to sleep, if its too early, we have timed ourselves so precisely that actually we have become the clock itself. Our body automatically reacts according to the time we have set for ourselves! Like a robot..

Though its quite impossible to get out of the time frame...we can practice being a little relaxed about it. Ive seen parents stuffing food into the baby's mouth...while they are screaming and refusing to eat...because they believe its time to feed! Poor babies....why is it that we still cant believe that the human body is so natural and all babies would eat when they are hungry. Even a newborn...knows how to cry for milk! So lets not be obsessed with time. Lets just let go a little... and see how the body reacts. And its not only about food or sleeping. Its about everything we do...Feel like watching a movie...go watch...even its 2 am....feel like singing....just sing even if no one is listening. Feel like dancing right after a meal...go on and dance! Just go along with the body and soul and see how much lighter life gets! Lets stop timing ourselves....and others as well! Especially because we already have the most efficient clock working for billions of years....the SUN! Nothing we create can beat its timing...so lets got with it!  :)

And ohh....do read this book!!! its awesome! :D 

The Language of Flowers

Flowers ....the moment we hear the word, we are sure to feel it in our hearts...we may not notice it but it sure happens. That is one reason why we get flowers for almost any occasion, whether happy or sad one, somehow we need flowers. The fragrance, the softness, the colours, and its nature on the whole is something words can never explain. Its a reminder to show the beauty of life can be contained in such delicate petals. And yet, people are never satisfied to see things as it is. We must give it another dimension with our own interpretations and names and meanings and then use it as though we created them in the first place! 

This book, The Language Of Flowers is a novel about an orphan who had the ability to connect to all flowers and was able to help people change their lives by choosing certain flowers for them.

She had a dictionary to learn the flowers names and its meanings as it was recorded since ancient times. Like, Acacia means Secret Love, Aloe means grief, Baby's breath means everlasting love, Basil means hate, Orchid means Refined Beauty, and different colours of roses meaning different things like pink is  Grace, Red is love, yellow is infidelity and the list goes on for hundreds and hundreds of flowers and its colours and meanings. 

Then, in one part of the story, one of her friends explains about the meaning of the quote "A Rose is a rose is a rose" a sentence written by a women named Gertrude Stein in a poem. It simply means things are what they are. What we call it is not going to change the nature of it. 

Made me think, why do we name and interpret everything we see and feel? Cant we just look at it as it is? For example below is a picture of a yellow rose i snapped myself in a nursery in Dunstable, England 3 years ago.

I can still feel the joy i felt looking at such a brilliant creation of nature...the colour especially! The most beautiful yellow i have seen in my entire life and it gets reddish in the deep center of the flower, the petals were silky smooth, soft and made perfect outlines like how u see in sketches and paintings... and i am sure you can imagine the fragrance....such beauty...but unfortunately someone centuries ago must have been in a bad mood on that day to have thought the yellow rose means Infidelity!! Why? Seriously? Why ruin such a magical creation?! I also remember in school, friends saying...Red is for love and yellow means jealous especially during Valentines day...you cant buy this gorgeous yellow rose for someone you love because it means you are jealous!! How strange is that? 

Say no one named this flower...then wouldnt you by all means pick it to be given to someone you love. Well...i will never be able to pick it from the plant and ruin the wholeness, but if it was in the flower shops and if i was choosing one single rose to show my love then this would be the one....so bright...so joyous, so strong yet soft.

   

 Just like the flowers, we have named everything we see and not only named but also given it meanings to which we have become so used to that we cant see it any other way! Of all things that we have named the worst would be ourselves. We have named ourselves and then never go beyond that name. We forget what we really are inside. We have simply become our name...the description fits just the name but not who we are within. We are so obsessed with names that sometimes we even forget that we are human beings or maybe most of the times! Coz if we remembered, then we would be nothing but full of love, joy and peace. But being our names, we become everything else....full of hate, anger, sadness and confusion. Once we see beyond our names, we will slowly begin to see who we really are. Just like this yellow rose, then we will show the beauty which is so obvious yet goes unnoticed. 

So as a start to this beautiful year, lets learn how to see things as they are....the skies are just skies....the sun is a sun...water is water....you are you ...no descriptions attached...no interpretations ....nothing.  

Setting 2014 with the Sun

The world is renewed with every rise of the sun. It is not about the year or month. Its about every moment refreshed second by second. So life is eternally new. Live every moment of it.

That's the message i got while i sat by the beach in Langkawi, watching and meditating upon the setting sun last weekend. While i get restless by 5 mins when i attempt to meditate at home....i unbelievably sat still for almost an hour and a half there simply watching the sun set at its own pace, absorbing the golden rays and purplish skies and there was no need for calming Zen music to keep my thoughts quiet...as my mind was totally merged with the soothing sound of waves splashing in rhythm with my breathing.

I was sitting there alone while hubby and the group of friends were resting on the folding beach chairs further up. After a little while, my friend comes up to where i was sitting and asks me to turn around facing my back to the sun for her to snap a shot of my silhouette. And the picture turned up so nice :)


We were lucky that despite the rainy season the weather was so good on that evening. And the sunset was simply breathtaking. While my friend's kids were running up and down the shore collecting sea shells, building sand castles and simply running to the waves i noticed their silhouette from where i was seated looked interesting....so i decided to take few shots of them. Here it is....








Once the sun went down...rising in another part of the world...i got up and walked to the waves just to wet my feet and saw that the kids were still not tired of running up and down, most likely because they were absorbing all the natural energy and feeling light and free from all the "don't touch this! Don't run! Don't scream! Don't talk! Don't Don't and Don't...." No, here they were running free....as much as they wanted...and you could see the joy in their eyes! No concrete buildings to break their runs...simply endless shores and light ...such freedom is priceless especially for children...is it not?

Then i walked back to where the rest of my friends were sitting and chatting. One of them sees me walking up and asks in amazement,
"Anuuuu....how could you sit for that long???"

And only then did i realise it myself...that i was actually sitting there for more then an hour.....so i smiled and said to her "actually it wasn't enough" :)

How can u be bored when the sun is setting...changing colours by the seconds ...dropping into the ocean inch by inch right before your gaze! The shape of the clouds changing and forming new patterns every minute...the waves getting closer to you with every splash....the reflection of the light on the sea forming a path as if it is paving a way for you to walk up to the sun...such a majestic live show going on....and how could anyone be bored looking at it! 

The world when you got there before the sun set was gone...and there was a whole new world of dark skies and colder breeze with twinkling stars in the making....it was a new world in the making right before your eyes. How often do we notice these changes....to us the world goes by clock....its 5pm.....its 6pm....its 7 pm....its 8 pm....but do we even notice whats happening during these hours on ordinary days...No, we define our day by hours ....lunch hour....tea break....after work....dinner time....tv time....bed time...and that's it....the same routine follows the following day.....timing ourselves as though we are a bomb ticking! But the sun is putting a show every morning through the day into setting again....but we don't care to notice! Not that we don't have time...coz even if we have time we rather be sulking that we are bored then to be indulged in nature.

We may not be able to watch the sunrise or sunset everyday....from where live. But we can sure catch it at least at one point of the day before we go to bed again. It makes a difference when we watch how the day is changing every second....how the clouds are moving...when the wind is blowing them away...we too are changing every second. Our life is renewed by seconds...we are growing and blooming into ourselves...unknowingly. So lets pay attention to the changes...lets watch ourselves rise and set with the sun. Lets notice the changes in our thoughts....Lets acknowledge the love we feel. Lets LIVE with every breath ....like the sun.. :)

So my resolution??? 

Is surely to watch as many sunrises/ sunsets from as many parts of the world possible this coming year! :)

So stay tuned for lots of light and colours in 2015!

I have a lot more to share about Langkawi....will do in the next posts...

Have a great year all! 


   

Dancing with destiny...

There has been a few times, when i got opportunities to dance for a piece of music i love and constantly imagined myself dancing....it all started when i was in campus, with A.R Rahman's...Taal movie song. When the movie was released i was in campus and whenever i listened to the songs i would imagine myself dancing to it on stage...or just anywhere over the hills and by the streams...simply love the songs in the movie. But i never imagined that it would really come true! Thanks to the organizers of fashion show in campus especially to a good friend Nazlin who was already in 3rd year when i was in first. One morning at my hostel bathroom, while i was brushing teeth...she walks in and spotted me in the reflection of the mirror and asks..."you can dance indian classical dance...right?" I smiled and said...yes...though i was surprised at her question since i didnt know her at all...it was the first time i saw her in the hostel. Then she asks "would you like to be part of the fashion show we organize to be staged in the Malam Anekaragam ( an annual concert in the university). I was delighted of course...especially when i was feeling miserable to be away from family for the first time in my life, any chance to dance meant BLISS :) 

So thats how i started dancing in campus. Thats when i got the opportunity to dance for the song Taal!! I loved the choreography by another senior girl who is from temple of fine arts. There were four of us doing the classical part ...and we wore plain gold lehengga suits and since then we were often referred by our close friends as the four golden girls in anekaragam :D 

Just like the taal song...there was another song i always imagined myself dancing....also A.R Rahman's music from the movie Jeans....."Anbe Anbe" sung by Hariharan. I love the beat and the lyrics too...especially with the gorgeous Aiswarya Rai dancing in the movie!! It was just so beautiful! Though again...i never thought i would get an opportunity to dance for that song too! And i did!

The crowd at DTSP USM was easily into thousands...and the stage was so huge...we have to run from one side to the other when getting in or out....What an awesome experience it was! That was surely the biggest audience I've ever had! 

Then after campus time...when i came to KL and took Odissi classes at Sutra...it was back to pure classical dances...no more movie songs or semi classical pieces...But that doesn't mean i stopped dreaming :P

About two years ago, while i was browsing through the YouTube videos of Kitaro's music i came across this piece called "Dance of Saraswati" Oh My God it was so beautiful that i thought i had wasted half my life not listening to music that beautiful! It had a very special effect on me...every time i listened to it...i closed my eyes and this time i not only imagined myself dancing...but i also imagine all the breathtaking places i visited in Europe just two years ago...the music and the places suited so well that i didn't know which was more beautiful....and of course i was dancing by the streams and over the rolling hills each time!! :P 

This time...again i NEVER thought i would be dancing for this piece of music...as i was sure...no way my dance school would use this music to dance odissi...hahhaa...and i was not in campus anymore!

But strange that every time i hear this music i so badly wanted to dance to it...it was so joyful and touched the core of my soul! Then sometime last year i decided to ask one of teachers in Sutra if she could help me choreograph for this music...just for fun of course...not to perform but just for the love of it! But then i knew it was not fair for me to ask her to do that. So i told her to just ignore my request and that maybe i just got a little emotional on that day when i was listening to the music...so then we all forgot about it....

But believe it or not....this year...just 2 weeks ago....i danced for this piece...and not only that i danced solo....but i also had to choreograph the whole 6 minutes all by myself!! I was at first reluctant...but then i thought...well for all the years ive been learning, at least i should attempt to have one piece which is originally mine! Every step to be purely my own....for a piece of music i loved most...so why not! It doesn't have to be extraordinary but let it be mine...i thought. So...yes i only had 4 days to choreograph and practice before i performed at the hotel for my secondary school Silver Jubilee celebration in Ipoh! My friends had requested that i do a opening dance because i use to dance in school events like every year..!

I was told that the platform was pretty small and a little shaky...coz it was not meant for performances...so i put in very light steps ( its hard not to stamp when you are doing Indian classical steps) and minimal jumps or runs....still it was enough!! at least enough for me! I in fact thanked Goddess Saraswati for the opportunity...(i must have unconsciously bugged Her so much :P ) and also prayed that i made no mistakes as i knew how many of my friends would be recording and uploading it on FB!!! that was a scary thought coz i have my dance and music teachers on my FB and having them watch the video will be nerve wrecking....and guess what...i remembered every step....and felt totally at easy on that little stage....no special effects or spot lights...but just me and my Goddess in Dance of Saraswati :) I was so delighted that i dedicated the dance to all my dance gurus. And since part of the music is played with the instrument Sitar....i dedicated that part of dance to my sitar master Samuel J Dass too :)  

Please excuse the first one min...where you will be hearing my good friend's voice who was recording ...she was only concerned that the audience cant see me though it was our idea to have all lights turned off till i was on stage and started dancing...hahha..

So here it is...my very simple ...yet my very own interpretation of the Dance of Saraswati....with the sun rising....lotus blooming...birds flying...rivers flowing and there we see Her dancing in joy....one with nature....one soul in ALL!

Hope you like it :)

Me in Kitaro's Dance of Saraswati