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Credit: DH Illustration
Navaratri brings different memories to us. As children, we used visit houses in the neighbourhood with to offer evening prayers to Goddess Durga and also to get a bit of the offerings made to the Goddess.
But a bit of self-learning and the true flavour of festivity came much later in life, when I let the career go by slowly, and became more ponderous on other aspects of life in general, if I may use the word philosophical rather modestly.
I used to pride myself as a man of science and meander about in the many aspects of its frontiers like space-time, quantum physics, entanglement etc. While I have not even scratched the surface of these areas, with my limited math background, it’s a nice distraction to spend time on, especially when you have plenty of it in the evening of your life. So, I was distracted when my wife asked me to accompany her for the Navarathri dance festival in a nearby temple mandap.
I was sitting rather inconspicuously trying to focus on the rather beautiful Abhinayas performed by the young girls.
But all my light hearted and critical scientific observations ended when an angelic young girl came to the stage and performed for the soulful Swagatham Krishna by Jesudhas. It transformed me from my self possessed so called scientific temper to the present reality of an absolutely blissful mix of dance and music.
I really don’t know what bewitched me more. Was it the soulful pentatonic Mohanam raga which is also common in many East Asian countries too, or the melodious Jesudas rendering the Raga or the angelic dance by the little child. The sum effect was, I was shattered between the self imposed scientific disposition on one end and the soul stirring performing art on the other end.
I was even more embarrassed when the organizers asked me to address the audience. In all humility and deep conviction I said “I have no credentials to address this elite group of musicians and dancers here, but one thing I learnt. While science has some methods like reading, writing and thinking, I am absolutely clueless how such great arts like music and dance can be learnt in non verbal languages and performed to elevate the audience to lofty heights of sublimation”
Well, there is no end to learning and you can pick up from any incident, and at any time.