2026!

The year just began – not the common Gregorian calendar one demarcating January first but Sankranti – when the sun moves up to the northern hemisphere. Days get longer, winter starts fading and by Basant Panchami (Saraswati Puja, also known as Basant Panchami, is traditionally celebrated on the fifth day Panchami Tithi) of the Hindu month of Magha (this year it falls early on 23rd of January), so spring will be in the air and by Shivaratri, the atmosphere will be surcharged. Maha Shivaratri is one of the most special Hindu festivals. Also, there is a huge significance of Maha Shivratri. It celebrates Lord Shiva, and his marriage to Goddess Parvati, along with many other important things related to him. People call this day “The Night of Lord Shiva” to celebrate their divine love. Lord Shiva represents Purusha, which is the mind or consciousness, and Goddess Parvati represents Prakriti, which is nature. When they come together, they create energy and life.

Photo Credit: Jayasimhan

Popular belief has it that when Shivji gets a royal bath, all jeev jantus, machar makoda come out (read, insects and hibernating – in-winter creatures like flies, spiders, ants, mosquitoes, even snakes! especially snakes come out. In Bangalore, we have a house outside the metro in a village and there we see all this actually happening! The whole ecosystem).

By Holi, the picture of colours is complete. Indian – read, the Hindu calendar – based on astro almanac is so accurate that thousands of years ago it could calculate when my leap year birthday! First of March, as there’s no 29 of February this year. I’m in Kanyakumari that day, “far from the madd​ing crowd” (my favourite author Thomas Hardy, at school) looking up​ at a long​ lost hero, Swami Vivekananda. And my first big crush at 15: Devi Kanyakumari (actually I was besotted by the heroine in the film, not the deity!). Legend has it that the nose diamond – mukkuti– of Devi Kanyakumari shone so far and wide​ that it acted like a lighthouse those days and helped ships at sea​ from crashing on shore.

Snigdha Krishna

The first show that shone like Devi Kanyakumari this year was that of Snigdha Krishna. Just 21, this child of the universe (though taller than my 5 feet 75cm frame) danced with such C3 – command, control and center – that one marvelled at her art. To achieve samm – be centred – in dance is nigh impossible. In 60 years of conscious dance watching, I’ve seen only a handful: Mrinalini Sarabhai, Swarna Sarswati (the last Bharatanatyam practicing devadasi, many wrongly say that it was Mylapore Gowri but historically it is Swarna Sarswati who left Madras for Delhi where she taught Sonal Mansingh, Shanta Raghavan, yours truly and Geeta Chandran among others. We were at the being centred list. Add Shambhu Maharaj, my mother MK Saroja, Maya Rao, Birju Maharaj, in generation next we have Alarmel Valli, then Rama Vaidyanathan, then Praveen Kumar, Murli Mohan Kalva and youngsters like Aishwarya Nityanand and now GenZ in Snigdha. In Kathak there’s Tribhuvan Maharaj and Ravi Yadav. In Kuchipudi, Washim Raja. In Manipuri, Sinam​ Basu. Odissi? Rahul Varshney. It is an internal quality, not acquired. Either a dancer has it, or lacks it. Like star quality. Shobana has it. Kamala had it. Padma Subramanian has it. There are thousands of Bharatanatyam dancers, why only a few have it? God’s gift. The above listing is cursory, not conclusive! So those left out don’t burn.

Snigdha Krishna has what one fails to see in grown-ups often – a soothing, mature quality. There’s no need to hurry, or even impress. This dance is for oneself. Not for the audience. There were not enough in even a small hall but as Padma Subramanian once said at a very low turnout in BVB, Chennai “the quality of the audience present is much more than the quantity”.

One saw in Snigdha’s dance of an hour – at a new chamber theatre called Medai (not media!) in their Margazhi (not Margerita) festival. Poorly attended, something must be the matter with the content, curation or connection with the place. The hall is actually an old house, nicely done up, giving it a feel of neo modernity. The area is full of techies, bars, new money and old wealth – Koramangala. There, to have a house dedicated to arts itself stands out, so Medai team be thanked. Lighting is superb, the best seen in a high-tech village called Bangalore! The Hall is quarter the size of Seva Sadan or half of Alliance Francaise, at the opposite end of town called Malleswaram/ Vasanth Nagar.

The items she understood and then undertook (many dancers don’t!) in one hour flat were like a beautiful flowering… literally.

Pushpanjali followed by Durga Shloka in which she was all fierce yet benevolent. Then came the Jathiswaram in ​Raga Kaapi (not coffee!). ⁠Ksheera Varidhi – a Devarnama rarely seen, in which Snigdha was in element. Ayar Sheriyar – mistakenly announced as Shabdam (it has no H, just sab -dam) was well etched. This was an item my mother (guru MK Saroja) used to do 50 years ago! How art and items travel. In Yaadava Nee Ba – Devarnama again she excelled, even smiled! The concluding Natabhairavi Thillana (which too my mother did) had references to both Kalakshetra and its founder Rukmini Devi in the end. This was not the case 30/40 years ago when no such eulogy was baked in. This shows how items travel. Who took from whom? All that talk of Baani itself comes to naught when one thinks of Kalakshetra where many gurus from many baanis taught. Read the journal on Banis brought out by Lakshmi Vishwanathan, a maverick BN bright. Snigdha Krishna is the youngest dancer to have performed at NEEMRANA and the reason is her artistry is beyond her youthful years. This is one blessed child dancer to be seen. Culture comes in small things; how one behaves off stage, what respect one shows to seniors or stalwarts. Indian culture is so layered that it takes eons to understand it and one day to debunk or debase it. Some of our Hindi heartland TV channels are doing precisely that to Indian dance.

One look at judges who are ill-qualified, totally at sea and looking like fashionistas, or film and sports have-beens, instead of experts, shows how India is losing its core content, fast. The government can do nothing? There’s a film censor (or censure) board. Why not guidelines for TV shows? Especially when dance shows are being murdered. Why Bombay or Chennai or Kolkata writers on dance don’t take up this issue? Gymnastics is NOT an art of dance in India. That’s sports. Where are all the vocal seniors and stars in the dance field? Why don’t they speak up? The much-decorated and awarded ones, the so-called greats? Silence of the lambs?

What’s not silent is the Chennai FESTIVAL season called the Margazhi ( in December January) which is like a juggernaut. Look at the board of just one venue. Reads like a horse race! Where’s the AUDIENCE? When each hall has much to offer, often there are more artistes than audiences. Ten people in a hall, one has witnessed. 500 dancing in the season. To what end? What’s the point of bringing coals to Newcastle? More Bharatanatyam to Madras? To be seen? To be counted? Assessed? By whom? For the next show, award, tour? How many get lucky? Sabhas are mostly rackets. Pay your way. While the daallured rich can pay what of the good but poor artiste of India? Is there any support to the really needy artiste of India? Mentor the young. An old people’s home for those who have no support system, no families to depend on? Government schemes are there but to benefit from these itself is an art form.

A simple Chhau dancer from the boondocks of Bihar can’t believe that for a show in NEEMRANA heritage fort, a spiffy car fetches and drops him from Delhi. Chappan bhog hospitality plus good payment awaits him. No middleman. No lobbying. No bribing. Just art and respect. Thanks to the vision of one man – founder of Neemrana group, patron Aman Nath. Why can’t the rest of India follow him and his patronage model?

These are questions for 2026! Each month we hope to take up one issue that concerns many and impacts some. In the whole country of nearly one-and-half billion there’s one or two qualified arts writers. In every discipline. And yet, our universities are churning out Ph.Ds like flies. There are thousands of dancers but two costume-makers in each metro. That’s why when a young Kathak dancer – Rohan Bhutaiya – of Surat, starts a side business of making costumes, he is flooded by offers because he understands fabrics and falls for Kathak dance. Or pleats for folk. Films. He is so affordable. He has an insta page @nartanbyrohan.

Rohan Bhutaiya

Dance film makers. Where? Not one in India. Who knows where to cut, what frame to take? What’s the difference between forms? Hastas are erroneously called Mudras! Do the researchers/ script writers even know the difference? Even the much-loved inflight safety film featuring Indian dance for Air India made in 2023/4? had a few glaring factual mistakes. No wonder it soon crashed.

India is so rich in culture but why is there poverty of honesty, ethics and integrity today? Are the schools failing or the parents? Society or the system? Did the egg come before hen? I’m a vegetarian. It was thoughtful of Zameeruddin, son of late Fakhruddin Sab and Shameem Unnisa Begum, at his wedding on January 18, to have one table of dishes for vegetarians only. That shows true culture. Subhana Banu, his best half, looking resplendent, may make him a more wholesome man. That the Ambassador to UNESCO and former Finance, Culture and Additional Chief Secretary of Karnataka Chiranjiv Singh attended his wedding also shows good grace and culture. A good man always gets what he deserves. Women? Are blessed by the universe and have it all from birth – devi shaktis. Mother Earth.

End of earth, real soil, in India is Cape Comorin, popularly known as Kanyakumari. The last tip of India. Here one can see the sun rise and sun set at the same point on earth. Narendra bhai’s birth Centenary was just celebrated. I’m referring to Narendranath Datta (1863-1902) alias Swami Vivekananda who said: Arise, awake and let India (that’s Bharat) shine. I recall in our school – the Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan, Delhi – every day we had to recite a shloka or thought. I still remember: Take up an idea. Make that Idea your life. Think of it, dream of it, live on it. Let your brain, muscles and nerves be full of that idea. Leave all other ideas alone. This is the way to success and this is how great spiritual leaders are born.

Saraswati has blessed Ashish Khokar totally for he has written 51 books, 5k articles in print media in the last 45 years (for the Times of India, The Hindu, First City, Life Positive, the India Magazine and India Today). He created 85 modules for the UGC e-pathshala MA Course. A pioneer in arts administration, he served the Delhi State Akademi, INTACH in the 1980s and worked internationally in France, Sweden, Germany and China in the 1990s. He is a visiting expert/professor to many universities abroad (Italy, Germany, USA, Malaysia and Mauritius). He is teaching special modules at MSU-Baroda, Punjab University Chandigarh, Bangalore and Mangalore universities. He has been bringing out India’s only yearbook on dance for the last 25 years – called attendance which is endorsed by UNESCO-CID as a model dance journal. He gives attendance awards to youngsters and seniors. Till date 40+ attenDance awards have been given. A list of 51 books and 40+ awardees can be seen on www.attendance-india.com. He is also the longest serving columnist for narthaki.com and India Today – contributing articles for 25 years now. Currently, he is the Chairman of NEEMRANA Dance Initiative and Curator of the Mohan Khokar Dance Collection & Archives@ IGNCA, Delhi. The India HABITAT centre and the IIC avail his expertise for special events and the world over, and he is treated as an authority on Indian dance. More details on www.attendance-india.com