Musings of a curious mind....

"Why now?" my husband asked me when I told him I have an online appointment with my therapist. I have been in therapy for the last 2.5 yrs very regularly. This is the time I was going through a rough time health wise.(I shall share about it in another post) So, Now that I was a lot better and yet made an appointment with my therapist - he posed the question. At first, I got defensive, I felt threatened but within 20 seconds, I was able to calm down and respond.(thanks to all the hours in therapy and a lot of other personal and healing work.)  I didn't know how to explain it properly yet, so I asked him to give me some time to come up with an explanation. After some introspection, I realised why I choose to have regular appointments with a therapist. Here, I share it with whoever would like to know. :) A therapist offers me a safe, non judgmental and confidential space to express myself. In this space, I am not scared of being myself, showing my flaws, fears, imperfection

This is a question I found asking myself almost everyday when I decided to take a break from my career as an Architect. It was a well paying job and I had a comfortable life with a good fixed income coming in every month.  Does it make sense to leave it all? I would often wonder… Until I realised, it was totally worth it. I wanted to dance because I could not stand the thought of not dancing. Because I could not imagine myself being so happy and content doing anything else all day long. Although, I was working a lot harder and getting paid a lot less. So why did I start dancing  in the first place? I remember seeing some performances in my school, and hearing about how my Guru and her troupe traveled all around the world for performances. I guess I was tempted and wanted to try, as a 10-11 year old, in complete awe of the sheer presence and appearance of my Guru. I was an inquisitive child. I had already tried gymnastics, rope mallakhamb and was playing table tennis at that point and I

  Today I received an inquiry call for my class. The girl calling introduced herself ,expressed her interest and her first question was - I am 28 years old, can I start learning Odissi so late? This isn't the first time I was asked such a question. It's a very common question asked at various ages in the range of  20 to 50. In my opinion It's a myth that one cannot learn any serious /classical dance form post 20. There are many examples of successful dancers who started late. There are many advantages to starting early in childhood, especially if you are going to choose dance as a profession. But most of the kids who start early do not know if they will become professional dancers later. Most kids are sent to dance school because their parents want them to learn dance or if they observe their child enjoy dance and music. It's rare for a child to ask for dance class let alone any specific form of dance. Sometimes children even lose their early interest in dance. So start

The other day my cousin called to find out if I knew an Odissi teacher in his town (He lives in a different city than mine). His daughter, my niece, is just 4 years old. He mentioned her interest in dance. And he had a few other questions, mainly: “which dance form is good for my child?” This is not the first time I was asked this question. Probably all my cousins, my close friends and many parents who approach me as a dance teacher for their child, ask me the same question. First of all, I sincerely think, 3-4 is not the age to start any kind of serious dance form, let alone Indian classical dance forms. Although children can be introduced to  basic, not too technical, simple  movements from the age of 3-4 or for some even earlier. At this age,  Body: Children are still growing, their bones are soft and muscles still forming. Motor skills and fine motor skills are still developing. Keeping balance is difficult. Mind: Attention span  is very less which makes it difficult to engage i