An Actor, Dancer (Bharatanatyam), Choreographer, Hatha Yoga practitioner, in a state of perpetual curiosity to know the bond between storytelling and Life and how the former's modalities become root to the latter's existence. I have always been fascinated by story telling. Coming from India, a land where the oral tradition served has the basis of knowledge transmission for multiple millennia, I have, many times, felt compelling to know what is behind the making of life which carries traditions, practices and beliefs by mere word-of-mouth. A Bharatanatyam practitioner that I am, I dance for compositions choreographed a 100 years ago (sometimes even older), taught by my Guru, and to her by her Guru and so on. The bible of Indian Performing Arts - Natyashastra itself has the wisdom shared in terms of a story, replicating the classroom scenario where children ask questions and the Guru explains to them. So, there must be a unique pattern in daily life which constitutes the making of a living which breaks the boundaries of space and time. Art forms are one of the interesting dimensions through which the stories get propagated. Therefore, bodies are both ephemeral blocks of life and the threads that weave the fabric of a culture for eternity. This performance of human-kind interests me the most. One experience that I like to quote here is when I was working as part of transcribing an interview tape, I heard these lines from the man who was being interviewed ‘why write? I have my brain, I can memorize. Writing down to remember is the sign of degeneration of the brain”. If I thought that through, how many of our daily practices which are called Tradition are written and taught to us? The embodied knowledge is passed over in spaces and times creating performances of a unique genre which in turn manifests as cultural practices and beliefs. The temporality of such performances cannot be denied of its power of world-making.  This is what storytelling is. But wait I now ask, are we merely telling the stories here or are we the story itself? What if there is a universal truth and we are all mere vessels of realizing that? Are we artists because we train our faculties following certain grammar of the art form or are, we the ones by our mere existence? Are we communicating the message or are we the medium itself /message itself?

Thanks to PS, some life changing questions that I have to my Bio! 

Why PS @ NYU?

      This is the place where students have a platter of streams from which you can choose what is most value-adding to your definition of life. Performance Studies is probably one course which will be most relevant to you irrespective of the time and space you belong to. The faculty and the ecosystem here are not artistes merely because they stand before the lights and perform but because they stand before the world performing by their existence.  You have to be here to feel better about yourself! Allow yourself one chance ! It is worth it.

MA Final Project:

BHARATANATYAM – An Exploration Of the Intersection of Genders through Gestures, Movements and Practices