WALT WHITMAN HIGH SCHOOL AUDITORIUM
(Washington D.C. Area)
7.21.02
6:30 P.M.
Good evening, this is Maharaj Kaul, Kavita’s Mama, I will be the MC for this evening’s presentation.
Today is a very special and joyous occasion.
It is a day to celebrate the triumph of dedication to achieve a magnificent goal, helped by the flame of idealistic ambition, propelled by sustained discipline, and forged by the brick and mortar of hard work.
It is a special privilege and high honor bestowed upon me to welcome you to Kavita’s Arangetram.
More than anything else, it is your love and goodwill, your prayers and support, your friendship and guidance, which Kavita will need significantly to carry her onward journey of a fulfilled life.
Kavita has spent twelve years to arrive to this point of Bhartanatyam Dance Graduation.
Bhartanatyam dancing is an artistic discipline of high order, which embodies man’s devotion to God and the opening of his heart to beauty and joy, expressed through the high stylistic and graceful gestures of body.
It carries all the important elements necessary to live life to its full glory: awakened mind, theme, discipline.
So the achievement of Arangetram signifies more than an acquirement of certain skills in an performing art – it is a long immersion in the art and science of living.
That is why today’s occasion is very significant – it is much more than a dance graduation we are celebrating.
Today we are celebrating Kavita’s coming of age, her becoming a full individual, her ascending into personhood – her achieving a stand-alone stature.
Today is the anointment of her matured personality in the world.
* Human life is a stage – it needs awakened , dedicated, and trained performers on it.
* Anyone who knows Kavita, has seen in her the scintillating qualities of commitment, ethicality, compassion, and hard work.
Though born in this country, she has had an innate connection with the land of her ancestors, from her very childhood. This immaterial but powerful connection with India is one of the most important wheels carrying her to this celebration.
* Kavita is the integration of many apparent contradictions. Though a brilliant student of mathematics and sciences, she is a religious person and a poet.
Though Kavita is the center of this presentation, without the contributions of her Dance Guru, parents, relatives, and friends, she would not have made it.
Kavita’s Dance Guru is Smt. Charu Narishman. She is one of the leading Bhartanatyam dancers in the world. Charu, as she is affectionately called by her pupils and friends, has trained under Padamshree Dhandayudhapani Pillai, K.N. Dhakshinamurthy, Kattumannarkoil Muthuswamy Pillai, and Padambhushan Kalanidhi Naraynan – all eminent gurus. Charu has performed in prestigious subhas in India and other countries. She has attained the stature of a brilliant exponent of Bhartanatyam, as well as its excellent teacher.
Kavita is dedicating this program and celebration to her parents Lalita and Dali, without whom, according to her, this day would have not been possible.
* Closing Remarks
Two ideas, two themes, which can be described by two words, have struck me during the dance presentations: truth and beauty. Reverence for God is man’s search for truth and artistic works like dancing his pursuit of beauty.
Although truth and beauty may not seem significant in day to day living, they indeed are among the most essential elements of human existence for keen minds.
I would like to end this part of today’s celebration with the following words of the English poet John Keats:
Beauty is truth, truth beauty –
that is all
Ye know on earth, and all
ye need to know.
Good evening.
* These remarks were not read at the event due to the time and other constraints.
