The last dance
My mother was born in 1929. While she was studying in school, in Pudukottai, in Tamil Nadu. all the students [ no co-education in those days] were taught to sing and dance. My mother was good at and passionate about dancing. But , in those days, girls got married early. My mom got married when she was 13 years old. That put an end to all her talents. Soon she gave birth to my 2 sisters and me. When I was 4 years old she taught me and my second sister , Nalini, to dance. I had inherited her artistic genes. Dancing came naturally to me. Later both my sister and I learnt dancing from a regular dance master. His name was Natarajan. He taught well. We both picked up the numbers quickly and soon had our first stage performance in Mylapore Fine Arts Club in Chennai in 1968. I was 14 years then. Then we went on an organised tour to Nigeria in 1969, and staged about 45 shows. Then we did a few shows in Chennai till 1972. Later I joined college, my ...