The Awakening!

The whole house being pulled down, newly painted, with my mother running berserk hurling abuses at me, lucky for me being an injured soldier she dint keep breathing down my neck. As for my dad, he had to put up with my mother's scowls. All this commotion was for the welcoming of Radhe Jaggi, who is a kalakshetra dancer other than being Sadhguru's daughter, she was coming the down to Neyveli to perform as a part of her offering to the Nataraj temple. After the whole house was revamped we were expecting her from chennai but she dropped in late due to the alarming hike in the petrol rates. The next morning after the late breakfast we headed to the venue & back in the infamous Neyveli heat. Later in the evening, the performance started with the Ganesh stuthi, then she started with the thisra alarippu which was a perfect combination of adavus & grace. This was followed by the extremely brilliant composition called 'tunga tarange gange'  which she did justice to, with amazing poise & perfect amalgamation of abhinaya & adavus. For some strange reason, maybe because of the presence of a higher power, her performance drew a large crowd & was intense with a streak of divinity to it. Her emotions were very soulful which made it difficult for me to take eyes off her. She ended it with a immaculate Thillana. The whole performance left me yearning, asking for more, start over my passion for bharathnatyam & desire to go dance alongside. I just had lost appetite for dance, I needed the push to slip into my dancing shoes or rather into the 'salangai' & Radhe just did it with her scintillating performance. The day was really phenomenal with the new awakening & new urge to do it all over again. 

The Long wait..... Wholesome experience!

I don't remember when was the last time I had felt so excited, felt the blood pumping into each vein along with the dreaminess of floating in the air with exhilaration. Well, the selection to the hot seat in Neengallum vellalam oru kodi (NVOK) did all this wonders. For people who are unaware of nvok, it is the Tamil version of kaun banega crorepathi hosted by the dashing surya of ghajini fame. I never knew I could make it this far pretty effortlessly. All this would have been impossible without gods grace and my parents. I would like to take you down this memory lane of mine & document it so that I can cherish it 20 years from now. Well as they say a mother knows her child the best, my mother was the one who coaxed me to enter this competition, she realised I had the potential & the knowledge to get through this & because I was desperately trying for KBC when it was first aired though I wasn't eligible. So I went through this rigmarole. First the SMS, then the call from them confirming my details along with 2 computer generated questions & then being called for the ground auditions in Laity auditorium, Kilpauk. I reached the venue as early as 7:00 am on the 19th of March & to my disappointment I found a painfully long queue for the registrations & I realised I had to bunk the whole day of office. It was a whole new experience for me, I have always watched long meandering queues on TV for reality shows & always thought people were crazy to be standing all through the day, but now, that I was in their shoes it din't sound crazy enough. After the registrations, there was a problem with my DL, it all came crashing down. Maybe it was meant to be short & not sweet. Luckily though, the issue was sorted, I got to face the tedious process of filling up the booklets & a round of quiz where I had to answer 10 questions (I did get them all right), later followed by a video shoot. We wound up at 7:00 pm, 12 hours of portal into a different world. Now was the worst part, waiting eagerly for the final call from them. It was indeed a very long wait, during which i had completely lost hope that I would ever get through. But again there is some super higher power whom I would like to call 'GOD' & Voila I get a call saying I have gotten through & that I am supposed to be present on the 7th of May in AVM studios (Kick ass, I must say). I din't know how to react & I have never been this weird. No sign of over enthusiasm, just silence apart from the buzzing of the butterflies in my stomach. As a forerunner to the show,a small video shoot of my crazy activities, hobbies & work were recorded, I guess this was the irresistible hilarious part of the show. Then on the D day, myself & my parents made it to the grandeur of the AVM studios. The NVOK set was both imposing & intimidating.We had a run through with their instructions, rules & then the changing of clothes, make up & hair & a mock fastest finger first. All this added on to the anxiety, nervousness but the Vijay TV crew did their best to make us all feel at home. Finally I make way to the ever dashing, darling Surya, I hold his hand & I just look at him & drool, well its not surprise here, is it?! For a moment there, thought I would forget my line for Surya but thankfully I make it along with drooling. After the introduction, is the FFF, which is the most toughest part of the game as it requires undue composure. I made it through that also & that's when I could feel the adrenaline rush, I went weak in my legs, I couldn't believe when my name appeared on the screen for the Hot seat, that is when I was on cloud nine. My mom couldn't hold back her tears, she was never happier. After all the racket & basking in the glory & attention from the crew, I was summoned to the hot seat after lunch. With Surya in front of me, God was he handsome, just couldn't take my eyes off him, drooling once agin. Then the game begin, started off pretty well, went on smooth with little tidbits of my life. Surya is a good talker, really sweet & assuring.So I sail from Rs.0 to Rs.12,50,000 question, this is when my overconfidence & the game play took the better of me & I lost, sliding down to Rs.3,20,000 but surprisingly I was not dejected, I was happy because the whole experience was entirely new, enthralling,it was never really about the money, it was just a good side of this whole meeting the star & having my 45 minutes to fame experience. I don't know how to conclude this as it all still seems dreamy & far off to me. Pinch me!!