Countdown: 21 days to go!

Yesterday I did absolutely no dancing, but still felt accomplished by the end of the day. 

We had invited my guru Anu aunty, all the orchestra members, and their families to our house for dinner. We wanted to formally invite them to my Rangapravesam and give our guru dakshina leisurely, rather than doing it hurriedly on stage on the day of. We went down the traditional route for the dinner spread with an authentic Andhra meal (plus the ice cream :)).

Everyone was up bright and early to get the house clean and prep food for later in the evening. It had been forever since I'd helped out with large-scale cooking, so I was eager to chop veggies and do whatever my grandma needed me to do in the kitchen. The whole morning was spent cooking and setting up tables and chairs in the hallway to accommodate the 28 people we were hosting.

By the afternoon, I was pretty nervous about how the evening would go, because I had never really gotten the chance to know most of the orchestra members. When they arrived, it was a little awkward at first, as expected, but, as the evening went on, we all got to talking and I had a great time.

After dinner, the priest talked about the significance of guru at every stage of our lives and how the true guru dakshina is to continue the legacy of the guru and impart the art to the next generation as much as possible. He then lead us to felicitate Anu aunty and the whole orchestra team.  

The ceremony went really well, and everyone was all smiles. I’m grateful to have an amazing team rooting for me on stage with their music, and I cannot wait to take the stage with them!