Deva Gandhari

I am watching Sugarcane leaves. Each one dances. Almost as if the space-time they belong to is different. I don't know why I have titled this piece Deva Gandhari, I am not a musician, nor do I know Ragas, but when I am in nature, I am tuned into her moods. Watching sugarcane leaves dance, their rhythm slowly picked up by a dragonfly further afield, and that ripple slowly transported to a falling neem leaf, falling to ground so softly, that the gentle ripples caused by its weight on the ground, caught me unawares when they reached me. 

These softer rhythms of the earth, the gentle cadences of which flow into one another, the dew drop in silence slipping off the leaf, causing a ripple in the water below, that sets of a leaf towards a scurrying spider on the bank, whose web, seemingly lifts of all the movement into a dew drenched jeweled mystery, shimmering in the first light of dawn. Shadows too dance in this rhythm, sparkling serene, playfully teasing leaves, trees and birds. Bugs jump, insects roam in drunken sweetness, and the tip of a tall grass responds with a gentle nod. I too smile and sway to the rhythm. 

I am grateful to my years of training in Bharatanatyam that gives me the sensitivity to watch these subtle rhythms, and let my body respond to this unheard music, to this rich play of spaces and silences. I come back searching for the sounds that can fill this intensity of experience, and softly without my knowledge, Deva Gandhari floats into my head. I go back to search and I find the songs that fit perfectly...
Enneramum Undan ... Gopalakrishna Bharathi , K.V.Narayanaswamy rendition 
Ksheera Sagara Sayana....Tyagaraja, Balamurali Krishna rendition