Soolamangalam Vaidyanatha Bhagavatar

Malini Srinivasan, a young Bharatanatyam dancer, was about to enter the stage with flowers in her hands for the pushpanjali when the power failed. The venue was the auditorium at the basement of the Siva-Vishnu temple in Washington and the occasion was her arangetram or formal debut.

After the initial confusion it was decided to hold the performance in front of the Siva sannidhi (shrine) on the upper deck, where the rays of the evening sun were streaming in through a vaulting skylight in the roof. The audience of over three hundred had to sit on the floor and the orchestra ensemble consisting of the mother, daughter, son and daughter-in-law of the Washington-based Jayamangala school, had to perform without mikes.