The Artiste and the Wishing Tree

I was 5 when I first experienced Shivarathri at Chidambaram... Dancers dancing through the night. Dancers dancing in front the Lord the entire morning. And more dancers waiting for their turn.  Dancers, singers, Mridangists and Violinists descending from urban chaos to the festive colours of the temple. For a 5 year old though, this pandemonium does not mean much. As she is told to wait, she is wondering if her bangles are a slightly different colour from the border of her blouse. She is wondering if her grandmother has carried more murukku in her bag. And then suddenly she is told to dance- and she dances. When the dance is over, she walks off to her grandmother to have her salangai taken off and put away carefully. And just like that the pandemonium takes over again and the 5 year old tries to shout over the speakers to ask for murukku . Displace the backdrop to an auditorium, the pandemonium remains- of a different kind perhaps. It does not mean much anyway to a 5 year old. ...