Hema, apart from dancing for several Sabhas , danced at the Music Academy on three occasions and the one on their Silver Jubillee, had the most eminent persons both in the fields of music and dance performing. Since Hema was proficient in music,dance and acting she took part in several Tamil musical dramas, playing the main roles in  'Shakuntala' and 'Krishna Thula Baram'. Hema and her sister Padmini were also regular All India Radio vocal artistes and gave public 'kutcheries' in several well known Sabhas in Madras. Hema was also associated with T.Balasaraswathi in the Tamil Dance Ballet 'Sarabendra Bhoopali Kuravanji' both playing the main roles. These dance-shows had repeated performances. Hema's father was aproached in 1947/8 when Hema was 13 yrs old , by the famous Film Producer Sreeramulu Naidu, to act in a Tamil film "Kannika" and she took part and the film was a "hit". She was aso later approached by anothe famous Film Producer MVRaman to also act in another film. but before that could take shape, we were married !  Hema also gave several benefit Bharatanatyam dance performances and some of the chief guests included dignitaries like Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru, C.R.Rajagopachariar and Countess Lady Mountbatten, wife of the Viceroy of India.

Well that was the first part of Hema’s life. This second part was that of her being a homemaker for the most part except for a short period in Bombay where she restarted her classical Bharatanatyam dance with Rajarajeswari Bharatha Natya Kala Mandir. Once again my transfer intervened and this time it was to Hyderabad, a place we really liked and built a house to settle after retirement. We were once again transferred to the HQ at Calcutta, from where I took early retirement after being there for nearly 10 years. This, the third part of Hema's life gave Hema the opportunity to use her innate talent to teach Bharatanatyam dance and explore her other creative abilities. Firstly, she had to hone her skills to use her teaching abilities and impart her extensive knowledge having learnt from the legends of this classical art. She has taught several children , over 400, and has conducted 50 arangethrams over the last 25 years. All said and done, teaching dancing and conducting performances could sometimes become routine. For fuller expression of creativity Hema ventured into the realm of creating dance ballets and has made it an annual event now. As it requires a lot of imagination and research, she has limited it to one ballet a year.

 

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