The Bharathanatyam performance of Satoshi Tatsumi, a Japanese student of Prof C.V.Chandrashekar, at eAmbalam, brought a lot of thoughts to me.

Here is a man from a totally different culture, performing a South Indian classical dance form with so much of dedication, involvement. I was told that his wife Sachie runs a Bharathanatyam Academy in the city of Gifu, Japan and his two daughters are also training in Bharathanatyam. Many families around the world of different nationalities have dedicated their lives to the learning and propagation of Indian art forms.

Russians are well versed with the 1960s melodies and works of Hindi film superstar Raj Kapoor, Japanese are mesmerized by Tamil movies, especially those of superstar Rajnikanth, Indians are attracted to the great singers Pakistan has produced, Pakistanis are enamored by the Bollywood tunes, the French and Germans have a special place in the heart for Indian Arts. The list goes on…..

Where is the divide? It is these political boundaries we have drawn for ourselves, which only fine arts can transcend. Leave people to themselves and they will embrace cultures and be inclusive.

The only cure for the fallouts of this pseudo nationalism is to spread fine arts. Let’s learn Flamenco. Let’s teach Karnatic Music. Let’s learn to appreciate Jazz. Why not indulge in Salsa or let the world indulge in Bharathanatyam?

Lets ‘Create Artists Everywhere’ !