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I will make it easier for you all by telling you the names of all the main characters so that you all have the advantage that I didn’t have. But thankfully her smart aunty Lila takes her along to various dance recitals in Madras where young and beautiful Kalyani catches the eye of widower Balan who proposes to her. It all depends on the skill of the writer and also on the story they have penned. Natarajan’s sharp eye for detail captures the politics in China beads embroidery machines Factory the world of Bharatanatyam dance. Thankfully I circumvented that obstacle pretty quickly. The main characters are Kalyani, her mother Rajayi who is a devadasi, Kalyani’s husband Balan who is a big shot in NATAC (the National Academy of Traditional Arts and Culture) in South India and calls the shots regarding festivals both in India and abroad, deciding which dancers and musicians will be performing where.

The Undoing Dance is the story of a family of devadasis — 13 generations of singers and dancers starting with Annakili Naachiyar in the beginning of the 18th century in Kalyanikkarai. I’m glad that I didn’t let the initial handful of pages turn me off, because if they had I would have regretted it.Books are the portals to new worlds, hurtling readers into territories unimagined. But fate intervenes when Rachel falls ill and leaves the country, Kalyani once again has to return to Kalyanikkarai. At 373 pages, the book is big and as it’s a hardcover edition it looks bigger.Kalyani adopts the comfortable lifestyle as the wife of a wealthy arts promoter keeping her origins and her mother Rajayi hidden from the people of Madras where half the story unfolds. Would she succumb to her fate and break into pieces? Would she remain resolute against society and peoples’ pathetic treatment of her.The book straddles the two worlds of Kalyanikkarai highlighting the plight of the devadasis and other musicians who are thrown into poverty when their means of livelihood is snatched from them and Madras, where it turns the spotlight on the cultural scene full of scheming dancers out to grab their bit of fame.

When the review copy landed at my doorstep I gulped.Rachna Chhabria is a Bengaluru based children’s author and a freelance writer. Her latest book Festival Stories Through The Year (Harper Collins Children’s Books) has made her fall in love with our festivals, rituals and food.The story is about Kalyani, the daughter of a devadasi.Set against the backdrop of the Nahargarh and Jaigarh Fort, the city was established by Jai Singh II, and dates back to 1727.