My Navratri, My Way

What does Navratri mean to you? For some, it’s nine nights of devotion, for others, a quieter encounter with the divine. We ask people from different walks of life to share their unique connect with the festival.

Today: Classical dancer and entrepreneur Kiranmayee Madupu talks of on how the Devi finds her, even when she isn’t looking.

Navaratri has way of enveloping you

“Even if you aren’t the hardcore garba-going, pandal-hopping, Golu-viewing, dhunuchi-dancing, nine-day-nine-colours-saree-wearing, inner-goddess-reels-posting kind of person, there is something undeniably magnetic about this time of year. I’ve always been a bit of a skeptic when it comes to festivals. Yet, Navaratri seems to find me — always serendipitously.

One year, it was the unexpected pull of learning a ‘Dikshitar’ choreography dedicated to the Devi. Another year, it was finding myself at a coastal Shakti Peeth in Sri Lanka, witnessing oceanfront bhakti.

This year, the movement is inward. It feels like a phase of unravelling, where every experience gently nudges me toward slow dissolution of the ego.

As an artist, you’re constantly absorbing the world, often without realising it. Ideas seep in, waiting for the right moment. Apart from dancing, I also run ‘Tarikita,’ where I design bespoke dance accessories and costumes.

Recently, a client asked to depict Radha not as gentle or romantic, but as a fiery, tantric energy, draped in blood red. Something about that interaction struck a deep chord in me.

I don’t think of myself as a devotee, yet I am repeatedly drawn back into her orbit, almost effortlessly. Perhaps that is what makes this time of year so extraordinary:

Kiranmayee Madupu

Classical Dancer and Entrepreneur

Highlight: “One year, it was unexpected pull of learning ‘Dikshitar’ choreography dedicated to Devi. Another year, it was finding myself at a coastal Shakti Peeth in Sri Lanka, witnessing oceanfront bhakti.”