As our lives revolve around College - Eat - Sleep - Repeat which is tiring already, for a few artistes who pursue engineering it’s not quite the same, i.e., College - Eat - Rehearsal - Repeat and, sleep? Well, grateful for the long bus rides to and from college. Fitting college work, observations, records, unit tests, hackathons, workshops, online courses, internships, semester exams, etc., amidst this already jam-packed schedule, teaches you the best time management skills you can ever learn. I am a Bharatanaatyam dancer and have been one, for the past 15 years, learning under the tutelage of the popular dancing legends and Padma Bhushan awardees ‘The Dhananjayans’ and yes, I am one of these artistes. The most common question put forth to me is ‘How do you manage both academics and art? How exactly do you balance it?’ Well, the sleep deprived face of mine would answer the question. My gurus and Dr. Kamal Haasan have been my biggest inspiration. But apart from that, I am doing what I love. And doing what you love might drain you physically but never mentally and emotionally. Yes, it does require a lot of running around and crude decision making. You may not have much time for your friends and family and other occasions. But above all, it keeps you content and satisfied, that you have been super productive, as it doesn’t let you spend much time on unnecessary social

media scrolling. In fact, I started spending a lot of time and energy in my passion only
after I joined a professional course. Trust me, this keeps me sane. And this doesn’t mean you’re between the devil and the deep blue sea. I have had extremely long rehearsals for hours, even during exams, and have performed for more than a hundred shows, I watch all my favourite movies, series and make sure I don’t compromise on my social life. At the same time, I wouldn’t let my exams take a toll on me as well. My passion has given me the Yuva Shri Kala Bharathi Award, the Swami Vivekananda Award , the Naatya Poorna Award and the Periya Saradha endowment prize and my academics has made me stand among the top 10 in my department. I would strongly encourage all those who left their passion mid-way for their studies to buckle up, get it back up and running. Finding your balance is the key, then, your sorted.

Apart from keeping you happy and content, it also has additional benefits (for those who look for benefits in whatever they do). This is not just for dancers or vocalists or instrumentalists. It’s for anyone who does something extra, something beyond college, for yourself. It is a parallel profession and yes, that means someday it could also be your potential sources of income. You get to learn and spread great ideologies of spirituality, philosophy, mythology and various priceless literary works from all over the world. Everyday you can learn something new, something you never imagined. It enhances your creativity and also serves to be the best stress-buster one could ever find. It is a great way to stay mentally and physically fit and healthy. Saves up the time and money spent on gyms. Slowly, it starts to become a way of life. Well, art and academics are not different. And I would say, it is not supposed to be ‘extra’ – curriculars. Our civilization started off with a rich syllabi of integrated learning approach (to put it in modern terms) which later got brutally differentiated in time. Typing this amidst my rehearsal, which is in turn amidst my semester exam preparation, I would like to end this note by saying, never ever give up on your passion, however hard and time consuming your profession is. You always have time for something that you love. All you have to do is plan up properly and give it the time. Giving equal importance to passion and profession is mandatory. And who knows? Your passion might someday turn out to be your profession too!

- Sushmita Rajtilak
Passionate dancer and an engineer in the make
Department of Information Technology,
SSN College of Engineering.

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