Legacy and lessons from the Gita
Ten pairs of little fingers and toes crawled on to the stage at Kamarajar Arangam bearing cardboard cutouts of fire with LED lights illuminating the edges, white cutouts indicating air, water in blue, trees in green, flowers in yellow, and many more. The students from the various branches of Padma Seshadri Bala Bhavan (PSBB) were depicting different elements of nature.
This staging was a part of PSBB’s 68th anniversary celebration, Abhinaya 2025. Spanning two days, July 26 and 27, the cultural celebration took the audiences on a philosophical journey this year with its central theme inspired by the Bhagavad Gita, ‘The Chariot of Life’. With performances including classical dance, theatre, and contemporary storytelling, the event brought together students from across branches in a celebration of heritage, introspection, and artistic collaboration.
According to Bharatanatyam exponent Alarmel Valli, the chief guest of the second day’s event, this year’s theme offered the perfect metaphor for our times. “What a fitting, beautiful, and powerful symbol. It was a feast for the eyes, the mind, and the soul. I go away with Krishna in my heart, and the essence of the Gita etched in my mind,” she said.
The production was multi-lingual, from Tamil to English to Sanskrit, and it had artforms, drawing from classical dance and theatre, as well as western choreography and contemporary storytelling. But it wasn’t just the performances that struck a chord. It was the intention behind them. “Each story flowed into the next, creating deeper layers of meaning. You could see how the students connected diverse sources with grace — from the Puranas, historical narratives, to folk legend,” added Valli.
At the heart of the show was teamwork. Across PSBB’s branches, students, and teachers came together to interpret the Gita in their own unique ways — some through dance, others through metaphorical theatre. The result was a deeply immersive experience, where moral dilemmas, inner conflict, and spiritual clarity were rendered with a youthful lens.
For principal S Vasanthi of PSBB Nungambakkam, the challenges of such a complex theme only added to the joy of the process. “It was a positive kind of stress,” she smiled. “Seventy-five per cent of the work is done by students. We only give directions. They are the ones who executed our vision by bringing costumes, props, and emotions to the stage.”
At the KK Nagar campus, English teacher Anita Leslie spearheaded a thought-provoking piece titled ‘Kurukshetra Within’, which explored inner conflict through a Shakespearean lens. “This was thrust on the English department, but we were clear that we needed to draw parallels between Shakespeare and the Gita. You can see the same moral crossroads in his plays, such as in As You Like It. Whether intentional or not is a different debate. The Gita is like a prophecy, and merely two centuries before today, Shakespeare’s works mention a few,” she said.
Tying the classical with the contemporary, her team crafted scenes where Arjuna’s inner war echoed in modern-day courtrooms. “It’s not acknowledgement or appreciation after every show, but the script and the students becoming the actors. That’s a success. We go home with a smile on our face, which no one can understand. It’s a different feeling altogether,” she noted.
From the students’ perspective, Amruth P, a class 12 student from PSBB KK Nagar, pointed out that the event was both a culmination and a learning curve. “My role was like a foot soldier. It prepared me for people management, team coordination, and just understanding how things come together. People say it feels old-fashioned at first, but it has real potential. Especially the finale, Purna Vaibhavam, was very modern in how it interpreted the theme,” he shared.
The evening was also a tribute to the school’s visionary founder, Rajalakshmi Parthasarathy, also known as Mrs YGP. “Her dream was never just about academic success,” noted Sheila Rajendran, dean and director and correspondent of the PSBB Group. “She wanted to raise culturally rooted, morally strong citizens. The cultural programme is also for a larger purpose of education, to appreciate and learn from our heritage traditions, and scriptures to build a character, not careers alone. It is a moment of reflection, recognition, and renewed commitment.”
As the curtains fell and the applause echoed, what lingered was the words of Alarmel, “The theme reassures me that the world isn’t a mess even with so much of violence and chaos, and there is hope for the future.” This message quietly settled into the hearts of the audience.