It is 10 in the morning, but the only sounds in the sprawling, green campus of the Kalakshetra Foundation are of the thattukazhi and the rhythmic stomping of feet.
When rehearsal for Rukmini Devi’s ‘Ramayana’ begins as a part of the institution’s 80th year celebrations, songs ring through the air. No one looks stressed or hurried on this campus. It’s a world contained in itself, far removed from the noise and chaos outside. Here pursuit of the arts, education, and preservation of tradition are the main goals. Kalakshetra, ever since its inception in 1936, has been synonymous with tradition. Rukmini Devi was keen that this would be a place for the nurturing of Indian thought and aesthetics, where art would be taught purged of “vulgarity and commercialism”.

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