Ansuya's Troupe, "Yaleil" Takes Madras, India by Storm! ... Monsoon!
By Ansuya and Jenaeni

"They stormed the city"
- Backbeat India

Ansuya, Jenaeni and four members of Yaleil traveled to Madras, India to perform on August 21st for a V.I.P. party thrown to launch a new film and celebrate the star's birthday. The movie will be called, "The Return of the Thief of Baghdad" and stars the famous Indian actor, Chiranjeevi.

Hey, You Wanna Go To India?
One screamed!
One cried!
One got confused and said, "no" for a while and One was, "like, oh my God, like, yeah o.k."
Meet Yaleil. Four brilliant little gypsy divas we've been swimming in pride over since this phone call. Mari, Michelle, Elizabeth, and Emilia. And so it begins. Rehearsals, panic, costume meetings, panic, packing, panic, followed by panic, panic, and more panic!

It Took us 22 Days to Get There.
O.K., that's an exaggeration, it was 22 hours. All we know is that we must have been chasing the sun because we traveled for days, yet it never seemed to get dark out that airplane window. Further, we don't know how many equators or time lines we crossed but they'd serve breakfast, then fifteen minutes later serve dinner. Plus we think we left on a Wednesday and then somehow arrived on a Wednesday, but of the previous week, month, year! We tried to keep track and then after about 10 hours of our 22 hour flight plus some lay overs, we gave up. Jet lag is not a myth! Whatever time it is here, it's upside dawn in India for sure!

Where's Kuala Lumpur?
Kuala Lum - what? When we heard that our itinerary included a one day layover in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, we thought we were going to be dropped via parachute into the sweltering jungles of Asia. Skeptical Gypsies at heart! However, as Thurston Howe from Gilligan's Island would say, "Not so, Lovey!" This was definitely a princesses' dream trip! The KL airport is something out of the future. Clean, glamorous, and space age looking, it makes LAX look a bit shabby. Kuala Lumpur is tropical and lush with an enchanting, romantic mix of old and modern culture. There we hired a van and driver for the day and invited a charming, young Canadian couple we met to join us for a city tour, shopping in the marketplace, and a visit to the famous Twin Towers. It was a delightful day!

Madras, India
Our troupe was treated to first class service throughout our stay. Though the performance was only one show on one night, an invitation was extended to come a week early and enjoy the city. And so we did! With a private van and driver at our disposal, we were taken on shopping tours and scenic drives, attended a private film screening and were introduced to the film crew for "The Return of the Thief of Baghdad", many of whom were assembled from recent Hollywood productions such as, "The Mummy". Ansuya even met some actors in our hotel who had, among their group, a fellow who was childhood friends with Ansuya's cousin, Sahila Chadha ("Bubbles"), a film star from Bombay.

One of the most atmospheric of our tours was "Pondy Bazaar"; a riot of impassable auto and foot traffic, a deafening cacophony of beeping horns, stall after stall of eastern and western goods jammed together and, sprinkled throughout, flower vendors with enormous piles of the sweetest smelling jasmine that ever wafted on the air. Ansuya and Elizabeth purchased loops of it to pin to their hair (after the fashion of the ladies of Madras) and, later, to perfume our rooms. Ahhhhh! Heaven!

The weather was comfortably warm. The heavy air enveloped us in a humid blanket which made our skin and hair feel hydrated and silky. This was a surprise and a relief as we were visiting during Monsoon season and were sure we would be spending a week wading knee deep through flooded market places that would culminate with dancing in the rain! On the contrary, all was mild - save one night - where all was no less than completely wild! Everything you've heard about Monsoon is true. The loudest thunder we've ever heard knocked Ansuya right out of her bed and into the halls in her nighty to check on the girls. We had a view of the city which lit up like daytime with spectacular lightening and buckets of rain which fell - no charged - the land. It was, powerful, magical, and over by morning!

They say India is either a place one loves or hates. For us the cup runneth over. There is something about the -dark as night- faces bejeweled and wrapped in not one, but all the most vibrant of colors. There is something about the incense and music that can set you in a mood so blissfully peaceful and fulfilled. There is something about the expressiveness of the eyes and eyebrows, the bobbing of the heads. There is something about the earnest way travelers and natives gaze at each other, worlds apart yet so similar in mutual curiosity, humor, and feelings of kinship. There is something about India.

The Gawazee Gauntlet
You know how it is. The music's already going, you're trying to yank off a fellow members' face veil that's caught, so you just haul off the face veil, head piece, and head veil and throw it across the room as she stands stunned and chooses to only politely offer up a "whoa!" Then you turn around and get your bra beads caught in another girls' arm bracelet and as you two struggle to free your breast, another girl yells with frantic,-eyeballs rolling back in her head professionalism-, "Just deal with it!" All this while you're climbing the stairs to the stage, your hips agitating in time to the music, each of you, through gritted teeth, counting 13!, 14!, 15! Ahh, yes. Backstage mayhem. The stuff that never hits the stage. No show would be complete without it. And so it was with Ghawazee, our finale. But that's our little secret. Here's what the audience saw:

The Show
The event was held at the very glamorous Taj Coromandel Hotel and attended by several hundred people - mainly from the Indian film community. There was a giant Egyptian facade erected in front of the hotel, including the face of Tutenkamun, a pyramid and tiki torches, set against which were hordes of beautiful dark skinned and darkly dressed security. The lobby featured water filled shrines afloat with blossoms and inside the ballroom our stage had a lovely desert painted backdrop.

Showtime! O.k., we are loving that the first two rows of audience are press, some of whom post-show interviewed us backstage! Also loving that the show was video taped, edited on-line and projected onto two huge video screens on either side of the stage. The show was a huge success and, according to the rave reviews we collected from the various Indian press sources, Yaleil topped the evening and amazed the enthusiastic audience with one of India's first belly dancing shows. (In fact, our producer insisted to us that it was the first!) Another show highlight was Chiranjeevis' Birthday cake being cut - sliced - hacked with Mari's sword which she graciously lent for this service after performing her sword solo. This made the press by the way. What an honor to be so well received! During the post-show social mix, we were greeted with accolades like, "perfect", "brilliant" and "beyond expectations". We couldn't fit our heads in the airplane to fly home!

How Come it Only Took 5 Minutes to Get Home?
I'll tell you why. Business Class rocks! Well, we all had commitments to be home in time for which caused our host to have to upgrade our "waiting list" flying home status to Business Class. O.k., so like, we had personal video screens that came out of the arms of our chairs which reclined to almost horizontal. We could put our carry ons anywhere, there was mega leg room and hardly anybody on our floor. You could choose from a million movies and a million things to eat which they brought in several courses and served you with real dish wear and stuff. To top all this off (I guess you can tell this is the first time we've flown business class), we all spent time in the cockpit with the pilot! Wait - that didn't sound right. You know what we mean. Michelle even got to see the sunrise and the landing in there!

In Conclusion
Ansuya was particularly moved by this trip as it was a pilgrimage to her father, Narendra Singh Rathor's home country. He was born into the royal family of Ratlam, Rajasthan when the princely states were still in establishment. The palace in which he grew up apparently still stands and is now a railway station. Ansuya is now in touch with her Indian family and looks forward to continued contact and travels there.

Between us all, many blissful moments were collected and committed to a lifetime of savored memories including our colonial-clad door man who greeted us warmly each day with a salute and a smile, the man in the Sari shop who read our palms and shared philosophies of India, our drivers who laughed so easily and were so hospitable, our producer who epitomized elegance and class in our dealings, and especially our unity as a troupe and small family.

Beauty loves a witness, and we were able to appreciate the beauty around us and in each other to a satisfying and moving extent.

Needless to say, now that we are home, we all stand at closed doors confused, waiting for someone to come and open them. Just kidding, of course.