News and pics: Rons Bantwal

Daijiworld Media Network – Mumbai (EP)

Mumbai, Aug 2: Priyanjali Rao, a Karnataka based Bharatanatyam student of Nrityaranjani Fine Arts Academy performed at the Rashtrapati Bhavan on the eve of President Pranab Mukherjee's farewell. She was part of the group of Guruji Padmashree Padmabhushan Dr Saroja Vaidyanathan who invited Priyanjali to be part of this dance production 'Namami Gange' during her one month scholarship stay with her.

A SPIC MACAY scholarship is one where a student gets to spend one month with a distinguished guru. It was awarded to Priyanjali in the month of June as she was one of the winners at the IIT mood indigo classical dance competition held in December last year. This led to Guruji offering her an opportunity to perform for this great occasion.

It was a memorable experience for her performing at the Rashtrapati Bhavan in the presence of distinguished people like prime minister Narendra Modi, Ramnath Kovind, Hamid Ansari, Smriti Irani, Pratibha Patil and others.

Priyanjali Rao is the student of Revathi Srinivas Raghavan. She is the daughter of Khar west residents Vidya R Rao couple and the grandaughter of A B Rao and Tara B Rao. She performed Arangetram at Ravindra auditorium, Dadar in 2012 and has presented several performances in India and abroad.