Thou­sands of ghun­groos (danc­ing bells) res­onat­ed with­in the walls of Na­pari­ma Bowl as some 80 dancers told the sto­ry of Hanu­man through dance. It was the an­nu­al dance dra­ma of San­dra Sookdeo and dis­ci­ples dur­ing the pre­sen­ta­tion of Raa­ma Bhak­ta Hanu­man. Re­ferred to as the mon­key God, Hanu­man the great­est devo­tee of the Hin­du God Sri Raam, was brought to life through var­i­ous clas­si­cal and folk dances at the packed Bowl on April 7.

The chim­ing of the ghun­groos ac­cen­tu­at­ed the rhyth­mic move­ments of dozens of "lit­tle mon­key friends" of Hanu­man. The three-hour dance dra­ma start­ed with the Odis­si recital that in­clud­ed be­gin­ner dancers in Ganesh Van­dana. It con­tin­ued with colour­ful dances, in­clud­ing the Bat­tu (pure dance), Bas­ant Pallavi, Saveri Pallavi, Shri Ram Stu­ti and Mok­sha. The first half end­ed with dancers tak­ing the mi­cro­phone to sing Pro­fes­sor Hari Shankar's Raag Bi­laaw­al, as taught by se­nior dancer and mu­sic stu­dent Gari­ma Sa­ha­too.

Se­nior dancers and some of their par­ents dou­bled up as singers and mu­si­cians to present live mu­sic for oth­er dancers. The event was fam­i­ly-ori­ent­ed, with par­ents from var­i­ous pro­fes­sions as­sist­ing in stage man­age­ment, light­ing, set de­sign, ush­ers, d&ea­cute;cor and cafe­te­ria. The sec­ond half of the show trans­port­ed the au­di­ence to the time when Sri Raam was sent to ex­ile for 14 years and his meet­ing with Hanu­man. It con­tin­ued with the ab­duc­tion of the god­dess Si­ta and her meet­ing with Hanu­man. In the court of the evil king Ra­van, Hanu­man cre­at­ed hav­oc to protest the ab­duc­tion of Moth­er See­ta. For his un­par­al­leled de­vo­tion to God, Hanu­man was im­mor­talised in the 40-verse Hanu­man Chal­isa and the Hanu­man Ash­tak, which were danced for the first time at the Na­pari­ma Bowl.