The
word Saadhanai is derived from the Sanskrit word saadhana
which means devotional, dedicated practice. In December 1999, Ohm Srinivasan,
a student at University of Michigan, had a vision to start an organization
on University of Michigans campus that supported the development
and preservation of Classical Indian dance and music. It was his hope
that the rich art forms that were slowly fading away could be taught and
preserved to those who were interested. He
asked two people, Anandini Chandrasekhar and Meeta Banerjee to help his
dream a reality.
In
January 2000, it happened. Sudha Chandrasekhar, a well known dance teacher
from Detroit, agreed to come to U of Ms campus to teach classes
every Wednesday night to those interested. In June 2000, Saadhanai was
handed over to Meeta Banerjee.
Seeing
that the dance classes were a success, she decided to start a music
division of Saadhanai in September, 2000. Bringing in the musical talents
of Dr. Rajan Sachdeva, a music teacher from West Bloomfield, the music
division was then begun. To this date, Saadhanai has tripled in size,
and its vision remains clear, to help others on this campus experience
Indian culture at its peak and spread Indian music and dance to
the next generations.