Meena Anand

Meena Anand has been an avid dance, drama and music enthusiast from the age of 12. She was a regular feature in her school and college team and has traveled with the team to many cities for cultural events. She enjoys performing Folk and Western pieces. She has been a part of 3 full length Tamil plays and about 25 Mime shows. She acted in a South Indian play “Stuti Bedham” that was staged in the Bay Area by Krea in February 2005. She has won accolades at the 50th Independence Day Youth dance meet, Relish dance festival and REC Solo dancing event. Her performances in the Bay Area include Thillana’s “Manvasam”, Sanhiti’s first show “Vanavil” and Tamil Manram’s “Pongal Tsunami Relief Show”. She was recognized as the best outgoing dancer of her college. She holds Masters in Commerce and graduated from the Bharathidasan University with a Gold Medal. She volunteers for AID and American Red Cross. Her hobbies include painting, music, chess, travel, hiking, cooking and of course shopping

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Munish Sivagurunath

I doubt Munish has ever put less than 100% in anything he has committed to. His sincerity to projects undertaken, his camaraderie spirit towards team-members, his sense of fairness, an ever-ready enthusiasm for new ideas lend good support to his immense talents in acting - slowly making him well known in Tamil dramatic circles in Bay Area. Well- received for his performance in Naatak's Kalavaram, he went on to play the lead in their following play Kaasu Mela Kaasu. The VaarayO Vasanthamey show of Thillana saw him in a new role of show-anchor. In addition, it is sheer music to hear him recite his favorite poet Vairamuthu's poetry. Munish put on his dancing shoes for a Jazz number in Sanhiti's debut venture "Vaanavil". This time he adds a semi-classical number to his repertoire and hopes to delight the audience with new moves

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Naveen Nathan

Naveen Nathan, son of a seasoned stage and TV artist had acting inspirations from his childhood. Bay area paved his path to achieve and showcase his artistic side. His debut in the bay area was through the Tamil radio program, Mostly Tamil as its first co-host. He had been instrumental along with his three other friends to co-found a drama team in bay area - KREA.He has acted in KREA's 3 full length plays Thanimai, Maya, Surti Bhedham and in Naatak's Rahasiya Snehithiyae. His role as Ambhi in Sruti Bhedham was widely appreciated by audiences both in bay area and in Chennai and has received rave accolades from none other than Directorial Bhishma Shri.K.Balachander. He found his interests widen to dancing and his interest in dancing came to light by his performances in the last years' Vaanavil program by Sanhiti. He loves singing (includes lullabies to his baby), sharpening his culinary skills and watching movies for its screenplay.

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Poornima Venkatakrishnan

Poornima is a Bharatnatyam dancer and was initiated into the art at an early age of 7 years by Kalaimamani K.J. Sarasa. She was then trained by various gurus in different places and did her Arangetram with Guru Kalarani Ramachandran in the Kalakshetra style in 1995 at Madurai.The danseuse has also studied carnatic music under the well known maestro Rajam Iyer's disciple Geetha Ramachandran and Shengottai Narayanan. Poornima has also had basic training in Odissi. Currently she is pursuing kathak at Chhandham School of Kathak, San Jose.Besides Indian forms of art, she has also explored various other classical and non-classical dance forms like Irish dancing, Basic ballet and Hip-Hop.Poornima is also a part of another troupe called the Global Rhythms with whom she has travelled around the US for various multi- cultural performances. Besides dance and music, Poornima also likes to paint. Making watercolor copies of Van Gogh is one of her favorite hobbies. She also does Tanjore painting. She is adventurous and likes outdoor activities like hiking, trekking,sky-diving etc. Last but not the least, Poornima is a Computer Science Engineer by profession and is currently employed at Palm Inc, Sunnyvale, CA and also a proud member of Sanhiti.

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Raji Mahalingam

Known as Raji to all her friends, Rajeswari Mahalingam has been learning & performing dance since her school days. Raji has received her classical training in the traditional Tanjore style of Bharathnatyam under the training of Guru Vishal Ramani of the Shri Krupa Dance Company. She has performed in many Shri Krupa Productions and at other community events in the Bay Area.

In addition to Bharathnatyam, Raji has been exposed to several folk dances of India including the bollywood style of dance. She has taken part in her school and college cultural events. She helped organize and has danced in the Diwali Mela at her work. She has also been learning carnatic music from Guru Jayashree Varadarajan.

Apart from her dance and music, she has done Masters in Computers and is working presently for Oracle Corporation, Redwood City. Her husband Venkat and daughter Divya are very supportive of her hobbies.

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Rajiv Jayaraman

"Step out of your comfort zone and push the limits".This has been the operating mantra for Rajiv for the last few years. "You never know what you are capable of until you try different things", he says to himself. Some of his accomplishments in the field of arts in the recent past bear testimony to this spirit.He received critical acclaim from all quarters for the lead role he played in the Tamil play, "Sruti Bedham".The appreciation he received from K.Balachander is something he never dreamed of when he started as a novice in Bay area theater. He has acted in four plays so far, Kaasu Mela Kaasu, Thanimai, Ennangal and Sruti Bedham. He has made two short movies, "Oh God Its Friday" and "I'm feeling lucky" in addition to acting in two other short movies, "Untold Secrets" and "Mind's eye". His stand-up comedy act for the Tsunami relief program brought down the house and helped raise funds for charity. He acted in Sanhiti's compeering skit last year. This year, you'll catch him shaking his leg on some interesting dance numbers. He loves composing music, despite his limited knowledge of Carnatic music, mainly to impress his adorable wife, Anu.

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