Birju Maharaji and the venerable Jaipur gharana Guru Sunder Prasadji taught in their own huts, constructed with a smooth concrete floor, straw wattle walls and thatched roofs --temporarily temporary classrooms for quite a few years. Guru Shambhu Maharaji would bluster in occasionally, dramatically picking a rose from the air and smelling it with relish. I often watched him teach his older son, Kishan Maharaj, as he drilled him in multiple pirouette turns. Sunder Prasadji's three-year old son would escape from his mother and race naked through the classroom.

On one memorable occasion Sunder Prasadji honored his discipleship to Maharaji's great uncle, Maharaj Bindadin, by hosting a banquet in Birju Maharaji's hut. The entire floor was scrupulously washed and rows of leaf-plates and cups were laid out. If my memory serves me correctly, Sunder Prasad himself served food to Maharaji, while Sunder Prasadji's students and family ceremoniously ladeled out abundant food. Kathak Kendra's gurus, musicians, administrative staff, dancers in Birju Maharaji's ballet unit, and students sat together. My understanding of gharana was honed during that banquet, as an elder of the Jaipur house served the grand-nephew of his Lucknow guru in the Lucknow house. Yes, in the late 1960's the two gharana's had distinct styles, but their houses were related by overarching service to the art and the gurus who embodied and transmitted it.