Nearly 15 years after her first visit to Udupi, when ethnomusicologist Dr Shubha Chaudhuri revisited the small coastal city in southwest Karnataka last month, the experience was a welcome surprise. While the city had undergone tremendous change, what remained unchallenged was its ancient folk theatre - Yakshagana. Patronised by temples in Karantaka, the origin of this ritual theatre can be traced to the period between the 11th to 15th centuries. "A lot of people had told me that Yakshagana was dying, but this change is more talked about than real," she says.