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Culture Documents
It was a hot summer afternoon. The sun was shining bright and in the
calm and humid air one could hear the soft murmur of a group of young
girls. In the front yard of a house across from a dance school young girls
were under the guava tree pointing towards the ripe guavas on the
branches. Perched on the branches at a height were two other friends
stretching out to pluck the guavas and happily passing them down. Totally
unaware of any other presence, the girls were too engrossed in their act.
From the balcony of the dance school, Kala Vikash Kendra, Kelu
“saar” (sir) was observing the girls. Soon the group of girls was seen
walking to the Kendra to resume to the dance lesson, only to realize that
they were caught in their act and were grounded. I was one of those girls
perched on the branch, and Kelu saar was my dance teacher. However,
this word,ʼ dance teacherʼ, does not fully describe the role he played in my
life.
It was in Kala Vikash Kendra when I was introduced to Kelu saar by
my uncle, the late Babulal Doshi. I had the privilege of learning Odissi
dance under Gurujiʼs tutelage since my early childhood. Going for dance
lessons to Kala Vikash Kendra was a part of my daily routine. My mother
believed that learning the arts was an important element in the overall
development of a child.
Initially, as a young student in the Kendra, I had spent hours
observing Kelu saar while he taught Menaka Thakkar during their daylong
dance sessions. Later I had countless opportunities to learn and perform
under his direction. Kelu saar was just not a teacher to his students; he was
a friend, a father and a strict disciplinarian. Innumerable experiences come
to mind as I reminisce my days in Cuttack.
One incident that comes to mind is the day when I assisted him in
building the roof of his new classroom in Samanta Sahi, Cuttack. For him
dance was not the only creative expression. His creativity was reflected in
building, constructing, painting, cleaning, planting, and decorating. Having
received the scholarship for young artists from the Government of India, I
was at his home everyday for dance lessons. One morning as I walked into
his house I saw Kelu saar cutting bamboo sticks for building the roof of the
new classroom. That was the lesson for the day: helping him group the
bamboo sticks, tying them firmly together and finally passing them to him.
Our whole day went by in this task and I returned home feeling exhausted
and confused. I now understand how participating in this activity of building
a roof was also a lesson in creativity and innovation when I teach art
education and the importance of nurturing creative expressions in students.
Travelling with Kelu saar introduced me to his ways of taking care of
his students, which I then found to be quite peculiar and restricting. Our
travels those days were mostly by rail. We would be groups of twenty or
thirty students. When we would wait for the train, he would arrange our
luggage. Bags were arranged according to size, form and color. We called
it his idiosyncrasy. To keep all the girls from straying away on the platform,
he would make us sit around the bags in select positions. For him, the
railway platform was a stage and the bags and we were his props to
choreograph. His creativity permeated in the mundane chores of life.
Artistic expression was not an isolated event for him.
Thirty-five years have gone by and with those years I have grown
through various experiences of my life– school and college graduation in
Cuttack, employment and marriage in Bombay, motherhood in Delhi and
now teaching and pursuit of a doctoral degree at the Ohio State University
in Columbus, Ohio. Amidst all these changes, Kelu saar and his dance
lessons always remained a part of my life. Attending dance classes and
workshops in Cuttack, Bombay and Delhi, rehearsing for performances,
and finally hosting him at my house in Boston, Massachusetts in 1996,
were the numerous occasions when I got to spend valuable time with him.
It was a never-ending journey of dance for me. His simplicity in life, his
integrity, precision, love and passion for work, his firmness and sincerity in
teaching, his innovative energies, and above all his humility, were his
strengths.
Learning dance, for me as a child, was only a hobby, and a discipline.
As I grew up, it became good times that I shared with my friends. Later as a
teenager it became an obsession to excel. Today Odissi provides me with
the joy, meaning and purpose of life. It gives me a sense of self-respect.
My art has expanded my world and enlarged my network of people who I
would never have met without Odissi. In an intercultural community of
America, where I have worked for the past eleven years, Odissi dance has
given me an identity of which I am proud. I have discovered that my art has
allowed me to connect with people who are so different from me. When I
visit schools and colleges for lecture-demonstrations or to perform for
intercultural audience, I notice that my art helps people to respect diversity
and to discover their own roots. Training under Kelusaar was beyond the
form and technique of Odissi. I learned from him:
His passing away has left a void in my world. Life will carry on but it will
never be the same. The lessons of life seem to have ended. It feels like the
curtain has dropped forever. With eyes welled with tears, a heavy heart and
a choking voice I have to bid fare well to him. May his soul rest in peace.