Aai - that's what we say for mother,
in my language - Marathi, the mother tongue of Maharashtra. Aai loved
dance, she still does. She is a natural dancer. She was born with dance
in her, and her body was nothing but grace and poise. But ...Why am I saying
'was'...? I should say, 'is'...! Today, even at 80 and with joint problems,
one can see that inherent grace and poise...and a free spirit... she gets up
spontaneously at any party when the music comes on and dances; she does
that every year when it rains for the first time too, gets drenched dancing
in the rains...I really am lucky, for I have inherited this natural grace
and poise. And I must say her beautiful curvaceous bottom too... these three
factors are a definite 'add on' for the Odissi dance style.
During the initial stages of my dance
career, we all would rag her. Well...not me, but the others in the family...
that my dance is actually her surrogate ambition. She was very fond of
dance. But her father, a very traditional orthodox man who had stopped
even my grandma playing the dilruba after marriage, just did not have the
ability to understand that there is music in life, so how could she even
dream or think about dance...?
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