Tribute - Remembering Prof U.S. Krishna Rao - Dr Sunil Kothari

I met Prof. U.S. Krishna Rao and his wife Chandra (U.K. Chandrabhaga Devi) during All India  Dance Seminar, held at Vigyan Bhavan, New Delhi in  April 1958. That was a historic conference with a weeklong dance festival in the evening at Talkatora Gardens. I was a greenhorn, up and coming scholar interested in dance, had gone from Mumbai to attend the seminar, thanks to Prof. Mohan Khokar’s suggestion, as all leading lights of dance world were to meet there.
       
Prof .U.S. Krishna Rao was to present his paper on ‘New Trends in Bharatanatyam.’ I had read about him in Ram Gopal’s biography Rhythm in Heavens as his friend and a young companion. Ram Gopal and he used to learn dance and Krishna Rao used to take Ram Gopal on his bicycle. After the performances were over, which were held privately without Ram Gopal’s parents’ knowledge, some organized by the Yuvaraj, the prince, Krishna Rao used to accompany him. As I learnt later on, it was due to Ram Gopal that Krishna Rao took to dancing, though essentially he was to support himself, in future, as a Professor of Chemistry in Bangalore University.

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