20th july' o9
As I entered my guruji’s house on Wednesday, I couldn’t stop thinking as to why had I not come here before, when he was alive and could have shown me the house himself. I was greeted at the gate by his petite wife- she was one of those women who age beautifully and gracefully. I take my shoes off outside the house; it just felt right that way. As I enter the house (it looks well, and is neatly kept, don’t know why but I am surprised. It just shows that how little I knew of him in some ways.) my eyes go to the right wall, which is filled with framed black and white photograph of him, where he is practicing the various rasa’s of kathak. They are simply breathtaking, on look and you know what a great dancer he was. I’m told by his eldest son, with some amount of prides’ as to how Guruji has himself got these photos framed and hung a month before his demise. He further goes on to narrate a few more instances, where he packed up things within the last two weeks, as though he was preparing to go. I wonder if he had any clue, or were these mere coincidences.
After the first few minutes of pleasantries, we are at a loss of words, and I try hard to make conversation. His wife gets me Tang, and some sweets to eat. In some ways I am surprised to meet her, and she differs completely from the image I had made of her in my mind over the years. Guruji was a very loud man, jovial and light hearted, I expected his wife too, to be a boisterous lady, not a shy frail women. It was hard imagine her being a wife to a dancer, as she fit the role of a typical Punjabi mother so well.(almost she wasn’t’ that loud)
Her son, is a striking image of guruji, his smile is identical to that of Guruji’s- like an action replay from many years ago. He inquires about me, what I am doing, what plans etc. I try to explain my project to him, it is very difficult and I realize how less I know about it myself. He quickly gives me a huge list of references, places I can go, people to meet. I write them all down, it is hard to make him understand that my film is not about kathak – its history or present day situation.
He tells me about how doordarshan had made a film on him, many years ago and starts searching for the vhs tape. I offer to get it digitized for them and take it. He then presents me with Guruji’s latest book, which he was writing for the past nine years and was making some last final changes when he passed away. I’m very happy to take it, even though it is mainly in Hindi, and reading it is a bit of a struggle for me. (When I come back home and show it to my mother she tells me that guruji said that he has mentioned me in this book as one of his good students. I am so so happy and thrilled and touched to hear this.)
No comments:
Post a Comment