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The Rediff Special

Nrityagram prays for Protima's return

Madhuri Velegar-Krishnan in Bangalore

Surupa Sen has never felt so wretched. Add to this, an acute sense of helplessness, for all she can think of doing at this time is pray.

Sen, artistic director at the dance village Nrityagram, protege and fond student of Odissi danseuse Protima Gauri, now feared dead, in Monday's tragic landslide in Pittorgarh district, Uttar Pradesh, that killed 202 pilgrims on their way to Kailash-Mansarovar has not slept a wink. She first heard the news from mediapersons who called Nrityagram last afternoon.

Nrityagram was waiting in a pall of gloom for confirmation of the news before offering tribute or even speaking of the dancer as if she were no more. Sen said in her thick voice, ''For gods' sake we don't know for sure, and I do not believe Gaurima is no more. Besides, there were two groups of pilgrims who were in the 12th batch, one left and one stayed back at Malpa village. The one that stayed was fatally affected.''

So she hopes Protima was in the group that left, but what were her chances when she was face to face with the wrath of the landslide? Sen cuts in: ''I don't know, but in my deepest gut I believe she would have escaped. Gaurima is a survivor, she would have found a way out of there.''

Surupa said she shared "a close bond with Gaurima" and she's praying the bond is not severed yet.

Protima embarked on the pilgrimage in the Himalayas with a friend H Futnani who is also missing. Her daughter Pooja and grand-daughter Aaliya, who stayed with her in Nrityagram a few months ago, are back in Bombay, and awaiting official information from Delhi.

Christine Fernandes, general manager, Taj West End, Bangalore, is a business colleague of Protima and was on the verge of tying up a deal for the sale of Kuteeram, the restaurant at Nrityagram, when the dancer left for the hills. Fernandes refused to speak to Rediff On The NeT, expect to say that she was very upset by the news.

Another close friend, Shireen Malani, owner of the Renaissance Art Gallery in Bangalore, was not available for comment as she had left for Canada on Monday, August 17.

Shireen loved Protima for her guts, vibrant spirit and supreme confidence. A high profile dresser, she had loaned her halter orange blouse to Protima on the opening day of the recent exhibition and sale of Protima's paintings (those that were gifted to her). Protima looked stunning in the orange chiffon ensemble.

Almost all the paintings were sold, the Hebbar and Souza going almost immediately. Protima planned to lead a retired life, living in a tent, studying the Vedas, being with her son in the US and her grandchild, and trekking in the Himalayas.

She was able to spend time with Pooja and Aaliya, but not her son Siddharth who died tragically before she reached the US. She was learning Sanskrit when she had to leave for the US; then her tent caught fire. And now her last dream -- to trek in the mighty Himalayas -- may also remain incomplete.

Malani was in the process of making elaborate plans to celebrate Protima's 50th birthday in October at the Windsor Mansor hotel with a display of artist Paresh Hazra's 30 paintings of Nrityagram coupled with an Odissi performance, most definitely headed by Surupa Sen.

Is this plan, too, fated to remain an unfinished dream?

The Rediff Specials

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