A danseuse remembers

Almost finished packing. Haven’t planned the tour itinerary – I might go to Chandanapally only after V comes on Saturday to sign the servant's contract. Dunno when I can see Ash... Planning to take Mira and maid to my place and leave them there with Ash and my parents as inlaws are leaving for B'lore on 23rd. They are going by car along with Renee’s parents.
Mil however suggested that I should think of taking Mira and maid to Madras this time itself. That means I have to book ticket for her also to go to B'lore with us. Let me see.
It is raining cats and dogs in Kerala thanks to a depression in the Bay of Bengal. Madras is also getting rains every evening.
Attended a rain-soaked dinner party for benefactors of our church's orphanage yesterday night. The food was so-so but the kids' cultural programme was interesting. It was good to see bharatnatyam and other dance forms on stage after so many years. So used to viewing them on TV. I even got to see Margam kali, the Syrian Christian dance form of Kerala, for the first time in life. The wail of a song which accompanies the dance is one of its kind.
My dance master
Reminded me of my schooldays when I had performed on stage. Mom had sent me to a dance school against grandma's wishes (who thought it was not the proper thing to learn for Christian girls from good families! She thought I should join the Sunday School instead, which I never did). My dance master was one Konniyoor Radhakrishnan, a bespectled man with curly hair who carried a black bag under his arm. There was something very feminine about him including his gestures - that is usual for male classical dancers. His lips were always red as he chewed betel leaf and arecanut.
I had no natural flair for dancing and hence he whacked my toes often with a short thick stick whenever I got the steps wrong. My friend and junior in school Reshmi was a good dancer and she learnt bharatnatyam and other classical dance at home too under his tutelage. I learnt only folk and other group dances. My first public performance was on the local Catholic church's anniversary day (the dance school was run by the nuns of the Catholic church, beleive it or not!). I performed in a few group dances and was the lead dancer for one called "Kandal karupulla karivande, kanninte niramulla karivante..." (Oh beautiful black beetle with the colour of the eye). I remember only those 2 lines of it.
I also performed in an Oppana (the Muslim marriage dance)as one of the bride's friends and as an angel in a ballet on Maria Goreti, a French Catholic saint. I must have been in Class III or IV at that time.
Radhakrishnan master often dropped me and Reshmi home on his way back and we had fun trying to match his long strides. He later became the dance master at the Anglo-Indian school in Mallassery where I studied till Class V.
Two years later, I left for Tanzania. Master kept in touch and in one of the last letters he sent me, requested me to get him a bottle of perfume when I got back to India. I couldnt personally give it to him as I joined a residential school in Tiruvalla when I got back from Dar-es-salaam. But my mom said master was very happy with the gifts I got him.
A year later, my friend Reshmi told me that master committed suicide, unable to pay off debts. I wonder what happened to his family.