“A date to remember: on the 1st anniversary of my book release”

Photo Courtesy: Tejdipty Pawade

Why do we remember any particular date? Because something good or bad has happened on that day. Something predictable, unpredictable, surprising or shocking! That incident or memory resides in our mind, because we have experienced something from it and learnt from it.

July 28, 2018 is the date that changed my life. My first book was released on this day. Before I tell you more about my book, let me take you into a flashback!

In 2011, a renowned Dance & Music Scholar and Author Dr. Pappu Venugopala Rao wrote and published a book based on Telugu compositions called ‘Javali-s’ and the book was named as ‘Bunch of Javalis’. The book has a collection of rare, known and unknown Javalis of various composers. This book has 51 Telugu Javalis, with English transliteration and word to word meanings in English. Dr. Rao has given the notations of all the compositions. This book depicts the origin and history of Javali, types of Nayaka-Nayikas from Rasamanjari and also contains the author’s footnote on each Javali. He has explained some Javalis with Sanchari bhava-s. Javalis are widely discussed by its music, especially the use of Raga-s and Tala-s and their association with cultural and literature in his book. Overall, this is a very important book in our field of performing art and I found it as one of his best contributions too. Here, I want to mention that there are many books are published on compositions for dance and music; but very few books are such elaborative which are of great help for a person like me, who is unable to understand South Indian languages.

Since 2015-16, I have been going through some strong realizations regarding my dance form and I have gained interest in understanding languages like Tamil, Telugu etc. It is necessary to understand the lyrics of Abhinaya. The exact pronunciation of each word and its meaning in your mother tongue/local language will help you to maturely handle the text in initial stage.

As an experiment, I just put 1-2 Padam-s & Javali-s in Devanagari script with Marathi word to word meanings on my blog. I unexpectedly received good response from dancers. While working on my blog web series with Dr. Rao; I approached him with the idea of translating his ‘Bunch of Javalis’ in Marathi, for Maharashtrian dancers. He agreed instantly and this was the moment where I felt the most responsible because I had undertaken a challenging task. Here, I want to thank my dance Guru Dr. Parimal Phadke, who guided me & supported me in my initiative. Because of his encouragement I could start this work and complete it almost in 4-5 months.

It was the first time when I was working on a book, organizing the book release event and working on my performance simultaneously. This experience helped me to improve myself in many things. Today, on the occasion of the 1st anniversary of my translated and edited Marathi book- ‘Paramparik Javali: Artha ani Vivechan’. It is a date to remember, it is a date which would always inspire me!

It was really very creative and productive task. Transliteration and translation were the major parts to work ob but as a Marathi Bharatanatyam dancer, I found out other important factors which were mandatory to be added in the Marathi version. I will discuss these additions later, in the 2nd part of this article.

On July 28th, 2018 my book was launched by the dignitaries Dr. Pappu Venugopala Rao, My Dance Guru and renowned Bharatanatyam dancer Dr. Swati Daithankar, Educationalist Mrs. Archana Neginhal, renowned Mohiniattam dancer from Bengluru Dr. Rekha Raju and the one who helped me to come out with my first book under his Bookmark Publications, Mr. Parag pimple.

On the guidelines of my professors Dr. Rao himself, Dr. Parimal Phadke, Dr. Rekha Sane, Dr. Amruta Natu and Dr. Shreenand Bapat, my parents, my friends and especially Mr. Parag Pimple; I had sincerely put all my efforts.

This date is a memorable date for me. I remember it not for the loud applause, but for the enlightening journey I experienced till the date arrived.

Well, more on it, in the next part...!

Swarada Dhekane.

'I would like to thank Mr. Punit Kawathekar sir for his help in my first English article. I want to thank Mrs. Carmeline Sequeira ma'am, Pappu sir and my father for your help & encouragement!'