Images in my Heart.

I have beautiful memories of my times when I was under the reassuring shade of my guru’s wings. Till date these memories keep me going. Today I narrate the same incidents to my students and feel the warmth pass through. It makes my Guru come alive. And that is what I want. I don’t want him to be remembered merely as a memory of yester years. I want my students and the world to see the enigma that he was, the compelling personality that he portrayed and by doing so to let his spirit live on!

Guruji was a strange compilation of seriousness, naughtiness and philosophies. He was a very young man when he became a guru.

So while playing the role of a guru he had to consciously nurture the face of a serious, strict disciplinarian. But within his heart he was a carefree, child-like person indulging in fun and frolic whenever he could.

Talking about his philosophies: Guruji’s philosophies of life were connected to the experiences that he had gathered. We as students would be hovering around him for all most twenty-four hours. Our class spilled over to his house and thereafter where ever Guruji went. We would eat, cook, clean and even stay over at his house. It was almost like our own haven. I have very fond memories of the times we’d spent there. One would expect a Guru to throw his students out and get highly irritated with such behaviour. On the contrary he expected this out of us. Bala Didi (Guruji’s wife) looked upon us as an extension of the family.

Guruji would say to us that a true Shagird is one who moves around his or her guru, imbibing the lessons being departed at every second, every moment. In his terms the word Shagird, was interpreted as Shah- ke- gird. Here the term Shah stood for the Guru, and the term gird denoted- to be constantly around or with the guru.

He would say that a true artiste would evolve out of the student only when they watched the guru. The guru’s way of life, his thought process, the synthesis of reality and imagination. The artistic pursuit of a performing artiste has to evolve through many phases, and the first basic level of learning would be achieved by watching some one who has traversed that path and has hidden answers to all kinds of questions that the impressionable young mind of the student is seeking.

Guruji ! I can keep talking about him he is an unending story for me. In fact many of my classes are often spent narrating to my disciples, the days I spent as a student. It is a nostalgic journey for me. What is interesting is how my account of Guruji keeps these young minds enraptured. His enigma still continues.

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