Sitting in the front row, watching a dance show, she patiently unpacks for me the cycle of nine-and-a-half beats to which the piece being performed is set. “That’s why it’s called Navardha Tala,” she says with a twinkle in her eyes. I am amazed at her enthusiasm and humility, as I watch, both wowed and privileged to be sharing the moment with someone whose biography has been launched a few minutes ago.
Kathak Guru, Dr. Shovana Narayan has lived a life of incomparable richness juggling two heavy-duty careers: of being an iconic Kathak dancer and a decorated government officer. And as if that was not enough, she also had to play official host as the spouse of Austrian Ambassador, Herbert Traxl. What she often forgets to count as part of her wide achievements is that of being a prolific author, of over 20 books. And that’s still not all of it. She also runs a Kathak academy called ASAVARI where she trains disciples in keeping with the guru-shishya tradition.
The massive task of fitting this incredibly eventful life in a biography titled ‘I Am a Fleeting Moment in Time’ is done by author Dr. Maya Parijat. Many readers will be delighted to know about Narayan’s academic excellence. While doing her PhD in Physics, she decided to sit for the civil services exams and got through in the first attempt. When she joined the Indian Audits and Accounts Service, she knew that her dual career choices would continuously be judged by biased minds of how a committed government officer can be an equally accomplished Kathak dancer or vice versa. “If I can keep a 16-beat cycle in my head while spinning, managing government files feels like choreography of a different kind,” she points out.
As a confident dancer who has not been rigid about the traditional aspect of her art, she has done multiple collaborations with different artists, writers and curators; pushing the envelope on how Kathak should be perceived in story-telling. I’ve had the honour of one such collaboration and am also blessed to have my quote in the biography about my friendship and experience with her. While curating a tribute concert for my grand-uncle Talat Mahmood, I approached her with some hesitation if she, a classical dancer, would be open to dancing on Talat Mahmood’s film songs during a special narrative piece on his life. To my utmost surprise she said, “Sahar, pick any type of song, I don’t have a problem in dancing on any of Talat sahab’s iconic hits. You only focus on your script and which songs will best suit your narration. Leave the dance to me.”
I can’t describe how comforting her attitude towards such collaborations is. She opened up her heart and her calendar to make sure that the one-hour performance on Talat Mahmood’s life became a deeply personal and unique tribute to him.
While writing the biography, the author sought to look beyond the visible, to listen for what lay beneath the surface of the celebrity dancer—where she used years of her practice as a counsellor to guide her. “The values she absorbed transcended formal education, seamlessly embracing both Eastern and Western thought. Deeply ingrained in her was the lesson of approaching every endeavour with complete sincerity and wholeness—a quality that continues to define her life even today. And anchoring it all were discipline, sadhna, and her dedication to righteousness, forming the spiritual spine of her journey,” explains Parijat.
Narayan’s Kathak guru, the legendary Pt. Birju Maharaj understood early on that academics will not be a mere formality to complete in her life. She will remain equally committed to a chosen career apart from Kathak. He respected this and often modified his own schedule to ensure she doesn’t miss his training everyday. Later in life, his flexibility taught her to be an equally accommodating guru herself when she started teaching her disciples.
Her education, deep interest in literature and empathy for social causes made her look beyond traditional verses in Kathak. She has danced to the poetry of Mirza Ghalib, Mir Taqi Mir and Omar Khayyam. In fact, the title of this biography is a central line in the acclaimed poem ‘Mera Safar’ (My Journey) by the Urdu poet Ali Sardar Jafri. Much to the poet’s delight, she performed his poem so beautifully that he declared that it now belongs to her. Renowned Hindi poet Ramdhari Singh Dinkar marked out passages from his work ‘Kurukshetra’, especially keen for Narayan to adapt it into a Kathak piece. Similarly, Dharamvir Bharti wanted her to adapt his famous play ‘Andha Yug’ in Kathak.
Soon enough, the world became her stage and she performed for King Charles III (then the Prince of Wales), Lord Mountbatten, King Jigme Wangchuk of Bhutan, President Carter of USA, Princess Ashraf Pahlavi of Iran, President Brazhnev of USSR and many more.
The book is a work of true inspiration, skilfully narrated by Parijat. Her personal challenges: like having a long-distance marriage with a foreign diplomat, becoming a mother with two careers, losing her father in a train accident, a rare skin condition that affected her appearance on stage, cancelling her concert calendar to rush across continents to take care of her ailing husband in 2023, and many more. “I felt compelled to enter the deeper ‘why’s’ behind the ‘what’s’… What urged her to question and transcend the prescribed codes for women of her time… What emboldened her to challenge taboos and rewrite her own narrative…,” writes Parijat.
The launch of biography was also a celebration of the legend’s life as it entered its 75th year. Her Asavari Dance Troupe presented a beautifully medley that showcased parts of performances that were curated by her since 1975. In the end, the Kathak guru joined all her disciples on stage in absolute ecstasy. Perhaps that’s how she would always like to be remembered as—of living in the moment with Kathak.
Sahar Zaman is an award-winning author, multimedia journalist, cultural curator and an advocate of the Orange Economy. She has Founded Asia’s first web-channel dedicated to the Arts, called Hunar TV.
