Various shades of art

Kolkata-based Neha Khaitan is a Computer Science engineer from Kalyani University. The multitalented artist is also an author of children's books and is into storytelling. She was recently in Hyderabad with a storytelling session, and all artistic explorations found a place in her story telling session, which was a classical dance and music-based show.

About "'Anekdotes - Many Stories', the storytelling wing of 'A Flower Child', a platform that she founded to promote visual arts and children's books, she shares, "Being a Bharatanatyam dancer, I had an idea of including elements of classical dance like abhinaya (expressions), mudras (hand gestures) and the classical dance body language into snippets of my storytelling sessions that I conduct at schools and NGOs.

I got opportunities for storytelling sessions at the Kalaghoda Art Festival in Mumbai. With constant encouragement and guidance from my Guru Late Hemamalini Arni, this gradually blossomed into something completely different from what I had started with.

I named this storytelling initiative 'Anekdotes - many stories' and created a YouTube channel where I post new stories every other Saturday. I work with a highly accomplished violinist Sri Sai Kolanka, who composes various music and jathi (rhythmic) patterns. To choreograph my dance snippets to the music and jathis was quite an enriching exercise for me."

"I saw this beautiful metamorphosis of 'Anekdotes' from a simple dance-based storytelling session - to a narrative of stories replete with dance sequences set to classical music. The biggest discovery for me was that I saw this as a revival of the slowly fading rich tradition of classical dramatic storytelling.

And I thought a performance would be the best way to let the younger generation learn about our tradition in some way. I am due to perform at the Hyderabad Literary Festival in Jan 2020 with Live Orchestra," she adds.

She sometimes selects stories from literature, children's stories by Ruskin Bond, old folk tales and writes her own stories. Growing up Neha's mother gave her exposure to cultural activities. But she was not really seriously into any form of arts.

"I think the seeds were already sown even with the little exposure I got. I was working in Hyderabad as a Programmer in a software company and in the year 2006, I happened to watch one of the Bharatanatyam recitals orchestrated by Guru Hemamalini Arni. It was the first time in my life, I had witnessed a live Bharatanatyam performance and I decided to take it up as a hobby."

"Getting my guru's number online was not easy, but I did stumble upon it. I called and met her, and I started my dance classes, twice every week. I think I did not know then what I was getting into.

Bharatanatyam is a very strong rigorous dance form and I had not been into any sports or fitness activities till then, and I realised was extremely unfit and moulding your body to something so strenuous when you are not very young was a little difficult. I had to start working on getting stronger with exercises outside of my regular dance practice.

I learnt with her for a year and I had to move to United States for work," she relates. She continued practicing. On 23 June, 2011 she had her Arangetram (the debut stage performance). An Arangetram is just the beginning. It is akin to faring decently well in your Class 10 board exams.

There after she continued working even harder with this art form, which had become her passion. She performed on various prestigious platforms in India and abroad. The 39-year-old married Neha had some health issues in the year 2015, which required her to be on rest and she was almost living a sedentary lifestyle till 2016.

"When I had to undergo a surgery, it was during this period of inactivity I started dabbling with sketching and fine arts, again because of the little exposure I got while growing up. I did get back to dancing 2017, but by then I had also become quite serious about illustrations and arts.

I used to work with Ink on Paper and collages, spend time reading about arts, experimenting with children's illustrations etc. In 2016, I had already established a platform called 'A Flower Child'.

Stressing about her family's support in her artistic journey she says, "I come from quite an orthodox business family from Rajasthan, and initially I had very little support. My mother was always there with me as a moral support. And gradually as they saw things unfolding, I think they do feel happy and proud."

Neha's first volume in a series of Math-based activity books for children, that she has authored and illustrated, is being published by Rupa Publications. And her plan as an artiste is to "nurture 'A Flower Child' and bring perfection in my chosen dance form."