DANCE MACABRE

 A month after the gruesome attack on its President Sankara Menon by goons, the police are still clueless. Power struggles and controversies have dogged this august institution from the time of   Rukmini Devi Arundale’death in 1985.

                                  

At night, the Kalakshetra campus is breathtakingly beautiful. Scores of trees stand silhouetted in the dark like sentinels. The cottages are shuttered and seemingly exhausted after endless rehearsals during the day. In the silence you can hear only the rustle of leaves and the distant role of waves as they break on the beach.

A narrow public path divides the administrative offices and staff quarters from the college.

Occasionally, a funeral procession singing mournful dirges passes through to the crematorium on the grounds nearby. It was a similar scene at Kalakshetra just after midnight on the fourth of May. Sankara Menon, Dr. Padmasini and Kamala Trilokekar were deep in slumber. A full Chaitra moon bathed the landscape with silver rays.

Suddenly, a group of men --- we do not know how many or what they looked like --- broke through the flimsy back door of the house nearest the road. Hearing the noise, Padmasini woke up and went to check what it was. She was brutally clubbed on the head and slashed with knives. Blood streaming down her face, she screamed and pressed an alarm button before falling unconscious.

Meanwhile, Menon and Kamala awoke and faced a vicious attack that left Menon with a fractured skull and Kamala with serious injuries. All three are over 80 years of age. Dr. Padmasini or Paddu as she is known at Kalakshetra, renounced a medical career to associate herself with the Theosophical Society and Rukmini Devi’s Kalakshetra. Sankara Menon, erudite scholar, eloquent orator, charming and capable, is President of Kalakshetra and is looked up to as a mentor by   three generations of students.  Kamala is an educationist and has been in charge of the Montessori Teacher Training School   of Kalakshetra. These three are part of the cultural renaissance of our country and have dedicated themselves to the movement. Today, at the end of their eventful and meaningful lives they lie in bed, pain and terror in their eyes, victims of the mindless violence that has become part of our society.

The news of the assault was received with shock and disbelief by countless students, friends, admirers and supporters of Kalakshetra around the world.

This premier art institute has been embroiled in controversy since Rukmini Devi’s times. Favoritism is rampant and students are forever faced with irregular classes and incomplete syllabi.

Old-fashioned discipline is enforced. Last year, a final-year student was prevented from appearing for the examinations on the grounds of indiscipline. Kalakshetra lacks a strong administrative head who can officiate independent of internal politics. Rukmini Devi was an autocratic head. No one has been able to fill the void left by her death.

In 1985, when Rukmini Devi was over 80 and ailing, the institution came under a cloud following allegations regarding misappropriation of funds.

Unhappy over the state of affairs, Rukmini Devi secretly took legal action and formed a trust which would assume control over the management. Former President R. Venkataraman and Sankara Menon were part of the new setup.

The move came as a shock to members of the Kalakshetra Society who were instrumental in shaping its institution right from its inception. A counter-appeal against the trust was upheld in court and status quo resumed. The trust went to the high court where the matter rests since 1987. The bitterness and rivalry which  had earlier been only an undercurrent now lay exposed and several family members were seen in a new light under the changed circumstances.

In 1992, Bhaskar Ghosh, cultural secretary of the government, inaugurated the arts festival and announced a grant of Rs. 8 crore to Kalakshetra. With no strings attached. But nothing has materialized so far.

The threat of being rewarded the status of a deemed university hangs like a Damocles sword over the famous college of art. The status will help ease many problems, bring stability and increase staff salaries. But it will also bring with it a plethora of   rules and regulations which will oust many of the existing staffers who are well past the official retirement age.

Though teachers at Kalakshetra are pathetically underpaid, they are not there for the money. They are the pride and soul of Kalakshetra, the crème de la crème of India’s dancers trained and inspired by Rukmini Devi herself. They continue to work under the most tiring conditions. Unlike Tagore’s Santiniketan, the high standard of technique and presentation has not slipped a fraction here.

The state of confusion and conflict   prevailing in Kalakshetra should be a matter of grave concern to all art lovers. The gruesome attack on three distinguished   but defenseless senior citizens carries a serious message. It is alarming that there has been no public outcry condemning the crime. Prominent members of our society who have prided themselves on their association with Kalakshetra have kept mum. The Tamil Nadu chief minister, governor and the culture-vultures of the capital have also maintained an apathetic silence.

Whom or what did the terrorists really attack? The establishment? The college of arts, for sitting on prime property worth several crores? Was it vendetta?  A warning?  Rebellion against discipline? The police do not have a clue. Do the victims?

                           

 (Published on June 7, 1993 in ‘The Independent’, Times Of India)

     Author’s Note:

I studied at Kalakshetra from 1966 to 1970. One can’t really call Padmasani (Paddu) Teacher just a warden. She kept a hawk’s eye over everything from the garden and the layout of the campus to working overtime as bhajan singer, nurse and doctor to the students. Sankara Menon was the father figure, confidante, guide and philosopher. His Bhagavad-Gita classes swept the hazy     cobwebs of our minds and showed us a clear path to follow in our lives.

       Kamala was a sweet, loving, feminine figure who kept a quiet, low profile. 

       I was on my first visit to Melattur to attend the Bhagavata Mela Narasimha Jayanti festival when I read about this attack in the newspapers. I was deeply shocked and totally shattered. On my way back to Mumbai, I had four hours in Chennai between two trains. I rushed to the Apollo hospital.  Paddu’s sister Hema and Leela Samson were attending to them. Only Sankara Menon was sitting up. Paddu was totally unconscious and lay with tubes running in and out of her body. Kamala was under sedation. I was inconsolable. The incident leaves my heart aching every time I think of it.

       Padmasini eventually lost the battle for her life. Sankara Menon died of natural causes after  

       one year and Kamala never recovered.

       As predicted in this article, Kalakshetra was declared a deemed University and tragically,        

        several gurus who had dedicated themselves to Kalakshetra and Rukmini Devi were thrown           

        out for having crossed the retirement age.