Married to a foreign culture

Font Size

Print

Feedback

Email

Discuss

: She first fell in love with a photograph of the Taj Mahal in her elementary book. Then, Masako Ono wanted to come to India from Tokyo just to see the marble marvel. The Japan-born Ono recalls: “There was something about the monument which mesmerised me and triggered a strange urge to visit it. But at that time I was clueless about when and how it would happen. Over the years, my fascination for India continued to grow and I majored in Indo-Pakistani studies.” So, it was Hindi and Urdu classes that brought Ono to India first. And then her passion for India never ceased. “After returning to Japan, I started learning Bharatanatyam and came across a videotape of an Odissi performance by Guru Kelucharan Mohapatra. It was the turning point of my life. I was taken in by his graceful body movements and said to myself: ‘I’ve found what I want to do in my life,” she adds.

It was not an easy decision for Ono to uproot herself from Japan and come to India—she was the eldest in her family and her father had just passed away. But the invitation to work with Protima Gauri Bedi in Nrityagram, Bangalore, was too hard to resist. “My mother supported my decision. But I was somewhat unsure about things when I reached Nrityagram in 1996,” admits Ono.

According to her, what strengthened her conviction was her first chat with Protima Bedi (Gaurima, as she was affectionately called by her students). “When I reached Nrityagram, Gaurima asked me what had brought me there. I said, ‘I wanted to learn Odissi dance. She said: ‘you have to be a professional Odissi dancer, or else, go back home.’ I replied: ‘I will try to be one’. And Gaurima asked: ‘Do you want to be an Odissi dancer, or will you be an Odissi dancer’? I got the message, and declared: ‘I will be a professional Odissi dancer’! She smiled and said: ‘Welcome to Nrityagram’. Since then, I have been an Odissi dancer,” she reveals.