A heritage of dance and books
CLASSICAL dancer Verushka Pather has been invited to perform at Tirupati in South India.
This is one of the holiest places of pilgrimage in Hinduism, the abode of Lord Venkateswara.
An added significance is that it is in the month of Purtassi when followers of the deity in my beloved Bangladesh Market district and around the world observe a special fast.
The dance invitation is an extraordinary honour for an artist from Kwazulu-natal.
A rough equivalent might be a Catholic soprano being invited to the Vatican to sing before the Holy Father.
It is especially moving that this takes place during our Heritage Month and connects the cultures of Africa and South Asia.
While ancient cultures and faiths flourish in India, another dominant feature is its reading culture. Whether on railway platforms or street corners, one is never far from a bookseller or newspaper vendor.
Some years ago while visiting in New Delhi, I rather haughtily and foolishly replied to a hotel porter’s question about which newspapers I wanted with: “All the English titles, please.”
The next morning there was a waist-high pile of morning fresh dailies. There is not much of a reading culture in our country and what is left appears to be declining. Initiatives like the Book Fair at the forthcoming Essence Festival hosted by ethekwini Municipality might be a valiant effort to arrest that.
One can’t be too optimistic, though, as there are hordes of school libraries, many padlocked, with shamefully disinterested teachers.
Years ago, a municipal poster at the Woodhurst library proclaimed: “Readers are leaders.” With many of the current schoolgoing generation strangers to books, one can safely hazard a guess that we are unlikely to improve the crop of leaders with which we’ve been blessed.
Wouldn’t it be lovely if there were a book on Indian classical dance in South Africa that showcased the likes of Kumari Ambigay, Jayespri Moopen, Kantharuby Munsamy, Manesh Maharaj, Dr Maanasa Devi, Logambal Singaram and the legions of others who have graced our stages over the years?
India abounds with coffee table books about bharathanatiyam, kathak, kathakalli and the various traditions that enthral cultureloving audiences.
This is a thought to plant with the ministry of arts and culture as it looks for new ideas to fire the imagination of the South African public.
While those ideas weave their way through the bureaucracy you might want to catch Verushka Pather’s stellar moment on the satellite TTD SVBC channel today from Tirupati’s Brahmotsavam Festival. Live streaming from the website: http://svbc. tirumala.org/
Find Higgins on Facebook as The Bookseller of Bangladesh and at Books@antiquecafe in Windermere.