Amritha Shvethambari Vidyapathy, 29, a Sri Lankan is the only international student this year at Bhatkhande Sanskriti Vishwavidyalaya, who has bagged a gold medal in Kathak at the university’s 13th Convocation to be held on December 18.

Even though Vidyapathy was born and brought up in Sri Lanka’s Kotte, the former student of Bachelor of Performing Arts (BPA) in Bhatkhande is extremely fluent in Hindi and well trained in Kathak. She gave the influence of Bollywood and Hindi movies as her inspiration for her fluent Hindi.

“I’m extremely glad that my 10 years of hard work paid off and I am the only international student to bag the gold medal,” she said, giving all the credit to her three Gurus Ruchi Khare Verma of Bhatkhande, Moksha Samasooriya and Vihanga Rukshan (her Sri Lanka teachers).

Talking about her inclination she said, “I come from a family of artists and I’m the ninth generation in my family who has been into the profession of art including dance and music. In fact, my mother and father both met in a Kathak class, so it runs in my blood.”

No dance background, but 8 gold medals in kitty

Kanak Kulshestra, 24, has not bagged one or two medals, but eight gold medals for kathak, although she has no background in dance.

“I’m in disbelief as I have no dance background. But today, I topped the university,” said Kulshestra, the daughter of a businessman, who has been learning dance since the age of five.

“I remember the day when I wanted to study here but Bhaktkahnde was too big a name for me as I was a little sceptical if I would get admission, but today, I made it,” she said.

“All credit goes to my mother who put me into the classical dance school in childhood seeing my interest in dance. My guru Ruchi Khare deserves equal credit for my success,” said the Swaraj Nagar resident of Kanpur, who is currently pursuing UGC NET and wants to pursue a dance career to become a professor. “I want to popularise it as we should be deep-rooted in our culture,” she said.

Source: Hindustan Times

--Agencies