I have it in me to become Karnataka Governor: Protima

Protima got this idea only a couple of days ago when while coming down to the Captial from Rishikesh, she browsed through a weekly which carried a “controversial” story on her desertion of Nrityagram. “I read an article which said that the BJP was politicising the Governor’s post. This is not done. They could well set theirtrack right by having me as Governor, ” she quips.

As for Nrityagram, this model turned Odissi dancer, says “There is no controversy at all. For the past two years it is being managed by Lynn Fernandez and the students. It is doing very well as the place is being run by what the students earn from their performances. On May 2, Bijayini Satpathy, our new Odissi star, will be performing at Delhi. And as a founder trustee, I continue to be associated with it.”

Protima feels that it has become a habit to remain glued to a power position and not create a second rung. “I gave it up for I felt someone else would look after it better. It is my baby and I don’t want to throttle it.

Institutions have to be delinked from personalities. Media tends to make a controversy of anything I do or do not do. I am no Chandraswamy. Just a woman past 50 and shorn off her hair.”

Protima says that for two years Fernandez has been running the place very well. “My two heart attacks led me to this decision,” she adds.The weekly article she says is misleading for the reporter visited the place of Monday, which is an off day. “I had warned him the place would be deserted and he may not even get a cup of tea. Well, I cooked lunch for him and was shocked when I read this story of the place being neglected,” she says.

Otherwise, these days one can find Protima in a new avtara, living like a mendicant, discovering the Himalayas, camping by a settlement of sadhus near Rishikesh and bathing in the Ganga.

Tattooed eye-brows, four robes, a tent and a rucksack are Protima’s belongings and she proposes to disappear into the Himalayas again after having visited Delhi for a recording in Khushwant Singh’s Star Plus show to be telecast in July. “Khushwant asked me if I had been streaking in the Himalayas. And I told him that everyone is streaking there so that’s not much,” she laughs.

But her khadi cotton robes cover her with just a slit at the legs and this is to help her walk through the hills. And with the long robes is amatching long scarf. “This,” she says, “is very convenient. I wrap it round my body while bathing, roll it into a pillow and tie up my clothes in it when require. I have four khadi robes in blues and mauves, the colours representing enlightenment.”

"I do not wish to return to anything. The phase I am going through is one of leaving the land fallow after harvest for something new to grow. Who knows what magnificent thing could happen next?”

Who knows, with a little bit of luck, Karnataka governorship might just be the next thing!