All hell broke loose in 1966 when Govind Fatehpuri decided to send his 10-year-old daughter Anuradha to the Uday Shankar India Culture Centre to learn dance. His conservative Marwari family frowned upon his audacity: How could a daughter of such orthodox lineage ever dance with or before perfect strangers?But Fatehpuri, himself a connoisseur of music, was adamant. ‘‘It was because of my father’s guts that I learnt dance,’’ says Anuradha Lohia, reader at the department of biochemistry at Bose Institute, whose proficiency over her science is sometimes rivalled by her reputation as a Kuchipudi dancer. ‘‘For six years, he encouraged me to learn various classical and creative dance forms from Amala Shankar, wife of the legendary Uday Shankar. He even gave me his blessings when I toured all over the country as part of the troupe, something unheard of for a Marwari girl coming from as orthodox a family as mine.’’By the time Lohia was old enough to know her mind, breaking barriers had become second nature. Even as she coped with the pressures of pursuing science in school, she decided the time was ripe to switch to another discipline in dance: Kuchipudi. ‘‘My guru was Natyacharya M C Vedantakrishna. I had my first solo performance at Vidya Mandir in Kolkata in 1976, and went on to perform at various music conferences like Sadarang, Park Circus Music Conference and others,’’ says Lohia.Despite her devotion to dance, Lohia ensured her science did not suffer. The recipient of a National Award for Young Woman Bioscientist in 2001, Lohia now researches molecular and cellular biology of the Entamoeba histolytica. ‘‘I have always managed to juggle science and dance,’’ says the 47-year-old. ‘‘There have been conferences and science congresses where I read my papers in the mornings and presented dance recitals in the evening. Whatever my schedule, I would earmark some time for dance, and make it a point to practise regularly. I think it was dance that gave me that extra drive.’’Of late, with much reluctance, Lohia has given up dancing because of a nagging problem with one foot. ‘‘I cannot dance now, but I continue to teach my students,’’ says Lohia, who now has her own troupe, Abhichhanda. ‘‘Dance, after all, is all about rhythm, the basic thing in life.’’As a biologist, she should know.
