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Page 2 of 3
Then London beckoned. "I thrive on change. Not knowing what lies ahead is
incentive enough for me to move. I’ll create a crisis just to move to
another level," enthuses Mahesh, explaining his move to UK. Self willed,
packed with
restless energy, he got his first formal dance training in Spain.
"At 24,
I tasted classical ballet, and it hit me how little I knew about dance. I
was the cat’s whiskers in India and a novice abroad." Education weighed on
his finances. Too proud to ask his parents for money, Mahesh slogged it
out in Gibraltar, working 10 to 8 to save up money for his tution fee. "I
was working for a Jew, who happened to be very unkind to me, for some
reason. He was dissatisfied with his lot in life. Being at the receiving
end of his bitterness, I was distraught. Alone in a foreign land. And then
one day while walking down the street, I remembered how horrible I had
been to my domestic help during my childhood days. So what goes around,
comes around I realised. It was payback time. With this realisation, I
understood and accepted what I was going through and why. And all my pain
and anger disappeared.I took leave of my employer, politely. It was my
humility and softness that killed him inside."
Passion finds a way to thrive. And Mahesh did everything it took -- from
selling perfumes at Harrods, taking up house cleaning jobs and weekend
marketing stints for Gucci to pay for his bus fare and education cost. He
survived. And mustered enough to realise his dream. A three year course in
Anatomy. "I discovered I suffered from partial scholiosis (poor posture)
and was able to rectify that through the Alexander technique, based on
physiology linked with psychology, that I picked up. I soaked in dance
techniques, history, culture and community, like a sponge. I begun to
understand gestures and nuances, I learnt to articulate through my body
language. What followed was a sense of sheer happiness and fulfilment.
Dance freed me of self-created problems. My self-image changed
completely."
And powered by a sense of sharing his talent, Mahesh begun participating
whole heartedly in community functions and get togethers. Choreographing
dance sequences for kids and elders as part of Bollywood Dhamaka and
Diwali celebrations. "During one such event, I was allocating positions
to children on stage, and a group of grumpy Sindhi mothers were sitting
near by, accusing me of favouritism and being biased," he recalls with a
laugh. "And speaking in Sindhi, unaware that I am a Sindhi and could
understand exactly what they were saying. At the end, I just turned around
with a beatific smile and told them in Sindhi that I was impartial. Their
eyebrows nearly shot through the roof, you can imagine the look of horror
and embarassment writ on their faces!"
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Writing 
