 |
Berhampur, March 22: Sudeepta Chowdhury, a 15-year-old girl, can neither hear the sound of music nor sing songs. But when she steps on stage, she casts a spell on the audience through her graceful movements.
Sudeepta, who is lovingly called Lira, started dancing in TV programmes when she was just 13.
“She is extremely talented. We are so proud of her,” said Sudeepta’s father, Dr. Ramesh Chandra Chowdhury, a professor of Zoology at Berhampur University. Her parents Ramesh and her mother Bhagyabati have been encouraging Sudeepta in her endeavour.
“We ensure that she never develops an inferiority complex. That’s why we have put her in the Government Women’s College, which is meant for the regular students,” said Bhagyabati.
Sudeepta bagged a gold medal at the junior level national competition for dance in Cuttack in 2005 with an Odissi rendition when she was just 10 years old.
“She competed with normal children and stood first. Kartik Rath, who was organising the competition, was amazed when he came to know about Sudeepta’s physical deformity,” said Ramesh.
Sudeepta’s first Odissi performance was at Goilundi upper primary School in 2000 and till now she has performed at 70 stage shows.
“To get formal Odissi training, Sudeepta joined Pallavi Kala Vikas Kendra, Bhubaneswar, at the age of four under the guidance of Guru Harish Chandra Das. The lessons continued till she was 13. She also learnt Odissi at several other places. There was marked improvement in her dancing skills when a Bengali refugee, Tagari Gynic, came to our house and taught her the finer points of dance,” said Bhagyabati.
“Interestingly, Sudeepta can follow commands of her Guru just by watching his lip movements and thus she manages to dance on stage though she is unable to hear the music,” said Ramesh. “She has perfected the art through hard practice,” Bhagyabati added.
Sudeepta has also been invited to perform in places such as Barelli and Hyderabad but as her parents have been busy they have not found time to take her outside the state. “We are preoccupied with our work. We are yet to take her out of Orissa for such performances,” said Ramesh.
Sudeepta’s parents came to know about her physical deformity when she was just an eight-month-old kid.
“We immediately consulted specialists at KKR ENT Hospital Chennai and All India Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delhi. However, the doctors said the problem in the ear was internal and therefore it could not be cured. They advised us to start speech and language therapy and try to help her with hearing aids,” said Ramesh.
The couple acted on the advice of the doctor immediately. Sudeepta’s speech has cleared to an extent but even with a hearing aid there is no improvement in her hearing till now.
