Ramana Dancers at my Nursing Home

On the Sunday afternoon after the summer solstice my Nursing Home was magically transformed by a visit of ten young girls and three boys from Ramana’s Garden dance troupe. They were in Minehead close to my Home for a few days at the end of their Butlins tour. I knew Dwabha from India and was able to get the Home to invite them over.

Ramana Dancers at Dunkirk Nursing Home - Dwabha can be seen standing in the background (click on pictures to zoom)

Our biggest room dates from 1800, a gracious white interior with a high ceiling. It was jammed with residents who are mostly eighty or ninety years old and their wheelchairs, nurses and carers, and a few guests – nearly forty people in all, many sitting on the floor. We backed up around the walls in an arc leaving a big open space in the centre for the dancers. This gave an intimate feel to the occasion, a re-creation of the village atmosphere where these dances originated.

Everyone loved seeing them. Their youthful exuberance and innocence, their beauty, the brightness and sparkle of the traditional-style costumes made an Indian colour feast in a grey English summer. It was a deeply emotional occasion for everyone, something unique for a British institution and its stiff upper lip. Some residents were moved to tears as long forgotten memories of wartime experiences in the Far East were revived. Others were clapping and singing joyfully with the dancers. As one resident said afterwards it was the best performance she had ever seen in her long life.

It was a great blessing for this Home, and especially for me. I can feel very alone here with no one to relate to on an emotional level. But having seven sannyasin friends here plus Dwabha and her Indian ‘family’ I felt once more embraced within my sannyasin family. And seeing my fellow residents opening up in a rare way to what I had been instrumental in bringing them warmed me to them – and them to me. At least for a day past and present were in harmony. Existence never deserts one; celebration is always present.

Read Pankaja’s letter about the Ramana Dancers.

text by Devopama, photos by Veena – June 2008