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GOING NATIVE

Solely for the soul

Photo: V.V. Krishnan

RHYTHM OF INDIA Asia with her guru Jayalakshmi Eshwar

With her cascading black hair and erect yet graceful gait, Asia is hard to miss at Triveni. She goes beyond the façade of Indianness. And doesn’t only dress like one, but speaks impeccable Hindi too. An interest in India brought her here. A love for dance has made this her home.

Maybe her name pre-determined her connection with India. Belonging to Warsaw, Poland, and named Joanna Ponikiewska, her pet-name was Asia. Pronounced “Asha”, it’s no surprise that Joanna is Asha here.

She started with studying Indology in Warsaw, and even attended Hindi classes. Her first visit was back in 2000. She says, “I felt that if I was studying Indology, I must visit the country.”

A Bharatanatyam performance by a Polish woman convinced her that she wanted to learn the dance. She took Bharatanatyam and Kudiyattam classes in Poland. An ICCR scholarship brought her to India in 2002, for two years. Having studied Hindi, she chose to move to Delhi. She decided not to return and has since then been training under her guru Jayalakshmi Eshwar. She is currently also learning Chhau from Shashadhar Acharya.

Asia loves Bharatanatyam for its “language of mudras, the geometrical lines of the body and its calculation of rhythm.” Having learnt Ballet and Modern Dance in Poland, she initially found the form difficult. Coming from a Western tradition, she found the abhinaya the hardest to master.

She doesn’t mouth the typical complaints of foreigners. She emphasises, “I hardly ever feel cheated here. I travel mainly by bus. And I don’t have a problem finding the right bus.” She asserts, “I don’t feel like a foreigner at all. I probably feel more of a foreigner in Poland.” She has her own circle of friends. If she dreads one thing, it’s the stereotyping of foreigners.

Asia misses her cat and parents back home. But she recounts that a Christmas visit to Poland made her miss the sun and colour of India, after a surfeit of snow. Does she intend to stay on here? “Let’s see what life brings,” she replies, adding, “Delhi has taught me that you can never plan.”

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