Subscribe in a reader | Subscribe by Email This is an inspiring story! Imagine at young age, living practically alone, manage to study well and enter university, and able to bring change by helping to create a subject for the university!
If more of our students are like this…wow!
As a teenager, Ravi Shanker slept on the streets and worked to pay for his food and school fees. Today, he has overcome adversity to become the artistic director of a dance company.
IT took a week to pin down Ravi Shanker Rama Murthy. As the artistic director of dance company Asthana Arts, he was busy rehearsing and co-directing 200 dancers in the Indian dance segment of the recent Colours of Malaysia show at Dataran Merdeka, Kuala Lumpur.
Ravi wanted to be a pilot or doctor, but now he has dance troupes under his command. – Courtesy of RAVI SHANKER RAMA MURTHYFinally, he picked up my call and agreed to the interview. Ravi, 34, is no ordinary bloke.
Until he was 15, Ravi was a carefree boy and the apple of his mother’s eye.
At 16, his life took a tragic turn when his mother passed away from an asthma attack. Ravi had to become an adult overnight. He rarely saw his alcoholic father who worked in the railway sector. He vividly remembers that day at the hospital almost two decades ago.
“My mother was always in and out of hospital because of her asthma attacks and I didn’t think much of it. It was on the eve of Chinese New Year and the fireworks were going off outside. The doctor asked me if I had any relatives and I said no because I wasn’t close to them and didn’t know where my father was,” he recalls.
Mum was educated and worked in the French Embassy, Ravi recollects.
“As she took her last breath, she told me, ‘If I’m not around anymore, you have to be independent and stand on your own two feet’.”
When she died, his world shattered. With only RM50 in his pocket, the teenager left the hospital and headed back to his home at the Government railway quarters in Brickfields, Kuala Lumpur. With his father nowhere to be found, Ravi arranged the funeral with the undertakers and conducted the burial rites himself before some relatives showed up.
It was a lonely life for a boy. After school, he would return to a cold, dreary home with only the lizards to keep him company. His father, whom Ravi says was irresponsible, went to live with his first wife in Cheras, leaving Ravi to fend for himself. He was in Form Three then.
“My first thought was how was I going to support myself because I had no pocket money for school fees or food. My mum took care of all my needs before. I have an older sister who was raised by my uncle in Tampin, Negeri Sembilan, but I had no contact with her. So, I got a job,” says Ravi.
He started working in a department store for RM2 per hour. On weekdays, he would wake up at 5.30am for school. After school, he worked at the store till late at night before he returned home to finish his homework. On a good month, he could earn RM800. Otherwise his take home pay was RM300, which went towards his exam fees, school uniform, transportation and food.
To break away from this drudgery, Ravi enrolled himself in Odissi dance classes at the Temple of Fine Arts (TFA), which was near his house. He finally found solace in something and that marked the beginning of his long journey with dance.
“Since primary school, I was involved in dance dramas and folk dancing. The TFA classes were RM50 a month and I could afford it. Dancing was a form of escapism, from home, from work and from school. I loved it and have been dancing ever since.”
A few months later, his aunt suggested he live with her and Ravi agreed. Not wanting her to feel burdened, he contributed RM200 monthly to his aunt’s household.
He says, “She actually wanted me to stop schooling and work fulltime so I could support her family. I did well in my exams but the family kept telling me getting an education was pointless. They seemed to resent I was doing better than their son.’’
Once the aunt’s family went to visit a relative and didn’t tell Ravi about it. He came home to find the door locked.
“What could I do? I went behind Stadium Negara and slept on the pavement, using my backpack as a pillow. I had no cash, no food, no toilet and it was a chilly night. No one else was sleeping on the road. That incident was a big eye opener for me. I resolved never to go back to that situation again,” Ravi says, cringing at the thought.
He decided to live with his father and six stepsiblings.
But alas, all was not rosy. The area was filled with gangsters and drug addicts who tried to lure Ravi into their group.
“Thanks to my mother who raised me well, I chose not to follow that path and never got influenced,” he says.
To make matters worse, his father’s health was deteriorating from years of alcohol abuse and smoking. He was hospitalised and Ravi had to juggle his time between nursing him, working and studying for his STPM exams.
Ravi was determined to succeed in life and three months before his Form Six exams, he took off from work and studied. His results were good and he was offered a place in Universiti Putra Malaysia (UPM) to study English.
“On the first day of university, every kid came with their parents, to register while I had no one. It was a sad moment but I told myself this was the journey I had to take. To finance myself, I took a loan and at the same time, worked as a customer research officer at KLIA.”
Eventually, his father passed on.
“I didn’t feel the loss so much because I was prepared for it. Again, I arranged and paid for the funeral,” he says.
In university, Ravi wanted to further his dancing and joined a dance club.
“I picked up various Malay dances and was the only Indian dancer. I went with the troupe overseas to perform in Amsterdam and Peru.”
Since there was no Indian dance club in UPM, Ravi formed the Putra Kalashektra club and taught students semi-classical and fusion work.
He says, “The dancing gave me a balance between work and studies. It allowed me to release my pent-up emotions. Through my initiative and with some help from others, we put a syllabus together. UPM now offers Indian arts as a co-curriculum subject. I’m very proud of this.”
Today, thanks to Ravi, Indian arts is also being taught as a co-curriculum course in Universiti Malaya and Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia. What is even more astonishing is that most of his students are Chinese!
While he was studying, Ravi also obtained a scholarship from the Star Education Fund to do a diploma in broadcasting with Akademi TV3.
“It’s funny how things turn out. While I was travelling by bus from KL to UPM, I used to pass by Astro and dreamed of working there someday. And I did! I started work as a production assistant in Astro after graduation in 2000.”
Ravi worked his way up to become marketing and promotions manager at the cable network, leaving him little time for dancing although teaching and performing offers poured in. He traded his dance clothes for spiffy suits and ties.
“But, the stress level of handling a department just got too much and I had to travel a lot for projects. I wasn’t ambitious to become head of department, which was the next step.”
He started Asthana Arts in 2008, just before resigning from the company.
“I wanted to pursue my passion. I’m glad I got the working experience because the skills I learnt enabled me to become an artistic director. If I was just a dancer, I wouldn’t have succeeded.”
Ravi set up his first dance studio in Brickfields and as more students poured in, he set up his second one in Jalan Hang Kasturi in Kuala Lumpur. Today, he has over 60 students, has produced five major productions and plans to open another studio in Ipoh soon.
“I’m not doing this for glamour as there is not much money in the arts. Any artist will tell you that. I’m doing it for the recognition of Indian arts.
“For the studio to survive, however, I have to do commercial events. When I was younger, I thought I’d become a doctor or pilot but never imagined I’d end up in the performing arts.”
“Free time? What’s that?” he laughs. “My time is filled. I like to read and do unconventional things like design costumes and take vacations in Asean countries to do research on arts.”
Moved by his stirring story, Ravi’s best friend nominated him for the Asian Youth Ambassadors (AYA) Dream Malaysia Most Outstanding Youth of the Year Award in 2006. A project by a youth development organisation, the award seeks to recognise ordinary youth with extraordinary spirit. Ravi was a finalist.
“We should never stop dreaming. I think there’s a reason for everything because a lot of things I wished for happened. Nowadays, my students can’t even take the smallest of challenges and they complain. If they had to go through what I did, I wonder how they’d survive,” he asks.
For youngsters who are having a tough time, Ravi has this to say.
“If you face challenges from a young age, that means God has greater things in store for you. Don’t give up hope. Fight for your destiny because there is a silver lining behind every cloud.”
> To see more of what Ravi Shanker Rama Murthy’s dance company does, visit asthanaarts.com
source: http://thestar.com.my/lifestyle/story.asp?file=/2011/6/11/lifeliving/8863289&sec=lifeliving
