Google celebrates classical dancer Mrinalini Sarabhai's birth centenary
New Delhi, May 11: Google on Friday celebrated renowned Indian classical dancer Mrinalini Sarabhai on her 100th birth anniversary.
In the doodle, Sarabhai is seen with her signature parasol, standing proudly in the Darpana Academy of Performing Arts auditorium, with three of her students dancing in the background.
A Padma awardee and an exponent of the Kathakali and Bharatanatyam dance from, Sarabhai, was born on this day in 1918, Her father was Madras High Court lawyer S. Swaminathan and mother social worker A.V. Ammakutty.
She spent most of her early years in Switzerland, where she was introduced to the Dalcroze Eurhythmics. It is an unique approach to music learning developed by Swiss composer and educator Emile Jaques-Dalcroze.
It awakened, developed and refined innate musicality within her through rhythmic movement, ear-training and improvisation.
Sarabhai started training at a fairly young age, studying both the South Indian classical dance form of Bharatanatyam and dance-drama Kathakali. She quickly developed her own technique, spirit and strength.
She was the youngest of three children -- her older sister, Lakshmi Sehgal, was a part of the Indian National Army and her older brother Govind Swaminathan, a former attorney general of the state of Madras.
In 1942, she married renowned physicist Vikram Sarabhai, who became the Father of the Indian Space Programme. Their children, Kartikeya and Mallika, both took to their iconic mother and pursued dance and theatre.
In 1949, she established the Darpana Academy along with her husband, in Ahmedabad, Gujarat. She trained close to 18,000 students and choreographed more than 300 dance dramas during a career spanning over three decades.
Mrinalini Sarabhai was awarded the Padma Shri in 1965 and Padma Bhushan in 1992. She received the Sangeet Natak Akademi Fellowship New Delhi in 1994 and was the first recipient of the state annual award of Kerala, Nishagandhi Puraskaram, which was presented to her in 2013.
She passed away on January 21, 2016, at the age of 97.
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Day 8: Efforts to rescue 3-year-old Rajasthan girl from borewell in progress
Jaipur, Dec 30: Rescue operation of three-year-old Chetna who has been stuck in a 150-feet deep borewell since December 23 is still going on with the teams working day and night to dig a parallel tunnel.
In perhaps one of the longest rescue operations in the state, which is undergoing for over 160 hours, family members have blamed the administration for being negligent. The administration on the other hand has claimed it is one of the toughest operations.
"There is a rock-solid strata. Rain also posed a challenge.
"Teams are making continuous efforts to dig a parallel tunnel. About 6.5 feet of tunnel is pending to reach the girl," Kotputli-Behror District Collector Kalpana Agarwal said on Monday.
She said it is the toughest rescue operation in the state.
NDRF team in-charge Yogesh Kumar Meena told reporters that the rescue operation is going on continuously. The rock is hard and cutting it is becoming a challenge for the team.
He said the drilling is going on in the right direction and it is expected to complete the operation by Monday. A three-member team is working at a time to cut the rock.
The family members blamed the administration for the delay in carrying out the operation.
"It's been days my daughter is stuck in the well. She is suffering from hunger and thirst.
"She has not been taken out till now. If it was collector madam's child, would she let them be there for so long? Please get my daughter out as soon as possible," Dholi Devi had said on Saturday.
Former minister Rajendra Singh Gudha also visited the spot. He blamed the family for keeping the borewell open and also the administration for causing delay in carrying out the operation.
"Everyone is engaged in rescuing the girl but the administration delayed it. If the operation was carried out at war footing after the incident happened then the result would have been better.
"The preparations that were done in the last three days should have been done six days earlier. I got to know that the district collector took three days to reach the spot. It is matter of shame," Gudha told reporters on Sunday.
Chetna had fallen into the borewell while playing in the agriculture farm of her father in Badiyali Dhani under Sarund police station of Kotputli-Behror district of Rajasthan.
Initially, efforts were made to pull the girl out of the borewell with the help of a ring but all attempts failed. After two days of repeated attempts that fetched no results, a piling was brought to the spot on Wednesday morning and a parallel pit was dug.
With each passing moment, the hope for Chetna being well is diminishing as the rescue team was not able to supply any food or water to her.
Two weeks ago, a five-year-old boy fell into a borewell in Dausa district and the rescue operation lasted over 55 hours.
However, the boy lost the battle for his life by the time he was taken out.
