This time, our rehearsals were held at Indrapuri studios. Rehearsals used to be held from 11 am in the morning to 5 pm in the evening, with an hour-long break for lunch.  We rehearsed for almost 4 months. Sunday was our only day of rest. Although our rehearsals were held during peak summer in Kolkata, and Dada was in his late 60s, nonetheless, he always arrived punctually for the rehearsals. Apart from the troupe members who were there with Dada for Prakriti Ananda, Shikha Mukherjee joined us. 7 other girls from The Uday Shankar Cultural Centre also joined the tour. They included Anupama Das, Polly Sanyal, Shikha Mitra, Shefali Ghosh, Anju Nath and Jana Gupta Bhaya. This was perhaps the youngest group of dancers that Uday Shankar had ever toured with.

As the number of troupe members were many more than in previous years, this resulted in more rehearsals. Given the perfectionist that Dada was, he could never settle for anything else, no matter how much time it took to attain. If anyone failed to execute any movement correctly, he would immediately stop the dance and ask where and why the dancer faced a problem. If the dancer failed to answer, I was given the responsibility of correcting their movements.

This perfection was not only limited to the dancers, even the musicians had to rehearse regularly, for Dada did not approve of the musicians following notations while playing on stage. As a result, after four months of continuous rehearsals, the musicians too would play both – the musical interlude at the beginning of the show as well as during the show, without any written notations at hand for them to refer to. Another aspect of Dada’s showmanship was reflected in the way the dances and the music was coordinated on stage. A black net used to cover the entire stage, running parallel to the front curtain and the back screen dividing the stage in two parts. The musicians used to be seated in the latter part of the stage. During the music piece played at the beginning of the performance, the lights would be focused on the musicians. After that and during the rest of the performance, the light would be restricted to the front portion of the stage where the dancers performed. The musicians would play along more or less in the dark except for a slight aura of the light that may have filtered through from the front part of the stage. Hence it was necessary for the musicians to know the music by heart too. Like Samanya Kshati, which despite being recorded was performed to live music during the tour of 1962, so too was the case with Prakriti Ananda during our tour of 1968.  The music for Prakriti Ananda was recorded in 1968, before our trip to the USA by HMV (presently Sa Re Ga Ma) Record Company at their recording studio in Dum Dum. While professional singers performed the character roles, the group songs saw the dancers lend their voices. This recording was sold in long-playing format during our performances in the USA.

The main ballet of the programme – Prakriti Ananda would be performed in the second half after the break. With an innate understanding of his audience, Dada re-evaluated the length of Prakriti Ananda for an all-American audience. As a result, many songs were replaced with music so that the theme of the story could be universally understood without having to resort to lyrics in any particular language. The main storyline as written by Rabindranath Tagore however remained intact. The need for this arose mainly because Dada’s performances would be held to full houses of an all-American audience. There would only be an odd couple of Indians here and there. This was a stark difference in the audience demography when I toured abroad later with stalwarts in the field of music like Santosh Sengupta and Suchitra Mitra. In these subsequent visits, the audience was always composed of Indians, especially Bengalis, with a few foreigners scattered here and there.

The third part of the programme used to commence with a performance of Tabla Taranga by Kamalesh Maitra, which used to be again performed in the latter portion of the stage. This was followed by a Gujarati Folk Dance. Dada used to then come on stage and present Indra. This would be followed by Sari – a traditional dance in Kathakali; and the last item of the show would be Punjabi – a folk dance from Punjab. Deva-Dasis, Laiharoba and Sari were performed by the girls form The Uday Shankar India Culture Centre. The rest of the items and Prakriti Ananda were performed by Dada’s own troupe members.

Once we were ready with our performance in terms of perfection, we had to extend our focus to costumes. Dada already had the costumes required for the folk dances and the classical dances. But a few others had to be stitched. A tailor used to come to Indrapuri studio to take measurements and stitch our costumes. We had to then try them out and inform Dada whether they would allow or hamper our swift costume changes. Besides, it was not just the garments that we had to change for every item, but our paagdis as well as our ornaments. The girls also had to change their hairstyles for each item. Unlike our performance of Prakriti Ananda in India, where we had performed the first half in simple everyday clothes, during our tour of the USA, we used costumes for our performances. These costumes were completely different from the ones used in the other items performed in the programme.

I can still recall very vividly that for Kartikeya, Dada told me that I would be performing in his own costume. The costume therefore had to be altered accordingly. My first dance item in the programme was Kartikeya. So naturally, on the day of the first dress rehearsal, the first costume that I had to be ready in was the costume of Kartikeya. Others were also ready in their costumes all prepared to go on stage. Little did I realize then that the most momentous event of my life was about to unfold. Dada called me, and in front of all the dancers present, placed the crown of Kartikeya on my head and said, “My Guru taught me this dance and now I am handing it over to you.” I was simply overwhelmed. I touched his feet, and infused with his blessings prepared to present on stage one of Dada’s favourite items – Kartikeya.

For those who are not well versed with this item, let me tell you the significance of this item. Unlike other items, which were purely Dada’s own creation, this was the only item composed in Kathakali that comprised movements composed by Guru Shankaran Namboodri. The item was not only a favourite of Dada’s, but was loved by the audience all over the globe.

The item portrays Kartikeya, the golden son of Shiva and Parvati, preparing to battle the demon, Taraka. He seeks blessings from his Mother and Father, and all other Gods and Goddesses. He accepts his armour from Indra – the King of Gods, and sets out on his chariot to challenge the demon. So dear was this item to Dada that I remember, before our first show at Montreal, Dada asked us to reach the auditorium 4 hours ahead of our show – we used to usually go in about 2 hours before every performance. Even after 4 months of rehearsal at Kolkata, Dada spent almost two hours perfecting every movement, look and gesture that I executed in the item. In my tension and excitement, by the end of the session with Dada, I came down with fever. I had to take medicine and sleep for about half an hour before I could rid myself of my fever and anxiety and prepare myself for my first performance of Kartikeya in Dada’s presence, wearing Dada’s costume, on an international stage.

To go back to our preparations of the tour, along with our preparation in terms of dance, music and costumes, our travel documents had also needed to be readied. A few days before our tour, Dada’s Personal Manager, Bhudeb Shankar, or Bhudebda as we used to call him, handed us our relevant travel papers. Along with these was a detailed itinerary of our tour. It contained details of our travel arrangements, a list of the 34 cities where we would be performing, the dates of our performances, the days when we would be resting, as well as contact numbers in each of the cities that we would be touring, so that in case we needed to be contacted for emergency purposes, our families would have our contact details. The purpose for going into these little details is to highlight the kind of professionalism and the level of organization that was associated with Dada’s tours. This kind of professionalism was not there in any of the subsequent tours that I have been a part of, despite the fact that they were organized by renowned artists of India.

On September 28, 1968, we embarked on our tour by Air India, from Dum Dum Airport. Boudi, Anando and Mamo came to see us off at the airport. We reached New York after halting at Cairo, Rome and London. We were put up at Paramount Hotel on the Fifth Avenue in New York City. We stayed in New York for a week. During the course of the week, we rehearsed for three days in the auditorium of Hunter College. Dada’s impresario Solomon Hurok threw a party for The Uday Shankar Hindu Dancers and Musicians during our stay at New York on the 48th floor of Times Building. Apart from the troupe members, the staff of Hurok’s company, as well as other guests were also present. During these 7 days in New York, apart from our rehearsals, we also got a chance to tour New York and visit some must-see tourist sites.

After this, we flew into Montreal where we were to perform the first show of this tour. We performed in Montreal for two consecutive days at the Grand Place Des Art − Montreal’s centre for performing arts. The audience would burst into a hearty and prolonged applause after every item – more so after Dada’s Indra, Astrapuja and my performance of Kartikeya. On the day following our second performance, while returning from Montreal to New York, Dada’s cousin and Personal Manager, Bhudeb Shankar handed me ‘The Gazette Montreal’, dated October 7, 1968. Apart from praises for Dada’s performance in Indra, the critic had written, “There was Shanti Bose, phenomenal male dancer, a violently masculine, violently handsome performer with a stage force and choreographic presence not unlike Nuryev’s; he galvanized and held the eye instantly and constantly. This was partly because he gave the impression that he possesses the secret of levitation and partly by the sheer electrical force and fluency of his gesture.” This praise from the Canadian press after the first show, left me overwhelmed and humbled, and determined to put in better than my best in all that I did.

Back in New York, we were again put up in the same hotel for about another week. We performed at a stretch for 7 days at Hunter College in the heart of Manhattan, New York. The New York Times too were vowed by the performances of Uday Shankar and his troupe, and for my performance of Kartikeya, in their edition dated October 9, 1968, they wrote, “A male solo ‘Kartikeya’ depicting the son of Shiva, was danced with great resiliency by Shanti Bose.” There were other praises too, but the one that I hold most dear was published in The Houston Post on November 15, 1968. It said, “Shanti Bose, Shankar’s heir apparent, was in magnificent form and costumes in the main solo of the evening, the ‘Kartikeya’ in which he portrayed the golden son of Shiva.”

After New York, we toured different cities of the USA mostly in a huge air-conditioned luxury bus. This helped as the bus would also take us around the city in which we had arrived to perform. Sometimes if the distance was great, we would fly, but our costumes and instruments would be transported by the bus, and it would arrive at the designated city in time for our performance. And so, we went on - to Washington D.C, Baltimore, New Haven, Boston, Wellesley, Pittsburg, Cleveland, Indianapolis, Detroit, Chicago, Ann-Arbor, Lafayette in Indiana, Oxford in Ohio, Cincinnati, Kansas City, St. Louis, Tulsa, Oklahoma City, Stillwater, Wichita Falls, Houston, Corpus Christi, San Antonio, New Orleans, Florence, Lafitte, Beaumont, Phoenix in Arizona and San Diego. We not only performed in these cities, but also went sightseeing in them. Of course, there was a golden rule that we could go sightseeing only after our first performance in that particular city, not before. Parties were also organized in a few cities in honour of Dada and his troupe.

Our performances were greatly appreciated in the USA. So much so, that not only did we perform to packed houses, there would be people standing in every nook and corner of the auditorium to view our performances. Sometimes we even performed two shows on the same day to meet the demands of the tickets. Newspapers of every city that we performed in, showered us with praise, and so after every show, we were eager to collect newspapers after our performances from every city, before we departed from it.

Dada had an ardent fan following in the West. A memorable incident occurred during one of our shows in the USA. Dada called us and introduced us to an elderly woman. She had an album of Dada’s photographs, pamphlets and autographs for all his 7 visits to the USA, along with pictures of herself at these various stages of her life. She had collected her first autograph of Dada as a young girl.  She probably did not realize that this would be the last time she would be collecting Dada’s autograph. I realized what Dada meant to his audience in the West. We witnessed so many elderly people come up and embrace him. They would wait for Dada’s next tour of the USA, after every tour. Sometimes, if the troupe did not perform in the city of their residence, they would travel to the nearest city to watch Dada’s performance. This love and adoration that Dada received from the West, is probably unmatched till date.

Only Kamaleshda and I had stayed back at the hotel, awaiting news of Dada. Only when the troupe returned did we inform them about Dada’s attack and the fact that the last two performances of our trip had been cancelled. We moved on to Seattle, as our departure from the USA had been planned from the city of Seattle. While waiting at the Seattle Airport, we met Boudi, who on hearing about Dada’s attack, had flown in from India. Dada stayed on in the USA till he was declared fit enough to fly back to India.

Before the tour of the USA had been finalized in 1968, Dada had been selected to direct the dances for the Olympic game ceremonies to be held in the Mexico Olympics of 1968. I was to be his assistant in this project. However, India boycotted the games by way of protest over South Africa’s inclusion in the Games. The protest stemmed from the fact that the South African government had allowed the apartheid to dictate their team selection. The global community soon joined in the protest and finally South Africa was ousted from the games. India rejoined, but by then, Dada had just confirmed the tour of the USA, and so we had to refuse the Olympic project.

While this was a huge loss of opportunity for me in terms of experience, and I was rather saddened at the time, in hindsight, I realise that 1968 was a momentous year for me. Apart from being bestowed the privilege of performing Kartikeya in Dada’s presence and in his own costume, I had the privilege of performing as Bajrasen in Suchitra Mitra’s Rabitirtha’s Shyama. This was my first entry as a hero in Tagore’s dance drama, and given the honour that the honour was bestowed by none other than the Rabindrasangeet stalwart Suchitradi, there was no looking back. 1968 was also the year I asked for Sunanda’s hand in marriage from her father, and the rest as they say, is history.