The memories are Baba’s. They comprise anecdotes and incidents that I have badgered him to narrate and re-narrate time and again, and enjoyed listening to, all my life. Away from home over more than two decades, when I started relating these nostalgic tidbits to my students, the stories somehow took on a whole new meaning. They were no longer simply a glimpse of a golden era gone by, but a period of legacy that had remained undocumented.

The need for documenting this period led to my doctoral dissertation from the Department of History at Savitribai Phule Pune University under the guidance of Dr. Radhika Seshan. Recommendation by the external examiners of my defence committee for immediate publication led to Radhikadi connecting me to Routledge, who then reverted saying that given the content, they were going to take the book forward for global publishing.

Drawing from the experience acquired in Uday Shankar's style over the last forty years as a student, performer, teacher, and researcher, together with my training in the Social Sciences with a BA, MA and a PhD in Political Science, International Relations and History, respectively, my thesis and consequently the book Creativity in Indian Dance: Uday Shankar's Autumn Years, 1960 – 1977, captured Uday Shankar’s style and legacy, as well as contextualized his productions of the period against the socio-economic and political fabric of modern India, and the then contemporary global order.

The methodology for my research was primarily that of Salvage ethnography, whereby I recorded the Baba’s oral history by way of long-term participant observation. Baba at that time, was Uday Shankar's only surviving direct associate, who had not only shared stage space with him, but was also the Ballet Master of Uday Shankar's troupe, and was associated with him for seventeen long years (1960 – 1977). Baba was also the Assistant Director for Uday Shankar's production of Samanya Kshati in 1972. This recording of oral history was validated with primary resources in the form of photographs, content from souvenirs, televised interviews, documentaries, and newspaper articles of the time, as well as individual and semi-structured group interviews with his contemporaries who were associated with Uday Shankar.

While undertaking my research, I discovered a plethora of photographs from Baba’s private collection. His cupboard became my archive. While I was able to use quite a few of them for the thesis, unfortunately, for the book, I was limited to about 40 odd photographs due to publisher requirements.

Pictures tell a thousand words, and the images and other documents that Baba collected and collated so painstakingly over the years, gave a window not only to his personal journey as a dancer, but also a glimpse of the historical and the socio-cultural contexts of an important era of India's cultural history, especially in the field of performing arts in West Bengal.

Autobiographical in nature, this digital archive is contextualised against the cultural history of India and Bengal in particular, with the narrative of the website starting from Baba’s early years in Dhaka in an undivided Bengal, his journey to Calcutta in pre-independent India, and his association with Uday Shankar, and other stalwarts in the world of performing arts.  The content is interspersed with anecdotes, photographs, and images of documents such as souvenirs, flyers, handwritten notes, and annotated newspaper clippings.

My role in this digital archive is not that of a historian, nor that of a biographer – rather, that of a daughter turned transcriber of the oral history recordings which I collected over the course of more than a decade. While work on this digital project started in 2024, I was unable to complete it earlier due to multiple constraints. Baba only got to see the first look of the website in 2025. The launch of this website today, April 20, 2026, is therefore my tribute to him on his 89th birth anniversary. He left us on October 21, 2025. Stay well, Baba, wherever you are. We feel your absence deeply, yet hold on to the quiet comfort that you remain with us, always.