My experience of Representing my State.

Since I was two and half years old, I was taken to a nearby Dance Institution. And it marked the start of wonderful journey that's going on till date. I have been fortunate enough to participate in various Dance Competitions locally and also State, National and International Levels till date. This blog is solely written to let you know about some of my bitter sweet experiences while representing my state in various National events. I would start from my first journey to Odissa along with my mother for a cultural competition where I was enrolled to participate in three categories of the Dance Competition. As we had very low finance from the State Government back then, we were kept at a local Dharmashala in Cuttack. My very first experience outside state was pathetic. While representing a state at my age of seven, I was really dissapointed as a kid, staying in a common hall room, sharing same toilet and eating food that was beyond my liking. Looking at my unhappy face and complains my mother had to personally book a hotel room. Though that experience of very first time representing state and improper management left me with a bitter taste, I was fortunate enough to win some of the prizes along with the prestigious Chairman's award. The second time was Mumbai where a Global Cultural Competition was organised by the United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) back in 2009 when I was in the third standard. While sitting on a local train in Mumbai I had encountered racial slur since we belonged to the north eastern state and I found out that there were very derogatory stereotypes that were used for representing us. This time I won a Consolation prize among dancers all over India and outside the country too. In the year 2019 while I was travelling to Bhopal for a National Level Drama Competition the response received gave me a marvellous experience . Kala Utsav was a festival in the Regional Institute of Education, Bhopal which is celebrated over a week. The hospitality was unforgettable. The team from Assam had won second best Drama team in the event and the Chairmen of NCERT Prof. Dinesh Prasad Chaklani willingly took pictures with us. Art has no language, colour, caste or community. Art is universal. My journey over the years made me realise that whatever stereotypes that we may be associated with, we have to understand that perfection and love of arts has no barrier and this makes me feel proud to be an Indian in General and Assamese in particular. Ajay Sarkar Department of Communication and Journalism Gauhati University