In 2020, when he opened the performance of Unbroken, Unbowed in Delhi, the late Astad Deboo remarked on the quote by Mahatma Gandhi, ‘It is easier to stand with the crowd, but it takes courage to stand alone’. While it is simpler to attribute the phrasing to the production with the Salaam Balak Trust, reading Ketu Katrak’s latest biography on the Padma Shri-awardee — Astad Deboo: An Icon of Contemporary Indian Dance (Seagull Books) — offers a deeper context, one that Astad Deboo lived by.

“It [the book] was really a labour of love since he was a dear friend as well as an artiste I had admired,” shares Katrak over a phone call. Professor emerita of drama at the University of California, Katrak’s insight adds layers to the biography. “I co-edited a special edition on contemporary dance for Marg [the magazine] with him in 2016. That was when he planted the seed of me writing a book about him,” she recalls. The journey took over four years though before it came into fruition, despite the passing of Deboo and the COVID-19 pandemic interrupting it.