Mangaluru : Prime Minister Narendra Modi appreciated the grit of Mangaluru-based 17-year-old Bharatanatyam dancer Remona Evette Pereira and the support of her mother despite many odds and said it was nothing but tapasya (penance).

In his virtual five-minute interaction with the girl after presenting the Pradhan Mantri Rashtreeya Bal Puraskar 2022, Mr. Modi said youth like Ms. Pereira are the future of the country.

When the Prime Minister said her family must have struggled a lot to support her, Ms. Pereira revealed that she lost her father early. She and her brother were brought up by their mother with great difficulty. Hearing this, Mr. Modi said he salutes her mother.

Ms. Pereira is the lone youth from Karnataka chosen for the national award.

The Prime Minister said he had heard Ms. Pereira was pursuing Bharatanatyam since the age of 3 and asked how she developed an interest in the art form.

The girl replied saying it was her mother’s passion to make the daughter a great dancer that made her to learn the art form. “I owe a lot to my mother and my family,” the girl told Mr. Modi adding she would strive to spread the richness of Indian culture across the world.

On January 21, the Union Ministry of Women and Child Development informed Dakshina Kannada Deputy Commissioner K.V. Rajendra of Ms. Pereira being chosen for the Prime Minister’s award and asked him to arrange a virtual interaction on January 24 at 11 a.m.

The interaction was arranged at the zilla panchayat Office, and was attended among others by Ms. Pereira’s mother and brother, and the Chief Executive Officer of the panchayat Kumara.

Ms. Pereira is a student of Sourabha Sangeetha Nrithya Kala Parishath and Sandesha Foundation of Arts and Culture. She also learns Western dance, folk dance and other dance forms.

Her name figures in the India Book of Records, Bharat Book of World Records and Golden Book of World Record-London. She is a winner of Bal Gourav Prashasthi 2021 at the State level and Asadharana Pratibha Puraskara 2017 at the district level. She has performed Bharatanatyam in 16 States across India and received more than 20 awards.

She is pursuing PUC at Padua PU College in Mangaluru.

After the interaction with the Prime Minister, Mr. Kumara felicitated Ms. Pereira, her mother and brother, on behalf of the district administration.