As of now, I want to leave on some lone adventure trip to Bali or Hrishikesh, kathak dancer Soni Chaurasia, who claimed to have broken the Guinness world record in longest dance marathon said on Sunday. The ‘kathak queen’ of Kashi said that she plans to engage herself in social work and do something for the society.

“Everything is possible if you have strong will power, determination and dedication. I am out of words to describe how I am feeling. For now, I am happy receiving words of appreciation from everyone around me,” she said.

Soni had begun her dance performance at an auditorium of a school in the city in the evening on April 4. Her trainer and mentor Rajesh Dogra said that she has created a record which would find her a place in Guinness Book of World Records. Soni had performed non-stop for 126 hours and 5 minutes on Saturday midnight against the previous record of 123 hours 20 minutes set by Keralite Kalamandalam Hemalatha.

She is the third person from the city to have sealed a place in the world record book. Others who have set a world record are social activist Jagadeesh Pillai and lyricist Sameer. Pillai holds a world record in film making for having scripted and screened an animation film ‘Elly the Clever’ in 3 hours and 24 minutes while Sameer made his way into the world record book in February this year for writing the highest number of lyrics for Bollywood films.

Soni, who was on her way to Sankat Mochan to seek blessings of the Almighty, said that she is yet to read the greetings conveyed by the PM and is grateful to everyone who had prayed for her. “I was told that the PM had sent his best wishes to me and also lauded my efforts for making the city proud. After visiting some of the temples to seek blessings of Almighty and finishing off my physiotherapy sessions in afternoon, I will see the letter and re-read it,” she smiled and said.

source: http://www.timesofindia.indiatimes.com / The Times of India / News Home> City> Allahabad / TNN / April 11th, 2016