Not many people knew that one of my passions is DANCE, until they saw me dancing at the Ganesh Visarjan, my cousins wedding or the parties thrown at our college. I do not specialize in any particular genre of dance, by the way there is no specialization required to dance at the places which I just mentioned. ‘Dance like nobody is watching you’ – this is the mantra I follow at these places. Of course, this mantra helps me and is only a problem for people around me. But then there are places where you cannot follow this mantra for example Raas Garba at Navaratri. Being a Gujarati no wonder the craze for Garba flows into my blood but then I was a master at it only till I was fifteen. After that my exams clashed with the festival , not that I was a bookworm, the number of movies which I have seen and the novels which I have read during my exam days might easily outcross the figures of the regular days. But then we had changed locality, there was no company and bullshit like that in which I know you are not interested. So while I was away from the festival the steps kept evolving and for me the struggle begins to catch up with it.
Being in Cyprus, I cannot expect Navaratri festival to be celebrated for 10 days where I can catch up with my dance experience but as they say there is always a room for improvement and here it was for Ballroom Dance. In February 2007 the Ballroom Dance session for beginners were conducted in our office premises. A beautiful Greek lady worked hard to get our steps, posture and rhythm right. The experience was unforgettable, and after the sessions were over I simply could not wait for the intermediate sessions. Not hearing anything about the intermediate sessions and after a few months of patience I started looking up in the local newspapers for some dance academy where I could continue with my passion. And my search ended when I found The Panicos Charaloumbus Dance School (name changed!) right near my office. I called up the number, and a lady answered the phone. I enquired about the sessions and was fortunate enough as they were planning to start sessions for beginners in one or two weeks of time. Then she asked me my date of birth. I understood from her later that it was required so that she could pair me up with students of appropriate age. Having done with all the formalities I could not wait for the sessions to start. The first session was on Wednesday 5:30pm-7:30pm. Our ‘official’ office timings are till 6:30pm, but I had already got the permission to leave early on that day. After the meeting, which we managed to finish off by 5:30pm, I rushed to the school. I didn’t want everyone at the school to think of me who follows I.S.T. (Indian Stretchable Time). It is important because what I believe is that when you are staying away from your country in a foreign land; you not only represent yourself but also your country.
When I was there the school did not totally appear as a school from outside. In fact it wasn’t, it was typical bungalow with a small garden around the house and a board saying the name of the school. I confirmed with the lady watering the plants if I was at the right place. After her affirmation I managed to get on the first floor where after a series a right turns and left turns I was in a big hall with big mirrors on one side and a group of girls facing it and doing some warm up. With some hesitance I entered the hall but then had a thought that may be I am in a wrong class and should check out the other classes in the school. But the school had only one class. Then I thought may be the sessions which I had to attend must be on a different day and not Wednesday. What amazes me is the speed at which your mind thinks and the thoughts which you process. All this just in a flick of a second and I turned back and was moving out of the class when I heard someone call me.
‘Rajiv? Is that you?’ – questioned me someone from the class. When I turned back and replied ‘uhh, yes … I had registered for the Ballroom Classes , but may be I missed my sessions or I am in a wrong class’ . Then she told me that I had not missed any of the session and I was at the right place. She was the dance instructor and requested me to join them for the warm up after which she had plans to proceed with the session. I swallowed a gulp of air and placed my bag down as I started the warm up session with group of nine girls and me being the only boy. The dance instructor was the only person who understood and spoke English rest all only Greek. I know that at this point of time many of you must already be envy of me and wish to be in my position. Who wouldn’t like to have some warm up sessions and one hour of ballroom dance with beautiful Cypriot girls? But for now I was not at all comfortable and the only thing I could do is to try and resist my laughter. Yes I had to laugh because except for my dance instructor the tallest girl in that group did not even reach my shoulders. Yeah, they were all school girls from the age of 9-12.To dance with these school going toddlers was the toughest job ever. They don’t speak and understand your language and just want to drag you all around the room. They were divided into two groups with one group to do the rehearsals with me and the other one with the instructor. And the song went ‘perhaps perhaps perhaps’ – such a beautiful song but it was quite unpleasant experience to dance with these kids because of the height mismatch and many other things. But then we heard some footsteps, someone climbing up the stairs to reach the class. I prayed for it to be someone of my age or at least a guy so that he could share part of my suffering. But alas, there she was another 8 year old sweet cute little girl. I could have continued dancing with them as a mentor but then I was a student myself and had to learn many things. Also with no guy around, I did not want to end up dancing like a girl. So I made an excuse about my work and was out from there in few minutes.
With my hysteric laughter I ran out of the school while the lady still watering the plants noticed me and was obviously shocked with such expressions of mine. This was one of the most unforgettable moments. The intermediate sessions have now started at our office premises and unquestionably I was the first one to register. It was Rumba that we had to practice today and the song went ‘perhaps perhaps perhaps’. This reminded me of the dance school incidence and I had a big smile while my dance partner was confused about the reason for my smile and we continued dancing. Dancing with those kids was perhaps more like singing a lullaby to a child sleeping in the cradle while you are swinging it. Moreover it was I believe it was a LIVE joke performed by GOD almighty with his friends around laughing at me. Even I enjoyed his joke on me which will always make me, and whoever I narrate this to, smile in future.
Being in Cyprus, I cannot expect Navaratri festival to be celebrated for 10 days where I can catch up with my dance experience but as they say there is always a room for improvement and here it was for Ballroom Dance. In February 2007 the Ballroom Dance session for beginners were conducted in our office premises. A beautiful Greek lady worked hard to get our steps, posture and rhythm right. The experience was unforgettable, and after the sessions were over I simply could not wait for the intermediate sessions. Not hearing anything about the intermediate sessions and after a few months of patience I started looking up in the local newspapers for some dance academy where I could continue with my passion. And my search ended when I found The Panicos Charaloumbus Dance School (name changed!) right near my office. I called up the number, and a lady answered the phone. I enquired about the sessions and was fortunate enough as they were planning to start sessions for beginners in one or two weeks of time. Then she asked me my date of birth. I understood from her later that it was required so that she could pair me up with students of appropriate age. Having done with all the formalities I could not wait for the sessions to start. The first session was on Wednesday 5:30pm-7:30pm. Our ‘official’ office timings are till 6:30pm, but I had already got the permission to leave early on that day. After the meeting, which we managed to finish off by 5:30pm, I rushed to the school. I didn’t want everyone at the school to think of me who follows I.S.T. (Indian Stretchable Time). It is important because what I believe is that when you are staying away from your country in a foreign land; you not only represent yourself but also your country.
When I was there the school did not totally appear as a school from outside. In fact it wasn’t, it was typical bungalow with a small garden around the house and a board saying the name of the school. I confirmed with the lady watering the plants if I was at the right place. After her affirmation I managed to get on the first floor where after a series a right turns and left turns I was in a big hall with big mirrors on one side and a group of girls facing it and doing some warm up. With some hesitance I entered the hall but then had a thought that may be I am in a wrong class and should check out the other classes in the school. But the school had only one class. Then I thought may be the sessions which I had to attend must be on a different day and not Wednesday. What amazes me is the speed at which your mind thinks and the thoughts which you process. All this just in a flick of a second and I turned back and was moving out of the class when I heard someone call me.
‘Rajiv? Is that you?’ – questioned me someone from the class. When I turned back and replied ‘uhh, yes … I had registered for the Ballroom Classes , but may be I missed my sessions or I am in a wrong class’ . Then she told me that I had not missed any of the session and I was at the right place. She was the dance instructor and requested me to join them for the warm up after which she had plans to proceed with the session. I swallowed a gulp of air and placed my bag down as I started the warm up session with group of nine girls and me being the only boy. The dance instructor was the only person who understood and spoke English rest all only Greek. I know that at this point of time many of you must already be envy of me and wish to be in my position. Who wouldn’t like to have some warm up sessions and one hour of ballroom dance with beautiful Cypriot girls? But for now I was not at all comfortable and the only thing I could do is to try and resist my laughter. Yes I had to laugh because except for my dance instructor the tallest girl in that group did not even reach my shoulders. Yeah, they were all school girls from the age of 9-12.To dance with these school going toddlers was the toughest job ever. They don’t speak and understand your language and just want to drag you all around the room. They were divided into two groups with one group to do the rehearsals with me and the other one with the instructor. And the song went ‘perhaps perhaps perhaps’ – such a beautiful song but it was quite unpleasant experience to dance with these kids because of the height mismatch and many other things. But then we heard some footsteps, someone climbing up the stairs to reach the class. I prayed for it to be someone of my age or at least a guy so that he could share part of my suffering. But alas, there she was another 8 year old sweet cute little girl. I could have continued dancing with them as a mentor but then I was a student myself and had to learn many things. Also with no guy around, I did not want to end up dancing like a girl. So I made an excuse about my work and was out from there in few minutes.
With my hysteric laughter I ran out of the school while the lady still watering the plants noticed me and was obviously shocked with such expressions of mine. This was one of the most unforgettable moments. The intermediate sessions have now started at our office premises and unquestionably I was the first one to register. It was Rumba that we had to practice today and the song went ‘perhaps perhaps perhaps’. This reminded me of the dance school incidence and I had a big smile while my dance partner was confused about the reason for my smile and we continued dancing. Dancing with those kids was perhaps more like singing a lullaby to a child sleeping in the cradle while you are swinging it. Moreover it was I believe it was a LIVE joke performed by GOD almighty with his friends around laughing at me. Even I enjoyed his joke on me which will always make me, and whoever I narrate this to, smile in future.
