Dance Class Diaries

                                                                                                                                April 27, 2013

          My first class of this year's Summer Funk, I am excited and happy as ever. Joined Bollywood this time because I want to dance to 'Balam Pichkari' or 'Badtameez Dil' would have joined hip-hop (scary) otherwise. There are generally more students in a class during funks so I expected it to be a full class but not all this much. It will be difficult to dance if anymore join. The advantage of a full class is I can merrily stand in the last line corner can dance/cheat away to glory. Somehow stage left corner seems to be my 'Sheldon Spot'. I think of you guys in every class, reasons being different on different days. Today I thought of our 'gundagiri'. a big group of friends has joined this class, they are at least 10 of them. This group apparently joins all funks together. There was a lot of ho-hallah, huggin and 'hi' as they met each other and I was like 'Wow, now I know what we must have made others feel back in Cal'. What with our boisterous selves cracking up at poorest of jokes, calling out to each other from one end of the class to the other. Leave alone students I guess we must intimidated our instructors as well. 

        I was happy to be back to classes after a month but I was feeling lazy as well, I couldn't even get myself to do the little dancing wala workout that we were being made to do. 

        We start our dance. Instructors shows us the step, 'hit left shoulder, hit right shoulder'; we repeat. Instructor shows the next step and all heaven broke loose... 'Balam Pichkari'. I was so happy, bas chalta toh main wahin pe start ho jati but the class waited for the instructors to finishing teaching and when the song was played, I tell you guys I danced like I haven't for a long time. I love the 'Padosan ki Bhabhi' being 'lattoo' part.

     Oh, I forgot to mention passes. I wonder why they were ever created. The moment instructor said being 'x' lines with 'y' people in it, my face contorted into the most pained look possible. Damn!! The good thing that came out today's passes was that I think I may have become a little better. We were doing our most loved 'cross-step' pass and I realised I was kind of doing it in a way you guys do it. I guess joining 3 batches of contemporary back-to-back has yielded some fruit. :D

    Happy times don't last too long they say. 

     When the class ended the instructor asked us for song options, most of us said 'Badtameez Dil' but he was like all classes want to do these two songs, we should do something else. Ouch!!! Nahiiiiiiiiiin!!!! Even a Govinda medley wouldn't entice me to give up dancing to these songs this Summer Funk. I am hoping we will be able to convince him for 'Balam Pichkari'. 

Dance...

There are times in your life when you are particularly afraid of losing something for whatever reasons and you keep praying to God to not let it happen. My nights are spent praying to God so that I dont lose Dance. In Calcutta, one never really uttered such prayers, one did ask God to bring back classes to the city but never did one one say ' Please, dont make me stop going to classes'. In Delhi I find myself saying this again and again. Calcutta mein hum the, time tha par classes kabhi kabar nahin the, Dilli mein main hu, classes hain par time nahin hain. Freaking Murphy and his law!!!! So far I have been lucky and my classes/my shifts have been adjustable but it wont be so anymore it seems. It feels like a nightmare coming true. To have to miss classes because of work, to have to miss batches because of work, to have to miss dancing because of work. These days I enter every class thinking this might just be the last batch and if God is not merciful enough then this might just be my last class. Scary thought. Very. This had to come to pass someday but not so soon. Not just as when I started enjoying back to back classes. Weekdays are now a period of time between two dance classes. Over the last six years Dance has become so integral that it does not feel like extra/co-curricular thing anymore. 

In Delhi, my classes are in a way a link to Calcutta. I had SDIPA there, I have SDIPA here. One connecting point. And I was lucky that a couple of instructors who taught me in Calcutta, turned out to be my instructors here as well. This made me comfortable in a classroom where I did not know anyone.  Back in Calcutta we had a gang. Things somehow always ended up going our way. 3-4 batches down the line I have made a few friends and the sense of comfort has increased but it is still not like Calcutta. It is different feeling altogether when the entire batch mostly consists of your friends, people who you have been dancing with for quite some time. I guess that is why every tiny detail of my classes in Delhi gets whatsapped to my friends. It is almost a necessity or maybe an OCD.

I do not know how but this 5-letter word has helped us in making us who we are to quite an extent. And to think that one will have to be distanced from it, is unnerving. I have friends who have had to do that already and are still very much alive and doing just fine, I am sure the same will be my case but when we dance we are ALIVE and we do JUST FINE. All that pain, all those workouts, all that stretching is just so worth it, though I still would not mind less of it and I wish whoever came up with the idea of passes had never had that 'eureka' moment. 

This is an addiction which I am afraid is incurable and with nasty withdrawal symptoms.

The Joy of Quizzing

It is very very very addictive.Whether you are in it or just watching from outside, Quizzing gives you a different kind of high. You do not want the questions to stop.Sometimes the answers come easily and sometimes they don't and when they don't the mind just goes into an overdrive. It starts recalling almost any and every instance when it has read,seen or done something related to the question. It comes up with silly answers at times but in sheer desperation you even blurt it out and then at times the sheer joy of that silly answer being THE answer. The disappointment when you ignore your gut feeling and go with another answer which turns out to be wrong. You abuse yourself no end. The frustration when you know that you have read about the answer somewhere a few days backs but right now can recall nothing of it. The 'surprise' when you forget the answer the moment the question is asked and you say ' I swear I knew the answer till before this. ' The dumbness of overlooking certain obvious things while thinking of the answer and then you go " Shit!!! I completely forgot about this."

I do not happen to be a good quizzer , rather I do not think I am a quizzer at all, I suck at it but I love Quizzes and Quizzing. It is AWESOME!!!!!

For years I used to watch my classmates/ batchmates representing my school in inter-school quizzes and I would answer most of it and feel nice. Then slowly I started wishing I could go to a quiz but I never ever even got to go for the Maggi Quiz's intra-school leg. Just watched 4-5 teams from the school battle it out to make it to the inter-school leg. I do not know about now but back then there was a thinking that people good in studies are good at quizzing and I was not good in studies. Sitting in the audience I could answer everything that my school representative could and a few more as well. When my school went to BQC I was so happy, school in BQC and all and I wished so badly that someday even I get to represent my school in BQC. I guess that was one of the ultimate things at that time for any school student who liked quizzing.

I did end up representing my school at school fests and I have my President to thank for it. From previous occasions she knew that I did not do too badly while sitting in the audience so when in Class 10 the seniors asked our batch to go for a fest since they could not ,she told me to participate in the quiz. I was thrilled, a friend and me went for the quiz. We did okayish types but I was happy and from there on I went for school fests quizzes for 2 years. In Class 11, one of the regular quizzer from my batch went to another school and another took up science and hence she would not go for fests and stuff. This gave me my chance and I danced full-on on the chance. I had a few awesome juniors to team up with me along with a friend.My juniors were way better than I was and were always ready irrespective of their Class 10. I just had to convince the principal to let them go and it was easy cos they were good students . It was so much fun. At every fest for every event the participants were always the same. So you always knew who exactly the opponents are going to be. The one school that I was always wary of was South Point, they had a deadly and an awesome team. You could not beat them. South point and my school were the most consistent teams. They always came first and we always came third. The second was filled in by different schools at different fests.

Then College started and baj gaye quzzing ke baraah!!!! The place was and still is teeming with amazingly good quizzers. People who you did not see at school fests cause they were busy doing bigger and better stuff. College fest scene in Calcutta sucks. Kab kaunsa fest hota hain only a few people know, at times you find out after a fest is done and over with it.Hence the lack of quizzing resulted in a rusted brain which got a breather now and then.

This so called rusted brain is now un-rusting due to Quizzers Inc. , a Facebook group. It is so much fun. I know answers for 1 out of 10 questions but it is still fun. Seeing people trying to rack their brains in order to get that answer. People who do not know the answer and have no idea about the answer waiting for someone to give the correct answer so that they finally what the answer is. The awesomeness of the knowledge that people have, it does not matter if you do not know the answer to any of the questions, just opening the page and going through the questions and their answers makes me happy. There are so many " I didn't know that" moments!!!! Moments when you feel " I swear I knew the answer till before this" , when you say " I read something about this 2-3 days ago, cant recall anything right now" and you feel like squeezing your brain to get to that answer. I have no clue who started this group but whoever did - THANK YOU!!!!!

And now BQC is back again, it is again time to wake up to BQC on Sunday mornings again. It is shorter and hence not that much fun but it is BQC and it is lovely to watch it and rack your brains every Sunday.

- To Quzzing forever.

A Smile called Dance

It was almost 5.30 in the morning and sleep had run far away from me.In the wee hours of the morning something and someones brought a smile to my face.That something was Dance and the someones are my amazing frnds I share the madness of dancing with.We dont really need a reason to dance.We jus need each other n some music(sometimes we dont even need that).We dance when we feel like the happiest people on Earth.We dance when we are just happy.We dance when we are excited.We dance when we are not so happy.We dance when we are a bit low.We dance to keep dancing when classes dont happen.We dance when we crib over the fact that there are no good guys in the city n the ones which are remotely good are gay.We dance when we need to show that dance floor is meant to be danced on.We dance when we feel like it,which is most of the time.Its our refuge and our celebration.Its something we survive on.I just wish all of us keep dancing all our lives and that we meet outside our kids' dance class and gossip away while they dance.I do hope my kids turn out to be good dancers like some of my frnds.Not a prob if they dont as long as they love dancing.
We love Dancing and each other and will do so forever and ever and ever!!!!!!

Originally written on 26 April 2011.

Varsaad Bhinjve,Ramesh Parekh

"Varsaad Bhinjve" is a poem by Gujarati Poet-Ramesh Parekh.The title means 'Baarish Bhigoye' aur 'Rain Drenches'...........basically its about Rain......I havent managed to translate and transliterate the whole poem....the lines that I have translated and transliterate are my favourite lines of the poem.Some of the Hindi spellings mite be flawed.


"અહીં આપણે બે અને વરસાદ ભીંજવે
મને ભીંજવે તું તને વરસાદ ભીંજવે"

"ahi aapne be ane varsaad bhinjve
mane bhinjve tu tane varsaad bhinjve"

" यहाँ हम दो और बारिश भिगोये
मुझे भिगोये तु और तुझे बारिश भिगोये "

"yahan hum do aur baarish bhigoye
mujhe bhigoye tu tujhe baarish bhigoye"

Varsaad Bhinjve

વરસાદ ભીંજવે

આકળવિકળ આંખકાન વરસાદ ભીંજવે
હાલકડોલક ભાનસાન વરસાદ ભીંજવે

ચોમાસું નભ વચ્ચે લથબથ સોળ કળાએ ઉગ્યું રે વરસાદ ભીંજવે
અજવાળું ઝોકાર લોહીની પાંગત સુધી પૂગ્યું રે વરસાદ ભીંજવે

નહીં છાલક, નહીં છાંટા રે વરસાદ ભીંજવે
દરિયા ઉભા ફાટ્યા રે વરસાદ ભીંજવે

ઘરમાંથી તોતિંગ ઓરડા ફાળ મારતા છૂટ્યા રે વરસાદ ભીંજવે
ધૂળ લવકતા રસ્તા ખળખળ વળાંક ખાતા ખૂટ્યા રે વરસાદ ભીંજવે

પગના અંતરિયાળપણાને ફળિયામાં ધક્કેલો રે વરસાદ ભીંજવે
નેવાં નીચે ભડભડ બળતો જીવ પલળવા મેલો રે વરસાદ ભીંજવે

બંધ હોઠમાં સોળ વરસની કન્યા આળસ મરડે રે વરસાદ ભીંજવે
લીલોધમ્મર નાગ જીવને અનરાધારે કરડે રે વરસાદ ભીંજવે

અહીં આપણે બે અને વરસાદ ભીંજવે
મને ભીંજવે તું તને વરસાદ ભીંજવે

થરથર ભીંજે આંખકાન, વરસાદ ભીંજવે,
કોને કોનાં ભાનસાન, વરસાદ ભીંજવે.

-રમેશ પારેખ

Where's the Rain?

"RAIN RAIN,GO AWAY,
LITTLE JOHNNY WANTS TO PLAY."

I have never really liked this nursery rhyme.Why the hell would anyone ask Rain to go,'Little Johnny' can play in the Rain as well.It seems as if someone out there has been praying hard to the Rain to go away cos it is hardly raining this monsoon.Monsoon is almost drawing to a close but Calcutta has hardly experienced it this time.I love the Rains and I have been wishing all this while for a downpour..a downpour which I n Calcutta have always been witness to.But the Rains arent keen on obliging me this time and hence there is a shower here n there wich doesnt even last for 15 mins.

I havent got wet this time the way I always do.Havent really gone jumping down the house and college stairs to get wet.The only times I got wet was when i was either in the college field watching football or on my way from one place to d other.
Every time there is a cloud cover a hope builds up,that hope most of the times has reamined a hope.sometimes it rains little n sometimes it doesnt rain at all.

In a way it doesnt surprise me that it didnt rain properly and in a way it does.As i was coming back home today staring out of the cab window while it was raining outside I realised that I have hardly watched the Rain from a window.I have seen the Rain from The Ledge but tht doesnt make up for the Window.The Rains are incomplete without The Window.And also without a Cup of Coffee.All that i keep wishing is That it rain rains before the Monsoons are off.It is a different thing tht here it can rain even in winter!!!!!!!!

I had thought that this season i will finally go for The Rain Walk tht i have always wanted go for but it wasnt to be so.Where was the Rain to for Walk in???And I seriously doubt that whether I would have for the Walk even if it had rained like always.And i seriously doubt if I ever will.

Something is Better than Nothing.And so a little Rain is better than NO Rain.
And i wish that my wish to let myself go and let the Rain jus drench me is fulfilled soon.Havent felt the Raindrops kiss me,havnet felt God kissed,havnet smelled the Wet Earth.Where is the Rain I Love?????