This weekend I learnt to do the salsa!! ;) A friend took me to a beginner level workshop, where the trainer made us tap our feet to the tunes, sorry, the 123…123s… of the Machata (it’s a Caribbean dance, I learnt later) and Salsa (this, I believe, is popular and known to all and sundry!) Oh but what makes me mention my ‘beginners’ level training here is the fact that the amount of chauvinism in both the dance forms (all Latino dance forms, in fact) amazed me, and what further amazed me is the fact that I completely and totally loved to be lead away, doing the ‘girlie’ sways, dips, jumps and twirls with total abandonment.
Sigh! There’s a reason why God made men and women into two distinctly different sects, and why the likes of Mills and Boons find readers in women even today! I also re-learnt the importance of tact over brute force. A born dance enthusiast, I stepped across the line, danced with the trainer, and ended up finding myself suspended mid-air on his right knee, feet and hands above the ground ( this, besides the oh so regular ;) other acrobatics that we all learnt!!) My body is protesting today (circus after a two-month break you see!), but ask me again, and I’ll partner you right away!!
And how was the not-a-Goliath trainer able to ‘lead’ me to do all of that? By sheer placement of body weight, hands and of course, what I always call ‘the dancer’s intuition. (The catch in these dance forms is that while the man is leading you, you might have no clue as to what he wants to do next (apart from knowing the basics of course: John Travolta will not be able to manage you if you don’t), but you end up doing it nonetheless. No words exchanged, no tugging and pulling, no force applied.
Lesson learnt? I think so: a greater lesson of life too, learnt and to be practiced.
Amid all the dancing and fêting, I also managed to read Khushwant Singh’s Men and Women In My Life, and while the sheer KhushwantSinghism (please excuse that) of the narrative pleased and amused, it turned out to be a disappointing read altogether. It is immensely difficult for me to accept that none of the men he ever met had innate qualities that could match up to even the least mentionable of the women he wrote about. Anyway, apart from the piece on the beggar-maid, it all seemed like an exercise in name-dropping, and a platform for personal vendetta. Well, the vendetta bit might be true strong a word for a book of this calibre, and might not even be close to what he really had in mind when he wrote it, but a reader is entitled to her opinion, right?
I have also taken to watching Sex and the City all over again (this time, in a regular, thorough fashion, thanks to the DVD set I acquired!) And my 23 years somehow makes me appreciate the humour and the acridity in the series much more than when I stole secret shows on the TV. Now come on, don’t get your guns ready…so it’s not top of the line intellectual content, but ever wondered how dull life would be if there was no easy entertainment? Easy on the head and the mind, that is ;) Because, that would mean no Friends and Sex and the City, no Tintin, no long queues to the Phuchka (pani puri to non-bongs, or golgappa) stall, no going over-the-top giggling with friends, no reading Archie comics, no drinking just for fun and dancing barefoot on the floor ;),no teasing your mom just like that, no buying/getting gifts for the heck of it, no oh my god…the list of ‘nos’ is too lengthy for me to put down without suffering a coronary seizure. Plus, it only takes a different approach to find meaning in the seemingly meaningless. But more on that later, when it comes ‘easy’ to me…
Till then, cheers to the seemingly meaningless journey of our lives…and to the hope that we all find meaning quick!
Sigh! There’s a reason why God made men and women into two distinctly different sects, and why the likes of Mills and Boons find readers in women even today! I also re-learnt the importance of tact over brute force. A born dance enthusiast, I stepped across the line, danced with the trainer, and ended up finding myself suspended mid-air on his right knee, feet and hands above the ground ( this, besides the oh so regular ;) other acrobatics that we all learnt!!) My body is protesting today (circus after a two-month break you see!), but ask me again, and I’ll partner you right away!!
And how was the not-a-Goliath trainer able to ‘lead’ me to do all of that? By sheer placement of body weight, hands and of course, what I always call ‘the dancer’s intuition. (The catch in these dance forms is that while the man is leading you, you might have no clue as to what he wants to do next (apart from knowing the basics of course: John Travolta will not be able to manage you if you don’t), but you end up doing it nonetheless. No words exchanged, no tugging and pulling, no force applied.
Lesson learnt? I think so: a greater lesson of life too, learnt and to be practiced.
Amid all the dancing and fêting, I also managed to read Khushwant Singh’s Men and Women In My Life, and while the sheer KhushwantSinghism (please excuse that) of the narrative pleased and amused, it turned out to be a disappointing read altogether. It is immensely difficult for me to accept that none of the men he ever met had innate qualities that could match up to even the least mentionable of the women he wrote about. Anyway, apart from the piece on the beggar-maid, it all seemed like an exercise in name-dropping, and a platform for personal vendetta. Well, the vendetta bit might be true strong a word for a book of this calibre, and might not even be close to what he really had in mind when he wrote it, but a reader is entitled to her opinion, right?
I have also taken to watching Sex and the City all over again (this time, in a regular, thorough fashion, thanks to the DVD set I acquired!) And my 23 years somehow makes me appreciate the humour and the acridity in the series much more than when I stole secret shows on the TV. Now come on, don’t get your guns ready…so it’s not top of the line intellectual content, but ever wondered how dull life would be if there was no easy entertainment? Easy on the head and the mind, that is ;) Because, that would mean no Friends and Sex and the City, no Tintin, no long queues to the Phuchka (pani puri to non-bongs, or golgappa) stall, no going over-the-top giggling with friends, no reading Archie comics, no drinking just for fun and dancing barefoot on the floor ;),no teasing your mom just like that, no buying/getting gifts for the heck of it, no oh my god…the list of ‘nos’ is too lengthy for me to put down without suffering a coronary seizure. Plus, it only takes a different approach to find meaning in the seemingly meaningless. But more on that later, when it comes ‘easy’ to me…
Till then, cheers to the seemingly meaningless journey of our lives…and to the hope that we all find meaning quick!
2 comments:
Sheer joy! like always to read here :)like being led into alice's wonderland...dance woman! dance for dance itself!keep it beautiful!
Written nicely about your varied interests. Keep it up gurl. :)
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