"Asatoma sadgamaya!" The song started blaring through the loud speakers and my heart thumped like a series of earthquake inside of my chest. Standing backstage and biting my nails, I was a bundle of nerves. "Oh my God! I'm freaking out!" "Relax, Chandan. You'll do just fine", came the words of comfort from Shilpa as she gave me an assuring smile. After I pulled the knots of the shiny green chadra I was wearing and pressed my turban to make sure it wasn't going to fall, I realised the kerchief tied to the middle finger *cough* of my left hand was hanging loose. "Snehal, could you please untie this and tie it properly? It could come off any minute!" She was kind enough to help, but not before she rolled her eyes in annoyance. The much dreaded and anticipated moment had arrived! I knew two of the most memorable minutes of my life were here. This was it! I had to give it my best because it was the last time! Strangely, I had started getting skeptical about myself the very same day.
Just a few hours ago, I was sitting in the cab, day dreaming and fantasizing about our performance. A month's hard work and pain was about to pay off. I was so high strung that I was hardly talking to anyone. I was looking out of the window, twiddling my thumbs when the dance coordinator, the ever cheerful- Chandana started pulling my leg. I turned a shade of scarlet. To make it worse, Naidu, Rajesh, Shashidhar & Sindhu started teasing me about Snehal - the girl everyone was scared of. Everyone except me of course. They dared me to call her up and tell her we were reaching her pick up point in five minutes. When in reality, we were at least 25 minutes away from reaching there. I had to prove I wasn't scared of her. I called her up and everyone gaped in astonishment. "She is going to kill you when she realises you lied to her!" said Shashidhar the moment I hung up the phone, shaking his head alarmingly. Was I scared now? Not at all. Okay, may be a little. After I suffered another twenty minutes of ridicule and derision, we spotted Snehal standing at the bus stop. She looked like a tigress who would feast on anyone who came her way. Seeing the look on her face, the hustle and bustle of the cab came to a halt. The silence was deafening. After a while, Naidu - the entertainer of the group came up with the idea of playing Antakshari. Although reluctant at first, I joined in when I saw my team was losing to Snehal's team and I definitely did not want to lose to her. The commotion in the cab was so high that onlookers couldn't stop staring and grinning at us, especially at Vijay a.k.a. Himesh Reshammiya as Priya fondly calls him because he knows each and every song of Himesh's and mostly sings only his songs. After screaming our lungs out for almost an hour, we reached the venue.
I had almost completely forgotten about the rally. The stress was now back to haunt me. A little exhausted from all the cacophony during the long journey, I thought of relaxing a bit before the final practice started. But as soon as we entered the magnificent hall, before we got the time to digest that this was all actually happening, I saw our choreographer, Keerti Raj getting more hyper than ever, giving instructions to the rest of the dance crew. The practice started without music and on 1-2-3, 1-2-3 instructions from him. Since I was not used to dancing without music and had always used the wordings to remember the steps, I kept messing up the steps. Keerti was hopping mad. All of a sudden, he seemed as scary as my Physics teacher from school. For those of you who don't know him, he was a terror. There were a couple of more goof-ups with the props as I was rehearsing with them for the first time. So was everyone else, but it was only me who kept forgetting to drop the prop. After I was yelled at a couple of times, the final rehearsal was finally over and we headed for lunch.
Standing in the queue with my head hung down in disappointment, all kinds of negative thoughts started hitting me. But it took me only about a minute to pick myself up and tell myself that I could do it, and do it very well.
While waiting in the line, I heard a velvety voice say, "Haaai Chandan!" It was Apoorva, the petite and seemingly, I repeat, 'seemingly' sweet girl who is also now called 'Appamma' by yours truly. She was accompanied by Deepa, her BFF and the girl with the dragon tattoo. They smiled warmly at me.
"Are you on Whatsapp?", Apoorva enquired. I nodded. "Great. I'm,creating a Whatsapp group for the dance crew so that we can keep in touch." It was probably the best decision she had made all her life.
After the lunch, everyone got into their flashy and flamboyant costumes. It was a sight to behold. The men looked dapper and the women as ethereal as ever, though I admit having trouble recognizing some of the girls because of the layers of make up their faces were in covered in.
Some of us started rehearsing again. Navaneethan, the guy who was to climb on me and wrap his legs around me while I spun, instructed me to do it a little faster. I heeded his advice and spun fast. May be a little too fast. I lost control and ended up falling on top of him while he fell flat on his face. That was scary! Never in the one month we practised had I ever dropped him. The day just kept getting worse. Did all the mistakes have to happen on the final day? What if I messed up on stage? There will be thousands of people watching us and any goof up will be etched in their hearts forever; or at least be talked about a year. I couldn't afford to let that happen. So before we entered the stage, I took every ounce of confidence left in me and told myself that I was going to give it all I've got no matter what. I was never getting this opportunity again. I had to shut up my detractors who laughed at me when I put forward my name for audition. Though they were really taken aback when I had told them I got through the auditions, they assumed I probably didn't have much to dance and would be made to stand in the corner.
We entered the stage in a queue and now all the eyes were on us. The butterflies fluttering furiously in my stomach were now still. I didn't give a fuck about who was watching me and who was not. My confidence skyrocketed and I felt like I could take on the whole world. We came, we danced and we conquered. We conquered the stage, we conquered the audience. We received a standing ovation. Everything went well.
There was a great satisfaction, yet a sadness. Sadness that it was over. The rehearsals, the arguments, the laughter, the new friends I had made, the fun.... I was going to miss it all.
It was time for the DJ dance party after the dinner buffet. As soon as I entered the hall, I saw Siri, Naidu and Vijay letting their hair down on the floor. Later, we were joined by the rest of the dance crew. This was the last time for all of us together. Everyone knew that. All of us danced like there was no tomorrow. It will remain one of the most eventful and unforgettable days of my life. I thought I might never even see most of these friends again. But did I see them? Or was it all actually over like I had thought it to be?
To be continued.......
