Alto-no-moto

"Honey, try to get both the hands and the feet."

"Lets try it again today, this time make sure you go slowly, eventually you'll get a hang of it..."

"Maybe you should stop being so conscious of it, and do it with abandon.."

So works Debbie patiently in each class.

No, I havent signed up for Bharatnatyam lessons. Merely gym classes, to shed weight. Unfortunately Debbie is one of those that wont give up. But then, she doesnt realise that she's met her match in me. I wont ever get it either.....that I can coordinate my hands and feet action for a perfect and harmonious waltz rather than seeming like crude and plain exercise.

I am beginning to be more convinced as each day passes that my hands/feet coordination capabilities suck...and real bad at that!

***Flashback begins****
A 6 yr old girl sits with great trepidation in front of a mousey lady with two outsized front teeth. The lady in question has a scowl on her face and the girl quivers as she pulls her smart smocked frock some more across the ankles and wishes she could go back in time to wear full length paavadai/blouse. As lesson 1 begins, the hands begin to shake, the voice gets squeaky and the scowl deepens into a glare.

"Oh Lord, WHEN are you going to stay on track?? How many more days do I have to endure this torture???? Wasting precious time and money!!!!! I swear the girls of today have no seriousness or interest......" she yells and lands a sharp pinch on the girl's uncovered thighs as the blue smocked dress that her mother lovingly dolled her up in rides up the ankles at such a very opportune moment. Bare flesh is a welcome chance for nips, so the young girl notes to self.

That was me, all of 6 yrs old and these were snippets of my jaunt with learning Carnatic music. She was my first music teacher and the whole sequence lasted about 4 years or so. I was still not scarred enough to stop lessons...cos Paati had immense faith in my croonability and hence Amma would coax and cajole me into enduring the 45 mins of what was tantamount to the torture chamber for a little girl.

After moving around quite a bit, due to Dad's transfers, there were some breaks and makes in the tutelage with varied teachers and varying results and finally when we came back to homeground, I was a cantankerous teenager and could have nipped the old teacher with kind returns , thanks to my mood swings. When it was time to enter college, I decided to call it quits. Paati had given up by then and resigned herself to the fate that her favorite grandchild just wasnt cut out for this extreme skill.

Between being 6 and being a teenager I gained a kid sister and thus began a love-hate connection that was quite memorable in its own right, while it lasted. Now, we are as thick as thieves and nothing could make us wish ill for and of each other.

She was Miss twinkle toes right from the day she was born, and it only aided her case by starting lessons early. By the time she was 5, she was her dance teacher's pet and had her first dance performance. She was short for her age, so all of 3 feet and then some, fair, with doe-eyes and innocent smile- she brought out many a melted heart and "Awww so cute" responses. And from then on I was hooked to dance. In the sense, I loved watching dance performances. To this day, I immerse myself completely in watching any kind of dance- be it salsa, tap dance, tango, Bharatnatyam, Odissi, Kuchipudi- I can sit enthralled for long hours and never bat an eyelid. Its close to an out of body experience for me.

(Meaningless)Guilt drove Amma many a time to register me in dance lessons each one of them, an exercise in futility with two major issues. One being clumsy footwork and the second being bad hands/feet synchronization. The only venture that came to somewhat success was a year's worth of tap dancing lessons. Cause 50% of the issue was taken out of the equation due to the fact that there were no hand movements involved. The feet managed to respond favorably, and 4 semesters' worth of lessons were successfully completed.

***Flashback ends****

Footnote : No, I dont tap dance in public, I have forgotten most of what I learned, and NO I will not humiliate myself by showing any one any of it.

So Miss Twinkle Toes has grown by leaps and bounds now and a mind of her own, I might add. Ergo she has an opinion and/or prejudice about anything and everything. She no longer looks a kid sister, rather a fiery, spicy jalapeno on the outside, a warm and kindred soul inside. Why am I heaping praise on her? Nothing to do with sororal love and all that load of crap....the real reason is cos there one big smack coming...much like those pinches from Teacher #1, remember?

And just when I figured dance isnt a lost cause in the family....she goes and stops all pursuit of dancyness. Just like that, cos she can!
Hence she deserves to be whacked with a whip or some equivalent miss-treatment.

I'll be back with a tool that really hurts, nips dont cut it no more!

-An armed mint.