Dancing Dolls by Sheetal Pahadi (rm book recommendations txt) 📖

consisted of her house-oriented mother, her father with so-modern outlook and her sweet, straight and simple but quite athletically built strong, muscular, elder brother – who was 3 years older to her. Her mom and dad looked so beautiful together. Alifa had savoured one of their young-age photos in which they stood together and looked really like “Bollywood Hero & Heroine”. Her mom looked really young and no one could guess her age. Her father, although had an athletic body, but his face was withered from the many years’ continuous hard-core work. She also had a granny- who also looked very young with an awesome glow in her face- might have been very beautiful when she was young.

 

So, this was her family- a middle-class typical Indian family.

 

After having coffee, Alifa went straight to her terrace, spread out her Yoga Mat in the light of the early sun and started on her daily Yoga Routine.

 

She was a perfectionist and was very active in everything. What was called ‘being lazy’- she didn’t know, coz she had never ever experienced that.

 

After 45 minutes of Yoga and 15 minutes of Aerobics, she went down to take a bath and get ready for school…..She reached the school at 7:15 am. The school used to begin at 7:30.

 

^^^^^

 

**Tringgggggg!!!!!!!!!**

The bell rang for recess.

 

A few girls- Neil’s best friends, surrounded him for their usual chat. Alifa opened up her Tiffin Box which had vegetable sandwich, sprouts and some dry fruits. She was a true dancer—she had not only practiced her postures and steps so well, but had also practiced a perfect balanced diet for years. She was ‘almost’ perfect in her field. Amaya- Alifa’s best friend, was sitting next to her.

 

Neil excused his friends and rushed to Alifa. He sat in front of Alifa’s bench and faced towards her and said-

 

“I have selected a few songs…. We both will decide which one is to be chosen amongst them….”

“Yeah, it’s fine!”

Neil sees her tiffin.

“Oh! Can I have one?”

“Yeah, why not? Take!”

Alifa and Amaya were quite amazed and shared a 2-second glance with each other. Neil had never been so friendly with her.

 

“Thanks Alifa! You always bring healthy stuff, I guess! You know na, I ‘m so lazy. I can’t manage my own breakfast. Yeah, my mom does, but she makes the tiffin according to my younger brother’s likes and dislikes! She has no time to make two separate dishes! So, the whole family has to bear with my bro’s choices! Ah, poor me! My mum is a working lady, so she is very busy always and I can’t argue with her on that…..especially for such ‘food’ issues! Hahah….”

 

“Hey! Yaar, it’s fine! Come on! Here, take this also. I have already had a really heavy breakfast today before leaving home.”

 

“No..no…no… You eat! Listen! I have also downloaded a few videos and they are awesome. Today in the evening, first we’ll see them and then we’ll start our practice.”

 

“Sure. Listen. I have the Annual Function DVD of my previous school at Agra. Once, some of them performed Paso Doble. I will bring the DVD of that.”

 

“That would be great! So done! Today, 4:00 pm sharp! Okay???”

 

“Yeah, done!”

 

Neil snags away some sprouts from Alifa’s lunchbox and goes to his place-

“Thanks for this!”

Alifa and Amaya laugh...

 

Episode 7

The clock strikes 4 and just then Alifa reaches the studio. Neil was busy sorting the CDs and was playing one of them, analyzing the music. When he realized that Alifa has entered, he waved her.

“Hey! Come fast here. My head is just spinning like hell”, said Neil.

“What happened?” She puts down her bag and sits with him on the floor.

“I have listened to so many songs, but I’m not able to decide.”

“The more options we have, the more difficult it is to choose. Just a minute.”

She tears out a paper and hands it along with a pen to Neil.

“Here, take this. Let’s list out all the songs we know that match our theme, one which could be used in a Paso Doblè act”, said Alifa.

“Hmm….. You have a great mind, huh???” Lifts an eyebrow. “Cool, we’ll do like this.”

 

Neil stands up , goes towards the big mirror wall- one in which you could not only see your complete self, but the whole group dance together, the one which every dancer dreams to practice in front of. Their classroom was very big. The entrance door is at one corner of the rectangular room.

As you enter the room, you face the wall which is widest, covered full by the mirrors. Towards the right and left there are big windows, the ones of the Victorian era, with a rectangular frame and a rounded window top- like an arch, and their hung nice light blue floral curtains. The left and the back walls also have ‘ballet barres’. These are rods attached to the walls at a height from the ground, holding which you can do various exercises which require balancing skills or can even be used to help in stretching up- most commonly used by ballet students.

 

Neil sat down on the floor with his back rested on the mirror wall.

“Alifa, come here with me, I wanna relax”, said Neil.

“Haha, okay!”

Alifa also joins him. Alifa presses her palms on the floor and slides herself down so that she can rest leisurely on the mirror wall.

 

“The first song that I can think of is- umm – Man Basiyo Saanwariyo”, said Alifa.

“But that song would be – umm – a girl trying to grab the attention of a boy. But in our act, it would be I trying to control you coz you are the ‘BULLLLLL’ and I am the matador.” He gives a smirk towards the left side of his face.

“I am the bull???..... Am I???”

“Haha….. Hey! I mean, you’ll be…. in our dance…. Right???”

“Okay” (smiles) “Yeah, so we can’t take this. Cut it.”

“Senorita…..”

“Come on dumbo! That’s for TAP and also it’s a fun song, can’t be used in a passionate and intense form.”

Lifts a brow. “Dumbo??? Revenge, huh?”

She circled the inside of our cheek with her tongue playfully and turned her face to the other side smiling. “Tu hi tu satrangi re?”

“Hmm… Not bad… It’s nice. Hey! I have something better. That song you remember?... What was it?...Umm…haan…Rama tu kya kiya… Something like that.”

“Hehehe… You can’t even remember a song… That song was –“

Alifa starts singing-

“Haye Rama yeh kya hua

Kyun aise hume satane lage...”

 

Neil also sings-

“Tum kitna achha gaati ho

Yeh aaj hume pata chale…”

 

Alifa realizes that she was swayed away by her inner hobby of singing. She was actually singing! So, quite embarrassed, she looked towards Neil and blushed. And quickly turned her face down looking at the floor.

 

Neil says, “I never knew you were such a nice singer…(smiles) Okay, this is it. We are going for this song.”

 

“Yeah, it’s a powerful song to dance upon. Its beats make my feet tap involuntarily. A passionate routine can be choreographed on that…”

“Yeah, definitely.”

 

They both gave a high-five to each other and started laughing.

*BANG*

Neil and Alifa were startled by the sound. Alifa’s heart started beating fast but just for a few seconds. 5-6 juniors from the Intermediate Batch slammed the door open and entered the room fighting with each other at the top of their voices.

“Hey, you were doing wrong…..”

“No, you…”

“Neil bhaiya, Alifa di, can you please help us?”, requested a medium-heighted girl. “Samsons are out for an important work. We have some co-ordination issues, so we need somebody to check on us”, intervened the other guy who had been shouting the most a few seconds before. “Can you please just see where we aren’t in sync and correct our mistakes??”, said a girl with a puppy face.

Neil and Alifa looked at each other and smiled at the innocent seriousness of their Juniors and said together, “Yeah, why not? Let’s go…”

 

***

While coming out from the Intermediate Batch Studio…

Neil- Oh God! Our juniors are so annoying.

Alifa- Took the hell out of me. Hear my voice… my vocal cords have got ruptured; I needed to shout so much to calm them down… (She sees her watch) Oh My God! It’s 6:30. I need to get back home.

Neil- But we didn’t even start our practice yet.

Alifa- Yeah, I know… But I can’t stay back. My mom is a bit ill today and no one else is at home. So, I need to be with her.

Neil- Even if you stay, it’s no good, coz we have no idea what we are going to do.

Alifa- Yeah, exactly. Tomorrow, when Samsons will be back, we’ll discuss with them about our routine.

Neil- Yes we would surely do. But before that we need to do our homework first.

Alifa- ??? (She gave him a puzzled look.)

Neil- We need to see some videos first, to get ideas. Umm… You told you have some DVDs… Why don’t we have a look at them at your home?

Alifa- Yeah, we can but…

Neil- No ‘but’s.   See, you’ll be with your mom and we’ll get our work also done.

Alifa- Okay, then. Let me call my mum first…

Neil- No, don’t tell her. If she knows that a friend of yours is coming there for the first time, she’ll start preparing something for me… Afterall… Indian moms you know. She needs to rest. Don’t tell.

Alifa- Okay.(She blushes hidingly and says to herself, “Aww! He’s so considerate.)

***

They reach Alifa’s home at about 6:45 pm. Her mom opened the door.

Alifa- Mom, he is Neil. I am performing with him in the Qualifiers.

Mom- Oh!

Neil- (Joins his hands) Namastey Aunty! How are you feeling now? Alifa told me you aren’t doing well today.

Mom- Oh Thanks, beta! I am fine now. I was sleeping the whole day as I had the house all to myself with no one disturbing me. Haha.

Neil- Yeah, you look fine. Great!

Mom- Come in, beta.

 

All enter the house.

 

Mom- What would you like to have, Neil? Something hot or cold?

Neil- Nothing Aunty, don’t worry. If I want something, your daughter is there no? You just rest. By the way, I am here for a work. You get well soon, then I will surely come for a ‘daawat’- prepared by you. Now, fine?

Mom- Yeah, okay. Haha!

 

Alifa’s mom heads towards her room. Alifa too follows her.

Alifa- Mom, he has come here to watch those Annual Function DVDs. Don’t worry, he’ll leave early. And he is just a classmate and my dance-partner, nothing more than that.

Mom- (slapped her lightly) Dumb girl! Did I ask you for explanation? Neil is such a nice boy and girl you don’t need to give so much explanation, unless I ask you to, of course! Go, get something to eat and drink.

Alifa- (Smiles and hugs her mom) You are the best, mummy!

 

Yes, Alifa was quite considerate towards everyone. Even though she had parents with quite modern thinking, she always tried to see situations from their point of view and took each step according to that. She didn’t want to hurt anyone, even unintentionally. She always thought many times – both about the ‘pro’s and ‘con’s- before doing anything.

 

However, her parents were just opposite. They trusted her and always let her do whatever she wanted to.

 

Alifa brings two cups of hot coffee. Neil is sitting on the sofa in front of TV, sorting out the DVDs that Alifa gave him. Alifa hands him the coffee and