The Village Girl

Chapter Eight - [Aaryan]

I didn't know what they were saying, but I imagined her family was telling her how beautiful she looked, especially her mother, who looked almost moved to tears. And then I thought that maybe it was a good thing that her family was down their. At least they would be at her eye level, and she could feel both comfortable and confident with them so close by.

"We're in for quite a performance, aren't we?"

I looked up and saw my brother Aayu walking towards me. He took a seat next to me as I smiled. "I'm sure she'll be great," I said, looking back at her as Lady Suhanya rushed her back to her position.

"She's going to be more than great, I promise you that," my brother said.

When I looked at him, I saw he was smiling calmly. I wondered how he could be so certain of that, but it pleased me to know that he had faith in her.

The performance began the singers singing, followed by the sound of trumpets and then the deep beating of the drums.

And as she began to dance with my cousins, I smiled.

Of course, she was fantastic.

This dance was not the traditional dance of Bharatanatyam. It was not as ordered, it did not tell stories or look as elegant. This dance was filled with a lot of spinning and circular movements, their dresses flaring up around them when they did, while girls carried small lit candles on bronze plates in their hands, or a small pot with a flame lit in it and tried to dance without the flame going out. It started off slow, but then would speed up, then slow down again.

It was a beautiful dance, but was a dance to show off the skill of the women involved.

They sang together, showing off their voices.

They danced a complicated routine that would often speed up so fast that it was specifically meant to tire them out.

And finally, the held the flames, and thus on top of the singing and dancing, they had to focus, and be calm, and be aware of the flame, trying their hardest not to let it blow out in their spins or in their hand movements.

I would rather fight in a deadly battle any day. When fighting in a war, you only had one thing on your mind. Survival. It was that simple.

Seetha would laugh when I said that, but nevertheless, that was I believed.

Seetha was doing a phenomenal job, and though some of my relatives had lost their flames already, both of hers were still lighting up strong. I felt pride, and when my eyes flickered over to my mother, I saw that she looked a little disappointed.

I knew the end of the dance was coming when the speed began to increase dramatically, with the drummers beating their instruments at a consistant, fast speed. However, to my surprise, as the trumpets began to blare to indicate the finale, Seetha left the other dancing girls and rushed over to Lady Suhanya.

My eyes widened as Lady Suhanya walked over to her with a large pot, a huge flame dancing from within it. Seetha bent down letting Lady Suhanya place it carefully on her head, and after giving her a reassuring smile, Seetha turned around, the candles still in her hands and returned to her spot in the center of the girls, not missing a beat.

It was at this moment that she saw me for the first time.

She smiled, looking confident. Like she knew she could do it.

And as the drummers initiated the finale, Seetha danced,, not only holding the candles in her hands, but also holding the pot on her head.

Not only did she spin in circles, not losing balance, but she moved around as if there was nothing on her head at all. This was nothing like I had ever seen before... nothing like most people in the hall had ever seen before.

The other girls who had the pots on their heads had their hands free, being able to readjust to pot or grab it if it were about to fall, but Seetha didn't.

She had complete control and everyone watched in complete silence and awe.

And when the performance reached its end, the girls all began to spin in circles, quickly and steadily and not only did Seetha not drop either the candles or the pot on her head, but when the dance ended and the drummers hit their last beat together, Seetha stopped spinning, standing straight with a big smile on her face... the flames that surrounded her still completely lit.

Aayu stood up immediately clapping loudly as he laughed.

People were cheering in excitement and shock.

And I didn't realize I was gawking until my father put his hand on my shoulder and squeezed it. "She's a special one," he said, before he too stood up and began to applaud the performance.