Life of an Indian Teenage Girl

Dance Class

I've been learning Bharathnatyam since I was six. Bharathnatyam is an Indian classical dance form.

Every passionate Bharathnatyam dancer looks forward to that one program- the Arangetam. Arangetam is a dance program where the dancers show everything they had learned in their dance class for the past few years. It usually starts with a prayer dance and is followed by many dance sequences. Every dancer works for this day.

My sister had done her Arangetam when she was six, but she continued learning until she was 14.

Me, on the other hand, has been learning dance since first grade and even after 10 years has not been able to do the Arangetam.

The reason? No it's not because I am not a good dancer. Intact, I have always managed to stay on the good side of my dance teachers and I've tried do the dance as much justice as I could.

The problem was the bad luck I talked about in the beginning of the book.

My first teacher was a male. Me and my sister had learned from him for about two years after which my mom decided it was time for us to turn to a better and preferably female teacher.

My classmate, Meenakshi, told us that her mom was a dance teacher. So we joined there. This time I was accompanied by my best friend, Myra. We had lots of fun with Meenu.

We would always make fun of her on the payment day. We would ask her who was going to pay the fees for her.

After about two years, they had to leave to another part of the country after her father got a transfer. Her mother arranged another teacher for us before she left.

It was Jumna ma'am. We were really happy. She was the dance and music teacher of our school and she was really nice and kind, or so we thought.

The first day of our class with Jumna ma'am was hectic. Our dance class was on the first floor of a school. The windows would bring in immense light and heat.

The teacher said that we had to turn off the AC and were allowed to have a break only once and that too just to have one sip of water, because too much water during dance could hurt our stomach. It was a two hour class, by the way.

When Meenu's mom was teaching there had been about 20 children. After the first day, barely half came back the second day. Myra and I too quit after the second day. Sure she was a great teacher but it was too hectic for two fourth graders.

Then we turned to another teacher who taught in the same building I lived in. We shifted there and learned for about 1 year, after which even she had to leave to another part of the country.

We were in sixth grade now and Myra decided she was going to quit dance and turn her attention to tennis. My sister decided she was too old for dance classes and thought that she would only do programs from then.

Then there was me. I was however determined to do my Arangetam so I continued to another teacher who taught in the same room as the other teacher.
Even she had to move to another part of the country after a year.

Then came Teena ma'am. She taught in a building in our same area. Just a two minute walk away. She had assured me, after listening to my story that her husband had a well secured job and that there was no intention to leave any time soon. I was happy. I was relieved!

In June, teacher said we could have our summer break free since most of us would go out. Then in July we got a message saying that the teacher was pregnant. So naturally she stopped teaching and arranged a new teacher for us.

We learned with her and finally, after much compelling, our Arangetam was booked for June 2020.

Then came corona. All the stages were closed down and our parents refused to send us for any classes out of fear. So my dreams went down the drain.

Now I'm stuck at home. I'm pretty sure this would have been my last year of dance classes because next year would be a stressful year with all the studying.

Even after I believed in myself and my dream and even after I put in a lot of effort I still have not succeeded in fulfilling my dream.

Well, I still have one more dream I want to fulfill and that's to publish my book or to publish my poetry - as a book. Let's hope at least that one works out.