DANCE OF THE DESTINY
DANCE OF THE DESTINY
There was a huge rush in the vicinity of the thoroughfare. When our driver parked our car near it everybody seemed rushing like wind. My sister asked me to wait for a while and In the meantime she would have her eyebrows done at a nearby beauty parlour. She said, “Just ten minutes. Keep watching the watch.”I said smiling, “ O.K. But don’t see the scissors or fear the forks when your eyebrows are being trimmed.”But she won when she finally shouted and went off pushing the back door of our Palio, “WOW, A BRO’S ADVICE FOR MY BROWS.”
I wondered whether anybody on that occasion was not busy except me. When I was scanning the entire scene of the thoroughfare, my eyes met with the view of a beggar boy who was trying hard to extract something from an elite looking person who was clad in a safari suite and black shining shoes. I couldn't hear what did the boy say and what the gentleman replied but after sometime the man started his Honda City and went off. The rich looking person turned out to be a poor one at the heart. In the distance a marriage procession was coming. The members of the procession danced to the tune of the trumpet. Some of them were simply jumping, some tried to push others while others surrounded the bride. The entire procession had a rhythm. It seemed as if a big python surged to the tune of the music.,
The beggar boy's attention was taken away by the music. I saw his legs jiving. I never had an idea that an empty stomach could dance too. His hands might not have performed their duty to earn food but legs would be party to fun. And what a dance it was! The boys legs went from one side to the other as smoothly as would dodge me to think he was slipping on ice. Whenever the note of the music changed he would jump and cross his legs and now he would dance with crossed legs. Though the procession was still at a distance but ecstasy in his eyes knew no bounds, the notes of music floated in air and vibrated our ear drums. He leaned forth and back and jumped in a loop at intervals. I had seen dance reality shows like YOU THINK YOU CAN DANCE where dancers trained by choreographers would set the stage on fire but this dance was quite untrained, uncut, unedited and natural. This was the dance of hunger. This was the dance of destiny. Cruel destiny.
I had heard politicians orate, “Hungry stomachs don't read, don't sleep, don't enjoy.” But lo! I was watching a hungry beggar dance and that too dance so spontaneously. Not a note missed, not a tune passed without being infused in the steps of the dance. Every part of his body quivered as if it were one of the seven notes of music. They vibrated like the chords of a guitar do when a maestro plays on it1.
But I could easily feel that the little beggar was quite out of tune with his destiny. He danced one way and his destiny, the other way.
I held a pity fot the beggar boy deep inside my heart. And more so because the elite man hadn't given him a single pie. The boy was very near my car. I slid down the window glass and screamed, “Hey you listen,take this coin.” But the boy had no time to listen to me. Procession was approaching nearer and his rhythm and joy were accelerating every single moment. The members of the procession danced, frolicked ans sang and shouted as the procession made its way through the highway. I saw one member slapping the beggar boy and pushing him aside. The little boy fell down but again got up and continued dancing with the same inertia.
I was awe struck. I again screamed and stretched my hand outside to give him the coin but he did not hear my words as they got lost in the hue and cry of the procession. Meanwhile my sister had slipped inside and ordered the driver to start. The car started with a jerk and we raced past the beggar. Our car moved away. In the distance, the marriage procession was gradually disappearing from the sight. The sun was preparing to set. The reddish lights of the dusk had turned the distant figures into mere shadows. When I looked back from the rear glass of my car, the shadow of a little, poor beggar boy appeared dancing, though with stooping legs.
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