“Hello Amit, kaise yaad kiya?”
“Rahul, get ready for ratri after navratri. I am coming.”
“ I am not willing to go yaar.”
“No..no.. you have to come definitely.”
“Chal dekhta hoon”
“ No..No..dekhta hoon nahi, you have to ...that’s why i have called you. Otherwise i had sent you a message just for formality.”
( I chuckled.... i know Amit you have free messages. Anyways thanks for your calling- this kind of thought came to my mind)
“ ok bhai, come. Will go with you.”
I reached polo club ground at nearly 9:15 in the night. Enough crowd of L&T employees and their families enjoying the night was present there. 8 to 10 people as a team standing on a stage were singing the Garba songs which being in Gujrati language were not able to evoke me that sensation which Gujratis might have felt. Half the crowd with bare footed was dancing on the green grass ground and the rest were watching their dance. Also, i along with my friends joined the audience but few minutes later i felt myself alone since all my friends had joined the dancing crowd.
I felt bored after 10 to 15 minutes in spite of beauty being all around. I was loath for standing there. My reluctance changed to willingness as soon as she appeared in the dancing crowd. Entire ambience had changed. Her glimpse swallowed all my boredom and made me feel enthusiastic and energetic. My heart beat increased and blood started circulating in the same ratio. My arteries and veins could feel the pressure and blood flow which was higher than normal. Now the same songs and music had ample appeal to cause my body to flow in the current of music. The green-grass-ground appeared as much attractive as it should have been to have the privilege for having touch of her gentle feet. My legs were craving to move with music beats and my heart was urging to my mind “ c’mon Rahul, let’s join the dancing crowd.”
I came back out of the standing crowd and put off my sandals in the side of a tree where some other shoes and chappals were also lying. My bare feet marched excitedly towards the dancing-people-circle but hovered there at its periphery where other people like me in one way- I mean posture but entirely different in another way, where I could hear the unuttered words-‘what a beautiful night!’- reflecting through their eyes but my utterless urge was that night was beautiful and grandeur because of her, were also standing along me enjoying the rapturous event.
I started looking at the people’s dancing style in order to grasp those steps they were performing repeatedly. In Garba dance you have to be in the harmony with the other dancing people with their forward-backward steps movement along with their moving arms and turn 360 degree about your heals and move along the periphery of the circle. To participate in this dance one should be wearing ‘kurta’ but I was in half sleeve white shirt and jeans which were differentiating me with some others in my kind of apparels from kurta wearing people. ‘but who cares for dress. Let me enter the dancing crowd’, I was still contemplating, meanwhile, that elated effulgent face was again in front of my eyes after completing one round. She was wearing in pink –lilac lehenga choli and a light blue chunri with design in white print on it. A perforated belt in silver, wrapped over one end of chunri covering her belly, was shining around her waist. One end of chunri was hanging upto her knees and other was touching her back passing over her right shoulder. Three bangles in water green and black mix colour around each of her fair wrist and small size jhumki made in gold with diamond like crystals were glittering hanging in her ear lobs. Her shoulder long open hair, springing harmonically as she was dancing, were clearly expressing her ecstatic state. Above all, her beautiful smile was increasing my heart beat. My juvenile virgin heart eager to bid her three magical English words became restless and was trying to conquer my mind. But my mind being mature enough against juvenile heart controlled my feelings. I, again, discriminated my heart by suppressing its feelings…….
Finally i jumped into the ring of dancing crowd and reached my friends or rather, more precisely, I should say colleagues since we were there because of our profession. Amit tried to this naïve those garba steps but this tenderfoot could not imitate in that short period of time. My eyes were stuck at her wishing night were endless and those beautiful moments were being carved on my few byte-memory-disc.
