Dance!
Dance! Just let go! Move those feet; throw those hands in the air! Make it your day. A day when the world is your stage and you are the main performer. Be happy and let go of your worries. Move. Dance…
Many a time, I am met with wild stares of disbelief and shock when I break into a jig. Those are times when I feel happy, when I feel free of all bonds of this world. They are the times when I don’t feel obliged to anyone. I see the faces that glare at me, that watch me as if I am a misfit, like I am insane. ‘Why?’ I wonder as I see those white faces. At times I see a smile, but it is more of a smirk, telling me that I am being stupid and crazy, and that I should immediately stop the nonsense that is violating their norms, that of a civil life. People don’t start dancing at any place at any time, all that is only for the films, for our larger than life movies. Only the heroes and heroines, the highly paid actors are granted the license to be free about their pelvic movements in public. I am made to feel an outcast, a lunatic. I fear they will mock me and I get scared they will ostracize me. I stop; I am forced into submitting that I am being abnormal, crazy. Deep inside, I cry. I want to dance, I want to be happy. I want everyone to know and I don’t want anyone to know. I plead with them, the proper, civil people of the world, let me dance. Let me be happy and let the joy spill forth. I see their eyes, their cold eyes, the ice. No, I will not be understood. As I make my way amidst this cold world, I slowly pity them. They will never dance. Not when they are happy, but only when they are obliged to dance. At a party, a function. At the behest of a disk jockey, who will force them into a false realm of happiness. But definitely not when they themselves are happy.
‘Why’ I wonder. I always keep wondering, but I never get a proper answer to this query of mine. Why can’t the people of the world show their love and happiness to others around them? Why has joy become a private emotion? Why have we stopped sharing the small and simple joys that grow within us, for whatever reason? So many questions and no answers. You may wonder now, what a silly thing to wonder about. We must wonder about the wonders that make this world go around. We must wonder about other ‘important’ things, issues that affect our life. About the government, the education, infrastructure, our future. Why waste our time wondering about joy? What is joy and gaiety? Ah! These are useless things, they are wasting our precious time! Away with them, they will be dealt with when the world is a better place…
What makes this world a better place? More money? More power? Better education? A good job? What will make you happy, give you joy? More questions. Even they will remain unanswered. Because they are useless, without any purpose. They are frivolous, a child’s worthless questions to a big world. “Do not talk like a moral person.” These words will admonish these simply questions. “Of course, money equates to happiness and joy. When you get a better job, you will be able to treat yourself to a better life.” The world will tell me that doubting the materialistic joys is childish, for they make our life fruitful. What is this life if you don’t have any ambition? Ambition gives you opportunity to better your life, to make it joyful and happy. Without ambition, all life is lost.
Julius Caesar was assassinated because he was ‘ambitious’. No doubt, those days are gone. Today, ambition glints in everybody’s eyes. Every other individual will want that much more from life, will want to make it better. And then I wonder, again, what is better? The world scolds me once more, “You dare to be satisfied with a mediocre life? You have no ambitions of a better life? You are a failure! Be gone!” And I am left all alone again, sad. I don’t feel like dancing any more. I had many ambitions, but I never forgot about the only life I had. I attempted to live it first and then win over my ambitions. I too want a ‘better life’. And yet I wonder, what it means. The chase for a better life has made me forget to dance. And I feel all my other ambitious friends may have also forgotten that they can dance.
Let us all sit and think a bit. Let us all rest a while and give our famished minds and hearts some respite. Let us become calm and remember when was the last time we danced just because we felt like.
Listen to your heart again. Let him guide you the next time along the small joy that it has experienced. Let it hold your hand and stop you from exhausting yourself. Heed it when it tells you that you have achieved something, however small it might be. Then, you will feel a tingle in your sole; and maybe even in your soul. You will know what to do then. Your heart will be your guide then, your teacher. It will tell you the steps. It will provide the music. It will show you a willing audience and it will leave you alone in a calming peace. Surely, you have got the hint what you must do now. No? Still listening to the brain and not the heart? Give your brain some much-needed rest, it will appreciate it. Listen to your heart, which has been dormant for so long. Yes, you hear it now. The music, the words, the peace. Now, let go. Move those feet; throw those hands in the air! Groove, shake. Dance!
