Rediscovering Old passions!

Last Friday, I joined Dance classes- after a gap of 16 years, I’m coercing my feet to dance to the beat of the “Nattuvangam”- the rhythmic recitation of the dance steps .Tho my feet did find it difficult to keep pace at first, they soon found wings- and the Happiness, the Thrill, the ecstasy that I felt cannot be expressed in words. My feet was in agony for the first two days, but I was too happy to care.

This is how it came about:
Last Sunday, I was watching a programme on T.V- a Classical Dance Competition- the judge was from Trichy- and on an impulse I googled her name on the net- got her address and phone number, spoke to her, met her and she asked me to come on the coming Friday. She is much younger than me- and I guess I must be one of her oldest students. :-)

Her dance school is far from where I live- I’ve to reach there by 2 buses. On the first day, my elder son accompanied me until the 2nd bus stand- and would not leave until the bus left the stand. He is so worried if I’ll be able to go on my own and has been drawing maps and trying to teach me which bus to board, which direction to wait for the bus.

Just the prev week I had come across an article posted by a friend regarding discovering guidelines to identify one’s passion, and I found out mine- I knew it always but just reconfirmed it.
If anyone is interested, these are the questions:

How Do You Know When You've Found your Passion?
If you answer yes to most of these questions, you've found an activity you love. When you pursue what you are passionate about, your spirit is energized and renewed.

Do you lose track of time doing this activity?

Do you get excited just thinking about it?

Do you feel energized by it?

Do you dream about it?

Do you lose self-consciousness doing it?

Do you perform beyond your usual abilities when engaged in it?

Has your enthusiasm remained high over a period of time?

Do you seek out people who share this interest?

And also saw a movie on T.V on somewhat similar lines!

Shall we dance-

starring Richard Gere, Jennifer Lopez, Susan Sarandon.

Richard is happily married to Susan- has 2 grown up kids- life is pretty smooth, except that Richard feels a vague discontent- every day as he came home from work in a tram, he would notice a window on a building- a Dance school- and the silhouette of a young woman in the window- one evening on an impulse he gets down- goes up into the building and enrolls for dance classes- his tutor is an older woman- needless to say he’s disappointed that its not the young woman- Jen Lopez who is teaching him- after initial awkwardness, he begins to enjoy his classes a lot- he becomes more lively at home too- and his wife is surprised- she wonders if he’s having some affair and after much deliberation appoints a detective to trail her husband.

Meanwhile Richard tries to talk to Jen Lopez- but she stays aloof- and tells him not to come back for classes if he has not joined for the passion of dance- Richard almost stops his classes, but at the last moment he realizes he has come to love dancing- and Jen Lopez is also happy- a special bonding evolves between the two and she teaches him specially for a competition-
Meanwhile Susan is informed abt her husbands dance classes and she comes to see him perform at the competition with her daughter. Mother and daughter are amazed at his graceful dancing and the daughter cheers him loudly – Richard is distracted and fumbles- causing his dance partner to fall- and it ends up a total fiasco.

Susan is hurt that Richard had not told her abt his classes and Richard does not know what to say- he stops going to the classes-
Meanwhile, Jen Lopez is going abroad to study more dancing- and she writes to Richard saying that he danced really well- and she thanks him for helping her realize that it was Dance that she wanted to excel in- she shares with him her sad experience of the previous year where she and her partner had failed miserably in an International competition- and she had been so ashamed that she was hiding in this obscure dance school- now with Richard’s help, she realized that she wanted to go back to Dance- would he please come to the farewell party to dance just once more with her?

Richard shows the letter to Susan- and tells her he wont be going for the party- he also summons the courage to tell her, that he was so grateful to Susan for being so completely happy and satisfied with him- and he was afraid and ashamed to tell her- the person whom he loved the most, that there was a vague discontent within him- Susan understands- and next morning she leaves a tuxedo and dancing shoes for him and asks him to go and enjoy at the party.
Richard wears the tuxedo, shoes , gets a single red rose, goes to the place where Susan is working , gives her a rose and asks her to dance with him- Susan is overwhelmed- and they dance right there .
Later, they both go to the farewell party- where Lopez was waiting with the other dancer friends- Richard and Jen Lopez and dance together-
And they say their Goodbyes-
At home Richard begins to teach Susan to dance- and they love it-
In the closing scene we find the detective whom Susan had employed joining the dance classes!