ये अक्षत हैवानियत कब तक?

वो एक अन्जानिस्तान की रात थी

चन्द्रमा डोल रहा था दांये बांये 

आकाश की कालविनाशक चादर ओढ़े 

औंधे मुंह लटक रहा था त्रिशंकु सा

चेहरे में सूरज तप रहा था
बांयी आँख के नीचे नीला हाथी
पास में पड़े दो चार टूटे तारे
एकदम लाल रंग में टिमटिमा रहे थे

सागर का सारा नमक चेहरे पर था
धरती का सारा मैलापन बरस रहा था
हैवानियत का अट्टहास था दांये बांये
वो एक दर्दिस्तान की रात थी

- नीरज मठपाल

फरवरी ८, २०१२

Me and Salsa?–(II) Day 1

From the title itself, you would have understood that I made to this class, and as they say, rest is the history. Indeed literally and figuratively, it is the history now.

I was nervous in daytime. I had not shaved for good 10-12 days. Although a shave is really due this weekend, but not today. But this class made me shave. It is like a child joining a new school, and should look good on the very first day. I was looking at the watch every hour initially, and as it approached 6 PM EST, I started looking at it every 5-10 minutes. I had more water than the normal, so went to washroom more times than the normal. All this because I had made up my mind that the salsa class might not see the sun light today, but it will see me.

The first day, when you think you should be in time. The first day, when you think where will you sit or stand. The first day, when it all starts. So on that first day, I dressed in my blue jeans, and white polo round neck t-shirt. Shoes were a question (?), but as I had seen people dancing in movies and at mango tropical, I knew formal shoes are a better bet for salsa. The place is just five minutes drive from my place, right next to Firehouse Sub and Dunkin Donets. I started at 5-45, and reached there at 5-50. The instructor was waiting, I had signed up online, so they gave me a yellow paper band to put it in my right hand. It was like a ticket for the class. I was still nervous and was smiling continuously for obvious reasons. There were some old ladies in their 40s and 50s, and men who were bald, they must also be in their 40s or 50s.

The clock hit 6, and the lady instructor started giving some instructions on mike. I looked around and found that there are some 20-21 people, males and females in equal number. One girl, may be 18 or 19, one boy, around 20, must be her boy friend, one Indian guy, must be of almost my age, and the other oldies. One person looked like mentally retarded, with her mother giving him company. I saluted to dance, as I felt people of all kind are into it to forget their sorrows, and enjoy the greatest gift of God – The LIFE.

Ok, so the class started. Instructor performed some steps for the warm up, and then the party began. We learned few forward (1,2,3) and backward (5,6,7) steps. Then we performed same in pairs. Rotation was the policy for pairing, so basically you have to do one or two rounds of these steps with each lady out there (and vice versa for ladies, i.e., with each gentleman). Then came the second step, which involved changing hands, and then a round about 360 degree turn, and then finally a combination of all these. All in all, it didn’t feel like one hour has passed. Time progressed pretty fast.

Enough about the class. What about me stading there, going forward and backward? Honestly, I felt out of place, and felt really like a big big beginner. Thought why am I here. The Bollywood / Barat dance is a much better form of dance. But then, realized that this dance form (salsa) is meant for couples, and it would be good to learn as I’m a married man now. It would be fun, though not today.  No wonder, I missed her.

Tomorrow morning, there is a ‘Zumba’ (another dance form) class, but for sure I’ll give it a pass. Salsa for beginners is good enough for me for now, so next class is on Monday. I think now that I’ll be able to make all 6 salsa classes, and that is not going to be enough. I have understood that it is very hard to learn dance, your God gifted natural moves will always remain your life savers.  Anyway, let’s see how it goes. I’ve to go to kitchen and cook something, something. Happy Dancing.

- Neeraj Mathpal
Oct 1, 2011

Me and SALSA? – (I) Introduction

 ‘Me’ and ‘Salsa’ – these two quite don’t go with each other. But what happened which might lead to this untouched territory, and a not so much interesting combination? Let’s see how this tale starts.

In my childhood days, I was not into songs, music, dance, not any co-curricular activities related to these. Of course, there was no natural talent for this, and no interest. Talent is still not there, but interest started in teen years, and most of it is a gift from hostel days. Almost everybody listens to loud  music in hostels, almost everybody dances without any reason. Generally, the dance style is only of one category - ‘BARAT’ dance’. A relative is getting married, a friend’s relative is getting married, a new puppy born in the hostel, a friend’s birthday, a friend is not so well, a friend is in love, a friend just had break-up, there is always a dance to follow. Basically, you don’t need any reasons to perform this variety of dance. And not to forget, if you are drunk, you are going to witness some of the most inventive dance steps, never shown on big screen in Bollywood. 

There are times when we all feel shy to dance. There are times when we all feel it is time to forget everything and just dance, and enjoy. There are people who appreciate your inexplicable dance steps, there are people who laugh at your crazy dance steps, there are people who get inspiration from you and join you in dancing. But other than with this Barat group of friends, it becomes tough to show your true steps with full enjoyment. In those tough times, it can help if you know some good steps. The good steps are a must when you have equally (or more) enthusiastic girl friend or wife.  Then there are other external factors, which put you under pressure. One of the big external factors is the television. Numerous television programs such as Nach Baliye, Dance India Dance, Jhalak Dikhla Ja, Just Dance show that there are so many talented people in our country. Cinema always have had positive impacts on our dancing skills, but these shows have taken it to the next level. In simple terms, Bollywood / Barat dance in not enough!    

Some 6 years back, I saw people started to go to Salsa classes in Bangalore. Especially the people like us, the IT men. They had different reasons to pursue for it. Some of these are -

1. Starting a new hobby. Good to have hobbies.

2. It will mean you are doing some exercise. Good for the belly.

3. You are far away from home, not with many friends. Good way to kill time in weekends.

4. You are a bachelor and have no girl friend. Good place to find one.

5. You would never get a chance to dance with girls. Good place to dance with girls, you don’t even know.

6. You have a girl friend, and she put you under pressure to learn Salsa. NO Good. Helpless. 

7. You want to impress your friends in next Barat. NO Good. Salsa steps won’t help you in Barat. Your natural moves will. 

Most of these folks don’t make it to classes after first day, some after first month, and rest learnt but never really show cased it. Another story of some average time pass with no real output. Now after six years, I’m also on the verge of trying it. What happened? What are my own reasons? Let’s figure out.

1. I like dancing, and watch dance shows on television / laptop (not every episode, but at least the good ones). It feels good to see people dancing, and good to know about different dance forms.

2. Lucky, my wife, also likes dancing, so that added to the weight. In fact we gathered information about salsa classes last year in our area, but it never materialized.

3. There is a nice restaurent / pub in Miami named "Mango Tropical" where professional dancers perform latin american dances with the tunes of Maxican / Spanish music, they look nice. In fact few scenes in one of the songs of movie "Dostana" were filmed there (Priyanka Chopra danced in same place). We've been there 4-5 times and had great time. But when it came to dance, we showed our Barat steps, and always thought what if we would have known Salsa.

4. Thought of giving Lucky a surprise by enrolling for both of us, once she is back from India for some 4 to 8 classes. But I can’t keep surprise a surprise. It also has not materialized, but there’s a chance it will based on success of next point.

5. I got an online deal today – $10 for 10 days for unlimited classes starting from today. It’s like 90% cheaper than the normal rate. I checked the schedule and found that there are 6 Salsa beginner classes in these 10 days. Only thing lacking was the inspiration, so called Lucky and get truck load of that inspiration thing. Deal is grabbed. 

So these are my not so different reasons. It will be a test for the “Casa Salsa” classes to teach me some of the classy steps. It will be a test for me also to “show up” in time for the classes. At this moment, I do not know if I’d be able to make up my mind to go out of home and head into the dancing direction. If everything goes well, who knows, once Lucky is back, we might enroll for some regular classes.

Let’s see “Me and Salsa?” series sees the day 1 chapter or not. I shall know in 5 hours from now and you will in 8 hours.

- Neeraj Mathpal
October 1, 2011

Blah Blah – I

As the time tells me from the right bottom that it is 9:24 PM on Sep 24th, I feel a lot of time is passed. In a golden way, I might say that lots of water has flown through the great river Ganga, though can’t comment about it in cubic terms. The life is going on slowly, nicely. So what’s the difference? Well, one, a big one, is first time in life after my marriage, I’m here in Florida, and my wife is there in India. What else? Nothing, everything else is same, but boy, that is a big difference. Once you are married, you get into habit of living life in a different way, a nicer way, at least for me, when you are miles away from your country.

So today, I just thought of writing a tidbit, rather than talking about a place, a happy moment, or anything in general. This came right from the heart without using any brains. Well, went to watch a real life story ‘Moneyball’. A nice movie indeed. Not a typical sports movie, where the story ends with a triumph of player or team or game against all odds. It was about management, a very effective one.

With my career spanning for a period of more than seven years now, I learnt a management lesson, which was very much visible in the movie also. If you have to decide about something, in fact anything, almost always research and analysis scores over instincts. Experience counts, but that also is, in a way, a different form of research and analysis. With time, brain has done the research, and that experience might result into instinctive decisions. But again the rule is experience counts only in your area of expertise, and for all others it is about doing research and analysis. Yes, the planning is very important as it can lead to desirables results more often than not. Genius minds are not that much into the process, but still process can help them to achieve more out of their brains.

All this is known well and applied well by many great men in the history of human. For now, I want to cut it short rather than writing a management lesson which is published in great details by thousands of men. There is only one sentence, which is knocking my head every alternate second, as of now. This is not entirely related to what I've put above, but I can't help if it is knocking at the door. Knock knock, who are you? Ae, you don't know me. You are an inglorious...  forget it, here it goes:

“Beneath the rule of men entirely great, the pen is mightier than the sword”.

- Neeraj Mathpal
September 29, 2011