Day 49: Dance Like Someone's Watching

My dad is brutally honest. And hence my worst (or best, whichever way you wanna look at it) critic. When I was seven I tried singing "Sa-re-ga..", the Indian version of "Do-re-mi..." and some simple songs and he said that singing is well... super stretched for me. He said that I would be better off doing something I am good at. Fair point it was. It helped me not be one of those numerous kids who screech their throats away at public functions, much to the delight of their parents but to the sheer agony of the rest of the audience.

But my father was not a discouraging person at all. In fact he was very very encouraging when I did something he believed was a worthwhile pursuit for me. Guitar, the reverse writing, drawing and painting etc. were very much encouraged by him. He has taken great efforts to find me opportunities in these areas. Just that he has preferences... he liked me doing some things and not others.

One of the things that I loved to do but he didn't particularly care about was dance. I am trained in Indian classical forms Bharatnatyam and Mohiniyattom and have performed at various venues in India. My mom was my partner in crime for those and my dad is usually never to be found during my dance performances. Even if he did catch a glimpse of any, he didn't really comment on them for reasons best known to him.

I danced for 9 years in India, then gave it up for 4-5 years, retook it in Singapore for another 3-4 years. And my dad was indifferent all those years.

But during my wedding Sangeet function three years ago, I gave a short dance performance and for the first time ever, he told me that he liked my performance. You can imagine how I would have felt that day.

But today was even more special. Today, my dad, for the first time ever, asked me whether I could do a dance performance at my cousin's upcoming wedding. He actually wants me to dance. You can imagine how I feel about that today.

951 more to go.