The Kathak Dancer
by Sunita Fernandes
in all my life i have never travelled the length and breadth of time and space. the learned men say it is too vast, so bear with me while i tell my tale. you can go with me if you wish, to where my mind and soul have travelled. i carried with me nothing but my free spirit for a staff to give me strength, rough-hewn from my memories my joys and my pain.
my religion is spirituality, my song a tuneless hum in my head, that i wake up with every morning. the lyrics painted in a splash of color, blues and greens of the waters and the forests and bright orange snatched sneakily from the sunset when the sun wasn't looking.
tread carefully upon every step i take, and i promise beauty in everything you behold, because life is precious and endearing, like a child - faltering, curious but enraptured in wonderment. for hours playing with its hands and cooing quietly to itself the mysteries known only to the angels as they whisper in delight to each other.
no, i cannot travel for you, instead you have to go along with me. that's the only way. and the path, though narrow most times, ends in a burst of starlight and scented air. breathe deeply fellow traveller, the air might not last for an eternity. nor will the starlight. so gaze till you see them under your eyelids when you close your eyes. stitch the feeling in tight.
long ago i used to dream now i dream no more. the memories keep me going over hill and across streams and under cool mango groves, where i sit and watch the water gurgle past in merriment. swirling in playful flirtation over slippery rocks, telling me the stories of where it's been and that we too one day should join the sea or the earth. so live on.
i am too wild to be tamed, too passionate to be predictable. too beautiful to be translated and defined in words that do not sketch my picture in technicolor. i am the kathak dancer, with jingles on my feet so that i can dance to any music that i want anywhere i go. if you want to live my life and i, live yours, dance with me for now and for all time.
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