"............Bollywood, Ballet, Kathak, Pilates, Trap, Boogie-woogie, Rumba, Zumba, Samba, Salsa, Flamenco, Contemporary, Folk, hip-hop, Disco, Electro, Hard, Tap, Free style. Which dance style would you like to go for?" the man with a tonsured head in the admission room of Stepz dance studio bobbed his head enthusiastically and completed his sentence.
Meghna head started to whirl around, listening to the list of dance styles. She reached for the glass that was kept in front of her and gulped the water in a hurry.
"Are these really dance styles" she asked incredulously.
"Of course. We have separate serious enthusiast trainers for each dance styles." He stressed on the word Serious.
"Out of the huge list you recited, just one dance style went into my mind"
"Was it free style?" the proprietor asked with an apprehension.
Meghna wanted to say yes, but she was worried whether he might recite the entire list from the beginning again. He took her silence as yes and opened his pedestal to take a brochure.
“Here is the list of dance styles. You can choose the one you like." the proprietor said pointing to the brochure.
God, please help me to find out the dance style that Karthick has enrolled. Can I go with trial and error method or pinky pinky ponky style?
"May I help you with selection?" the proprietor interrupted her thoughts.
"Could you please help me out in pointing out the one, which Kar....." before should could complete the name Karthick, her mind alarmed and brought her sense back.
"We do have..Kar..Kar… Karakattam.." The proprietor got excited and pointed out the fees details.
Meghana jaw got dropped with his answer. For sure Meghna knows that Karthick would have not enrolled for the ancient folk dance Karakattam. For the kind of style and attitude that Karthick possess, he must be into something like Salsa or Hip-hop.
"I need some time to decide upon the dance style. Most of the dance styles, I am hearing it for the first time" Meghna replied after a long pause.
The proprietor advised her to have a look or have a demo at all the different styles of dance classes and analyze her interest. This uplifted her energy. Her plan was to walk around all the dance class and find the one that Karthick has enrolled. On observing the positive move, the proprietor gave her the application form to fill in all the details leaving the Dance style field column blank.
There came another shock. There was another field in the application form that stated Batch timings.
"You have different batch timings as well?"
"Of course. Students flexibility is our primary goal. We have morning 3 batches, evening 3 batches and 2 week end batches. Sounds so cool...right?" He replied with a grin.
Her mind rapidly processed few bad words to complement him for the different batch timings he was offering, but swallowed them instantly.
"I actually need lot to time to decide upon this. Will get back to you in a week" She got up from the chair and left the stepz dance studio.
"This is my 4th coffee" Shiva replied with a bogus irritation.
Meghna shifted her gaze from the entrance of the Stepz dance studio to his eyes and replied, "Still many more to go...."
"I really feel embarrassed. Hiding behind an oak tree from morning 6.00 and scanning for a man does not make any sense at-least to me."
"You are doing it for your friend. In return, if a son is born for Karthick and me, will name the child Shiva" she winked.
"Not needed." Shiva cupped his palm and started playing games in his mobile.
"Hey, concentrate on the entrance. What if I miss him?"
"Are you really gone mad"
"Kind of..Mad on Karthick" She blushed.
"Ufff...I have not seen him at all. Then how could I identify him even if he comes in front of me"
"Oh, you have a point. Wait" She took a mobile out from the pocket and showed his photo.
"This is the guy, look out for him now" She replied and observed Shiva still frozen on the fact of having his picture on his mobile.
"While scrutinizing his profile, I just downloaded few of his photos and copied to my mobile" she replied with a sheepish smile.
"Gosh!!!" He slapped his forehead and smiled broadly at her actions. “Hey what if, He was on leave today or he was into week end batch class.” Shiva shared his scary thoughts and concern.
"We have to again wait for another day" She replied without taking her eyes from the enterance.
After sometime, she groaned a bit as her legs ached and sat down beside the tree, with her eyes still glued on the entrance.
"I love this dance studio.. Lots of pretty girls around" Shiva replied looking at few girls.
"Then fall in love with a girl, join the dance class along with me and help for my love. I will help for yours. Mutual benefit." She replied without giving a second thought.
"Hmm..I don’t want to get into this love trap." He said firmly.
"Shiva, can I ask you something" She went on to serious note.
"Go on"
"What will you do or how will you react, when a girl is following you like me."
He was astonished with her questions.
"No, I just want to understand men's perspective"
"It again depends on a particular individual Meghna. If I am not in relationship and if I like the girl as well, I may accept her love. If I am in a relationship, I will make her understand that and will avoid in order not to encourage further"
"What if Karthick was in a relationship? What if he doesn’t like me? There are so many ifs...How am I blindly believing it’s going to work out?” Her eye lashes turned wet.
"Come on, Meghana. Don’t over think a situation after you took a step. Go on, let’s see, what’s waiting for you...Above all, you like him. There is nothing wrong in letting him realize your love. If he does not accept, move on. You have millions of guys out there."
She pushed him back and started walking towards the other side.
"Meghana,...stop.. Did I say something wrong? "
"I really can’t move on Shiva. Do you think, it’s easy to move on or love another person, when you intensively love a person? I cant.."
"I didn’t mean to hurt you. If it’s a positive ending, I would be the first person to feel happy. But.."
She cupped his mouth with his palm and said, Let’s not look at the negative side please...
He was about to nod in acceptance, but she immediately dragged his hand to hide behind the tree.
"What.." He asked in surprise.
"Shhhhhh.." she hushed and pointed to a bike at the parking area. "That's him Karthick"
"How do you say? He is with the helmet"
"I know his height and body features above all, my inner voice says…" Shiva unable to believe her words, focused his eyes carefully and waited for him to remove the helmet.
He parked his bike and removed the helmet and it was him.. Karthick!!!.
Shiva looked at her, still not able to believe her guess and inner voice that got right.
"So, its 8 to 11AM batch" She said looking at the watch and excitement in eyes. She requested Shiva to follow him to find the dance style he has enrolled for. He followed him and came out of the dance studio after an hour.
"He is into Salsa Class..." On hearing this, Meghna felt the entire surroundings went on mute and she listened to the sound of her heart beat that tuned to the music of love.
To be continued...
