Dance of Contentment

Life is not only about to seek pleasure in the awaited expected outcomes but also about to wonder the surprising elements. Experiences of unexpected events could be counted as good or bad or neutral ones, but they do not leave without showing those colours which otherwise remain invisible. For me, travelling is meant to increase the probability to feel this dimension, of surprising elements, of life.

I had one of such random experiences when I unintentionally reached around Foy Sagar, an artificial lake which though looks natural due to Aravali hills all around, while exploring the areas around the Pushkar of district Ajmer, Rajasthan. I landed there in the middle of penetrating sunlight of the summer of April. The moment I reached the edge of the lake, there was only one person, involved in capturing the moments with his mobile camera, who later introduced himself as Jo Youngmoon (alias Moon) from South Korea. I did take some snaps of the lake, and of the objects around it. I had a pleasant conversation with Moon and by his self-timer mobile camera got some clicks with him.

While observing the area from one of the edges of the lake, we noticed a group of children were swimming on the other side of the lake to beat the heat of April. Soon after, we saw them crossing the lake and coming towards us. When they came out of the water, their bodies were shivering. Knowing that the water was relatively at a lower temperature, I was regretful for not being a swimmer. First, we all had a general introduction with each other. They met with both of us as if we all were familiar faces. They all were extrovert and very friendly. Their accent clearly indicated that they were locals from the surrounding villages.

Unexpectedly, while we all were having a delightful conversation, one of the young boys started to play a loud music on his mobile phone, sounded like a local Rajasthani song with heavy beats, which brought our conversation to an end. The spontaneous reaction of some other children was to shake their bodies on the beats. It was not any specific form of dance. Everybody had their own random steps. Some moved their whole bodies, while others did move only hands or legs. Although none of them was in coordination with any other, but at the individual level, everybody’s steps appeared to be in sync with that loud musical beats. It was an erratic but gleeful and humorous dance. The radiating joyous energy invited the Korean friend to join them. The body movements, including that of the Korean friend, described that although none had any formal training in dance, but everyone was fully involved in that moment. Once the dance was over, I appreciated them for their humorous dance.

After the dance and the music, one of the boys spotted the cylindrical didgeridoo bag on my back, and they all got curious to know what was inside. I got the didgeridoo out of the bag, unfolded it, and before passing the instrument to them I placed the mouthpiece, for a few seconds, on my right eye to make them believe that it was a telescope. One by one, they all looked inside the didge and everybody responded as if they did visualise something extraordinary. Later, when I demonstrated the actual use of the instrument, many of them responded back by dancing again. After me, they also tried their luck to blow the air from it to create many funny sounds.

The overall experience with the local children of that area represented that travelling opens the senses to perceive what we ignore otherwise. Their thoughtless, yet gleeful, dance created a moment which made me remind that like attracts like and that sometimes we do not need to search any reason to be content.