Dance.. My craze for life !

Dance. The topic is so vast that I am confused as to where exactly do I start from.. And once I commence, where do I conclude? Seems like dance is as vast as time immortal.

OK.. Like all good text book authors, let me begin with a definition. In its simplest sense, Dance implies movement of the body parts in synchronization with music. If one can do this, one can claim to know dance. But thankfully, dance is much bigger an art than this basic definition. Over civilizations, dance has evolved, improved and improvised from one generation to another, one culture to another, one theme to another, one style to another and ultimately one form to another.

Primitive dances originated in the form of feelings, emotions and messages being expressed in the form of facial expressions and accompanying body movement patterns. This is very evident in Indian dances like Bharatnatyam and Kathakalli where in there are dance steps to demonstrate expressions of mankind such as Bhayam (fear), Rudram (anger), Haasyam (smile) and many others. In Yakshagana, we have entire epics and mythologies being narrated and expressed through dance. Kathak and Contemporary, the Indian dance forms with the most demand worldwide, are also complete dance forms which bring out opportunities to exhibit expressions as well as style and grace.

Western dances rely more on style than expressions. Latin American dances rule the world, because of the grace they bring along in their gentle hip and leg movements. This grace charms the members of the fairer sex, who get driven to frenzy when their male counterparts lead them on the dance floor. The thrills and energy levels are very high in such couple dances as Jive, Salsa, Cha-cha-cha and the likes. Although all these couple dances look very similar to an uneducated eye, they vary in their very basic styles. Each one carries with it a unique challenge, which can take up to a lifetime to master. An expert may make them look easy, but trust me, dances which demand co-ordination from both the partners are far more challenging than any heroic solo dances. An attitude comprising of humbleness and gentleness is the one that a person needs to carry along before, during and after any Latin couple dance. Hand in hand, tip-toeing, and a lovely eye-lock with your engrossed soul-mate can create the ideal romantic atmosphere for a dream date.

Western Solo dances need a slightly different attitude and body language as they convey aggression, passion and style - "I am the best", "I am unbeatable", "I rock", "You can't beat me on this","Do you have it in you", "Nothing is impossible", these are some of the messages which the dance should put across. Surprised? Well, you shouldn't be. Dances like hip hop, break and freestyle originated in the inner streets of New York and Bronx, where street gangs would compete among themselves to outperform each other. These dances evolved from a mere hip shaking art and went on to include other body movement forms such as acrobatics and martial arts. Hence these dances have inbuilt aggression. Yet, this attitude needs to reflect along with grace. Dances like Rumba(a Mexican art), Light Funk, and Samba can electrify anyone involved in it, where as something like Belly Dancing can make one whistle in awe.

I am done with art of dance, so now let me come to the science of dance. Dance can be a great stress reliever. It's has got everything one can ask for - an art to learn, a talent to possess, a form of exercise to regenerate blood circulation and to maintain and improve flexibility, an innovative challenge - if you choose to take up choreography and mainly a positive radiant energy. By positive radiant energy, I mean the 'Happy Hormones' - a feel good factor, an smiling face, a spring in the step, higher pulse rate and a rhythm in everything one does. Now you have got a more cheerful way of burning your extra calories and releasing your unwanted physical and mental energy, thereby depriving yourself the scope of harbouring negative thought cycles leading to frustration, irritation, anger, boredom and fatigue. After all, once you are into dance, where's the time for all these?.

Dance comes with no age bar and the statement 'It's too late to begin now' is nothing but how good a myth can get. No dance is superior or inferior - it's what you like that goes best for you. They say 'Think before you leap', but for dance I would recommend "Don't think twice.. The world is your stage". All it needs is a willingness to learn the art, the time to practice it and the privilege to reap its wonderful benefits.

Sunnyboy.

Unemployment breeds Unemployment..

The genius of a man that he is, he got it 100% right when he said that Indian youth should aim for self employment in future. Our honorary president Mr. APJ Abdul Kalam must have said this just by gut feeling in his “Vision 2020” for India.

3 years later an economist came up with the same theory in support of what our President said. He claims that unemployment breeds further unemployment until and unless self employment is promoted.

Let us see how unemployment can breed further unemployment.

When a man is unemployed, he will not have money to buy anything but his basic necessities. His needs may not be limited, but his ends surely are. The lesser buying power of people leads results in lesser demand for goods in the market.

Lesser demand implies supply has to be cut down.

Lesser supply implies lesser production.

Lesser production implies closing down of manufacturing units.

Closing down of manufacturing units implies laying down of jobs.

Laying down of jobs implies further unemployment.

Hence, it is clear that unemployment can only breed further unemployment in any nation and the solution lies only in promoting self employment and then providing employment for the unemployed.

The Big Conspiracy..

If you are of the idea that all our ministries spend their allocated budgets but still are not able to produce fruitful results for India, think again. The reality is that our ministries find “no time” or “no resource” to finish spending their allotted budgets. Here I present to you some facts for the academic year 2006 – 2007, which will make you sit upright and exclaim, “What?!!. I did not know this..”

* Ministry of Public Health and Family Welfare could spend only 40% of their allotted budget of Rs.11,670 crores till now. The Government of India spends only 0.9% of the GDP on public health which comes to about Rs. 200 per Indian per year, making India one of the lowest spenders out of the 175 nations listed in UNDP HDR. This is all that the Government spends on
- those 5 million who are living with AIDS
- those 1.8 million fresh TB patients every year
- 67% of all children who are underweight
- 75% of all infants and 60% of all women who are anemic

* Ministry of Civil Aviation could barely manage to spend Rs.1 crore of the Rs.130 crores allotted budget. This, that too after P Chidambaram stated that by 2012, infrastructure alone would require an investment of around Rs.11,00,000 crores.

* Slightly better, thanks to Sri Laloo Prasad Yadav, Ministry of Railways could spend 67% of its allocated Rs.6800 crores.

* Ministry of Urban Development could spend only 71% of the allocated budgets till now, given the fact that 35 Indian cities have population more than 1 million, and almost half of the urban population do not have access to sanitation and 50% of solid waste is not disposed.

* Ministry of Non-Conventional energy ends up spending only 18% of the allocated budgets till now, at a time when the whole world is securing energy resources and investing crazily in non-conventional energy resources.


This makes one wonder: Are our ministers aware of what their job is? Are they aware of the current situation in India? Do they know what a budget is and how to make judicial use of it? Do they take the effort of setting their feet on the land and making some visits to places which are severely affected by their inaction? I am sure if they would have done this even once, and if they had a sane mind and a humane heart, they would have themselves shuddered when they saw the plight of the people and the environment of their habitation. Are the people occupying the power chairs truly worthy of the honor?

If the answer to the above questions is NO, then this makes one wonder: What are the people who know about this doing? What about those people who can do this job the best, are they raising their voices? The people who directly suffer from these problems are unheard of, and their voices get muted, all we get to hear are muffled squeals. But on the other hand, the people who are not directly affected and have the power to raise concern do not seem to have a voice in first place, forget getting muted.

Finally one gives up wondering with these last few thoughts in mind: Will anything ever become of my nation? Will I ever get to live in a glorious India that I dreamt of living in, as a kid? Will I..? Will I..?Will I..?

Think about it.

The Truly Indian's Airways

For a second, you will feel confused whether you are traveling by bus, or train, or is it indeed an airplane for which you had booked the ticket. Mad rush at the terminal for boarding makes you wonder if you are in a fish market. Frustrated by the repeated departure delay announcements, you will wonder if you will enjoy the privilege of a good night’s sleep. After pushing yourself through a crowd of people swearing at the terminal executives, you board the plane and to your shock you find it is a free seating arrangement. The only thing that separates this setup from that of traveling by local bus or train is that you will not find anyone reserving a seat by the uncivilized Indian way of placing the handkerchief! The coffee onboard is for sale and the once you are done, the stewardesses come with large black-colored disposal bags wide open for you to throw your cup into. It is almost as if the stewardesses have it written on their forehead “Use Me”!

Guys, this is Air Deccan for you, and if you want to add some spice and ‘teekha’ to it in the ‘Tapori’ style you may as well call it the ‘Air Dhakkan’. I am even told Air Deccan is not supported by Insurance !! I sometimes wonder what kind of feedback are they going to get in case they were to conduct anything like a customer satisfaction survey, i.e. if they would ever dare to.

But lets us just look at what this “weird but great” airline company has achieved. Air Deccan had a main objective when it was started in 2003 i.e. “ To make airways available and affordable to every Indian”. And how successful have they been ! Today Air Deccan tickets are available to everyone at prices as inexpensive as Rs 3 on. Of course, this requires prior booking and this is also exclusive of airport taxes, but still today an Indian is able to travel on air at a total expenditure as minimum as Rs 1500. This is something which never seemed possible during the “bi”poly times of Indian Airlines and Jet Airways. The demand supply balance was totally tilted against the consumer and the price rise was positively steep. But the new stream of airways have changed it all. Every Indian can now dream of reaching his destination within a couple of hours at a much affordable price. And when so, who will really bother about the food and refreshing towels that Jet and like airways provide? If one is very particular about reaching on time and about the comfort onboard, these well-established airways are always there for them. It’s only a matter of time before Air Deccan gets the necessary capital to improve their infrastructure and get substitution in place to keep to their time commitments.