SALSAAAAAAAAAAA

SALSAAAAAAAAAAAA
well finished off with a month of Salsa with Dance Illusions on 08th March '07. Had a final dance on the last day... all the couples danced on a song each. Was a blast! My turn and both Lily and me were nervous. Shit, I'd danced before larger crowds in my college days but that was all freestyle and you had the lights blazing away at your eyes so there was no way you could see the audience. Here, every turn I took I could look at the audience!!!
Ok, ok... I'm blabbering away but lemme see if I can get it down to the exact sequence of events.
FLASHBACK:
Late late night of 07th March: Call up ol' buddy ol' pal Mandar! "Dude! Suggest a song to dance to!" He comes up with a couple of great songs and even some hindi songs which would have been lovely except for the fact that I just didn't have time to practice with my partner! Checked out some dance videos online. Man! They're good!
Morning of 08th March: Attending classes. Lecturer is talking on and on about some multi-stage air compressors and I'm sweating away coz I have no idea what song I'm gonna be dancing to!!!
Evening of 08th March: Rush home! Grab the cd! Play songs! Naah too slow! This one's too fast!
Where's the beat in this one??? YEAH THIS ONE! Ok try this step.. and this one.. yeah! this goes great! Message Lily about the song. She said we needed to practice at least once! DUH!
08th March, 1710 hrs: Get a call from Lily and she's gonna be home by 1900hrs. We have to practice! Ok. 1845hrs I make a move to town to find half the roads blocked coz of the floats!!!
Oh crap! Pick her up. We can't practice at her place coz her sis has exams coming up. We have to go back to my place. Oh! I must add here, she looked lovely in a knee length evening dress. ABSOLUTELY! So there we go all the way back to my home. Play the song and do a couple of steps to get the intro sequence out of the way. Rest of the song is a breeze as it's just me who has to lead her and she knows the signals, and so knows exactly what to do. Grab her and rush back to the hall. Walk in and everyone (well almost everyone) is out there.
BACK TO REALITY:
We dance... and after we start with a small fumble initially, it doesn't feel that bad or scary. We're enjoying the song, enjoying the dance... it's FUN!
Everyone dances out their fears... open floor at the end and smart ass me tries out a couple of freestyle moves. Stop. Look around. People standing in a circle around me. Me right in the middle. UH OH. "awesome! do it again!!!" "what?" "that move you just did! do it again!" " uh.. ok" So yeah, had another 15 minutes of fame.
End of the day, had a nice pic of the salsa group taken with the Dance Illusions banner.
Guess what? Tango is starting up next!!! Lily has got exams coming up and damn I need to get a dance partner for this dance now!

Dance away to glory!

First dance class today. Salsa. Been wanting to join for over a year... but then I was in a hostel. After that I was on the ship. Now i'm back and I don't intend letting this slip away from me. Reached early... few people around. Need to catch up with a gal to get a partner for the dance. Well, one of my friends had come with an additional pal and he introduced us... and voila! dance partners! Well, today being the first day, solo steps were the call of the day. Interesting... varied the beat of the music... Really really enjoyed it. Been eons since I last danced. This felt heavenly. Looking forward to Friday. Really really looking forward to it.
1,2,3,..5,6,7...
Salsa - espanol for sauce... so he said... dance is saucy... so he said.
Fridayyyyyyyyy.......

What my current state of mind is? Can be summed up aptly in this song which used to run through my mind very often when I was on the ship...

IRIS - GOO GOO DOLLS

And I'd give up forever to touch you
Cause I know that you feel me somehow
You're the closest to heaven that I'll ever be
And I don't want to go home right now

And all I can taste is this moment
And all I can breathe is your life
Cause sooner or later it's over
I just don't want to miss you tonight

And I don't want the world to see me
Cause I don't think that they'd understand
When everything's made to be broken
I just want you to know who I am

And you can't fight the tears that ain't coming
Or the moment of truth in your lies
When everything seems like the movies
Yeah you bleed just to know your alive

And I don't want the world to see me
Cause I don't think that they'd understand
When everything's made to be broken
I just want you to know who I am

I don't want the world to see me
Cause I don't think that they'd understand
When everything's made to be broken
I just want you to know who I am

I just want you to know who I am
I just want you to know who I am
I just want you to know who I am
I just want you to know who I am

What's in a name? well... if you're travelling...

What could possibly happen to you when to alphabets of your name are interchanged? Especially when it is in an international air ticket? Nothing, so I thought. Well, I still clarified it with the company I worked for. No problem so they said. Just inform them it was a typo. Aaah. A typo. Sure.

The day: 02nd April 2006
Time: 2130hrs
Location: Mumbai C.S.I. Airport
Problem: Name as on passport- Moraes Nihal Peter
Name as on air ticket- Moares Nihal Peter
Immigration - "your name is different"
"ummm well the company committed a typo when they were booking my tickets"
"typo?"
"they accidentally misspelt my name"
"oh, did they?"
What followed was a grilling on what was the purpose of my travel, whether I was on my way to Toronto, USA(?, uhh wasn't it supposed to be Toronto, Canada? I wasn't gonna correct him under the circumstances though) Of course I wasn't going there. I had to go to Taranto, Italy to board my ship. Few more minutes of questioning. And I was through! Phew! Just this little trouble so I thought. How mistaken I was to be proved...
Mumbai to Charles De Gaulle, France. At France, immigration check. "Excuse me sir, there seems to be a difference of names on the ticket and the passport" hmmmm... little while later after an explanation on what happened and the purpose of my travel and where I was gonna board my ship, I was allowed to pass through.
France to Rome. At Rome, "Sir, your name...." Jeez. Again.
Rome to Brindisi, Italy. Brindisi, yeah here too. Difference in names. "Sir can you open your luggage please?" Grrrrrrrrrrreat.
Cab drive from Brindisi to Taranto. All over right? Naaaaaah. Immigration police at the port. "Excuse me sir, you flew in here with this name on the tickets?" Aaaaaargh!
Ok ok. All done and over with. No more problems with the name right???
Not so fast buddy... Ship's crew list. "Excuse me Captain, I believe there is an error with the way my name is spelt on the crew list." "huh? How ? I put the name the company sent me!"
Grrrrrr.......