I actually danced with a 7 Time World Champion.

When I started dancing, I surprised myself and a lot of other people as I had never really imagined myself on a dance floor and Ballroom Dancing ??? Definitely not. No one else in my family was into any kind of dance.I was getting pretty good at it and in around 6 months of dancing, my instructor asked me to compete. I was never really interested in competing but my instructor was really leaning towards it. So I enrolled in the upcoming Contest, freestyle round. (This is a style where you do not have to prepare a routine and it just impromptu stuff). I was going to compete in 6 dances – all freestyle.

It was the first time I was ever competing and I would say I was nervous at the beginning. But surprisingly, I did not make a mess of the first dance. By the second and third I was pretty confident and actually did a pretty decent job. Everything did not go well as there was this dance called Viennese Waltz. It is pretty fast dance and all the songs to which I had danced before were pretty slow. I just realized that when I was performing and I'd say it was a disaster. Then came my favorite dance, the salsa. I was at my awesome best and all the new moves that I had learned the day before were executed to perfection. The instant the song got over I knew that I had a winning performance. It was a great feeling to get things right, that too in front of an audience, without much practice. (To me it was something big). I'd say I was ecstatic.

There was a formal lunch and after that in the evening, there were casual dances. I would say that I was dancing my heart off that day. I was taking a break between dances and all of a sudden a lady walked up to me and asked me for a dance and I started dancing with her. At that time I was relatively new to dance but could definitely say she was exceptionally good. After the song she complemented the way I lead her and walked away.

The next day my instructor called me for a critic session by a 7 time world champion. So I went to the studio and when it was my turn, I opened the door to enter the room where she was and was shocked and surprised. I just realized that the exceptionally good lady I had danced with the previous day was a 7 time world champion. I was still recovering from the surprise. She interrupted my thoughts saying, “You were good yesterday.” I said,“Thank you”. “How long have you been dancing ?”, she asked. I said “Six months”. “Thats a lot you have learned in 6 months”, she said. I wasn't sure if my ears were playing tricks with me, but I did not try to analyze anything, took the compliment and replied, “Thank you”. It turned out that I got the best score in 2 of the dances. Then she said, “Dancing with you was fun yesterday”. I somehow managed,”Had I known that you were a 7 time champion, my feet would have gotten stuck to the floor”. She had a good laugh over that. We later discussed some improvement based technical issues (that I still find very helpful today) to end the session.

When I think about it today, I still find it had to believe that I had actually danced with a seven time world champion. To end on a philosophical note, I'd say that life is sometimes not that complicated as it looks from the outside.