Moonwake

I was sitting in my verandah sipping my evening cup of tea, when the phone rang. I detest mobile phones ringing especially when I am having my favorite cup of tea. I generally allow it to exhaust its ring and call back only if it’s a known number.

When I checked the number after I had finished my tea, I found it was from my dear friend Ravi Kishore from my banking days. I had not heard from him for a long time. He and I both worked briefly in a bank, before he moved out on a transfer to Secunderabad and I left the bank altogether. He later retired and was working as a consultant for a couple of banks. His full name was T.V.S.S. Ravi Kishore, but I never got around to asking him to spell his full name.

Anyways, the reason for his desperate call, as I fathomed from the conversation, is that he wanted me to teach his son, dancing. I used to be a dance teacher in olden days, teaching kids of all ages, dancing anything from ballroom dancing to salsa to foxtrot to even Bollywood style dancing. The Bollywood style of dancing was to be my bete noire, because I felt it revolted against all cannons of classical dancing.

Coming back to the subject of Ravi Kishore Garu’s son, Babu. His full name is T.V.S.R Kumar one of the S of the father’s initials getting dropped off for the R coming in. I guess that’s how it works. This kid is an energetic kid doing his MCA (i.e. Master of Computer Applications, for novices!! ) from Guntur University. His ultimate aim is to go abroad to USA like all kids from Andhra Pradesh. He has also made his traditional trip to the revered Visa temple in Hyderabad like all US faithful’s from the state.

Now this kid is also a dance junkie like crazy. Whenever he gets free time from studying coding and algorithms and what not, he is found grooving and dancing and thumping to the beats of Tamil, Telugu, Hindi, and Punjabi songs. Lately he has discovered breakdance by viewing some YouTube videos. He tried to do some break dance, but broke his bones more than master the dance beats.

Then by constantly scrolling through Instagram as was his wont, he chanced upon M.J. or Michael Jackson and his energetic dances. That’s sort of fixated him the last few weeks and his dad found him constantly bleating “Beat It, Beat It” whilst the father was desperately trying to beat the depression blues with his post retirement salary.

Out of desperation, Ravi garu called me up and asked me whether I can drill some sense into this kid, to teach him some classical dances rather than him keep on saying “I am Bad, I am Bad”, whenever he goes near him.

I said fine, let him come to me one of these days.

Babu aka T.V.S.R. Kumar came to me yesterday evening, again while I was having my cup of evening tea. Before coming Babu had inquired with a few people about me, although I am not on Wikipedia. He has somehow come to know, perhaps from his dad, that I used to be a dance artiste with the Bappi Lahiri troupe way back in the early 80s.

That’s right, I did indeed perform as a group artiste in the dance gang that sang “I am a Disco Dancer” and “Jimmy Jimmy Aaja Aaja”. It was indeed great fun those days as Bappi was inventive with his disco music and Mithun Chakravarthy with his dance moves.

Anyway, the kid got talking this and that for a long time until he asked me

“Uncle can you teach me moonwalk?”

For a moment, I was stunned, like how did he know my secret. Moonwalk is a dance move made famous by Michael Jackson. It became a kind of a cult dance. Basically, the dancer is sliding backward through deft use of his legs, but it feels as if the dancer is going forward. I learned it during my visit to Santa Monica, California in 1988 but have not been teaching it regularly as I don’t think I knew it perfectly.

The kid was very desperate for me to teach him moonwalk, because I guessed it right, he was dating a girl and wanted to show off to her.

Sighing, I put my glasses down and told him

“Okay, Babu I will teach you moonwalk from tomorrow, but don’t let too many people that I taught you the move.”

He jumped up in joy and said “Fine, Uncle,yesss”

I gently asked him,“Who’s the lucky one”

He was startled and stuttered “Who, who, who?’

I said to him “Don’t lie to me, you want to learn moonwalk because you love a girl, right and you want to preen yourself to the lucky one, right?”

Head bowed, shyly he said “Uncle how did you guess?”

I said “The old man knows it all. Does your lady love live in this city?”

Babu “Yes, Uncle she is here, which is one of the reasons for my coming here. I am meeting her tonight for dinner”

I said, “Tonight is going to be a lovely night, It’s a full moon night, why don’t you take your girl to the beach for witnessing a moonwake”.

Babu “What’s that Uncle, I don’t know what that is.”

I said “Babu, Moonwake is what will awaken your amoral instincts. It is when you can espy the shimmering lights of moon on the water. Its beautiful, its breathtaking, its romantic.”

“You go for a moonwake tonight and from tomorrow we learn moonwalk.”

Babu was delirious with joy.