It's What You Do In Those 2 Minutes

The smoke from the smoke machine hits your face and goes right in through your nostrils. The blue lights are roving all around you as if trying to spot an escaping criminal. Looking at your feet while crouching you become aware of the 20 other people standing around you in a cluster and a over a couple of hundred looking on. Anticipation, nervousness and excitement mingle in the air around your head. You hear faint music which starts to grow louder and mentally you counting up to the moment. 5..6..7..8..and then

It explodes right out of you ! It's not even been 10 seconds since the smoke hit you and you became aware of the lights and the people around you but it feels like forever. Suddenly you find yourself doing a routine you've worked hard at for over a month and a half. You realise that for the next 2 minutes you own the stage and in that moment the blaring music is all that matters. And this is exactly how i felt while performing on Sunday.

It wasn't all easy. I'd practised really hard for this with people whom I've come to regard as really good friends. There were moments of ecstasy when we had been praised, those when we felt down in the dumps because we JUST COULDN'T get that one step! 

But we were a confident chattering lot when we met for the dress rehearsal on Saturday because not only did we have a great last class, we had all also run into friends at the venue. But that was till we went on stage. And when we were done with what we thought was the final rehearsal prior to the show we were shocked, because for some reason that we couldn't identify, we were terrible. We were so bad that for the first 15 minutes after the act our choreographer/instructor didn't come to us because we had embarrassed her and she didn't want to be associated with us. And when she told us this it hurt, so bad. She told us that we had to go and rehearse as a team.

So 2 and a half hours after leaving the stadium we all met up at our studio for an unofficial practise. And it was a good rehearsal. All of us wanted to be brilliant on stage, not just for ourselves, but also for our instructor. And the next day we realised it was totally worth it.

We were nervous and confident at the same time. But we had worked hard ! We had a unique track and probably the prettiest costume :P When we came off stage everyone congratulated us but we were all waiting to hear from our choreographer. And she was overjoyed when we finally met her! Apparently we were one of the best batches on stage. Felt like in a span of 2 days we had gone from being really good to being underdogs and being (if i may say so myself) brilliant again.

It was a good journey, these one and a half months. But it all comes down to those 2 minutes and what you do then, when your adrenaline is pumping. And this is what we did

The Thrill Lies In The....?

I have an exam in less than 9 hours. Have I studied ? No. Do I want to study ? You think ?! Am I going to study right now ? Definitely NOT. So instead I decided to post this.

A couple of days ago I came across this question on a subjective form “Does the thrill lie in the catch or the chase?”  Being a White Collar fan my first reaction was chase. What can be cooler than chasing convicted art thief/con-man/loads of other stuff? Actually I’ll let that be for another time.  But then I got thinking and frankly I couldn’t clearly pick one so here’s what I feel for both the sides.

The chase is the fun part for sure. We’ve all heard about enjoying the journey instead of rushing to the destination blah blah blah. But why is that? That’s because you are continuously anticipating what’s going to come next. There is a lurking suspicion just waiting to turn into an adrenaline rush. And what’s the thrill of a catch if there is no chase. It’s just another monotonous activity that you pursue with disinterest. And suddenly there’s the chase that gives you a real reason to go after the catch.

Then there is the catch itself. The chase is fun and interesting. Agreed. But it exists only to reach to the catch. The means is useless if there is no end. Also there can be nothing more frustrating than a wild goose chase. So certain people believe that as long you reach the goal the monotony is bearable. And I understand this thought process because sometimes all you want is the final result.

After note :

Having written this down in black and white (figuratively of course. Literally it’s still black..duh ! ) I realize that similar to what I felt earlier, I’m still tilting towards the chase. I need something to look forward to and though the catch always fills that position, there is nothing like a good old chase. Look at James Bond. Who would call him suave and classy if he just walked up and put the handcuffs on Le Chiffre ? I’ll tell you who. NO ONE. Or even better. Tom and Jerry. There is never a catch, only a chase. But you still enjoy it even though you rarely watch it. And it has been one of the best cartoon show of all times.

I think I’ve pretty much decided. Back to rooting for the chase.