Thursday 5 March 2015

Life transforming moment of hope and optimism

This is my story of that one moment that filled me with hope and optimism and transformed my life forever
I have an elder sister who excels in what ever she does from sports to academics to co-curricular activities like dramatics ,dance and singing. Throughout my childhood I had been content to be her shadow and I felt great pride in doing so .My elder sister was greatly praised and admired by all the family members and acquaintances. Often there were comparison between her and my talents, however I was never jealous of her and stuck to my laid back attitude. I often joked with her that since she had been ahead of me in the queue she had been granted all the talent by god and since I being younger was behind her there was nothing left for me .Like so many households her things like clothes toys and books were passed on to me but there was one exception and that was her Ghunghroo’s or feet bells which she wore for her dancing sessions or  whenever she gave her performance. She did not allow me to even touch them as she held them very dear.
By the time I joined college she had already won several dance competitions and represented our college at various dance events. Being her younger sister was no mean task as people and teachers expected a lot of excellence and perfection from me as well. However I was indifferent to all this pressure and remained unperturbed by all this expectation and attention.

 It was the time of the year when we were about to host the college festival. My elder sister was the reigning champion in the classical dance section and everybody expected here to win the championship and retain her crown and bring laurels to the college. She was working very had on her dance steps and I watched every move of hers very closely. Then twenty days before the main competition she slipped and fractured her foot. Doctors  adviced her full rest. She could not even walk properly leave alone dancing,so her taking part in the dance competition was out of the question. This made the college principal greatly perturbed as she had been banking on my sister to win and bring glory to the college. However at this moment we were facing a situation when there was nobody to represent the college at the dance event. The situation was even more grave as we were the hosting college. There was very little time for anyone else to put together a winning performance.The teachers and the principal held a meeting to decide the further course of events. They came to the conclusion that they should put up a candidate to give a performance as a face saving gesture. No body was willing to  perform in place of my sister as they felt that they would not be able to do justice and live up to the standard of dance set up by my sister.When everyone had lost hope my sister spoke to the principal and proposed my name. When I saw a great crowd at the notice board I stopped and saw my name as the dance participant to represent our college. I was taken aback and rushed to my sister. Before I could say anything to her she took my hand and placed on them her precious Ghunghroo’s (Feet dancing bells). She patted me on the back and told me that I could do the impossible and win the dancing competition. She told me that she was confident that I would perform even better then her. This was a moment that made me step out of her shadow and instilled in me the hope and optimism to be a winner . Her words infused in me the desire to prove myself and bring glory to my sister and my college. I practiced day and night under the strict supervision of my sister. On the day of the competition when I went on stage I wanted to excel and live up to the expectations placed upon me by my sister. As soon as I completed my performance the hall resounded with loud claps and cheers. I was declared the winner with unanimous decision. This moment could be realized only because of that moment when my sister had put her faith in me and filled me with hope and optimism to do the impossible .Now I am an individual by myself ready to face the future.

No comments:

Post a Comment