Dancing Girls

The date of village fair was next week. This was the only time of the year when villagers got some entertainment. This occasion also provided an opportunity to the budding artists of the village to showcase their skills.

Jhumri was the most accomplished dancer of the group. All the other girls liked her, but at the same time there was some amount of jealousy also. As far as music was concerned, there was only drum, which Bheekhu played very skilfully.

The Group had been rehearsing for the last twenty days. It was planned that there will be solo as well as group performances. All the girls practised very hard for the event. It was also stated that there will be performances from dancers from other villages also and best dancing team shall get a prize. The prize was to be in the form of gunny bags of wheat which will be sufficient for the requirements of one family for the full year. Since there were six dancers, they would be able to feed their families with the prize money for at least two months. There were prizes for teams securing second and third performances as well.

On the date of fair, many other performances were organised. Men showed their skills in wrestling and other manly sports. There was a magician performing his tricks. The last and most important event was the dancing competition for the girls.

Groups from 10 adjacent villages performed. People clapped loudly for all the performances; however, loudest cheers were reserved for the performance of home village dancers.

Finally judges for the dance event sat together to decide upon the prizes. The members of the committee included representative of all the villages. Everybody, especially the participants, waited for the results with the bated breath.

The results were announced. To the great disappointment of the home village, the first prize went to the team from another village. However, the home team got the second prize.

All were greatly disappointed. The Chairman of the Committee stood and declared that they had not planned for individual prizes but seeing the performances of individual artists, the Committee had decided to award three individual prizes as well.

A hope was kindled in the home village again. To everyone’s relief, Jhumri was awarded the first prize. Another girl from the village got third prize.

The entire village celebrated the success of girls.