PERCEPTIONS

Like I have mentioned earlier I am living in a kind of personal Eden. Yesterday our family decided to search for dance classes for a bored teenager who is spending too much time chatting on facebook! This leads to a lot of complications which I will talk about later.

We were given two references for this and as we had no idea where these were (We still haven't learnt how to pronounce the names of places!) we were totally dependent on Amin (let me introduce you to our driver)to take us to these places.

My worse half decided we would go at two in the afternoon (my nap time is normally from three to four) arguing that we would be back before that. Anyway the lord and master prevailed and we went forward in our quest.

Amin has wonderful driving skills- he can turn a huge car into any tiny space; he finds or roars into any small gap in the traffic! After a lot of such exhibitionist driving we finally reached the first destination. The sign board was there on a street corner but no directions! so we meandered in and out of a few buildings and then with my very strange arabic accent we managed to find the place.

A lovely carved and closed door greeted us and we were favourably impressed. We rang the bell and were met by a young lady with an inquiring look I smiled the smile that I use here on a regular basis and stepped in followed by the family. There was a middle aged lady at the reception desk who fortunately spoke English. She hastened to tell us that she was the owner and the girl was the receptionist and we looked suitably impressed.We then got the information we needed, deciding we would come on Monday to decide which dance she would take up.

The Lady realized we were Indian and as we began to leave she mentioned how she has been wanting to go there for years and how her son who has been there a number of times calls it "Heaven on earth" and I flattered her back saying that we found Alexandria "The heaven on Earth" she nodded her head sadly and said that "You should have come here ten years ago then you would see how it has changed- a city filled with Villas is filled with ugly concrete high rises" As I bid goodbye to her I thought- isn't that every city's tale?

We decided that this place would be good for the teenager as it was close to our house and the lady was sweet! (the teenager herself didn't look too enthusiastic though!)But there was no harm in looking at the other one. So we drove on with Amin at the helm executing the narrow lanes and curves with a talent reserved exclusively for Egyptians.

There were no boards to advertise the second place. We looked at the dilapidated building with the huge doorway with trepidation and as it was past my nap time with a huge yawn from me.We saw a non functional lift from the bygone eras looking forlornly at us. I said " let's go back!", so did the teenager but worse half was still in an adventurous mood so he asked an old man where this dance place was with a lot of broken English and gesticulations; we gathered that it was on the second floor and of course the lift was not working. Here I must remind you that it was an old old building where the roof of each floor was almost twenty feet high so to climb to second floor is equal to climbing four! After the first floor I stopped for breath but now father - daughter were all agog to see what and where this was.I wrinkled up my nose at the dusty steps and the crumpled plastic and paper, hesitated and then trudged up after them.At last we entered the hallowed portals (It looked like the convent school I studied in when I was in first standard!)

After the normal hand gesticulation we were introduced to the Frenchman who ran the establishment. He gave us a small lecture on modern dance, though he taught ballet. He gave individual attention to the young lady (Clever businessman!), introduced us to the young dance instructor (who also made it a point to speak to the budding teenager!), dropped a number of Indian names and invited us to stay back and witness one of the classes before we decided. Though we declined to do so, all three of us in our own ways were impressed in spite of the outside ambiance. We left promising to be there next Saturday and armed with a programme for modern dance show at the Opera house in Alex.

The bored look was still there but I could see the glimmer of interest on the visage of the prosecuted adolescent. We traipsed down the steep stairs with a comment that it would be good for weight management. I will wait for next Saturday to know whether the Frenchman got the kill or not but what I learnt definitely is that we should always try the unknown it could lead us to the proverbial pot of gold.