Dust Dancers by Sarthak Paliwal
This is a story that speaks of two facts :
What fear can do to you
And what kindness and hope intact can bring in your life.
So it's about 6 people. They are a part of a local rajasthani traditional dance group. A blend of singer's, musicians and dancers bringing their unique talents in but actually behind the curtain they all have very contrasting stories of their lives that they hide behind their eyes and skin.
It starts with their last performace and hopeful to keep a new name for their group if they can survive while meeting a guruji.
In the next moment we see Ustaad (the name he kept after meeting Vidushi's family )running into a house and getting unconscious as his sister requests him to reach their as she dies. Few questions start to arise immediately in my mind: why she died and why Mitha Ji's house only! There I fet the pages needed me to keep reading further. Ustaad in this new home keeps his identity a secret. Here he meets Mithali and Vidushi. Somehow Vidushi mysteriously looks and sounds similar to his sister and everything feels baffling. Mithali too has a lot to speak about but she prefers to keep her past inside her just like Vidushi keeps her past traumas locked inside her soul. One by one the other three characters enter the story plot sharing their parts of their pasts that restricts them to live their lives freely. But fate had it and not by blood but by talent they met to create a team of 6 for a dance group.
But truth be told, fear let's one die inside out. The words that we keep inside start to eat us up. But the ray of kindness, love and hopeful rekindles the fire of freedom. How long will fear chain up their souls? What exactly will help them feel free to talk about their pain and let themselves be free and create new bonds? And when it happens what new beginnings will welcome them in?
Read this beautiful story to read about each of them.
Dust dancers is a nice feel good story after all the plot twists.