Two months back, I had hope. I had faith. But my selfishness brought me to where I am now, lying down in a hospital bed. Held down by several drips, I struggled to recap what had been erased from my memory. I was popular and everyone knew me as Thali Bera , the girl who performed the most extravagant dance. My family and I lived in a small town near Delhi. Strutting through the streets, all the eyes noticed me and their mouthed formed a perfect O. I was used to this, people still recalling the dance I had presented on my twelfth birthday.
As I walked into the dance room, my guru squealed with delight. “ I am so happy to see you! There will be a dance competition which has two auditions to get into it. And the first audition will be held in Delhi! You and Trisha will surely win the contest!” Determined, we trained hard, day and night. To help us, other local dance teachers came to view and correct our movements. To my horror, the teachers gave their full attention to Trisha, while I frantically did my unnoticed moves. Feeling neglected, I swore to take her out of the competition, if there’s a girl in that contest, it should be me, not some girl that’s practically invisible. Two months passed and on the night before the competition she said to me, ”Hey, I really hope you win the competition, because it wouldn’t matter if I won, at least not to my family. Well, see you tomorrow!” I smiled and watched her go but inside I was bamboozled! Was she acting so that I’d feel sorry for her or did her family really didn’t care for her.
I rehearsed how I would “accidently” push Trisha off stage, making her disqualified and possibly off the dance school. Thirty seconds till the audition, she murmurs,” Break a leg.” On stage between the dance steps, I seize the moment to extend my leg farther to finally trip her.
Unfortunately, she propelled me forward as she fell, making me fall off the stage and break my leg. Later, other dance teachers and my guru came to visit me in the hospital and I questioned them about their all their attention focused on Trisha and they simply replied, “We already knew you would win, to help raise Trisha’s confidence, we complimented and gave our attention to her.” Shocked at what I’d attempted to do, I understood why I shouldn’t have done this. If I hadn’t tripped her, I wouldn’t have fallen off stage, and we could have still been in the contest. Selfishness took over me and I can’t let that happen again or else I would end up hurting someone twice or worse, even killing them.