Next day – 7.50am. Fitness – now or never!
T-shirt-shorts, bandana, wi-fi ready – time to go live. Although, this time it wasn’t the same class. Yesterday it was some guy called D. Now it was a girl called S. Yesterdays was called dance burner by D, todays was stay dance fit by S. Does it make a difference, not really. I clicked on live.
And S stood there smiling away.
My mind – She is too young.
Me – Why? You thinking of dating her?
Conversation over.
S had two flunkies – oops pardon my French – the right word is assistants behind her. One male, one female to maintain that perfect gender balance.
S was a fit girl who wore a blue sleeveless top & a black leggings with a happy smile. One ‘be awesome & stay hydrated’ speech later, she began the warm up session.
S – Raise your hands – enjoy – keep smiling.
Raise shoulders, raise hands, lift one leg, lift another, repeat, easy. Second time, a little quicker, Raise calfs, shoulder, hands above heads, swing, do half squat and repeat.
Okay then, getting hot.
Repeat, repeat, shake, shake. futher changes – dance kick one leg & one hand, shimmy your booty, repeat with opposite hand-leg combo, engage core, more forward, move back – & repeat Getting hot & tough. Thrice more we did the routine till S said….
And Relax.
My hand automatically reached for my water bottle, as i sipped i looked at S’s assistant – the guy had an impatient smile – barely had broken a smile. More so, he was ready to get on with it. When I put my bottle down, did I realise I had drained all the water. S spoke….
S – After that wonderful warm-up, let’s begin the main session.
Me – What? Warm up!! I thought this was the session!!
Bangda Pale!!!
Next track was Bollywood – high energy Punjabi number. Suddenly S & her assistants began lashing hands and legs wildly. Now they were in a cozy studio, me in my room when I realised how much unwanted stuff I had piled up over time. I began acutely aware of the extra strong writing desk & chair, cursed the cupboard door that refused to shut, grunted twice when my foot crashed into the corrugated box & my eyes kept finding the Swiss ball on the loft that kept threatening to fall down to the vibrations of my body.
Come on, come on – S egged. on. The track changed, this time a peppy pop number.
This is when i realised my body had gone on strike. The lower half of my body to be precise – the upper half of hands right upto core were following S’s instructions, but my torso to hips and lower down were struggling to keep up. That’s when i began avoiding S’s eyes. Now sweat started free flowing right through me, i felt my jerky moments as muscles that i didnt know existed were put to action by S’s instructions and they protested as best as they could.
I knew one thing for sure – what S & her assistants were doing was dance, what i was doing was not.
Track stops. 2 seconds rest while my heart raced, adrenaline pumped & my back screamed in pain. I wanted water but the bottle was empty. The girl assistant right behind S was smiling – god – i wanted to strangle her!
Next track – slightly slower number – but still upbeat. I eyed the ‘cancel’ X button on the live screen. S made us go up & down, jiggy, shimmy, circle & squat. Breathless, I wanted desperately to press the X, I reached closer, I saw the smile on S’s face. Automatically i smiled back, too chicken to back out.
I danced with my crazy grin intact. The grin remained when dad walked in & out of the room, even when the help barged in, took one look & stomped back. I continued smiling and struggling through the next two songs till S said end of session.
S clapped. I smiled and clapped with them. There was a cool down session where we stretched, and didn’t stop smiling. A slight sweet pain travelled through me as I wrote this piece. But my smile stays on.
Because all I have to do is click right, make a choice when they ask…,
UNINSTALL X?
appam stew n prawns patiyo 