JOIN USMy heart began painting a picture of a rainbow shinning through the mists.
It is a chilly Wednesday morning and my alarm clock rings at 5.30 am, with it my feverish rousing rings. Not that I always look forward to getting out of bed this early everyday but today I have something special to look forward to. Oh! it’s time for my Zumba class, a Latino American form of dance from Columbia. Even the mere thought makes my heart skip a beat. It is that day of the week when everything takes a backseat — cooking, clinic, kids, husband — I mean just everything.
It is the next 60 minutes that I’m looking forward to as I head to the class. My instructor is a non resident Indian certified and trained in the US and she simply has added more zeal to my life by introducing me to more Zumba fanatics. A professor of law at Oklahoma University with a masters at the King’s College, London, she is a power house of talent, still down to earth. She is a summer bird to India. I’m totally in awe of her, be it her million dollar smile, her deep understanding of others, her humour, active listening, her overall zest for life.
It is a bright room with mirrored backdrop and a wooden flooring. About 20 women all eagerly yearning to groove to the music. It is treat to your eyes as you see women in all sizes, of all ages swaying their voluptuous bodies to the music. My heart and mind in perfect sync with my body. My heart began painting a picture of a rainbow shinning through the mists. It is a scintillating feeling and just before I sink into it even more, it dawns upon me that it’s just not me but all the women there feeling the same, all trying to shed their inhibitions.
I still remember crystal clear my first day at Zumba, how conscious I had been of my first move, my first sway, my first expression. And the other prying eyes had made it worse. But when the music played all I really cared for was that I wanted to move, to groove, just shake a leg and not how others nit-picked me. I soon realised that other women too had shed their inhibitions and it was a sense of liberation of our bodies speaking volumes in synchrony. The women are from all walks of life: one a gynaecologist, which you could say by her moves; the other is a lady in her 50’s with a perfectly curvaceous body who simply loved to see her body move, then the other, a overweight homemaker, and the most interesting of all was a charming lady in her 40’s, a mother of two kids so overly energetic and so full of life. While I secretly admired the above qualities, I did envy her ‘Never say never enough’ spirit.
Earlier, I was a gym-enthusiast, but it was the dreariness and the humdrum that drove me away from the power-driven machines.The lack-lustre machines could never enrapture my mind while I had tired myself endlessly at the gym. Isn’t that why most women opt for other forms of workouts? Many of my friends did agree. Finally at the class my instructor said the ‘last song’ and I could hear myself scream with the other women for more and some more. And why not when it leaves such a sweet taste in your mouth that you keep craving for more. A sense of wildness that shakes you off like an antidote to overly stressed lives.