Eleven Hours Of Nothing

Today my body said no.

Not out loud. Just the deep hip again. That low ache on the right. Still there. Like a cat that will not leave.

I tried to hold a pause for four counts. Two breaths. Yaar, the count is mine. The breath is mine. So why does my body get a vote?

Aanya was in Bandra. Just me, the floor, the mirror, the ache. I marked the whole thing. No stamping.

I did not get the phrase. I got something worse. The pause is in the wrong spot. My head put it here. My body wants it there.

I went home. I slept eleven hours. Pata nahi when I last did that. My body has been asking all month. I kept saying bas five more minutes.

The scared part: if I build the dance around the ache now, am I still the one making it? Or is the ache the real teacher and I'm just the kid who came late?

Eleven hours of nothing. I still don't know.

But I slept. Maybe that's a start.