She had no water. It was in her tennis kit. Anu got up to get her water when the instructor raised her dainty brow. Anu signalled with her hand that she was going to get water. With a nod, the instructor asked Anu to sit back down. Handing her a glass of water, the woman moved back to the front of the class. She was the kind that scared Anu. Mid-fifties, slim, pursed-lips, crisp cotton saree, grey hair tied into a bun. The kind that did not look very kind.

Anu could feel the others staring at her. To make matters worse, everyone had wiped their faces with their hand-towels and only Anu poured sweat like a leaky tap. She looked at the woman on her right. Mistake. She looked at Anu not just disapprovingly but with contempt. The way people did when Vicky cried in the movie halls.

Anu looked to her left. An eighteen-or-so girl looked at her and smiled. The girl was quite a plain-looking one. But she was so well turned-out in expensive, bought-from-abroad printed leggings and a T-shirt, she looked smart. Rich never looked plain actually. Even her mat looked the designer kind. Anu realized that she was the only one sitting on the plain mat spread by the Yoga Studio. Everyone else had swanky mats with elegant steel or glass bottles next to them. Anu was secretly glad she hadn’t brought her green Tupperware bottle inside. That would look so out of place.

‘Now, I want everyone to stretch your legs out and try to hold the toes. Stay in the position until my next instruction. And breathe.’ Anu sighed at the words. At least she knew how to do that and she even knew it was Paschima Uttasana. Didn’t the woman know the names of the Asanasas or was she deliberately not using them? Anu decided to go with the former. Labelling that pretty woman as ignorant made Anu feel better.

The stretch and hold were fine with Anu. The girl on Anu’s left had managed to hold the toes but the woman on Anu’s right was struggling to even reach till her knee, with her ample bosom resting on her thighs. The girl, catching Anu sizing up others, smiled. Anu smiled back feeling smug that the woman next to her was as flexible as a wooden stick.

But soon the stretch turned into a never-ending saga. ‘Stay in the position until I instruct.’ The woman kept announcing. Anu, soon unable to bear with the screaming back, bent her knee, at first slightly, then generously. The girl on the left did the same and so did the others in the row.

‘End the stretch and go to the crossed leg position.’ The instructor spoke looking begrudingly at Anu. As if Anu inspired the others to cheat on her. Nobody can stay stretched forever—even a rubberband would snap!