“A switch gets flipped,” is how I have tried to describe what happens when a woman hits a pad for the very first time. \u00a0Before hitting the solid black surface, there is uncertainty and second guessing. \u00a0A girl’s eyes say it all: \u00a0Will I hurt myself? \u00a0Will I do it right? \u00a0What happens if I do it wrong? \u00a0What am I suppose to feel? \u00a0Will I be laughed at? \u00a0If I do this, will I fit in? \u00a0Anxiety taints the air of every first class I have ever taught. \u00a0Feet shuffle. \u00a0Nervous laughter and chatter arise. \u00a0And always the questioning in the eyes, some dark bottomless pools and others impossible shades of blue green, as they dart from the demonstration of the technique to their friend to the other girls around them for answers, security, support.<\/p>\n
I look into those eyes, each and every pair as they approach the pad for the first time. \u00a0I am checking to see the level of anxiety, to see if asking this particular girl to strike the pad is asking too much. Sometimes it is.<\/p>\n
There is one girl at Sarai Kale Khan in particular where it is apparent that she has experienced something deep and paralyzing. \u00a0She has had difficulty in doing simple jumping jacks and jogging. \u00a0She comes to three classes, and then stops. \u00a0Sad reality: \u00a0we cannot reach her, and her switch remains un-flipped.<\/p>\n
But for every one we can’t reach, there are literally hundreds of other girls on this trip whose switch does get thrown. \u00a0They come to the pad, adrenaline rushing, checking my cues, processing my broken hindi for instruction and then my ‘Go!’ and they strike. \u00a0A muffled ‘whack’ bursts from the impact, and a visceral spark ignites and lights the young face. \u00a0The switch is thrown. \u00a0They have just experienced an undeniable sense of their own power, a physical power in executing the technique for sure, but also a mental power in being presented with something scary and new, but pushing themselves to\u00a0breach their mental barriers. \u00a0There is no going back to before hitting the pad. \u00a0They have felt their power; they can not un-feel that. \u00a0It is a small win, this switch being flipped, but a win nonetheless in an environment where focusing on day-to-day survival makes such wins a luxury more rare than gold.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
“A switch gets flipped,” is how I have tried to describe what happens when a woman hits a pad for the very first time. \u00a0Before hitting the solid black surface, there is uncertainty and second guessing. \u00a0A girl’s eyes say it all: \u00a0Will I hurt myself? \u00a0Will I do it right? \u00a0What happens if I […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1405","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.greentaraproject.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1405","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.greentaraproject.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.greentaraproject.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.greentaraproject.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.greentaraproject.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1405"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/blog.greentaraproject.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1405\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1408,"href":"http:\/\/blog.greentaraproject.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1405\/revisions\/1408"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.greentaraproject.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1405"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.greentaraproject.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1405"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.greentaraproject.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1405"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}