A Gym Instructor

Heavy nightly rain had brought soaring temperatures drastically down. The following day was serene, though the Sun was yet to break the chillness of the air. As he stepped out of his house, he looked at the pristine ambiance & smiled. For no reason, in particular, he had a gut feeling that the day would turn out to be unprecedented. While he walked towards the bike, he zipped up his jacket & rubbed his palms together. He picked up & raised the helmet over his head but paused. After a moment's thought, he hung the helmet over the mirror holder & kick-started the bike. Considering there would be no cops early in the morning to stop him, he planned to enjoy a short & pleasant ride without a helmet. Unfortunately, his plan was short-lived as slush & potholes made up for the road. It was a game of precision to ride through the puddles. All the ups & downs on the road bounced his thick, slightly long curly hair.

Eventually, he reached the destination & checked his digital wristwatch. Despite the hurdles on the way, he had managed to arrive on time. He parked the bike outside a moderate-sized house. He let himself in & unlocked the garage door. He looked around for the landlady; she did not seem to be around. On entering the gym, he ran both hands through his hair, removed his jacket & shivered. He realised it was a wrong choice to wear a dry-fit sleeveless t-shirt on a chilly morning. Without further delay, he played a dance beat tune on the stereo. He began with a few warm-ups & moved to cardio. After half an hour, a batch of members dropped in. As he stretched his well-toned arms, he thought, "Once in a while, miracles do happen." At the same time that he wiped the sweat with a towel, he announced, "Good Morning, ladies! Let's start." He played music & started counts for warm-up. The ladies followed his instructions & began exercises.

After 15mins, he declared, "Pair up & pick a stepper." The batch of women let out collective complaints & gasps. One of them commented, "Steppers are on Fridays only." He smartly replied, "Exactly the reason for most of you bunk on Fridays. I haven't bunked as many college lectures as you people bunk workout. As it's a full attendance today, let's make good use of it." Ladies reluctantly picked up stepper with sad faces; they knew that they would be dead meat. He counted 1 to 20 & then 20 to 1 repeatedly, with instructions to move, step on & off the stepper. The ladies gasped, paused & shook heads. He yelled, "Move!" His commanding voice pushed them to go on for 40mins. When he stopped the music & instructed, "Put the stepper back & pick up mats." they sighed in relief.

As they placed stepper & picked mats, a lady complained, "My face has turned red with all the workout. How will I survive the rest of the day?" A few of them nodded in agreement. He replied, "You are regularly irregular to aerobics. Consistency is key to not having a red face." She narrowed her eyes, breathed heavily & picked a mat. The second one said, "Do you realise that we are all over a decade older than you? A few of us have teenage kids. Yet you yell at us as though we are school kids." He smirked & responded, "Now do not pull age rank. I'm the instructor here; you are to follow my instructions." Most of the ladies had dropped flat on their backs. He remarked, "All of you say you want to shed weight, yet do not follow the routine. In case you come, you do not want to move." None of them had the strength or breath to state, "It's hard to make time between home, work, life, kids & 100 other things." One lady managed to get up slightly, placed her right hand over her tummy & declared, "A lot of hard work, effort & time has gone into growing it this big. I cannot let go of it easily." A collective laugh broke in the gym; he smiled at them & shook his head.

The conversation inside the gym was all about complaints. While outside, a college girl had dragged her feet into the premises. She looked around at the humble home & sighted the garage door from which the music had paused. A neighbour had highly recommended this particular gym to her mother. She thought. "I rarely attended the gyms with state-of-the-art facilities. How is it going to be any different in a garage gym?" As she looked around, the landlady walked up to her. The landlady smiled warmly & stated, "You may attend today's class as a trial. In case you happen to like it, you may enroll." The girl only nodded, tied up her shoulder-length straight hair into a pony. She was confident that she would attend only the trail class & never set foot again in this make-do gym. The music started to play; the landlady walked into the gym & the girl followed.

Though externally, the garage seemed to be dilapidated, the inside was a whole different story. The landlady had smartly transformed the place; it was a neat set up in a compact space. The firm foam floor cushioned the aerobic sessions & full-length mirrors covered three sides of the walls. The girl was pleasantly surprised to view a modest gym arrangement with various equipment stacked against the unmirrored wall. There was no provision for AC, but large windows made up for ventilation.

As she turned, she witnessed around 20 women lying on the floor & stretching. She wondered what was so good about this place to see such a turnout? Her eyes slowly moved to the commanding voice that was leading the class. The instructor's pitch-black eyes met her dark brown ones. No sooner did their eyes meet than his count slipped. Unanimously, all the ladies lying on mats looked up at him, for it was the first time he stammered & corrected. Though his tongue said the numbers, his mind said, "Now I know what the gut feeling meant. Finally, a cutie!" Despite the cold weather, she felt the blood rushing to her cheeks. She was caught off-guard at her first blushing incident; she swallowed hard & looked away.

Once the session ended, the women & landlady exchanged pleasantries. The landlady inquired, "Do you remember a woman named Rekha who joined us a few months ago?" He replied, "Yeah. It's been a couple of weeks since she came. Any news about her?" The landlady answered, "She wanted to talk to all of you; please wait for a few minutes." His eyes quickly looked for the girl while she waited at the far end of the room. The landlady dialed, put the call on speaker & said, "Rekha, we are all here; go ahead." Rekha shared ecstatically, "As per doctor's advice, I was to do some form of exercise to conceive. That's the reason to join aerobics. Last week, the results confirmed that I was expecting."

The ladies congratulated her collectively; the good news had elevated everyone's spirits. The landlady hung up, pointed at the instructor & declared, "He has been with us for the last 3years. He helps run the gym in the mornings & evenings. He attends college in the day. During his tenure, nine women have conceived." He exclaimed, "Aunty!" The landlady rephrased, "Ah... Huh... I meant, his workout sessions helped them." The gang of ladies would not miss out on an opportunity of channeling their post-workout pain into ragging him. They congratulated him on his track record & burst into laughter. Finally, it dawned on the girl, a handsome instructor who could deliver results. Her chuckle was unheard in the crowd's laughter.

As they dispersed, the landlady introduced the girl to him. They shook hands & grinned. She couldn't suppress her naughty self & said, "Congratulations on your achievement." Only after the words had left her lips did she realise what she had said. She bit her tongue & thought, "Did I mess up the first meet with a crush?" He smiled awkwardly & turned towards the unmirrored wall to hide his expression. He ground his teeth & thought, "I cannot make these ladies sweat in an hour, and they made me sweat in less than a minute in the presence of the cutie-pie. Damn!"

Take Away:

• A woman juggles & makes time for home, work, kids & everything else except herself. It's high time; every woman makes an hour out of 24hours for her well-being.

• A proficient & talented instructor (handsome/cute one is a bonus) trumps any state-of-the-art gym in terms of criteria for daily attendance.