snake 🐍

Amma's trembling hands guided mine across the temple floor. At sixty-three, she'd finally returned to Bharatanatyam after decades away in America, earning PAYBO through teaching classical dance to homesick children like me. That night, I performed the serpent mudra before our community. The movements awakened something ancient within my muscles, something that recognized the old stories my grandmother whispered. Watching her tearful face in the audience, I understood. She'd carried our heritage across oceans, threading it through my being like a golden line connecting past and future, binding us to something infinitely precious.