The Pause Before Running

We are taught that childhood is a long, unbroken line. A steady progression toward something else. But it is not. It is a series of sudden stops. A bird takes flight, a shadow shifts, a voice calls from the house, and the game ends before it was ever finished. We spend our lives trying to return to that state of suspension, that moment where the body is poised to move but chooses, for a heartbeat, to remain still. There is a specific weight to these interruptions. They are the gaps where we learn who we are when no one is watching. We are not defined by the race, but by the hesitation. By the look that passes between two people when the world suddenly goes quiet. Does the memory of the game remain in the dust, or does it vanish the moment the feet begin to move again?

Abhishek Dutta has captured this stillness in his work titled Interruption in Playtime. It reminds me that even in the middle of a life, we are all just waiting for the next signal. What are you waiting for?