It was the District Under 16 selections the next day in the one and only Race Course stadium for all track events and badminton. The track and field events never bothered me. But badminton did for a variety of reasons- I never really thought I could play decent matches, the stadium courts were parquet that was different from the cement courts I was used to and the girls playing badminton were specialized in that game and played nothing else. So they must be super good at it! Well atleast that’s how my brains worked when I was 14 years old when I went to bed the day before the matches! Appa was going to drive me to the stadium and amma had packed a whole lot of stuff to eat and drink in my sling bag. There were two things to look forward to- I had a new Yonex Carbon Shaft racquet (Officially my bro’s but borrowed for the day) and a mustard pair of spikes that appa had bought for me from Bangalore as Popli Bros in Madurai didn’t have my size. I also carried a lot of butterflies in my stomach! Of course, paati already telling me to be back by 6 o’clock as the Carnatic music master would be home by then. She always had to talk about something else when she wasn’t too happy seeing me go for what she believed only boys must be doing!! Ridiculous! I never replied to her questions on such mornings and that got her more irritant. “I don’t decide when this whole thing will finish today. So if I don’t come by 6.30 means you can tell the master on my behalf”. Obviously, it infuriated her and she would tell her shlokas with a louder tone.
As usual appa would give me a sermon on ‘Triumph and Disaster’ must be treated as ‘imposters’, put your effort and leave the rest, a few Lincoln speeches quoted sometimes(very honestly they never inspired me as the parallels he drew were always unmatched and too ‘tall’ so to speak), often repeated story of Sir Winston Churchill who practiced with a marble in his mouth, for months to get over his speech problems and then went on to become the best orator, fight till the end, don’t give up and the one I hate the most- you are playing for the love of sports and for participation, winning is not important!!Of course winning was important and there was no way I could buy that! Anyways such days and such times, I don’t argue with him as he will never agree and he also knows I don’t buy the last part of his advice. The last line when I got off the car would be, “Ok all the best. Drink a lot of juice and water. It’s a hot day today (btw every day was in Madurai!!). If you get access to a phone, call me to tell me how its going.” Well, if I was to play for participation then why should I tell you ‘how its going’! “ok I will” will be my readymade answer.
I got selected for all except the 100m Hurdles, as that year was my first experience with hurdles rather to be precise, Madurai’s first experience with hurdles and therefore 4 out of the 6 of them fell while I was running and thus slowed my timing down. Badminton was a breeze. Called dad to tell him about the prize presentation at 6.30 pm. “If I am done, I will come over to pick you up, else find your way back home”. Well well!
Guess who walks in at 6:25pm sharp pretending he just happened to finish his work! Of course my dad would come and of course he won’t admit it in fear of raising expectations. Thats the way he worked with us. The problem is my bro and me knew why and so he has never been successful with such mind games. There are many more such amusing stories. They are just amusing, as the secret objectives of the lessons were already guessed by us!
The drive back home with all the medals will normally be me talking non-stop and he listening. Finally as home came closer I prepared him to handle the ‘archanai’ from paati. ‘Explain to her and make her see your point. Its you and her’. Everybody plays safe with paati except me. That was tougher than all the running and playing I ever did!
After 15 years, I recently played baddy matches last weekend and I realized things were very different. I knew the outcome even before I started playing as I made my conclusions from appearances much better, used more strategy in serves, drank juice off the vending machine, swiped a card in the MRT to reach the venue, used the google map on my iphone to find the place, took pictures off my iphone and sent messages about ‘how its going’, ate whole meal bread sandwiches that I had made myself, didn’t get disappointed about a postponement of a prize presentation, wasn’t wholly excited about my new Carbonex 8000 Light racquet, read Hindu’s e-paper between the games and had my family matter-of-factly enquire about the matches! Inspiring speeches are indeed funny to hear today though I do speak of some at home that are infinitely more realistic. No ‘Churchills’ ever come alive at home!
Life’s changed in a lot of ways. Ideals and needs have changed. Lifestyles have changed too to keep abreast with the recent times. The whats, whys and hows of daily living have morphed to something totally alien to how we believed they were. The doubles rules of baddy has changed too! It makes the game much faster. In spite of all the inevitable changes there is one thing that remains…the spirit of being a sportswoman! No matter how long you freeze from playing, it shows up everywhere. The sportsman in us is there to stay…stay and second the nature of all that we ever do in our lives outside the tracks and fields! To me, till date, thats the biggest takeaway!
