I’m not good at sports and I accept it.I know that in India, which takes its sports very seriously, such an announcement will be greeted ina normal fashion. One is not expected to discuss person’s infirmities in public after all. It just isn’t done. Nevertheless it’s true. Don’t get me wrong, I love playing and would be the first to rush out every evening to collect the fellows and play in garage. Then we would play cricket, football or whatever we could have in one those huge empty plots of land which colonies used to abound in a few years ago. But I never really excelled in anything.
Football would always be hectic, as I would pant after the ball which used to rush away from me as if it were a hen . When at long last I would manage to corner the ball I would be so exhausted that I would end up unfailingly kicking it towards my own goal or giving ball to none other than my own goalkeeper. No wonder the opposing team used to be so fond of me. If I had their vote I would be playing in the World Cup today. And the one time I did manage to score a goal for my own side, there was a clap of thunder the next second and the match was cancelled due to a rainstorm.
When I grew older, and taller, I decided to try out basketball. I reasoned that since there were fewer players involved I’d have a better chance of making contact with the ball. I wish I’d known that I was destined to end up facing the team with the tall boys. Oh yes, I’d get the ball occasionally but mostly it was trying to weave through giant obstacles.
One more sport which gave me truly unforgettable memories, is cricket. I’ve always held that there just isn’t something natural about a game where players spent most of the time standing and sweating in the sun. But since it was practically a religion among youths of my age, I had no choice but to join in the festivities every evening. In time I developed such a unique style of playing that it was all my playmates could do to stop themselves from viewing my game. When there was task of fielding, balls would either sail through my fingers as if they were made of thin air and bounce along over the boundary line.
As for bowling, let’s not even talk about that because the mere suggestion of me bowling would give my opponent team a golden opportunity to double their run rate. It was batting, however, which I loved, even though I spent an incredibly brief time doing it. Every time the bowler bowled in my direction, I was always ready with an ambition to deliver a big hit but unfortunately it's parabolic path ends up in safe hands of opponent team player.
However, there was one wonderful upside to being bad in sports. In the rare few instances when I did ‘catch out’ a person or manage to score a goal or a Sixer there would be a minute of stunned silence and then both teams – yes, both – would burst into hearty applause. And that, my friends, was one moment I wouldn’t have traded for anything in the world.
Before I completed my school years, I tried swimming, I was so surprised. I was so relaxed in the water, it felt amazing. Mainly, I like to have fun and swimming is all about having fun, and I got something that you can do for pure enjoyment rather than for victory. I started enjoying every bit of it, on water surface or under water; everything gave me immense pleasure and it still continuing to attract my attention towards it. While I'm swimming, I sing songs in my mind. While I'm swimming, I am the master of my own. Finally I got a sports which suited me.
I love swimming ; it's awesome and finally somewhere I can be tagged as sporty.
I love swimming ; it's awesome and finally somewhere I can be tagged as sporty.
