Wednesday, December 03, 2014

Volleyball, School and Sports

While returning home yesterday, I saw a HUGE poster for the Vajpayee Volleyball Cup - an inter-school district level tournament. My brother used to be part of his school team for this championship.

I somehow linked it to my era, when my batch mates used to go for a tournament (which I mistakenly thought was the Vajpayee Cup) and always used to run into a school called Gandhi School.

Gandhi school boys were massively built guys whose smashes would leave you reeling. In particular they had someone who could smash the ball almost perpendicularly; while the rest of us normal mortals could only smash it diagonally!

So, the story every year used to be this - we prepare well, go into the tournament with lot of confidence; but invariably run into these guys, put up a heroic fight and come back battered and bruised. The only parallel I can draw is to Arsenal in the Champions League. A good team which runs into Barcelona and Bayern Munich year after year and come back as heroic losers :-)

In the middle of all this reminiscing, a tinge of regret crept in. Why had I forsaken my budding tennis abilities for mere marks and in the quest to be popular? ( volleyball and cricket were the top sports at school then). What if I then had the guts that I have now - to do things I like and do it without caring for acknowledgement?

God, if I have to lead the same life again I promise I will work on my tennis right from school level!

Monday, August 04, 2014

south asian sojourns

For the first time EVER I am setting foot properly in another South Asian country. To add to it, I am staying in one for a few days.

Till now, the only claim to fame had been a furtive step across the border at Wagah unseen (hopefully) by the BSF and Pakistan rangers.

Flew into Maldives via Colombo - and it's been good so far. Pleasant weather, nice chilled out people. I even took an hour long walk around Male. I like the place.

I hadn't blogged in a long time. Thought I would record this event :-)