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!
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!
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