Since my childhood I have been very fond of sports. Its an altogether different story that I have never been good at it. But there have been countless occasions when I have put on my headphones, played the song 'Dil Chahta hai', and dreamt of being the first one to cross the finish line in a 200 meter race. I always chose a 200 m race for my dream because I liked the idea of having a slow start and then accelerating at top speed in the last 100 meters leaving everybody behind and presenting a exhilarating win to the applauding crowd. But I was always the kind of kid who would rather dream than practice. I took up many sports and gave up most of them. I have taken Taekwando lessons (I am green belt by the way so don't mess with me), cricket coaching, basketball coaching, swimming lessons, and finally 6 years of tennis coaching. I can play these sports well but could win in almost none. So during my childhood I always had this dream of winning, especially living with a brother who was a champion in cricket.Our colony would annually organize a sports competition and all the kids/adults would participate. They even had a cricket competition in which you had to participate as a team of 11. I was always picked last or only because of my brother who was usually the captain of one of the teams. I hated it. A chance to bat would never come or whenever it did I would get out on the first ball as per everybody's expectations. It was during this game of cricket I had heard that the swimming competition was also being held that very day. Somehow this excited me as this was an individual participation and I had really not known how competent I was in swimming.
It was a 25 meter race. All the participants were at the starting line. All except me were ready to dive. I was going to take push from the swimming pool wall as I had yet not mastered the dive. But this did not dampen my spirits. I was confident. The whistle blew, people dived, I took a strong push from the wall. 25 meters does not sound much but when you are a 10-year old and swimming, it felt like the English Channel. But I was not going to lose hope. I pushed the water back with all my might. That day I was out to prove something. The race ended. I had come third.
At the day of the prize distribution I was smiling. My name was soon announced and I climbed the stairs to receive the cash prize of Rs. 20 for securing third position in the under-10 swimming competition. Soon friends and aunties came up to congratulate me. But that was not why I was smiling.
I never had to tell anybody that there were only three participants in that race :)
