I still remember this vivid incident way back in 1991, somewhere in November. I was in the 6th Std. and it was the Annual Sports Day in my school . Since the day i had seen one of my cousin sisters get the individual championship cup , that had become my dream - To hold that cup some day (to this day i have not been able to achieve that). And in my child mind, as always, i thought then that this was the year i had the biggest chance to become the individual champion. I was all excited and had practiced sprints n jumps for almost a month in Doha Corniche tugging my dad along with me every night to record my timings for the sprint and to measure my jumps.
And boy finally the D-day arrived. Annual sports meet 1991-1992. I was all set. Clad in Yellow shorts and t-shirt i went to school all ready to lift the cup of my dreams.
(I was in the yellow house. The entire school was divided into 4 colours - red, blue, green, yellow). I had reached school pretty early and few of my class mates had also arrived. We decided to practice before the actual events kicked off...and we did small sprints. And i was very elated coz in all these practice sessions i was emerging the winner with the best time and best jumps...my joy knew no bounds...!!I already started dreaming of the final function when i would be handed the cup.
The bell rang for the school assembly and while the students were gathering for the assembly, me and a couple of my friends decided to do one last practice before everythin commenced.
We got ready at the start line and swoosh...we ran and my leg got tangled with another friend of mine "Syed jaffer"..and i fell on the cemented floor..BAM!!my hand was smarting in pain...and my friends came running around to seeif i was ok!!I stood up bravely just shunnin them away sayin nothin could go wrong with me..!!I was not going to loose that cup of mine for anything in this world.
The events started. The first was the 100 meters dash qualifiers, i made it thru till the semifinals. Then was the 200 meters for which i had made it thru till the final. For long jump, though weighing nearly 50 kilos(over weight for a 6std. guy), my efforts did not go in vain. I got a bronze medal for the same.
I knew I was nearing my goal. all i had to get was probably a gold each in 100 mts and 200 mts and probably a silver for the 800 meters which was my last event. Any student was allowed to participate only in 4 individual events of which not more than 3 could belong to a particular category (so i had 3 track and 1 jump event).
My hand was writhing in pain all the while. I kept quiet. I could not make a fuss of the pain and get myself out of the race when i saw my chances of gettin the cup were very bright.
The 800mts was my last event. The finals of the 100 mts and semi n finals of the 200 mts was scheduled for the next day. I realised getting a silver in the 800 would vey well guarantee the cup. The race started. I completed one circle round the track(400 mts) comfortably. i was in the third or forth position and i had plans of accelerating in the last 100 mts or so...and i was nearing the last 100 mts..my hand was beginning to pain real bad...and the heat (somewhere round 30 degrees) was almost getting into me...my vision blurred...but i was not to give up...i needed that cup..i could not give up after comin so far...i kept running...and in the last 50 meters or so...i collapsed on the track...i fainted........................
Afte 5 min, i felt sprinkles of water on my face. Rubbin my eyes, wrist paining real bad, i got up and from the corner of my eyes i saw the medals being given away for the 800 metres and i knew i had lost it...i started crying. my mom( who is the vice-priniciapl of my school) was next to me and thought that i was cryin in pain. and i looked at my left hand and saw that there was a huge swell on my wrist..i was sent to the hospital in the school bus by my mom and by the time i reached hospital , dad had also reached the hospital.
The doctor took an x-ray and checked. I had Goddamned fractured my wrist. It was just a small crack butt due to lack of giving attention at the right time and having lifted weights and did long jump too , the fracture had become worse.
I got my first dose of scolding from the doctor for not coming to the hospital straight away. (who in the world would have thought that such a normal fall would result in a fracture...if i listened to his words...i would have been in hospital everyday every hour of my school life..i guess;-))
And then i got the second dose of scolding from my dad for trying to act smart. He even asked me if i was Carl Lewis or not...
I had no answer.......Maybe not Carl Lewis but then , upto even this day I maintain that I could have been the Individual Champion for the Sub-junior category in 1991 in my school...........and who knows how my fate would have been then.......
1 comment:
fate.. yeah! same thing that day in college when zahid fell down n' screwed up our (urs, rakesh's n mine) chances of winnin that open relay! dont worry kid.. even i believe u'd have won that individ. c'ship. but trust me its even worse to win it n have it snatched away frm ya unfairly, like it happened to anoop when we were in 12th. we had the same restriction of 4 events.. n he won gold in all of 'em.. n then next day, they came up sayin his triple jump [he'd won this by FAR!] measurements were wrong.. n he wuz stripped of his prize n' had to present it to another bugger in the balcony in the school assembly. what made it worse wuz that anoop wuz in my house [violet] n the other bugger wuz in yellow, our competitor, n we'd come overall 1st in sports beatin them after a decade [i know 'cuz i wuz in violet all my skool dayz, which spanned 14 yrs!]. friggin partiality.. MUCH worse!!! so console urself..
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