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‘The bell rang, and in no time we all closed our notebooks! It was game period! Yahooo. I jumped from my seat & the only ones to match my excitement were the boys of my class. The girls just had expressions of ease, but not of excitement. In such situations, I find myself like an odd one out. Well, this feeling has been with me for a long time now. Anyway, I run out to the open school playground, and the breeze on my face feels like a piece of heaven!’ Everything feels like just yesterday!

All kinds of sports were always close to my heart as they gave me a sense of purpose & made me feel alive in my teenage years. The sense of freedom that came along while participating in games felt like a bonus point. But if I remember, it was because we had a young & dynamic physical education teacher who was passionate about teaching us both the theory & practical aspects of each sport. I would write about him elaborately some other day! I still remember he had these turquoise blue eyes with slightly curly hair. He was tall, fair & extremely light on his feet. He played the musical instrument tango like a pro, & we would wonder how multi-talented he was! There is no need to mention that almost all girls of my school had a crush on him & I too felt the same in my adolescent days. He was my first ever crush!The memory of my physical education teacher teaching us the basics of theory in the class where we literally had to write on designated notes with diagrams, along with the measurements, is still fresh. He would also demonstrate to us the moves on the ground & many times we would have matches between boys & girls & it was so much fun because it brought out the competitiveness to another level.

I always had short hair in school. And I would feel proud about being different in my looks, too. There were two reasons for the same. One, I was a little tomboyish in nature. So I would find it easy to be friends with the boys & feel out of place when girls would do all girly stuff. The second reason was that I was active in sports. I found it a hassle to have long hair & participate in team games like Kabbaddi or Kho-Kho. Apart from team games, I was a regular medal winner in Athletics. My individual events were 200 m, 400 m, and relay races ( 200 m & 400 m). But one team sport that was close to my heart was Kho-Kho. We were the Kho-Kho champions not just of our school, but also won the championship in zonal meets.

Kho- Kho is a traditional South Asian sport that dates to ancient India. It is the second-most popular traditional tag game in the Indian subcontinent after kabaddi. Kho kho is played on a rectangular court with a central lane connecting two poles, which are at either end of the court. During the game, nine players from the chasing team (attacking team) are on the field, with eight of them sitting (crouched) in the central lane, while three runners from the defending team run around the court and try to avoid being touched. Each sitting player on the chasing team faces the opposite half of the field that their adjacent teammates are facing. The first rule book of kho-kho was written by  Bal Gangadhar Tilak.

My personal favourite Kho-Kho move was chasing the runner from the other team until the corner where there was a pole & hitting her with the support of the pole (as shown in the picture below).

This move required a cunning move where you fool the runner into thinking you would pass on the chase to one of the sitting members of your team, but you don’t & thereby confusing the runner, you score a point. You have to be super agile & the running has to be swift like a bird. I remember my younger days when weight was never an issue & where it did not matter if I had dirt on my body or clothes. All that mattered was having the goal of making your team win. And that pat on the back from our beloved physical training sir was like icing on the cake( wink, wink). There was once a moment when Sir had hit me playfully on my head while I had my back towards him on the ground, as he had mistaken me for a guy standing & witnessing the games played by the guys of the class. The moment I looked at him, he was in shock & apologised, saying he just did not recognise me from behind. I was feeling so many things at one time that all I could do was scratch my messy hair & say out loud, “Sir, how can you not recognise me?” And then I just ran away from that place while he gave out a hearty laugh!

Winning individual medals was fine, but the jubilant moment of holding the Champions Trophy in your hand with the entire team was a special feeling altogether. Thanks to the game of Kho-Kho, I have had those moments & still cherish them close to my heart!

Apart from all this, I believe Sports teaches us to be better human beings. The feeling of camaraderie, team spirit & sometimes taking a backstep to make the team win plays a crucial role in character development. Well, to talk about today’s phase, it is so difficult to find children who actually enjoy games. Unless you are training to be a professional sports person, youngsters are more addicted to gaming on phones than being on the ground. And if one has to talk about the grown-ups, they are busy playing relationship games like bread-crumbing, love bombing, benching, cushioning & whatnot! Where are we actually heading as a society?

I wish the innocence of the world before the addiction of mobile phones remains intact, may people learn the best aspects from a sport & may there be collective goodness & may there be many more winning moments both personally & as a humanity as a whole without compromising on the kindness factor.

Love,

Chinmayee

This post is a part of BlogchatterBlogHop.