Sports Day Dreams

Mick Das

There is this person you may all know that as all young boys of his age had a desire to be a school age athlete. He had this secret longing to take the podium on sports day. Not that he didn't try - he tried year after year. However the school sports day would come and go and he would never be able to impress anyone or tell his parents that he won something. His parents were quite Ok with it actually.  Because this slightly chubby geeky boy with an unruly mop of hair used to do quite OK on the school's annual academic day and in some other competitions that related to academics.  However the greatest disappointment was that Sports day came and went with different sprints, high jump, long jump, javelin, hurdling, long distance running and many other events and even some hokie pokie ones like slow cycling and sack race and kabaddi, but although he tried, there was always plenty of seeming athletes who were better than him.

In 6th grade the disappointment came and went, and in 7th grade the same sequence was repeated. Even the slow cycling wasn't slow enough, the boy's partner in the sack race usually had two left feet and so they couldn't even scrape the bottom of the barrel. Couldn't make the kabaddi team either...boy was all forlorn and sad at the end.  All the so called 'popular girls' cheered for the winners and this  boy came home empty handed once again and to drown his sorrows doubled down on the next novel to hide his pain and disappointment. His skill set in the languages, science and math did not translate to the sports arena. Even all the evenings playing cricket and soccer with the colony kids didn't help him any on the biggest stage with the biggest spotlights.

On to 8th grade with no fantasy in sight...
Somehow this boy had developed an unlikely friendship with two chinese boys whose family ran a chinese restaurant in town; John and Peter Wong. The chinese boys liked this geeky boy because he was very nice to them and had hung out in their restaurant often eating some yummy chilli chicken and learnt a lot about their family. They had a sister Daisy who happened to be the geek's sister's friend too. So a bond had developed. The boy told his sad sport's day disappointments to the younger of the chinese brothers John.  John was pretty moved. Both the chinese brothers were quite athletic and did pretty good on Sports day. So John had an idea and he shared with this boy... and a plan was hatched.
As 8th grade rolled on, every day at recess or in Physical Ed class the two chinese brothers and this boy would practice a certain skill. Now this skill had a peculiarity in that it has some physics and body mechanics to it which wasn't trivial.  The chinese boys were very magnanimous.... and very encouraging as coaches. Finally they told the boy that he would take the podium. The boy was very skeptical... he wasn't a jock and he knew it.  But he enrolled for that particular event.  Hopefully the 'popular girls' would see it and realize he could excel in more than just exam scoring.

The 8th grade Sports day rolled around with a lot of fanfare. The school principal was there, a lot of the teachers, the usual ensemble of girls and boys and the games began.  Then that particular event was announced. Our boy's name was called.  There were a few encouraging cheers since he was well known for reasons other than sports... but those cheers did not hide the tenor of 'what the heck is he doing participating in this event?'  Doesn't he know this will be embarrassing for him. Two Punjabi girls who liked this boy even asked him to let it go.. but the boy was stubborn. He didn't want to let down John Wong (and his chili chicken :)).

The event was Discus throwing. Some very athletic lads came up, but they didn't know how to throw the discus. They just hurled it like a rock without trajectory or spin. Then Johnny came up and pirouetted 360 degrees and sent a superb parabola arcing through the sky with great spin and came up first place in the measurement.  A couple of others tried after that with little success. Our boy, as usual was called last borne of the knowledge that he was just a footnote to be ignored and humored as he won accolades for the school in other regards. They almost hoped he had left the arena. But he hadn't. He came up and inspired by his two chinese friends who stood there and encouraged him, did the same pirouette as John and sent the discus with spin with the body mechanics that John had taught and the thing flew skyward in a parabola, magically arcing the sky. Not as good as John's but it was good - the discus landed a few feet behind John's marker.  Nobody noticed - this boywas no good on this field anyways. But the event was over, and the microphone announcer called the names on the Podium of the discus throw. John Wong - first, the slightly chubby boy with the mop of unruly black hair - second, and God only knows which poor sod got third. The 'popular girls' did cheer... some of them who were the boy's sister's friends even came up and offered their congratulations. The dream had come true!