It'd been quite a while since my palm used to be home to many a badminton racquets...It'd been quite some time since i had moved my arm high enough to smash the darned shuttle cock right into the opponent's gut... In fact, it'd been a long time since i pretty much moved my arse! Besides, my last ten attempts at trying to show off my sporting skills had ended me with ten different injuries- each more frustrating than the next, i might add. So, understandably it was with some anxiety that i stepped foot on the sacred soil of the court this time round.
And lo behold! I survived that night! In fact, i more than survived! I even managed to kick some serious butt! If my over-inflated ego ever needed a push higher up the ladder, it was this. I go play badminton after God alone knows how many years and still come out without embarrassing myself... far from it, actually! Ha! Things just seemed right in life at that glorious instant... And in the normal way that adrenalin seems to work, my brain starts to go into overdrive envisioning sights of professional tournaments and pedestal places for yours truly.... I never denied an over-zestful imagination anyway...or o be more precise, never denied being dangerously optimistic...Hehehe....
And i continued to dwell in happy dreams of sports...in plural. One badminton match won equals a selection into the state basketball team and a college champion in table-tennis! Then only tennis will be the childhood dream yet to be conquered... So I'd take up tennis lessons and soon beat Sania Mirza... I'd probably have to build new show-racks at home for my many medals... But hey! Once i start winning, I'll be earning enough to probably buy a whole new house! Especially with the ad-mad world we live in...the million bucks ain't all that far away, is it? And as i walk back home, exhilarated by the first taste of success, the Heavens seem to smile and shed a happy tear... And as i feel the wetness against my cheek, i feel blessed...like the gods above seem to approve of my plan! That no match is going to be daunting enough...
And once i returned to sanity after my adrenalin-high, and the bubble quite literally burst, i continued to be buoyant...if only just. Yet, that one shot at sport had reignited the spark in a life I had long given up on. The rush of blood to my head opened windows i had heretofore been quite literally blind to. Sigh! With the predictable murkiness that my life had become i somehow lost sight of the smiles that only a ruthlessly fought game of basketball used to bring... or the triumph one can feel only after destroying an opponent in badminton... or just the sense of life one is infused with after a particularly demanding game.... one after which you aren't quite aware of your limbs any more...or the nervous excitement during the build-up to a game that just keeps you alive....in more ways than one can even begin to understand! Sigh!! Blinded by life...although nobody can claim credit for messing my life up other than me!
But as i come the proverbial 'full circle' am just grateful for the new lease of life that my renewed passion for sport brings.So,socks on...laces tied...hair drawn back...eyes alert...scoreboards' cleaned...whistle blows....Time for action! Time for life!
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