Alone in the Moment of Glory
Author: Dr. K.S. Kang
Broadly
speaking human life has been divided into physical and intellectual abilities.
Both skills give immense contentment to the individual. But the level of
contentment depends on the number of people, known to you, watching and
appreciating your achievement. Ravi , who
hailed from the rural background, was unfortunate in this aspect. His family by
and large was illiterate and did not understand the significance of Games and
sports in life. Ravi had to struggle a lot to
get his primary education in the lone government school of his village as his
family members considered modern education as waste of money, time and energy
and insisted on doing something so as to contribute to the family in monetary terms.
He also had to struggle to get study material and attention of his lone teacher
of his school. It was not that school had only one teacher but mostly only one
teacher used to be available for teaching them while the other two used to be
either on leave or on some official business to the town. Even from the early
days in the school Ravi had understood that government has not employed
teachers for only teaching but other works as well like Census, selling stamps
and envelopes, cattle census, and elections. If they got any free time from
these activities they taught a few boys who cared to come to the school
regularly. It was nature’s blessing on Ravi
that he was active both in academics as well as in games. Due to God’s will he
overcame all hurdles to complete his primary education and come to a nearby
town to get his higher education. Though the building and infrastructure was
better in the town yet the problems were the same- shortage of staff, equipment
and more over apathy of teachers towards poor and students from rural
background. Ravi ’s first moment of glory in
life came when he was selected in the Kabbaddi team of the school- the sport
that practically required no equipment. As he was lean, thin and quite agile so
he could prove to be quite an asset to the team as a raider . That was the
opinion of the teacher who was in charge of Games and sports in the school.
Here it is to be pointed that School even of the town had no PTI from a long
time as government considered employing Librarians and PTI’s as dead
investments , so the charge of Library and Games was given to some teacher as
additional charge. As a result of this step PTI’s and Librarians had nearly
become defunct in the government institutions. Principal and teacher in charge
of games in the school decided that school’s team should participate in Kabbadi
tournament at the district level. Education Department at the district level
decided to hold Games for the schools in
the town where Ravi was studying in various sports like football, basketball,
hockey and of course Kabadi – popular rural game in the area. From he meager
budget of the school Sky blue T-shirts and white canvas shoes were issued to
the boys of the Kabbadi team and they were given freedom to wear the shorts of
black colour or to some shade similar to it as the team uniform. Though the
players of their team came from different social backgrounds and different
places but they had developed some sort of coordination between them during one
week coaching that was given to them by their teacher. They came to the site of
the tournament much earlier so as to ensure that their team was at right place
in right time. But as usual tournament started one hour behind the schedule
when the esteemed Chief Guest came and their team along with other teams with
placards in their hands marched before the dais saluting the chief guest; and
he in a very solemn voice declared the meet open. Their first match was with
the team of that school which had come for the sake of participation only so
they had put up their hurriedly by putting players of different games together.
So Ravi ’s team had no difficulty in overcoming
this team that consisted of players but of hockey, football and God knows what
other games but not of Kabbadi and secondly their team was disciplined and well
organized. Ravi decided to tell about his
first accomplishment to his family members in the village but the only thing
that he got in return was the scolding, indifference and admonishments of his
parents who considered playing as waste of time and energy. They even said “
Have we sent you to the town to get education or to do silly things like
playing Kabbadi for the school.” Interestingly Ravi ’s
team crossed second hurdle also easily as they got walk over from the team
whose coach and manager was more interested in catching the last bus to his
village rather than playing the match and thus bearing the expenses of the stay
of the team for the night in the town. So Ravi ’s
team after a bye, walkover and a victory reached in the finals of the
tournament that was scheduled to be held in the afternoon next day. The other
team in the final was a strong team as it was one of the most reputed private
school of the town, where the children of the rich and powerful people of the
town studied. So there was no dearth of equipment, coaching and of course
playing kit. Their uniforms were shining brightly, their shoes were new and
comfortable and they had a regular TI, Coach and manager to look after the
needs of the team. Both the times were lined up much after the scheduled time
for the finals when the Chief Guest came as the teams and officials were to be
introduced to the esteemed Chief Guest. After the formalities the match began.
Though Ravi ’s team put up a good fight but
their opponents proved to be too good. Even in defeat Ravi
could not believe that their team was runners up of the tournament and he was a
member of that team and it was no mean achievement for the school to have
played finals of the tournament. Ravi after
the match was staring at the neatly arranged trophies and medals at the table
that were to be given to them. As Ravi’s name was announced from the dais to
receive his medal he secretly wished that some of his family member, or friend
or his neighbour or at least the girl Smriti for whom he had developed some
fascination lately would have become a witness to his first moment of glory in
life . But Ravi knew that his father was too
busy in his fields, his mother too submissive to overcome the hurdles of the
village to come to the town to attend this function and Smriti too much under
pressure of her father to attend it. So when shining silver medal was put
around Ravi ’s neck he was alone in his moment
of glory yet surrounded by crowd of clappers and onlookers.
