Thursday, January 9, 2014

Squash, lemons, life...

It all started with a mail. It was a long rally of mails but it was like a rally in squash, I was the sole player in the rally. Anyway, I played a shot and waited, then another shot and then waited again. In the end I slept off with my racket(cellphone) in hand just in case the other player decides to come in. The other player hit a shot and waited for me to wake up, of course riding on a time difference, so not practically waited up just for the rally but anyway, it’s not the point here. The point is that in a rally, you never kill the ball, you always keep it up, I was asleep and lost the rally...Oh yes, I did lose it but I had played well, and I know it, I was slowing down a bit but that was more due to fatigue than lack of intent. So the other player calls of the match at 0600 hours, on a chilly morning! Never have I felt such a shiver run down my spine, I was sweating and shivering at the same time, partly due to the cold and wholly due to the match being called off. The ball was well worn and at the kill shot, the ball just tore up, the rally was over once and for all and no more balls left to continue that rally sic.

I talked to my friends, wrote the declaration of ending the rally, did both simultaneously. You see, the promise to continue that rally was one I held too dear to my heart and hence needed strength. But as they say in french c'est la vie (that's life). Life gives you lemons and sometimes want you to chew them, no lemonade, no tequila but the hard and sour way you do it slowly, excruciatingly blaming all the time to the other player, to the ball, to God and to oneself. But when you chew a lemon, you don't realize that at this very moment for the same mass you are getting more sugar than strawberries. Sometimes the God doesn’t want you to hydrate yourself with a lemonade or get it done with a bottoms up via tequila, he wants you to chew that lemon. To get that extra sugar to not lose another rally and to win the match eventually.

In Paris I walked over a bridge they call as the Pont des Arts, they say if you attach a padlock on the railing and throw the key in the river Siene below, then you would never falter in the rally and it would go on forever. But I did not put a lock there, the idea of relating a lock with a rally sounded preposterous. You see being in a rally doesn’t mean you are bound with the other player, in fact its the exact opposite, the real rally makes you feel free, the smooth court  movements are as if you are floating, gliding doing waltz on the court, its zen. Am I sorry that I did not put a lock there? No.

I will however go to the Pon des Arts once again may be to remember, may be to forget my first rally. The view from the bridge is not that bad either...   

The court is empty, the player is gone but the sweat drops from the rally remain. Someday some other player will come, it will take time though, Squash is not played by many but the good thing is that by that time the last remnants of the sweat drops would also have gone.

C’est la Vie

P.S.- V and V

3 comments:

  1. Speechless. It just cant get better.
    The other player would be way better than the previous one, who would have enough courage, trust and passion for the game that it would go on forever.
    The sugar from the lemon, though sour now, will get sweeter with time. The sweat would vanish as you chew it more and more confidence. Up to the point when your taste buds numb and cant feel the sourness anymore. God wants to teach you something here.
    You were born to CHANGE THE WORLD, Don't let one lost rally decide the result of the game.
    You are the best player of this game, time to get better.

    Not to forget, rallies with friends always go on forever!!

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  2. Do thou fight for the sake of fighting, without considering happiness or distress, loss or gain, victory or defeat--and, by so doing, you shall never incur sin. Gita 2.38

    Pal, remember one thing: It was a well fought rally after all. A lot to learn, a lot to remember, a lot to take back, to cherish, to forget, and most importantly, TO BE WHO YOU ARE! And the match has just begun... :)

    Allez Monsieur!

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  3. A very good piece of writing indeed.
    After all, the rally was worth it!
    Victories and defeats are a part and parcel of this life who we sometimes mistakenly consider a battle.
    This, my dear friend, was not a rally. And your life is not a battle.
    "It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us."

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