For you, Dad.

It was Monday morning after an exhausting weekend. I was in the toilet with today’s The Hindu - Metro Plus in hand.

“Kids who spend a lot of time with their fathers are better learners and have higher self-esteem than those who get just ‘quality time' “ read the beginning lines of an article.

The lines caught my attention. It was an article titled “The togetherness quotient” authored by Geetha Padmanaban on the influence of fathers on the upbringing of their children. I read the whole article, it was beautifully written and I agreed with almost everything which the author had to say. As I was taking my shower, I tried to contemplate how much of my dad was I.

So, contemplating.....

I was 4 years old. I was going to Bosun’s school, the nursery school where I first learned how to write the letter A.

One line - /

One line - /\

And cross it - A

A!

I loved the school, always wanted to go back but that’s a different story.

Dad used to take me to school in the bus every day. He didn’t have a car back then, he still doesn’t have one.

“I don’t need one” he says

Anyways, this one day we were going to school as usual by bus. The stop for my school had come, dad got down first so that he could carry and put me on the road. He always let me walk, he never carried me to school. Just as I climbed down one of the foot board steps, my dad waiting with his arms outstretched to gather me, the conductor blew the whistle and the driver moved the bus. Suddenly fear gripped me, I stared at my father. His outstretched arms went down, eyes widened, he started screaming running after the bus. I didn’t know what to do, I kept looking at him, I could see his lips moving but I couldn’t hear anything. I was overwhelmed with fear, I was too small to think that the next stop was a few meters away and I could get down there and my dad would come and collect me there. It was like I was being taken away from my dad forever, tears rolled down my cheeks, I gripped the handle of the bus tighter in fear and my father was still running after me, shouting. Suddenly the bus stopped, may be the conductor finally heard him and stopped the bus. Dad finally got there and grabbed me. I realized that I just started breathing again. It was only a couple of seconds, the bus would have traveled about 20 meters but it felt like an eternity to me. He wiped my tears, I clutched his shirt.

‘Sorry Sir’ I heard the conductor saying to my dad. The bus left.

Dad was panting, sweating profusely partly because of the sprinting and also because of fear and anxiety.

‘Got scared my boy?’ he asked smiling

I did not answer. I smiled back at him

He put me down, held my hand and let me walk along with him to school. I couldn’t have felt any safer in my life!

I looked up to my father in everything I did, I still do.

He showed me how to walk straight like a man, without stooping forward.

He always told me listening rather than talking made you a lot wiser. Something I’m still trying to put to practice. I’m just not getting any wiser.

He taught me how to knock the door and enter into any room even at our own house.

He has one of the most brilliant minds I’ve ever known. His math is unbelievably quick and sharp and his grammar is immaculate. I still feel he has passed on a little of his grammar gene on to me but the math gene...not even a bit!

Once, both of us went to Coonoor to shop for new dresses and shoes for my birthday. I don’t remember exactly how old I was, should’ve been nine or ten. We finished buying the stuff and went to a restaurant for lunch. On the side of the road leading to the restaurant, there was a very old man sitting begging for alms. I expected dad to give him some money but he just kept walking even after seeing him. I tugged at his shirt telling him to give the old man some money. Looking at me slowing down my father, the old man grew louder. Dad shushed me and told me to walk along. I was upset and angry with him and reluctantly walked looking at the old man who was still staring at me with wanting eyes. I did not talk to dad at all as we went inside the restaurant and found a table for us.

‘What do you want to eat?’ he asked me

‘I looked away’

He smiled and ordered for both of us. I kept quiet staring into the wall as we waited for the server to bring our food

The food arrived and we started eating.

When we had finished, dad called the server and said “Please pack another full meal”

I turned and asked him ‘Are you buying for mom? It’ll go cold by the time we get home and anyways she can make her own food’

He smiled at me without answering. And then it struck me. I smiled back

‘He’s hungry, he wants food, not our money’ dad said

I nodded.

We finished our lunch, picked the parcel up and walked back. I was praying the old man should still be there and he was there. I snatched the parcel from dad’s hand and ran to him and gave the pack to him. The old man opened it, saw the food and looked back at me, his eyes were filled with gratitude, the amount of which I wasn’t able to comprehend. He signalled me to bend low, I knelt in front of him and he blessed me laying his hands on my head saying “nee romba kaalam nalla irupe thambi” (you’ll have a good and long life dear boy). I thanked him and got up, dad came there by then. He looked at dad too and said “romba nandringa aiyaa” (thank you so much Sir) dad smiled at him and the both of us walked away as the old man ate to his heart’s content.

‘And remember one thing’ dad said as we were walking

‘Yeah tell me’ I was almost running to keep up speed with him

‘Always help only the old and the physically challenged people. Don’t ever give alms to the others who are too lazy to earn their food’

‘Okay’

‘And another important thing’

‘Am listening...walk a little slower da’

‘No, you keep up with me’ he said

I continued running.

‘Your left hand can never know what your right hand gives’

‘Huh?’

‘You should never talk about what you did for the poor. Just do it and keep your mouth shut’

‘Okay but I’m gonna tell mom this’

‘To her you can’ he said.

The birthday function went well the next day.

The best thing I like about my father is his sense of humor. We just can’t stop laughing at his jokes. My mother always says that the secret to her sound health is nothing but all the laughing she’s done in their thirty two years of marriage.

I was in my ninth standard when this happened. Quarterly exams were going on and I had math exam the next day. I left home that morning to play cricket, I told mom that I’d be back in the afternoon and would prepare for the exam. Math was not something I liked to do and so I never felt like coming back home. It was 8 in the evening when I got home. I didn’t realize it until I was playing but just when I reached home, the gravity of the situation dawned on me. I was suddenly terrified of what was awaiting behind that door. Mom didn’t show much mercy when it came to studies. I did not want to step inside the house, I wished I could disappear...I wished my mother would disappear...I wished her memory would be wiped off or something...I wished there would be a lot of guests at home and they would never leave until my mom forgot about this day...I wished for the world to end at that moment. I went inside to find out that none of my wishes had come true. Mom was standing there waiting for me, she was furious.

I kept looking at her, I knew what was coming. She came close to me, I held guard still daring to look into her eyes.

‘I’m too angry to even do anything. Let your father handle you today’ she threatened me

Dad came with the same look in his face

‘Look at your son. There’s math exam tomorrow, he left home at 10 in the morning and has just come back’ she registered her complaint

‘Where were you man?’ asked dad

‘Was playing cricket’

‘What about tomorrow’s exam?’

‘What are you doing asking questions? Give him nicely so that he won’t do it again. He doesn’t listen to me anymore’ mom shouted at dad

Dad caught me by my hand and pulled me into the bedroom and shut the door behind us. Mom was outside.

He removed the belt out of his trouser from the hanger and looked at me. I guess I wet my pants that moment, had never seen dad that angry

He raised his right hand with the belt, I closed my eyes and turned away having given up all hope and surrendering myself to the hands of destiny

‘THUD’ I could hear the whipping noise of the belt but surprisingly I felt no contact between and the belt. I slowly opened my eyes to see what had happened

Dad had whipped the bed with the belt and was smiling at me. I started laughing, almost jumping at him

‘Sshhh sshh quiet, your mother is listening. Come on scream now, we need some effect’ he said

He gave another shot at the bed and I screamed

‘Appaaaa’

One more shot at the Kurlon foam bed

‘Ammaaa it’s paining. Daddy stop hitting me please I won’t do it again’

‘Hey don’t overact’ he cautioned

‘Okay okay’ I whispered

Mom was silent for the first couple of hits

Dad hit the bed for the third time and I screamed louder this time trying to fake a cry too

Now mom was banging at the door. She couldn’t take it anymore

‘Stop it stop it. That’s enough open the door. Open the door now’ she was screaming from outside

We were jumping inside, I was having the time of my life. Another shot and I screamed even louder

One more. And another one. I was enjoying my act.

Mom was getting hysterical, she was banging at the door so hard that we couldn’t concentrate on our act anymore

‘Shall we open the door? Guess I’ve punished you enough’ dad winked at me

‘Okay. Poor thing, let her in’ I said

He opened the latch and mom came rushing inside

She grabbed me and started yelling at my father

‘What are you doing! I just asked you to threaten him a little. Have you gone mad....’ she went on for a while, I don’t remember most of what she said to him

Dad listened to everything quietly and finally smiled

‘What are you smiling at? What’s wrong with you?’ she was still hugging me, tears in her eyes

Dad looked at me, I nodded

‘Thud’ he hit the bed with the belt

‘Ammaaa’ I screamed

She looked at me, she looked at him and she let go off me

‘What? Have you been? You didn’t? Bed?’ she stuttered

He hit the bed again and I screamed again and this time the both of us were laughing uncontrollably

‘Idiots...brats...both are just the same. You keep doing this to him and he’ll grow up just like you’ she couldn’t be angry anymore

We had one of the longest laughs that night.

I scraped through that Math paper with a decent 64. More importantly, I never went home late again.

I can’t remember the last time dad raised his voice, on me or my sister, not even my mother. I have memories of a million lashings from my mother when I was small but not one from my dad. His composure and patience is another thing I’m just not able to imitate.

‘Studying is very important’ he said, ‘but only as long as you learn something out of it. Remember those are two different things’ he said

He always insisted that we go to bed early. He also never failed to wake up in the middle of the night and wake me up to watch my favorite football team playing live.

He got me whatever I asked for but he also said ‘Never flaunt your possessions, not all your friends would have the same opportunities as you have. Friends are the one of the most important people in your life, you need to have a good bunch of them’

Dad loves my mother as much as he loves me or my sister, if not more. He has never treated her with any kind of disrespect, even the most subtle of them.

‘Your mother loves you more than I or anybody else does. Never make her unhappy’ he said.

One thing my father never taught me was how to make a lucrative career, because he himself did not make one. He had a good education but did not want to work as a salaried employee. He started a couple of businesses but failed. He was never good at confronting people. He lent a lot of stuff on credit but never managed to collect what was due. That way he was never going to succeed in doing his own business. He took up to agriculture just like my grandfather – we grow tea.

Dad always gave us the freedom to decide what we wanted to do with our lives. He made sure we were well aware of the choices and the resulting consequences but the final decision was always left to us. Right from the clothes we wanted to wear to the courses we took up in college, it was our decision, mine and my sister’s. We will always be thankful to him for that, to our mother too.

Finally, from whatever I’ve seen between my father and my sister at home, I believe that the father is a girl child’s first ever relationship with the opposite sex. He’s the first man she meets and spends time with. He represents the whole masculine side of the world to her. So, it more or less shapes the girl’s attitude towards men in general, her respect for them and her behaviour towards them for the rest of her life. And I’m pretty sure my father has done a wonderful job out of that too. My sister would definitely agree.

We can’t choose our father, but I couldn’t have asked for a better one!

'Dharshan.....'

‘Dharshan...open the door. What are you doing inside so long?’ Sathish was screaming outside banging at the bathroom door

‘Chill man...just a little flashback’ I said getting out

I got ready and left for office.

I just want to finish with these lines from the same article –

“When a mother picks up her kids she snuggles them, there's love and warmth. But when a father picks up his kids, he carries them on his shoulders from where they can see the world!”

He's special!

Seven billion strong. Or are we?

"Dude tom morn 6.30 madhavan park" Sharath messaged. I set my alarm to 6 and went to bed. We play football in the mornings, I had asked sharath to talk to the other guys and confirm if we were playing the next morning since it was a holiday. I woke up to the alarm after snoozing only once - have gotten used to waking up early in the morning. I reached the ground at around 6.30 and the others guys were just coming. Only six of us had come today, we played a good game for about an hour. It was 7.45 and it was time to leave. We removed our studs, put on our flip flops and strode back to the parking lot. We stood there and were talking about the Van Persie hat-trick in the weekend Arsenal – Chelsea game. Just as we were talking about how Terry had slipped and let Persie score his second, something happened.

A woman came out of a house on the opposite side of the road with a bucket in her hand. She walked slowly to the middle of the road, looked on both sides to make sure no vehicle were coming and SPLAASSHH…she poured the contents of the bucket right at the middle of the road and walked back, closed the gate behind her and went inside her house. We were stunned looking at what just happened. It was water that she poured, from the steam which rose from it we felt the water was boiled or something. Also there were two grey objects too lying on the road, we couldn’t guess what they were. We got back to our conversation and dispersed in a few minutes. I had come walking to the ground so Sharath said he would drop me home. I climbed on to the back as Sharath rode the bike. We had to cross those grey objects and the water as we went back. We saw what those were when we got close enough, they were rats! Two dead rats!

‘What the hell’ Sharath exclaimed

‘I know. She just threw away two dead rats on the middle of the main road’ I replied, still not able to believe what we just saw

‘Why the hot water man, they were planning to cook and eat them or what’ sharath joked

I smiled and looked the other side.

To me, what that woman had just done was the epitome of our whole country’s general irresponsibility towards the community. I couldn’t help but wonder what that woman was thinking when she did that. Was she thinking that the corporation janitors would anyway come and clean it off? Did she even realize that the road was public property and doesn’t belong to her just because it was in front of her house? Did she think of how much harm those dead rats could cause to the people around in the shops and commuters who pass by? Well I don’t think she had thought of any of those. To her it was just the road where other people drove and it’s the government’s responsibility to clean it up. Those rats aren’t in her house anymore and that’s all she cares for.

Now I can safely say each and every one of us at some point or the other have been that woman. It may not be dead rats that we threw but even garbage from our houses, food wastes or whatever it may be. We can’t deny the fact that you and I are responsible for the mess we’ve created around ourselves.

World population hit 7 billion yesterday. (Baby Nargis, the world’s 'symbolic’ seven billionth person was born near Lucknow on Monday). We Indians alone form about 15% of the whole chunk and we don’t look like slowing down any soon.That more than anything else should make us only more responsible than anybody else, shouldn't it?

Yes, we are the fastest growing economy and the largest consumer market in the world. Yes, the IT industry in the US would collapse if not for us Indians. Yes, an Indian company owns a club in the English Premier League. Yes, our movies make billions at the box offices worldwide. Yes, we hosted out first F1 grand prix spending about 2000 crore on the Buddh circuit. Yes, India has become the most attractive destination for automobile companies and all other types of foreign investment. Oh yeah we’ve also destroyed all our trees to make way for this humongous economic juggernaut to march on. No doubt we can be proud of all this growth but we need to face the fact that India still stands behind Guatemala in terms of living standards and human development. Guatemala? Seriously?

We can blame the government and the administration as much as we want but at the end of the day, it boils down to each one of us to act responsible and salvage whatever is still left. Our country is too precious, we can’t afford to give up so easily. Let the government come up with its green initiatives, let the auto companies come up with their ‘eco-friendly’ cars, let the real estate developers come up with their ‘green’ housing projects – all good for the CSR image of their brands but what actually makes a difference are the small things we do, day in and day out.

I’m not trying to be the ‘social activist’ here, not the ‘savior of the environment’. I’m not beckoning for a revolution or a sea of change. Not that cliché again, we all know how that’ll end up. But… what am asking for is,

Next time when you throw that plastic wrapper on the road, just think twice.

It goes a long way!

The sweetest win ever

‘Volleyball team selection is happening today at 3pm in the court. PT Sir asked for the names of students who want to play’ howled Sreejith, the boy from 8^th standard. ‘9^th A have already given their names, please give your names’

I was in 9^th B section. I liked playing volleyball, not because I loved the game or anything but my school somehow seemed to give importance to that game (may be because all it needed was a small court, a ball and a net). I studied in PMS, a higher secondary school in Kotagiri, a small town in Ooty. My school was well known for its academic standards, barely for its sporting prowess. We didn’t have a football ground of our own. Volleyball would let me bunk classes and also I knew I could play the game fairly well, so I put up my hand.

Sreejith knew me, so didn’t have to ask for my name. He saw my hand raised and wrote down my name.

One by one, the others followed.

Lokesh, Demas, Kiran, Prabhu, Jagadish, Ramesh, Yuvraj, Radhakrishnan, Ashok, Samuel and Praveen gave their names from my class.

Sujith, Babu, Ben, Arun and three Vinoths had given their names from 9^th A. Sreejith himself too had given his name (he was the only boy from 8^th standard)

The selection was for the boys ‘senior’ team. There were three categories in sports across all schools – Junior, Senior and Super Senior. 6^th and 7^th std. were the Juniors, 8^th, 9^th and 10^th were the Seniors, 11^th and 12^th formed the Super Seniors.

The last class that day was Math. So it was a double joy for me to go for selection at 3.

We all left class immediately after Amirta Mam, our history teacher left class.

19 of us were there in the court – excited and nervous. Some of them were jumping and checking the height of the net and all. I knew they were trying to be over smart ‘coz the truth is, none of us would ever be able to reach the top of the net, however hard we jumped. We all were too small, the tallest among us, Lokesh was about 5ft, may be not even that.

We were standing there and chatting in groups when PT Sir arrived with three volleyballs. His name was Mr.Dev, he had joined our school only that year. He was dark, looked fit and seemed to know something about volleyball. Mr.Sundar, one of the Maths teachers also came along, maybe it was a ‘free period’ for him.

‘All stand in line’ said PT Sir pointing to the end of the court.

We had a feeling he was not as good with his English as he was with his volleyball. We didn’t mind it considering our own standards of English.

The 19 of us stood in one line along the end of the court.

‘This is Senior team?’ he asked

‘Yes sir’ I don’t remember which one of us answered

‘Ok listen carefully. 19 of you are here, so make three teams of 6 each’

‘Sir…’ Arun wanted to say something

‘I know, one team will have 7 players, it’s okay, it’s only to check how well you are all playing’ PT cut him short

‘Shut up and stand’ somebody whispered. Should have been into Arun’s ears

‘I will select 6 main players and 2 substitutes from this 19’ he said

We divided ourselves into 3 groups and were ready to go

‘Ok, only underarm serve, no rotation game only still game, net touch, line cross not a problem’ PT sir laid the ground rules.

A ‘rotation game’ is one in which all the 6 players shift positions in a clockwise direction after every point.

The other two teams got into the court. I had to wait for my turn, for my team to play.

The guys were fighting among themselves for positions in the court. Sir blew the whistle and asked them to settle down quick, they could change positions as the game proceeded. After all, it was just for selection.

Ashok served, the game started. The ball went straight into the net

‘Sorry sorry sorry’ he said and got the ball back

I could see the guys were already tensed.

He served again, this time he could get it above the net and to the other side of the court. The game went on..PT was observing each boy carefully, he didn’t interrupt the game when they made mistakes, he just let them play and watched.

I watched them play too. Some of them were miserable, they were hitting the ball straight into their own faces by folding their elbows while receiving the ball. The serves went to the classrooms nearby instead of the other side of the court. They were constantly bumping into each other without calling for the ball and at other times, two guys would let the ball fall right in between them not knowing if one should take or the other. As time went by, it was becoming pretty obvious that most of them had come just for the heck of it, they looked like clowns laughing at their own mishaps. But a few, I noticed looked very comfortable out there. Lokesh, Sujith, Sreejith, Demas and Prabhu seemed to have good control, knew their positions well, hit good serves and Lokesh even hit a smash to which all clapped. I knew at that moment, he would be selected.

Sir stopped them after about 20 minutes. He asked one team to come out and let us get in. It was my chance to play, to impress and somehow earn a place in the team. I told the guys I wanted to play in the ‘setter’ position and they were okay with it

‘Setter’ is the one who sets the ball for the ‘spiker’ to smash. His would most times be the second touch during the rally. One team is allowed only 3 touches before they could send the ball to the other side of the court in a volleyball game

My first touch wasn’t great. Instead of setting the ball to Vinoth who was in the spike’s position, I sent the ball into the other side in the second touch itself

‘Dharsaan..3 touches’ growled PT

‘Yes Sir’. It made me nervous but I felt good about the touch though the ball didn’t go where I wanted it to. I realized my fingers were pretty good – which is of most importance to any setter.

We played for a while and PT replaced players from other team which left after the first 20 minutes. After about half an hour, after all the 19 of us got a chance to play for a considerable amount of time and show off our skills, the match was stopped.

He blew the whistle. ‘Stop..stop..enough that’s enough’

We all stopped playing and looked at him.

‘Go stand in the line’ he said

All of us went back to one long line like before.

Some were panting, some, including myself had our hands on our knees after a lot of running around

‘Ok I selected my team. Now I call names, that boys one step forward’ PT said

We were all nervous except for the few who knew they were not going to make it anyway. I could hear whispers, my eyes were fixed at the PT. During the game, I had realized I was better in this than I thought. I liked the feel of the ball in my fingers and I suddenly liked playing the game. I wanted to get selected, I wanted to be a part of the team

We waited in silence.

‘Lokesh’ he called out. I knew it

Lokesh stepped out smiling.

‘Demas’

My heart beat was getting faster. Did I play well enough? What if I don’t make it? Will he chuck me for not playing 3 touches? It was almost impossible for me to remain quiet. I held myself and waited.

‘Sujith’

‘Vinoth’

By now I almost lost hope. There were only 4 more places to fill and I didn’t think I could make it. I could feel a drop of sweat creeping down the back of my neck. I wouldn’t know if it was because of the game we played or of the tension.

‘Dharsaan’ he called

I smiled.

I took one step forward and joined the team. I looked at Demas to my left, ‘yess’ he said showing me his folded fist. I felt like jumping. I felt like hitting the ball into the sky. I was in the team!

‘Sreejith’

‘Kiran’

‘Prabhu’ he called out the remaining three

‘Others go to class. Thank you for coming’ he said

They all walked away slowly looking at us with jealousy. Some of them were smiling, some were genuinely disappointed. A couple of them even went to PT and asked something

‘No no, go to class its over’ he said

The eight of us looked at each other proudly. We were giving high 5s and were already discussing our positions

‘Team, come here’ PT called us

‘We walked to him together’

‘Congratulations. You are senior team. Kiran and Prabhu substitutes, others main players’

Kiran and Prabhu looked content.

‘Tomorrow we will decide positions’ he continued

‘Practice Sir?’ I asked, partly over-enthusiastic and partly because there was some more time for Math class to finish

‘Practice from tomorrow. Super-senior team also coming. Already selected that team. Only 11^th standard boys in that team. 12^th standard have to study’ he went on

The Super senior team had Sriram, Ranjith, Nishanth and a few others’ names I can’t recall.

‘8 ‘o clock come to school. Practice until 9.30. Then evening from 4 to 5.30 also practice’ he said

We all nodded, though a little disappointed that we had to practice before and after class, not during them!

‘Go to class now’ and he left along with Sundar Sir who didn’t open his mouth throughout the hour.

The eight of us walked to the taps, washed our hands and legs and faces slowly and walked back to our classes very slowly. The moment we reached our class, the final bell went off. We waited for Jayalakshmi Mam to leave class and then we went inside while the A section guys already went inside their class. We picked up our bags and the eight of us met outside.

We had a small discussion about what time to come and the stuff to bring, etc. Sreejith suggested we play for some time, it would be a little too much we thought and decided not to play that evening. We dispersed and set off for home, a proud lot!

The next day, I reached school at 7.45. By 8.10, all the 8 of us and PT sir were there. The super-senior team was also there. After a few warm-up drills we played a game, us against the super-senior guys just to finalize on our positions. After the short game and a small discussion, the positions were fixed. Sujith would play ‘centre’, Lokesh and Sreejith on either side behind him. I would be the ‘setter’, Vinoth, the ‘spiker’ and Demas on the other side in the front which we called ‘minus’. Kiran and Prabhu when substituted would play at the back. Lokesh wanted to play ‘spike’ but he was good at receiving the ball too, so we made him play at the back behind Vinoth so that he could also come around Vinoth for the long set and smash the ball. Sreejith could come around Demas on the other side for the smash. All of us were happy with our positions, I felt we were making a great team complimenting each other really well. One big plus for us was that, we were very good friends already, so gelling along as a team was not an issue whatsoever.

We practiced regularly. Every morning we used to come to school early for an hour’s practice and after classes for another hour and half. We trained hard honing our skills, ironing out our faults. However hard we worked, we all enjoyed playing with each other, we were having a lot of fun. We never criticized the other person, we only tried to encourage at every opportunity given to us.

Practice went on well, we could feel the difference in the way we played, the confidence and comfort levels after about a month of practice. The super-senior team too was coming along good, we regularly played against them and to our credit, we beat them several times too. They were always supportive of us and we became good friends with them in spite of the difference in age. They were a wonderful bunch of guys.

We got the fixtures in the beginning of July (2002). The games were beginning in August. It was conducted by the government across all schools in the district irrespective of the board, medium of teaching and government/private owned. Our first match was against the government school of Mettur, a town near Coonoor. Government schools were usually good in volleyball because the students mostly played the game in their neighborhoods too. The super-senior team too had to play the same school in their first match.

If we beat the Mettur school, we would have to play either Breeks school from Ooty or another government school from a town I can’t recall, whoever wins their first game against each other.

If we beat them, then came the big match. The one we were all looking forward to. The one we almost dreaded. The one PT had warned us of. The one against Stanes Higher Secondary School, Coonoor. Stanes had one of the best volleyball teams in the district. The boys were gigantic, trained regularly by the best of coaches and had a wealth of experience in Inter-school volleyball. On the other hand, we were far inferior in size compared to them though I always believed talent wise we were almost there. We had also been training only for a couple of months now and above all, this was the first time we ever were going out of school to play another school. We were sure they’ll easily proceed to the third round, so it was only a question of us qualifying to face them.

‘If you get yourselves to play Stanes, you’ve done well’ said PT ‘against them the result won’t matter, you just give your best’ he said

We had a little more than a month to get ready. As the day closed by, we sought permission from the principal and began practicing during class hours too. It was no more about bunking classes but winning matches. We were slowly improving on our basics, jumping higher, calling out better, serving flatter and smashing harder. An air of confidence had crept into the team and it was becoming easier to believe in ourselves, that we were capable of something special.

There was one more week to go, our jerseys and shorts had arrived. Yellow jersey and black shorts. I got the number ‘7’ which I had requested for. We stayed longer hours at school, we practiced for about 5 hours every day. We were diving around, sweating it out..everybody seemed to be pumped up and ready for the challenge.

It was the day before the game. We took the whole day off class but trained only for a couple of hours. We took it easy going over all our plays carefully. We were ready to go!

Mrs. Jessie Sampath, our principal met us that evening. She spoke for a few minutes encouraging us and we all prayed together.

August 5, 2002.

Both the teams had arrived at school by 7.30. Our matches were scheduled at 10.30 and Mettur was a 90 minute travel from our school. We had planned to reach there early, have some breakfast and warm ourselves up a bit before the games begin.

We left in the school bus along with PT Sir and Sundar Sir. This time Sundar sir was full of positive energy talking to us throughout the journey. We had never seen him in class like that.

We reached Mettur at around 9. It was a bright day with good sunshine which was unusual in August. We had breakfast and went to the changing rooms they had allotted us, one of the class rooms of the government school. We changed to our gear and got on to the ground for some last minute warm up. The super seniors had their game first. We thought we could get a fair idea of our opponents from that match.

All the games were 3 setters, 25 points for the first 2 sets and if the match went to the third set, it would be played for only 15 points.

We all sat down in the audience as the match began. Our guys started well but as the match progressed, the home team turned out to be too strong. It was a good match but eventually the Mettur boys beat our super seniors in 3 sets. They were utterly disappointed but they knew they lost to a quality team.

It was our turn now. We were a little nervous looking at our seniors lose, but were confident enough to brush aside those fears. We got into the court. The whole town of Mettur had gathered by now to cheer their team. We had our teachers and our seniors cheering for us. The ‘senior’ outfit of Mettur too looked pretty groomed. They were doing their last minute practice hits which actually scared us a bit. The six of us told ourselves to remain calm and play our game how we knew it.

Mettur won the toss and asked us to serve. After one last huddle, we took our positions. Sreejith took the first serve. It was a good flat upper arm serve and we were already acknowledging it yelling ‘service daa’. But the opposition received it well and their smasher hit a strong smash which Sujith couldn’t control, the ball went flying out of the court from his hand. We all rushed to him cheering him for the effort and got ready getting back to our positions to face their serve. Sujith received the serve well, I set the ball up for Vinoth who jumped in the air and hit the ball into the net.

2 – 0.

The opposition guys gathered some momentum and the score line stood at 12 – 4 in favor of them when we took our first time-out. PT asked us to calm down

‘It’s still in your hands, stay calm, just break one serve and the set is ours’ he said

It was their serve.

A flat serve came speeding across the net which I thought had won the point itself, I didn’t even expect the ball to come back to me at the first touch. But Sreejith at the back did something spectacular. He threw himself to his right for an unbelievable take and everybody screamed in excitement. The ball lobbed high in the air and I called for the second touch. Vinoth and Demas were getting ready for the smash calling out for it and the blockers in the opposition were gearing themselves to block Vinoth and Demas, whoever took the shot. I lifted the ball high..both Vinoth and Demas jumped up along with the blockers of the opposition, the ball sailed high above Vinoth and past him who had no clue what was going on..but nobody had noticed Lokesh running around Vinoth from the back, he timed his run perfectly, jumped high in the air to meet the ball just above the net and let out a thunderous smash across which hit one of the opposition players right on his face. We all jumped in joy and ran to Lokesh and hugged him. I got my hugs too for the deceiving lift.

‘Thanks Dharshaa’ Lokesh said smiling

And from that moment on, the Mettur boys just couldn’t catch us. We took them on a roller coaster ride and enjoyed every bit of it. Vinoth was neat with his smashes, Demas was ruthless with his own. Sujith was sublime with his first touch and Lokesh and Sreejith were flying around at the back digging every ball out. We suddenly realized how good we were. Everybody played to their potentials and we won the game in straight sets. We shook hands with the opposition team and their coach. The coach, an elderly man congratulated us for our efforts. We felt good about it.

The second match turned out to be easier than the first. We played very well again and beat Breeks by a good margin. We were beginning to anticipate each other’s movement well and we were forming a strong unit.

This time, the celebrations were short lived though, as we knew the time had come. Stanes had beaten their previous two teams rather too easily and were in prime touch was the word around though we hadn’t seen them play yet. But we knew this was the moment we had worked so hard for. The first two wins were just means of getting here. This match against Stanes was the ultimate challenge and we knew we were ready for it. The match was at 3. We had lunch and rested for a while trying to calm ourselves down. We were a bit tired from the first two games but that was no excuse at all. We had to give it everything we had if there was any chance of getting close to them. The match was nearing.

Around 2.30 we caught our first sight of the Stanes team. They had set out to warm up just like us. They were considerably taller than us and stronger. One boy in particular by the name Seeshan was a monster, and their main smasher. Watching them practicing for a while sent chills up our spines but we were determined to play our games to the highest levels possible. One thing the six of us knew was that we were not going to go down without a fight.

It was time for the match. We stood in a huddle in the centre of the court. By now, the huge ground in which the court was set up was full. Players from other schools and locals from the town had all gathered there.

‘May be they had heard of us winning the first two games and obviously they knew of Stanes. So they were expecting a high intensity match’ I thought to myself.

But this time, the crowd was on our side. They ignored the ‘big boys’ from Stanes and were cheering for us. Our seniors sat at the top of the slope on one side of the ground and were screaming at the top of their voices.

Stanes won the toss and asked us to serve.

We took our positions clapping and cheering up each other. Lokesh took the serve this time. It was a weak serve which sailed high above the net. It was acceptable considering the amount of tension and nervousness we were in. The ‘centre’ in the opposition took it easily, the setter lifted the ball high, Seeshan jumped, me and Demas jumped together in an attempt to block his shot and he hit the ball with all his might..we were nowhere near his hands. The ball struck the ground right in between me and Sujith almost setting the ground in vibrations and bounced high up in the air. The crowd stood in stunned silence. I stood there facing the 5 of my team mates. I would never forget the look on their faces at that moment. A look of disbelief..a look of horror. Not one single soul in the whole ground at that moment thought we had any chance of winning the game.

We braced ourselves quickly and swore that we won’t give up. Seeshan’s mauling went on unstopped. They won the first set 25 – 10.

We came out of the court with our heads hung. We could sense pity in the air, for us. I could even notice some of the audience making their way out. They knew it was over. We remained silent drinking our water and energy drinks.

PT sir remained silent.

‘It’s okay you’ll tried your best. We knew they were going to be strong’ Sundar sir tried to console

‘It’s still not over’ said Demas, ‘we can still win it if we find a way to stop Seeshan’ he said. We all looked at him and he went on explaining what he had in mind.

We had almost missed the fact that though the whole Stanes team was strong, Seeshan was their only smasher.

‘And he can smash the ball only if it’s set properly to him’ I said and everybody agreed in unison

So our only way out was to make sure the ball was not set for him to smash, which in turn meant that the first touch shouldn’t go cleanly to their setter.

We sensed we had a plan. We started to cheer each other up. We had to make sure not one among us lost hope. The six of us spoke together for another 3 minutes and we had our plan in place. The plan was this – we were not going to try to smash the ball at all. All we were going to do was to drop the ball in between them, be it on the first, second or third touch and make them chase the ball. The setter should never get the ball cleanly to lift, we had to disrupt their rhythm and work Seeshan up.

The break was over and we all rushed into the court with new found energy. Something told us this was going to work and we were going to play like our lives depended on it.

It was their turn to serve and this time I could proudly declare that the breakthrough was provided by me. It was a flat serve and Sujith received it well and lobbed it high for me. Just like every other time, Vinoth and Demas were getting ready to jump as Lokesh and Sreejith were running around them from the back for their shot. The blockers in the opposition including Seeshan were setting themselves up for the block. The ball was still in the air as I was positioning myself to set the ball when I noticed Seeshan had already come to the net in a bid to block the smash. I waited until the last moment until the ball landed on my fingers and gently dropped the ball into the vacant position of Seeshan’s. This was utterly unexpected and he tried to get back to his position...he let out a huge grunt as he bent and tried to fetch the ball but in vain..the ball fell to the floor and we had won the point. First blood!

My team mates rushed to me in celebration.

Lokesh and Vinoth were not smashing the ball anymore. They were pushing it hard across in between the back and the centre, the minus and the back, the smasher and the centre and the Stanes boys were soon running around chasing the ball all over the court. Demas too was doing a great job jumping high and dropping the ball into vacant areas. Meanwhile we were throwing ourselves all over the court digging out balls which were otherwise unreachable. This may sound like ‘absolute ranting’ but then it was just what happened. We played like we were possessed. We won the second set 25 – 19.

A huge cheer went across the ground, we could see that the ground was full again. Now we sensed a win was not out of reach. Our plan was working. Though Stanes would come prepared in the third set, if we played as well as we did in the second set, we were confident of winning it.

The third set turned out to be nothing different. Stanes lost the plot completely. Seeshan had decided to do everything by himself, he was running around for every ball and making a mess out of it. He was running out of energy. And we were relentless..at one point, Sreejith and Sujith were sending the ball back in the first touch itself which completely disrupted the flow of their game. Towards halfway in the third set, Seeshan was literally gasping for air not able to even jump anymore. We were drained completely ourselves but were in no mood to relax. The crowd was cheering every touch. There were hands patting us on the back whenever our players stepped out of the line to take the serve. We played unbelievably well as a team always looking out for each other and soon, the match was over.

We won the third set 15 – 7 and won the match. We jumped and screamed and celebrated. We were battered and bruised playing on the mud court but the joy of victory over the ‘unbeatable team’ dwarfed all the pain. We just couldn’t hide our joy. The crowd rushed into the ground to congratulate us, we felt like real winners, like champions. Our seniors, PT sir and Math Sir were there cheering for us, ever proud of us. It was a moment to cherish.

We went back home that night feeling happier than ever before. The news had spread like wildfire at school. The next day morning at the assembly, the Principal called us to the front and announced our feat to the whole school. From then on, everybody seemed to know us in school, we had become popular overnight.

We went on to win the divisional level in ‘senior’ category inter-school volleyball. We also represented our school until twelfth standard winning and losing several games but that one win against Stanes will remain etched in our memory for a long time to come.

I loved my team.

I loved my school.

I still do!