Sunday, December 16, 2007

Health is Wealth Day!!

Junjun's sports day was called that. And it has taken me quite some time to recover enough to write about it.

His grandfather was an athlete and so was his mother and his dad was a hockey player - so how bad could it get?

Real bad.

There they were. Seven little ones ready to start off on their running race. Arjun's name was called but i couldnt see him there! And then at the end of the track, there is this tiny boy with his back to the starting line. It cant be, i thought to myself. But it was. Our very own flesh and blood, obviously minus the athletic genes.

The whistle blew and our man calmly turned around and strolled across the first few steps .... and .... stopped! By now all the other children were running and all their parents were screaming with joy and pride. And then there were Maddy and me...watching in stunned silence as arjun became one of the only two children to be escorted till the finish line by an ayah.

But never mind. we thought. There was still the parent-child race and i had geared up for it by ensuring i wore my sneakers. I had decided i would let arjun run on his own and would only do the puzzle placed half way across the track and then let arjun run again. But that apparently was not the idea everybody else had. Barely had the whistle blown when the children were swung around hips and parents both big and small dashed off to do the jigsaw puzzle. My little man bawled his lungs out when i held his hand and started running. So i had to stop and pick him up to prevent the impression of torture. I had barely bent to put the 6 piece jigsaw together when i realized i was the only one still sitting! So my butterfly jigsaw had a distinct picasso effect as parts flew all over the place and i trudged off with arjun.

We came last. Not just last but so very last that no one realized we didnt actually complete the race. I looked at Maddy sitting under the shamiana and he shrugged and shook his head in disbelief. I was totally torn between wanting to laugh and hide at the same time. And all this while arjun was shrieking his head off.

Since this was a pre-schooler event, it was clearly mentioned in the invite that all events were participatory and NOT competitive. So the end of the day saw arjun get a medal and a certificate just like all the other kids. (applause!! both for the school and junjun pl)

I suspect Maddy was relieved he came for the event in a different car so no one would know that he was connected to us in ANY way. :)

I would write more but i've got to go pay for my membership in the new gym thats opened up. They asked me if i wanted to lose weight and after i narrowed my eyes, they quickly added 'or gain weight?' i told them i wanted to be fit. After all i have just 12 months left for the next sports day!!!

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

I have three words for you, nothing to do with the superbly entertaining account of Junjun's sports day : Taare Zammen Par. Go watch!
Ok that is more than 3 words, but I'm not explaining when you messed up that jigsaw yourself:))

'Smee! said...

:D That was a fun read! My dear 3 yr old nephew's sports day was thankfully called just that and to make it "non-competitive", there were only 3 kids in each race. :| My nephew was third in both races, but neither his parents nor grandparents were athletes so guess we should go a little easy on him!

Arch said...

anonymous : i have 3 words for you too : i will! ;)

smee : :) the kids really have no idea whats happening. so totally agree on non transferance of disappointments...not just now but at any age! U sure have given me something to write about in my next post!
ps : am totally inspired to start on virginia w after reading ur review. that was really nice

'Smee! said...

Gee, I'm flattered :)