Finding a ‘gate go’ for this story of failure was a tough thing to do. Not bcoz I have witnessed less failures in my life but vice versa. I m just not sure, which failure to attend first when I get back to my memories. I guess me trying to hide myself in one of my brother’s house close by, just before the time to get dressed for school and getting caught every time would be the first significant failure. Then I would b forced to dress and shouldered to school.
And, when I was getting along with the things at school. A group of my friends led by some seniors, offered me to break out school, while the whole school wz learning general knowledge and craps. That wz Friday I remember and we were supposed to be audience to this ‘quiz contest’ and clap hands for each correct answer. A wise senior thought of this plan to break out and recruited members to the mob. Lucky me, I got in. Not that long though. When all of them got out of the fence just me left. The strongly built game teacher showed up. What happened then??? well he was strong I was not.
I used to be good at cricket back then. I guess I got this cricket craze from my family. Starting with my father, sisters all the men and women(not my mother , she just wakes up at 3 in the morning and watches sanskar and astha they don’t broadcast cricket). My eldest sister had even this letter posted to ‘Ajay jadeja’ one of the famous cricketers of all time. And ?? He wrote back with a genuine autograph. Two of my elder brothers got themselves into national games. I would bunk school and go with my father to watch my brother play matches. I dint make it very far though.
I would wake up at 6 and go to practise at this CCC(Chitwan Cricket Club). Get back home, get dressed for school and at 4:30 rush back to practise. I used to be a wicket keeper myself. I would also bowl but Raju Khadka , former nepali team captain thought my bowling action didn’t exist anywhere in the world. So he suggested me to keep. There was this guy Nabin PIya, used to b the captain around. He was very fond of those who would sing his glory. His favorites lines were “You r looking too handsome bro”, “Your girlfriend is too pretty”, “Dai tyo asti ko game ma tapaile haneko six last dami thyo”. I was a class 8 student then. I couldn’t talk things like that. I had not even seen his girlfriend. The only pretty girls I had seen were on TV. And when my eldest brother used to be a player from our region, he used to be the guy with water on his hands. So I m not going to say I was his favorite. He disliked me for sure. But there were very less options to wicket keeper back then so he couldn’t fire me I guess.
Very soon a friend of mine joined the club. One of my best friends also a character from the former post of mine joined the club. Nabin PIya: the class 8 dropout who got the question papers before exam and still couldn’t make it got a very good option. My friend was a wicket keeper too. He played better, he was quiet not like other opportunists and also made it to nationals. He would net practise, I would only wish Nabin piya will call me to bat too. Well that calling part never happened. I got shadowed. Light never showed up. I made a tough decision, I quit playing cricket. Now when I play for my class here some micro level games, they say to me I bowl like SOhail Tanvir the famous Pakistani cricketer with the weirdest action. And on some previous visits to Nepal, Raju Khadka who said my bowling action looks nothing like bowling said you could actually bowl well if u bowl close to ur ears. That will give u a natural in swing. Now that was a crap , middle finger bro. You know what my age was when I wz going through this frustration of failure and making a decision like a matured man to quit cricket??? Well you don’t know I was a class nine student. The age to get encouragements, not accept failure. My journey of cricket ended .Middle finger to Nabin Piya as well. Now u must be cleaning shits somewhere in Australia I guess. Good luck with that. There is this saying “jo jeeta whoi sikandar baaki sab Bandar”. Whose translation would be winner is the king and loser is the monkey, only if sikaandar means king. I don’t know what a sikandar is. But I sure knew what I was. I got monkeys part.
Later I started playing badminton. My height suited this game. Though my father alwz said you must play volleyball. I don’t know why he would say that but had he suggested basketball I wud have at least considered. Coz basketball sounds way too glamorous than volleyball. And I choose this lil less glamorous game. But in Chitwan this game wasn’t very popular, when I first started it soon after quitting cricket. In other big towns a lot of girls played. The people inside the covered hall would talk things like that. I hadn’t actually seen them playing. I only wished I had. But my fate was different; most of my play mates were government post holders, who gets drunk the other night and play to get rid of their hangovers. Some of them played for their fitness. They wouldn’t get any thinner though. So the whole thing in there was not glamorous at all. I had less thought of girls then coz I was already getting passionate about the game. But my father alwz said this game is for the landlords. I didn’t care what he said until the day my racket gifted by Fr. George Wilson met with an accident and never made out of coma. And I had to buy a new one. Asking my father for money was out of question, so I borrowed some money from my friend and bought this YONEX racket worth 1200 or sth. That was the first racket I played with a brand name on it. I also had a dream for this Red YONEX kit . I would see some players carrying that around them. But the budget was just for the racket.
However this kind veteran gifted me the kit of my dream. I dint know the world has moved so fast and far. When we me and my friend, participated this APF national badminton tournament representing U-19 age group from our district. We saw the kids of our age or even younger to us carrying way to hi-fi kit. A lot of spare rackets, their spare shuttles they carry with them would give a sense like they are here to sell those, spare socks, spare shoes, a lot of branded clothes , fancy water bottles with sporty brand names on it blah blah….it seemed like we had come this far for Beijing Olympics. The next thing that came to our mind was where to hide our kit. We hid it somewhere in the corner and kept an eye on it every other second. Who am I kidding??? The fact is we didn’t even care where our kit was coz no1 would ever steal those. That’s when I realized what my father meant by landlords game. I made to 2nd round, my friend who never got kit gift didn’t make it to 2nd round even. We boarded next bus to home. However I didn’t leave my passion there in that hall of landlords, I brought it back with me.
It’s already been a lot of writings, so I guess very few of u will make it here. For those of you thinking, what I did with my life with all this failure past. Well, getting caught and shouldered to school dint turn out that bad after all. I guess that has everything to do with me writing these craps now. Getting busted for the school break out wasn’t that bad either. We ended runner up in this District level quiz contest. We were two from our school participating where frankly, I just assisted my partner. Having a flop cricketing carrier bought me a good lifelong friend and still I open bat for my class here in Bangladesh. Also I would never make it to badminton nationals if it wasn’t for this flop cricketing carrier. And how about the sophisticated kit and spare rackets?? I have the same old racket with me, it is still fine just had to add some glue to it. But the guy from Pokhara who used to be very popular player with all the sophisticated kit and would also make it far at the tournaments (not like us hardly getting to 2nd round). When I last heard of him he had turned out into a drug addict. And I m here, pursuing my engineering degree in Bangladesh. I still play my games, not friendly with quiz contests yet. So I can say I didn’t turn out that bad after all.
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