Well, what do you know? After a long time, I’ve felt like jotting down something here! ‘Twas the sports day celebration at the son’s school last week and that has given me some thoughts that I felt like penning down.
For many reasons I love the simplicity with which the celebrations are held at his school and many a times have been happy and proud that we chose this school for him and not the other fancier ones.
They have the Sports day celebrations spread across a few days in October-November with slots given to each class. The slot for my son’s class this year was in the late evening from 7 to 8.30 PM. It was kinda lucky for working parents like us and we were thankful for not having to take leave from work!
They usually have a celebrity chief guest whose achievements on the sports field is inspiring for the young kids – last year’s guest was Shri. Girish N Gowda, the Paralympic high-jumper from Karnataka who has won the Silver medal at the 2012 Paralympic Summer Olympics at London. This year’s guest was the 19-year old Chess prodigy Satvik.M, who is an Ekalavya award winner and a topper in the SSLC, PUC exams and currently pursuing his second year MBBS course. These chief guests take guard for the march past presented by the little ones and light the Sports meet flame and declare the meet officially open by releasing a bunch of colourful balloons into the sky. I find this practice particularly heartening as compared to something mundane like cutting open a ribbon – the whoops from the kids and the joy on their faces when the balloons go soaring into the skies is worth hearing/ watching every single time 🙂 Then there are some dance or drama display acts followed by the class events.
The class teachers of every section plan events for the kids and every kid is made to participate in an event – either a singles one or the doubles pairing kind. This is another idea worth applauding. The events planned are interesting and focus on engaging the child and improving their various skills like concentration, mobility, balancing, hand-eye coordination etc. The tracks are usually divided into 2 or 3 parts and the children have some activity to be done at 1 or 2 stops en route while running to the finish line.
Our kiddo’s activity was to run to the midpoint of the track where they had to unscrew the cap of a bottle of water, wash their hands in a dustbin kept next to the table and then go on to peel a musambi (sweet lime)! They then had to throw the peels in the dustbin, place the musambi and water bottle onto a bowl/ tray and run to the finish line.
Sitting in the audience and watching the various events at close quarters, it was simply fascinating for me to observe the behaviour and thought patterns of the various kids participating in the events. There are kids who play with the sole aim of winning and their concentration and aggression is worth-observing (not sure if the aggression is to be applauded at this age?! I for one don’t advocate it) and then there are others at the other end of the spectrum who just don’t care about the competition and want things to be done in the best possible way! There are kids who cheat – subtly and sometimes blatantly (at that tender age, I wonder how the thought comes into their mind?!) and there are those who cannot simply think of cheating and getting ahead!! The ones I admire are the smart ones – who don’t cheat but play smart enough to get ahead in the race.
The parents are worth observing too!! There are the parents who jump up and down like their wards have won the Olympic medal – fist pumping in the air and what not! And there are the cool ones who hug their kids and laugh-off the losses 🙂
In case you’re wondering, no, our kiddo didn’t win any medals – having dropped the heavy water-bottle at the beginning and proceeding to peel the lime a little too meticulously, while the others just pulled it apart almost squeezing it in the process, he got left behind in the race! Mid-way through he panicked and started checking others’ progress which didn’t help the cause! 😀 He did sulk and feel bad about not doing well, but a couple of back-slaps and it’s-okay-not-to-win-sometimes pep-talk from us, asking him to think-back and focus on what he could’ve done better helped and he cheered up thereafter.
But the antics of the kids gave me so much fodder for thought that I couldn’t help musing on the various ways the human mind works, even in kids so young!! 😀
anubhAva 