I go back in time, and recall my days of being a track and field athlete in school. I went for my first inter-school athletics competition when I was in 3rd standard (7 years old). It was a really big deal back then. I used to love athletics. Continued to be heavily involved in middle and high school. Went for countless "meets" and competitions. Won medals here and there. I used to run the 100 meters although 200 meters and 400 meters were my favourite races to run. Even did long jump and dabbled with high jump (many hilarious stories there). I used to seriously love athletics. I spent so many hours on the school sports field, usually running, striding, and or racing other people. People I meet now that I haven't talked to since school still ask me whether I run. When I reached high school, my coach (and others) attempted to push me into basketball, join the school basketball team etc. Given my success in athletics and more so, my height (I was always the tallest kid in class), they felt that that should be my forte. I think I made some reluctant efforts at the game, and then gave up. My true love was athletics, so back there I went. I used to practise as hell for meets and competitions. I would go to school early before class time and practise. I would stay back after classes and practise and come home late. And a lot of this while commuting in terribly crowded BTS buses in Bangalore carrying 2-3 bags of sports gear, school bag, etc (so not fun). How many times, I have run on the tracks at Kanteerava Stadium which was just a stone's throw-away from school. Gosh, those were such fun days.
I remember one such occasion when I ran a particular race there, and once I had finished, and went back to the pavilion to join my team-mates, someone approached me and asked to speak to me for a few minutes. That someone was Sunil Abraham (anyone who was an athlete in Bangalore in the early 90's will remember the husband-wife team of Sunil and Reeth Abraham of the SURE Athletics Club fame). This was the club of all clubs for aspiring young athletes (at our level) of the day. Professional training with the goal of becoming a professional athlete. Sunil and Reeth were considered the Gods of athletics who were looked upon by all of us as a means to make something out of any athletic potential or aspirations kids like us had. Their club was exclusive (and snooty too). Only the best of the best were chosen to be trained by them. Once you got in, you were guaranteed to come out more successful, whatever that meant for youth athletics in India. The SURE athletes walked away with all the gold medals at all the meets. They even went to state level meets, etc, etc. They were in a completely separate league.
Anyway, my story here is that Sunil Abraham sought me out that day in Kanteerava and asked me whether I wanted to join his club. !!!!! He came up to ME! I was thrilled to the core. Really, the fact that he had seen me run, and thought I had the potential to become a better athlete under his tutelage, and was willing to take me in, was incredible for a thirteen year old who was fairly serious about athletics at the time. Before I could say anything though, he went on, in rather an authoritative and no-nonsense manner, as I recall, that if I were to join his club, then I had to be very serious and committed to the time he expected me to put into training. He went on to tell me how many hours he expected me to train per day and while I don't recall exactly what that was, it was significantly more than what I had ever put in. He then asked me what rank I used to get for academics in school. At that point, I started seeing where this was going, with a sinking feeling in my stomach. I answered (pretty sure in a small-ish voice) that I used to always top my class. At which, he bluntly said it was quite likely that with the hours he expected me to train with him, I would not be able to maintain that level of academic achievement. I remember being just stunned standing there listening to him. He told me to go talk to my parents, and to come back to him with an answer.
Of course I went back to my parents with this, and of course they did what any other parent in their position would do. They tried to talk me out of the whole thing. To be fair, they were happy for me and all, but completely unenthusiastic about considering it seriously. Explanations about the very questionable future of taking up sports in India, did I really think I wanted to pursue athletics full-time, wasn't it more like a hobby, did I want to give up topping my class, getting into a good college, blah blah. The whole spiel. I think there was some water works on my part. And to humour me (although I do give them credit for this) they actually came back with me to talk to Sunil Abraham themselves. They asked him questions. He pretty much told them the same thing he told me. No compromise on the effort I would need to put in for him. Exams would not be an acceptable excuse. The deal was pretty much sealed. My parents asked me to seriously evaluate the whole thing. I wondered if I could do it all. Be a star athlete and an academic achiever. Surely it was possible. But what if it was not? I asked myself if I would be ok not doing well academically. The answer (thankfully) was No. And so that was that. I kissed my dream of graduating from being an amateur athlete goodbye. I had to be content with continuing to do things in my own way, which I did, right until I left school. I still have my certificates and medals and cups from my many exploits that I look at fondly now and then. I think I have even kept one pair of old "spikes" (special running shoes, with nails to gain more traction on the track) for old time's sake....ah, well.....:-)
I remember one such occasion when I ran a particular race there, and once I had finished, and went back to the pavilion to join my team-mates, someone approached me and asked to speak to me for a few minutes. That someone was Sunil Abraham (anyone who was an athlete in Bangalore in the early 90's will remember the husband-wife team of Sunil and Reeth Abraham of the SURE Athletics Club fame). This was the club of all clubs for aspiring young athletes (at our level) of the day. Professional training with the goal of becoming a professional athlete. Sunil and Reeth were considered the Gods of athletics who were looked upon by all of us as a means to make something out of any athletic potential or aspirations kids like us had. Their club was exclusive (and snooty too). Only the best of the best were chosen to be trained by them. Once you got in, you were guaranteed to come out more successful, whatever that meant for youth athletics in India. The SURE athletes walked away with all the gold medals at all the meets. They even went to state level meets, etc, etc. They were in a completely separate league.
Anyway, my story here is that Sunil Abraham sought me out that day in Kanteerava and asked me whether I wanted to join his club. !!!!! He came up to ME! I was thrilled to the core. Really, the fact that he had seen me run, and thought I had the potential to become a better athlete under his tutelage, and was willing to take me in, was incredible for a thirteen year old who was fairly serious about athletics at the time. Before I could say anything though, he went on, in rather an authoritative and no-nonsense manner, as I recall, that if I were to join his club, then I had to be very serious and committed to the time he expected me to put into training. He went on to tell me how many hours he expected me to train per day and while I don't recall exactly what that was, it was significantly more than what I had ever put in. He then asked me what rank I used to get for academics in school. At that point, I started seeing where this was going, with a sinking feeling in my stomach. I answered (pretty sure in a small-ish voice) that I used to always top my class. At which, he bluntly said it was quite likely that with the hours he expected me to train with him, I would not be able to maintain that level of academic achievement. I remember being just stunned standing there listening to him. He told me to go talk to my parents, and to come back to him with an answer.
Of course I went back to my parents with this, and of course they did what any other parent in their position would do. They tried to talk me out of the whole thing. To be fair, they were happy for me and all, but completely unenthusiastic about considering it seriously. Explanations about the very questionable future of taking up sports in India, did I really think I wanted to pursue athletics full-time, wasn't it more like a hobby, did I want to give up topping my class, getting into a good college, blah blah. The whole spiel. I think there was some water works on my part. And to humour me (although I do give them credit for this) they actually came back with me to talk to Sunil Abraham themselves. They asked him questions. He pretty much told them the same thing he told me. No compromise on the effort I would need to put in for him. Exams would not be an acceptable excuse. The deal was pretty much sealed. My parents asked me to seriously evaluate the whole thing. I wondered if I could do it all. Be a star athlete and an academic achiever. Surely it was possible. But what if it was not? I asked myself if I would be ok not doing well academically. The answer (thankfully) was No. And so that was that. I kissed my dream of graduating from being an amateur athlete goodbye. I had to be content with continuing to do things in my own way, which I did, right until I left school. I still have my certificates and medals and cups from my many exploits that I look at fondly now and then. I think I have even kept one pair of old "spikes" (special running shoes, with nails to gain more traction on the track) for old time's sake....ah, well.....:-)
1 comment:
Aww! Well you sure have won several new medals in various races of life. I have even seen you run to get past some. If you love it as much, go out one day and start to run. I am sure you would love it. I do remember spiked shoes!! I got stamped by an athlete once;-)
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