have you made an investment today?

Activity wise yesterday as pretty cool. In the morning I managed to hit the tread mill, then a game of squash, followed by swimming. It’s been a dream of mine to play as much sport as possible. Sports club have always meant something for me. When we were in Dubai, growing up and having fun meant visiting the club. Dad was an active sports person, always looking to play sports. We took membership of the Dubai sports club. This club shared a common wall with the school we went to. Many times we would just hop across to the club after school. Swimming and playing and running about. I even remember my dad buying me a tennis racket. I was about to start learning the game but Ithen we left Dubai and came to India for good. I always loved sports, the club culture and learning sports. Going to a gymkhana and playing like crazy and then having French fries are the memories that remained with me. Also those days’ aerated drinks weren’t the monster they turned out to be. So a round of swimming was followed by a can of Dixi. Dixi was a local home bred Dubai cola. Pull open the can and guzzle the soda. I remember it coming in two three variants – orange, cola, lime… we sometimes had Rani Orange juice. It was a big hit as it contained real orange pulp. So when the gymkhana at Matunga was getting renovated around 7-8 years ago, my sister was telling me to become a member. I always wanted to become a member there. I wanted the active sport life for my kid. At the time the membership was 75,000 bucks. Oops, I did not have that kind of cash. Then it became a 1,00,000 bucks. Oops no money, then it went to 2 and then 3 and then 4. Always my saving would lag the amount required. It was a dam pain. I always thought this would never happen. And then at 4,00,000 the amount was very steep. A couple of good bonus years later we were left with a large bonus and no real place to spend it. We had a car, we had a house, and we had decent savings. Let’s check if the membership is open. It was around the 4.5 lakh figure. Wow. That’s high we thought. Jasmine was really reluctant. I could only remember my memories of the club at Dubai. I always wanted membership. I could only think about playing, swimming and spending quality time with family and sports. Oh come on, Jasmine. It’s worth it and it’s not that you really need the money elsewhere. Let’s go for it. Not too many people would have approved. You have a gym in the building nah? Yes but that’s not the point. Your building has a swimming pool, nah? Yes but that’s a waddle pool; it’s a pond that’s 10 meters long! That’s no club. Plus you need games, coaching, a restaurant, hang out places etc etc…. Finally I insisted and Jasmine agreed. We put the money down and became members. Today membership is closed. And we use the club everyday. Jispa is a fish in the water. She learns swimming for around 12 hours in a week. She keeps track of her timing in different styles. I jog, play squash and learn to swim. Jasmine is too trying to figure her sport. She isn’t too much of the sporty types but she is active enough to like the gymkhana. It’s become such an integral part of our life and given us so much happiness. I suspect it has also given us a lot of health and I reckon a few years of life extra. I am so happy that Jispa is learning a sport that would help her for years to come. Whenever she hits a water body she will be comfortable in the knowledge that she can swim well and she can talk about it for years to come. Sport teaches many things about life. Only we care enough to learn from it, only we if care enough to practice it. Like a few years ago when the markets were doing good and my friend asked me – “what are you investing in, these days?” – My reply was – “I am investing in myself. Care for a game of squash today?”