So how were the Nationals for Jispa. Haha.. I am sure she
will never ever forget her first nationals. I am sure, we will never ever
forget them as well.
The heats were scheduled for the morning and top 8 swim for the
medals in the evening. I caught the 6 am flight just to try and be there on
time. In spite of the Uber driver antics, I did manage to reach on time. As I came
in I sought out Jispa and wanted to say hi to her. She did look out of sorts
and a bit tense. She didn’t respond well to me talking and wasn’t interested in
making any conversation. I decided not to interfere and let her be.
It was time for her to go for her swim. In the nationals,
they call out and arrange the swimmers in batches of 8 at the side. Then one
batch at a time they are lead to the starting blocks where they have the time
to sit down and remove their track suits and be ready for the swim. It’s very
professionally done with a lot of time given to the swimmers.
The lanes were called out and the swimmers stood on the
edge. With the long whistle, they jumped into the pool to take their positions for
the start of the back stroke 50 meter race.
Since the races are decided by touch pads, the start is a buzzer that
the official presses. He says , on your mark, set and presses the buzzer. On
Jispa’s most important race till now, I watched with baited breath as the official
called out – ONE YOUR MARK… I think my heart beat faster as she was about to
take off. GET SET. And off she goes… and then the official rings the buzzer;
the rest then take off. Yup you heard that right. ON YOUR MARK. GET SET… Jispa takes
off… and then the official rings the Buzzer. We are standing with all the parents
from the Mumbai and a collective gasp is let off from our side. I am next to
another swim father and we both hit our hands on our heads. Dam shit. Jispa has
had a false start. In swimming it’s called a flick start. She flicked the start.
By a huge perceptible second. She is bound to be disqualified.
Wow. A whole year of training and hard work and preparation
and she flicks a start for the first time in her life. Never in her trainings,
never in practice races, never in relays, Never.
I look away and look my friend beside me - she flicked the start!
We tell each other. That’s it. We are done. Well well, no point seeing the race.
I look back to see her finish. In the end she did swim a bad race in any case
with timings worse than what she would have given. I smile. That’s the end to
all this… the end to this year. The end. Now enjoy the rest of your holiday.
There is some silence in the camp.
When Jispa comes back to us after the race, I am smiling and
holding the towel in both hands outstretched. She is smiling and she asks, “it
was a flick start, right? Did I flick start”. Smiling, I answer her in the affirmative.
I then wrap the towel around her and laugh while hugging her. “You flicked.
Hahahahahaha. And it wasn’t like a small flick, it was the most horrible flick
I have seen ever in my life. It was outrageous. Hahahaha” We both laugh.
Jasmine showed her the video and she did not know where to look after that. She
was laughing at herself.
I then told her its ok, this one was so bad that it was
good. You didn’t do anything, I think were just too nervous and you just did
something unnatural. Its ok. We made a few jokes about it and left it at that.
Jispa is a fair kid. She doesn’t cheat. She is not a perennial
flick starter like some of the other swimmers. I think the nerves got to her.
It happens to the best of us. First time nationals can do that to you.
There are few races that I remember of Jispa. The crazy ones
being the ones she swam the relay and chased down the competition in the school
race, to finish first by a hairs breath! She was fast and it was an amazing
race. This was one on the other extreme.
The flick start just keeps playing in my head, again and again.
Well, memories. You remember the good ones and you remember
the bad ones. Normal things are so forgetful. You have to have an odd
experience for the experience to be memorable. When you grow old, you will
remember these odd ones, not the boring life ones.
In many ways she probably gave me the most memorable swim
race of my life, so far.
--
random other conversation
“kid in your class use bad words?”
“ya”
“bad words like F and all that”
“ya”
“do you give bad words?”
“no”
“why”
“I don’t know”
“you know its ok to give to bad words”
“ya”
“you know that I don’t mind if you use bad words”
“ya”
“you know that I use bad words in office and elsewhere”
“ya”
“how do you know”
“I have heard you give”
“when?”
“I don’t know, at times”
“ok. But you can give if you want to. I am ok… right?”
“right”
Oh…The conversations I live for…
