odd man stands out

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…

made it

This weekend was something special as far as dreams and ambitions are concerned. And a whole host of learnings and character building was done.

Jispa has been swimming for, I think 5 years now. She has slowly but surely kept scaling one peak after another. She keeps on swimming and wants to push her boundaries on her own. She knows what her goals are and she wants to achieve them. Many times we have given up and told her point blank, we would be happy if you give it up but there is some inner fire, some inner desire that she wants to achieve and that is fueling her dedication. She is dedicated to swimming. As far as natural talent for swimming is concerned, I don’t think she is up there with the natural born swimmers who just get into the pool and know what to do and how to do it. These kids just keep winning championship and break records one after another. They can do this with less effort and dedication. They are just meant to swim and they feel the water and cut through it much better than anyone else. Jispa is not that. For her swimming is hard work, a lot of effort and a whole lot of grit. If she doesn’t work as hard she will not be able to make it.

She likes to go for her sessions and she doesn’t miss many. At least not even one by choice. She would miss only due to illness or some other school commitment or our family vacations or something like that. She wakes up on time without too much fuss these days and she eats her bananas and she has her medicines (ayurvedic general health types) and she goes for her swimming. I am sure if the pool was close by she would have gone there by herself.

When the swimming timings started interfering with the studies timing we made it very clear to her that we would not let one affect the other. She has been trying her bets to keep up with studies as well. Right now the new distraction is her cell phone and whatsapp. That is another mountain for her to overcome. But all said and done, her quiet dedication to her swimming is something that has our utmost respect.

Though I think she doesn’t listen to her coach enough on her technique and that takes a beating and stops her from achieving the next level.

So all in all, it’s a tough swim schedule and sport for her. But she has really done well, and I think we respect that. Jasmine is not prone to showing emotions but I know for a fact that she is quite proud of her achievements. Of course Jasmine has a tendency to keep upping the game and demanding more and I tend to just be equally straight face. In the meets and the competitions and in the training pool etc, we meet parents of all types. There are always a bunch of fathers or mothers who are completely not bothered by all this. They don’t come to the events and meets and they have no clue about this and they are very clearly not in support of the swim schedules their kids keep. On the other side you have the crazy parents where both are heavily involved and bothered about the progress of the child and some who are completely committed to their kid’s achievements. Their cheering is one thing, their level of competiveness is another thing and the pressure they put on their child is to be seen to be believed. Here there is plenty of stupid word of mouth, half knowledge and a crazy ability and desire to push your child. Very early enough I decided that I will not give any input to the child. I will keep all my supposed intelligence to myself. In fact, I will do only what a father needs to do. Wake up and take the child to swim. I will help in the auxiliary things, such as getting the kid to eat, take care of her health and most important of them all – massage the kids legs and back at night. Because the coach would just kill her by giving the hard, really hard sets. Wow.

This year in the middle we changed our pool and we went to a new coach. He set the target high for the kid and gave the toughest sets possible to all the kids. He pushed the kids to work hard. Jispa also had two sessions extra of land training. We practically woke up early every single day of the week. The result – Jispa started performing beyond what she was doing thus so far. It was a tough long grind. She was getting ready for the state championships wherein she could fulfill her long cherished dream. DAD, one day, one time at least – I want to go to the nationals. The state championships were held last week and the weekend before that – She was down with fever and tonsils. Bam… out of the blue she was out and her crucial taper period where the coach gives easy swims to taper the kid so as to have relaxed and ready rested muscles, was lost. There was no way she would recover from this. The antibiotics would kill her muscles.

So she just made in time for the state selection meet. Her first race was a 100 m free which she promptly lost to come 6^th or 8^th place. She gave 2 seconds worse off her best. This was not going to be her meet. She went through the other races, improving only a little by little. The last race for her was the 50M back. I had seen her 100 M back and I had told her, here is your last chance and I genuinely think you will max this. Jispa has a good take off from the block. She inevitably has an explosive start because she uses her legs well to kick off.. also the case with her tumble turn... but she fritters away the advantage midway into the course. 50M is one place where in spite of her ill health, she had a chance. I told her, I think you will make it in the 50. It was a bit of a bravado but inside I knew there was hope. Also the three days of competition meant that her body would get that much more time to recover from the illness.

She started the race well and I followed her to the finish. I think I also screamed and cheered her (something I don’t normally do)… and then towards the last 10, I knew it, Jispa was not in the top two. Only the top two qualify. And so I simply turned and walked away. I am very good with the finishes and normally I know the podium finish order in a close race. In swimming it’s not easy to do that. Jispa was a third or even a fourth. As I walked towards Jasmine, I saw all the other parents crowding around Jasmine and congratulating her. WTF? This can’t be true. It’s… it’s impossible. That’s when I saw the screen. Jispa was in lane 3 and she was in second place. The touch pads showed the result. Something happened and Jispa must have stretched her last 5 meters to beat the the kid by 20 micro seconds, one fifth of a second. JISPA WAS GOING FOR HER NATIONALS TO BANGALORE! THAT’S IT. JISPA HAS MADE IT.

WOW. She did it. She did it. Pune who came third did raise a formal complaint which was dismissed. The touch pad is it. She did it.

She would have been able to do it in a few more races if her tonsils had not acted up. But this was a moment to treasure. It was a big deal for all of us. A very big deal.

I am not so sure what chance she has at the Nationals. All the kids are within 1 second of each other. Jispa has only one event to concentrate on. One month to work on only one event – the 50M Back. That in many ways is a boon. So now she can work towards one stroke and one distance. I think that will now be her best chance. No distraction and a clear focus to achieve one event, one super burst, one chance for redemption and glory … hehehe… now I sound like chariots of fire. *theme music playing already*

So let’s see now. She also has her vacations going unlike the other kids which gives her the best platform to perform at the best platform she could hope for.

I keep telling her that her next few years might be the best yet. She has only had 6 months with the new training program. Imagine what a year or so would help her achieve. So there… I only hope that you enjoy the ride and don’t let the burden of expectations weigh you down.

turn it around

A ha. We successfully organized the Matunga gymkhana open swim meet. A grand success by any measure and people came on congratulating us. It was an experience like none before in any meet of any kind in the city. The people were mesmerized and couldn’t stop talking about it. The swimming department now walks with a little extra bounce in their steps. But when you coldly step back and look at it, what was it actually that made it so big. The swimming pool on the day belonsg to the officials. At every meet you have the same commentator, the same officials and the same events. Ours was also the same. But the difference lied in the packaging. There were large banners outside welcoming the participants and at the entrance was the clincher – the greeters. Borrowed from a bit from Walmart and a bit from the Singapore immigration authorities. At Walmart you have greeters when you come in to shop. At most other immigration checks they give you a cold stare, but at Singapore there is a bowl of fox sweets greeting you. In line with that we had apples and bananas awaiting all participants. So at the entrance a team was waiting with the fruits. In addition we gave them a folder with the schedule. And if that was not enough we also gave them two iron rich bars which we bought from an NGO. So that just shook them out. We then put enough cut outs around the place and just before the swimming pool a huge massive 36X6 banner greeted them. All these were of course done in corporate style with amazing visuals. With so much stimulation at the start, I left very little at the main pool area. That was taken over by the sponsors. We also gave space to a pro shop, a free stall for the isotonic drink guys to freely sample their products and some other stuff.

For those expecting a boring placid swim meet were completely shocked. There was shade all around with the pandals being erected and fans installed. I was rather amused by the reactions of the people. I thought this was par for the course. This stuff is simple. Like the checkerboard backdrop against the winner’s podium got a lot of comments and people thought it was really cool and ‘IPL style’.

I can still think of a million different things that I want changed from next time around. I want a different way to submit entries. I want to email stuff and want IDs, I want to have a better registration, I want better side games for the kids, I want a relaxing lounge, I want a winners picture booth,  I want flowers for the winners, I want better food stalls selling better food and drink for the champions, I want better invites, etc etc… a lot is still left to be done. The dream is to have a small souvenir shop for the event as well, selling high quality merchandise branded – the Matunga Gymkhana Open Swim Meet. That will be so bloody cool. That’s when the brand will be really built.

Ah well. I am a dreamer. But only if you can dream it can you possibly do it. Dream on. There are so many things to be done at this meet. Next year I am definitely going to ask for a bigger budget. I will have a better campaign to bring in the entries and hype the bloody thing before the event. I want to run it in style. Raise the bar so much that people have no clue what to expect next. I want to make it really really BIG.

But while I am talking about the event… I too took part in one race. The under 40 men’s freestyle. In my time trial I dived in and swam really fast. I reached the other side and turned. Not knowing the tumble turn I wasted precious seconds. While coming back I was tiring and slowing down. I hadn’t eaten well and the energy was sapping. I emerged second best by a small margin. I then heard the commentator explaining that I messed up the turn and lost there. I saw the video and everybody also told me – I was leading till the turn. My daughter was at the finish line waiting for me. She greeted me and took the time from the officials. She told me – not bad –“you did 37 seconds. You did two seconds better than your last time”. She was doing a Jaimit to me. Okies.

I always wanted to learn the tumble turn. But I tried it once and the water just rushed into my brain. I hated it. Jispa kept telling me to learn but I just couldn’t try. Now I have additional incentive. My knees have robbed me of my running victories but I guess I found another race. Tumble turn it is then. To learn the tumble turn and to push myself hard.  Jispa keeps telling me to learn but because I have the power in the equation I am unable to push myself. If the roles were reversed I would have harassed her, but the poor thing can’t do that to me. I must set that example and do it. I must learn the tumble turn. It’s not just about the turn but it also my duty as a parent to show that I can do it. It an example.