Unforgivable

The animosity with the season goes long back. The origin is lost somewhere in the memory but the season evokes the same feeling year after year. This is the season of wrapping up. The season when everything comes to an end, momentary sometimes, permanent most of the times. Everything is evaluated and everything is analyzed. The season of looking back in time and the season of making decisions. The season when friends depart leaving behind the fragrance of their presence and memories which are, beautiful and hence painful. This is the season of parting ways. This is the season of good byes. Unforgivable.
 

The Quiz

A small hot dingy room had varied occupants in it. Some kids and some teachers, though the difference was only physical. It was a semi-final of the quiz competition organized by public school system and informed to respective schools 2 days prior. Quizmasters were fixed on the spot and so were the moderators. There was no audience as transparency is a strict nono in these cases. The scoreboard literally was scores-on-a-blackboard. Anyone entering that room would have taken a leap back into the old times when such things were the norm. And so the quiz kicked off. No one was told of the rules because no one knew them.

After 2 rounds it was clear who would win. In appreciation of the team, the quizmaster asked the name of the school and what happened after the name was told is something which I would never forget. It was something which made me believe why corruption is a norm in our society, why majority of our youth suffers from inferior skill levels and why incompetency is never questioned and sometimes even appreciated. As soon as the quizmaster came to know the name of the school, with naivety beyond belief she shouted in anger, “Oh, that’s why, the question paper is of the same school?” Post announcement the schools which hadn’t even scored a point started crying foul. They got a morsel to feed on.

I was in the audience seeing one of my friends assigning points to the team. I was the scorer in the first round. I couldn’t stop laughing. And so with utmost selfish interest I asked my friend be the scorer. I couldn’t stop laughing on the seriousness I saw on the faces of the people who were putting up this farce. I couldn’t stop laughing at the game being played there, with everyone except kids believing totally in it. I couldn’t stop laughing on the hollow promises we are making, the basis of which is the education system which creates snitches out of our kids. I was ultimately horrified at the sorry state of affairs and the nonchalance of the state.

The events later in the week confirmed some of my underlying fears. We are all part of a big game. The kills we are making in this game are none but those kids who are oblivious of what is being done to them. A Kafkan tragedy indeed.

Dravid

It was year 1996, I was in 6^th standard and this man’s short interview appeared on DD News. He was selected for India tour of England. 16 years later I was watching the video clip where he formally announced his retirement. In 16 years a lot has changed in me as a person. I have a larger, in fact huge appreciation for grit now, a much better understanding of what it takes to take a bad remark and still stand firm and let your work do the talking, much deeper meaning of resilience, strength of character and humility. I have been fortunate enough, I guess, to have seen one such man, who seemed one of our own and who epitomized everything I wrote just now. 

If you look at the career of this great batsman all what you will see the rigor with which he performed his action. Pure actions and just that. Day in day out for 16 years. I don’t remember an instance when one has seen Dravid doing anything else than actions aligned to his duties. Bad form, criticism, scandals, captains, players, coaches, selecters came and went by and so did numerous journalists, articles, opposition bowlers and players and analyst. What they could not change is this man’s focus on his actions. The older he became the harder he practiced. And I guess the root of all the qualities I mentioned is only one thing, the pursuit of excellence by performing your actions under a backdrop of extreme hardwork and honesty.  The quality of not losing focus from your own duty, come what may.

In his own words, I may have failed at times, but I never stopped trying. For him trying to achieve excellence was far more important than the achievement itself. Process is of much more importance than the product. A beautiful process has to lead to a superior product. Actions always supersede fruits.