In case you are wondering, no this blog has nothing to do with Robert Frost's poem. After seeing my friend Aarti Kapur's recent facebook status message ("What if Rhode could never try her hand with a gun? What if Lochte din't take to swimming but played baseball? What if Ye started with Table Tennis or Gymnastics? I think I missed the boat somewhere......sigh"), I cant help but think, "WHAT IF?" a though most of us, if not all of us at some point or the other in life must have had. What if I would have chosen a sport as a career or at least a serious interest which would lead to, me representing the country at the International level?
Growing up in India in the 90's and that too in India definitely dint help. Coming from a middle class family meant, in order to make any kind of prospect in life, you must be an Engineer or a Doctor. So the attitude of most parents was "khel-khud kya khana khilayengi"(Games-Sports would not feed you). And my parents were no different, they used to ask me stay home and study on the days when we had Track and Field events at school. Such was the "encouragement" I had.I don't really blame them, because they did what they felt was better, played it safe and make sure I chose the path with a good future(whatever that means). But, rebel that I am, I still used to go and win a race here or there.
Like most kids, I have always been into sports and was quite good at some of them. It makes me wonder, how would things have been if I had some encouragement and the opportunity.
I am not unhappy with what I am doing right now, because from all the choices that were available to be me, I chose the one I liked the most. But I really doubt if I will ever do something in this line of work which will give me the same feeling as standing on the podium with an Olympic Gold medal around my neck and mouthing the words to the Indian National Anthem being played in front of hundreds of people from all over the world.
What has happened has happened and I can't do anything about it. At this point in life, even if I trained hard enough, I may not be able to run like Usain Bolt or swim like Yannick Agnel, but there still are a few sports where I can try my hand at, like Cycling, Archery, Rowing, Shooting ,Cross-country skiing, etc. Though it takes commitment, dedication and years of preparation to just qualify for the Olympics, at least there is still that outside chance and I am nothing if not an Optimist, so why not. So, lets see what happens in the next 8 years and how things turn out.
