Note: “‘Jealous of the Jordan in me’ is a usual caption used by basket ball players, a mockery to demoralize the opposite team by signifying as if the spirit of Michael Jordan has been bestowed on the speaker, as basket ball being the game more of high spirits and tricks than rules. The language of this blog is rough, as it is unedited on certain circumstances”
Never Lose!!
This was the long forgotten Tee shirt caption, one of my uncles used to wear and as like always I perked up
"Never lose what??"
"Never lose on your self" :) his anytime and anywhere ready made chuckle....all that I did see then...and did not realize what he said!
I was so young that school, fights, basket ball practice and bike rides made my life complete. Guess I didn’t desire for anything more...as I hardly could find time for doing anything else, life moved on from ground floor to the roof top and while I was at the threshold to cross each staircase I had an interaction with what one calls as "Never Lose" or to be more precise "Never Lose on yourself"
“That Game”
2002 New Delhi, at the south Delhi stadium (Carmel)
We were scheduled for the first match with chandigarh...
“Those fat holes...Gawd they don just slam-dunk they literally slam bunk, bunk and bunk!!!!...as in these guys are worth all the space on earth for cheese, butter and every damn fattening thing. How can they play and that too so damn good"
I exactly remember the conversation coz one weirdo desired to record it with her being the only cell phone on board :)"
"That game" started.....with 5 of chandigarh girls equating each one of them to two, we were like those small insignificant bumble bee's who can hardly breathe...anyway...."that game" where we were badly losing to (8,0).....pathetic was the word for us....since hardly any of us could perform...after the second better half we were lagging 2 behind...all tired of their missed bangs and mis-tackling the wrong person we were short of those two damned shots. Anshi the corner defender missed one precious shot and I howled...
"What the heck yar...u think that bloody clock would stop for us"
She infuriated
"Okay u damn....u try this time ...as if these aces are all waiting for my slam dunk"
Coaches called for immediate time out (while basket ball matches...one avoids all kind of breakouts coz they usually tend to be bad mouthing and time wastage"
As I reached, our captain was almost bloating on me, throwing ten better slang’s each time I dared open my mouth.....and not to forget Anshi was brutally quarantined for she missed it...every one was high on their own anger quotients....30 seconds left to start of the last 5 minutes of "that game" and our captain looks down....breathing.
“You know what your problem is; each of u has lost on yourself. You guys have accepted defeat, you guys are those set of good for nothing girls who are ready to shout...hey u all there look we have lost coz we were playing with fat lions and we are no more than chipmunks...but listen, I'm not ready. If I lose, I won’t show my face for tomorrows match. I give a damn for what u think, so you better get your a****s right on place and play coz if we lose. Il be the worst for u guys. So you either choose to walk off right away. Or you choose never to lose...take your call. Period."
We all went, she replaced Anshi, blowed two pretty point blank slams...I kept on watching....we were equal now, Roshi defended the chandigarh shooter.....played the ball way well than what she does and slammed again...I kept watching.....ball banged on to the chandigarh 7 number she dribbled at the speed of light, Anshi screamed from out fields..."u bloody, take that ball thing", I somehow managed to snatch and pass, somehow shooted off....slammed!! Life at peace...I kept watching…..
While we were returning our captain screamed thank you for saving my *** hope u guys do the same tomorrow...and I kept watching….
Down there Anshi was waiting for my grand welcome, I wonder how with such fluidity she can blutter out slang’s at one go....blah blah blah and blah and then with a 100 watt chuckle mutters
“Good that u did listen to me for once saved from losing your self :)"
May be that one stint was worth to know that losing is relative and is an illusion, when u know that you don’t have an option to lose out you wont! And by this I don’t mean equating losing out with failures, certainly failures do occur. But what is needed is that strength to fight back again, that strength which calls never to lose.
“Rewind”
2008 New Delhi, Apollo hospital.
Anshi was admitted for liver infection, she breathed practically every air of infection ever available on earth, so few merciful docs hoped to save her from the difficulty to breath and put her on ventilation. She survived three disgusting months to ventilate in and out of that tube which stayed stuck into thin long damnd looking throat of hers, she puked and threw every filth of her body right there where she was lying down for she did not have the time to "damn anybody", she did not have the energy to scream on top of her voice " u bloody, u damn just make me all right"....she did not have the senses to know that she was alive and vegetating on liquids. After all those innumerable pills, antibiotics, sleepless nights of her family. She woke up one morning, just to find that she has slipped into some state of body where one cannot talk, walk or eat due to extra sensitivity of her organs…..She kept watching.....her peers were worried, her mom cried whenever she looked at the lean looking figure that "just" breathed......She kept watching......doctors
made her drink through injections, inserted n number of pipes at disgusting parts of her body....she "just" kept watching.....for she could do nothing else.
But she fought, for she knew she had missed one golden chance long back at some certain match, and she did not want to miss it again.
Guess once a sport...is always a sport. To people outside living the world of sports it might sound weird or more precisely crap, but as much Iv known myself and as much I have seen when u have that adrenaline pumping your body for just one shot, you feel your own power. Not all of us do that, one being the president of any country under no circumstances can feel the power of his success just by sitting on to his chare or passing on to some ace proposals. But a warrior, a sportsman and those who live on the edge can "feel" their power to success...and the feeling is amazing....you experience it once and u crave for it for the rest of your lives.
Anshi craved for it while she lay on that hospital bed, while all of us were losing hope, she chose never to lose on herself, miraculously Anshi returned to normalcy, now she could at least sit and talk, her body weighed 28 from 21 at least more than her age of 22.
Since I was not in Delhi, I called her up…
"So you damnd, how the hell u got yourself right"
Anshi with her usual list of unmentionable slang’s at last spoke
“Thought of getting my *** at the right place, you remember that never lose 30 seconds lecture. Just thought about rewinding that again and again....and you know what, it worked…hehe....I chose never to lose :)”
This lady who barely breathed few weeks back...talked about setting life's score right, talked about choosing never to lose!! Or rather just not talked but actually she knew how, never to lose.
For you or for that person who walks by your mind as you read this losing up might be different, it’s relative for all of us. But may be someday, we all will realize that not losing up is nothing but just being the best you can at your extremes….by knowing the worst and hoping the best....and if nothing just for one moment ....dare to be yourself and you would know that its instinctive that you always chose to put your best fight when needed, its just that you never give yourself that chance to live on the edge...
Because all these people who have had near death experiences (NDE) ....all those who have done the impossible and every single woman who gives birth to a child, believes that even God chooses never to lose….So why should you!
P.s. the names are changed as desired.
