'WINNING'! IT CAN BE A HUGE STRAIN WE PUT ON OURSELVES
Pic.: Pic.: Umang Pahwa
(Cricket mania — at High Street Phoenix.)
I just returned after taking a training session
for students in a Mumbai college. I was there with them for almost
three-and-a-half hours, helping them to build their self-confidence. Almost all
of them had watched the T-20 finals (India Vs. Sri Lanka) last night, and
almost all of them – like me – were disappointed, sad and yes, angry!
I said, “Like
me”!
So, it means,
when it comes to ‘losing’, none of us likes it!
“All the world
loves a winner, and has no time to spare for a loser.” I was a young-man, like
my students today, when I had first heard this slogan...
So, last night, like
everyone else, I, too, left everything and sat before the TV with the great
hope that our team would win... Like everyone else, I, too, was tensed through
the match... all the time giving my own commentary... particularly about poor
Yuvraj and even Dhoni... and our ‘pathetic’
bowlers... Had Kohli tanked, last night,
I would have coolly forgotten all his
contribution for this tournament... just the way I had forgotten, last night,
the amazing feat that we had reached to the finals not losing a single
contest... and, winning it like Gladiators... Just forgetting the fact that it
was Yuvraj who had made us all proud in the World Cup 2011... It was he, who had
fired our imagination by hitting six sixes in an over, which, couldn’t have
been done except by a brave-heart... Just forgetting the fact that
what MS had done, as a player and the skipper of our team, was simply exceptional...
Oh yes, that one
defeat in the finals... made us forget who we really were... We sulked, we
stooped... yes, very, very low... last night!
Well, one has to
play to win, and play with all the fire in his belly... I hope, we did that last night... But, sometimes, it just doesn't happen... We can’t win all the times, all the matches... Look at once formidable
West Indies, or Australia or
England or Sri Lanka or Pakistan .... Why can’t they win
each time, everywhere? Why can’t they be the world champs for ever?
Last night, like
all my country's cricket-fans, I, too, felt like a loser when our team lost to Sri Lanka ...
But, then, it took just a few moments to get over my depression and remind
myself that it was simply a game of cricket, no matter whatever meaning I had
given to it... that, one team had to lose, and last night, it had be ours... because,
Sri Lankans played better than us... and, that was it!
For me, the greatest scene to behold –
immediately after every match, and no matter who wins or who loses – is when
the two sides line up to shake hands... when losers congratulate the winners
most sincerely ‘Well-done”... “Well-deserved”... Only the real winners can do
that... The grace and dignity to concede one’s defeat to the better player of
the day...
Similarly, when
the winners pat on the losers’ back and say, “You did your best,”... “Better
luck next time.” Yes, only the real winners can do that... The humility and
magnanimity to show honor to the vanquished on the day...
So, though, like
my students, I, too, had felt sad and mad, last night, today, I found myself
telling them: “Look guys, in life, we all have to play to win... give our
best.... and, then, be aware of the truth that ‘we win some, we lose some’...
In Victory, we should be humble and magnanimous... In defeat, we should be
graceful, dignified and more accepting... Strong.”
‘Winning’! It
can be a huge strain we put on ourselves... Too heavy to carry... Neither
necessary, nor worth it!
(After India Loses!)
GERALD D’CUNHA
Comments
-- Rajiv