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A Sporting Question
by Ramendra Kumar

How many of you are into sports in a big way? Not channel surfing – in which I am sure quite a few kids are experts at. I mean sports in the real sense of the term – games which involve hustle and bustle, the rough and tumble, the nicks and bruises, the sweat and grime, the thrill of victory, the bitter taste of defeat.

Football, cricket, volley ball, table tennis, basket ball and hockey – no this is not the list of games where India has been faring poorly at the international level. It is simply a listing of sports I used to play when I was a kid. Apart from these conventional games I used to indulge in hide and seek, seven stones and kabaddi which were rather down market but nevertheless involved a lot of exercise.

Every day from four to six during winters and five to seven in summers I would be out with my friends playing to my heart’s content. Though I played all these games I never achieved notable success in any. Representing my school in cricket and my college in Table Tennis was achievement enough for me. The idea then was not to play with the sole intention of achieving targets but to play for the sake of getting physical exercise and enjoying the very act of participation, of involvement.

If one compares my childhood with your generation the contrast appears startling. You are overloaded with academics. If this is not enough you have the ultimate sorceress – the idiot box to contend with. For many of you the only contact with sports is a vicarious one – watching Team India getting thrashed by the Aussie cricket team or mera Bharat mahaan’s medal hopes biting the dust in Olympics.

Added to the problem of time is the issue of space. In metros and even smaller cities, many of you are cooped up in small houses, in cramped residential colonies with little scope to play. As a result the thrill of indulging in a drag flick, a bicycle kick, a classic cover drive or an ace serve is something which many of you miss out on.

This time I am not offering any solutions. I am asking you a question. What should be done to make more and more kids participate in sports? I want you answer my question on behalf of anyone you please - the government, the educationists, the parents, the teachers and the kids themselves. For instance if I were your age I would take out one hour’s time from watching TV and go out and play something. The best suggestions will find a place on BoloKids.

I remember when we were kids Math was one subject most of us were scared off. It was a regular part our nightmares. It was the only subject which turned us from heroes to zeroes in the matter of minutes. Well I sure the situation hasn’t changed much. Math continues to haunt Gen X and Y too. Well, to help you tackle this ‘horror’ I bring you some antidotes. These antidotes have been culled by N.S.Murty who is a poet, writer with a penchant for Mathematics and Astronomy. I am sure his tips will help make math more of a friend and less of a monster!

Happy reading and thinking….    

February 26, 2006

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