What happened to Abhinu was tragic. For a 6-year-old losing the only person he ever loved and has known his entire life can be very grueling. I was overwhelmed by this urge to console him. That poor child.
Damn...!!! What was happening to me? I have never been like this... Even though I do have a caring and helpful side but for the first time I was a little bit surprised by my soft reaction.
I still had another hour or so before sunrise to read on. Abhinu continues how for the next 3 days he didn't go to school. Every day after class Monika visited and spent time with him. They were told that the next match was supposed to take place on the 3rd of August and the coach had informed him that if he did not desire to participate, he would allow it.
However, Abhinu insisted that he wanted to play. For some reason, his mind could not refute the logic that basketball was the only way he could get his mind off his tragedy that had befallen him.
3rd August 1992
I missed the last 3 matches. I know I had to be strong. Dad told me that only with mental strength and will I would be able to survive and face this difficult world. Besides, I know I have aunty, uncle, and my 2 dearest friends Aarohi and Monika. With these great souls around and near me, what could possibly go wrong? I know it's hard to have faith under these circumstances but the continuous presence and comfort of my friends brought back a gleam of hope back into my life.
Today's match was against South 24 Parganas. Before the match started, all of my team members approached and hugged me. Principal sir came to me and asked me if I was fit to play and conceded that if I wished, I could take a break for a few days. I told him, that it was my mother's dream to see me become a great player and I was determined to play and keep her legacy alive.
Coach sir then informed me that I could play for the first 15 minutes in the first half but during these 15 minutes if he feels that I am not in form, I will be returned to the bench. Something about the familiarity of the environment brought back my focus in the game and I played well in the first 15 minutes and seeing my good form coach sir allowed me to continue.
I got an opportunity and scored a point from the center line and soon after 5 or 6 minutes, I scored another 3 pointers. I was not sure what got into me but I ended up scoring 6 baskets from outside of the charity stripes. We won the match and the South 24 Parganas team was eliminated from the tournament. Our team scored a total of 32 points that day and it was declared and noted that this was the highest score in a single match during the tournament.
**** Wow that must have been a great match indeed. I wish I was there to see them play. Abhinu further writes that his performance that day was one of the best ever. However, something unexpected happened during the next match ****
7th August 1992
After our last match against South 24 Parganas, we were feeling pretty confident that we will bag the next match against Darjeeling too. Coach sir cautioned us that the team from Darjeeling is from the hills and we need to be on guard and devise a good strategy before the match. He reminded us that boys and girls from the hills have excellent stamina and don't get exhausted very easily, and even though our team has been performing well, we were beginning to exhibit evident signs of overconfidence which could doom us. We were not sure what happened but for some reason, Taposh Dada ignored his words. Taposh Dada is our team's captain.
From the past performance of the team, it was not hard to figure out that the team was fully dependent on Monika and Aarohi and with me backing them up today there were no doubts in our mind that we would win. The match started and during the first half, we began to perceive to the full extent what sir implied.
The team from Darjeeling was really swift and it was becoming a herculean task to seize the ball away from the team. We faced the same crisis in the second half too. Our overconfidence brought us to our downfall. We lost the match by a huge margin. It was 2 - 18. We were able to score only 2 points. After the match, I saw the dejected looks on Monika, Aarohi and the rest of the team members face. Our dream of being the best team of Kolkata ended there. Monika was broken because she felt as if her chance of securing a S.A.I. scholarship was over.
**** My poor sis, I knew how it feels when something you have worked for diligently manages to escape your grasp at the very last moment. I know how devastating it can be. Having been rejected myself twice before being finally selected, I was all too familiar with how Monica must have felt. However back in 1993, I remember Monika was declared the youngest athlete to have acquired the 9 dan black belt in Karate and had received a certificate from the governor of Bengal. Even a school from Kerala approached her and dad and requested her to join their school to learn one of the ancient martial arts of India Kalaripayattu. I don't recall whether she finally joined the school or not.
Abhinu further narrates how by the end of the tournament the team from Kalimpong district was declared the winner ****
12th September 1992
Today was a Saturday and early morning Aunty and my sisters went to visit our Grandmom. Uncle told me that they will be returning by tomorrow. I and Aarohi preferred staying back at home. I discovered a secret about Aarohi which she made me pinky swear not to reveal to anyone. I refrained from discussing the secret in the diary too. We invited Monika too and had a lot of fun. Aunty had strictly prohibited us from entering Aarohi's room under any circumstances. Even Monika is not allowed into her room. However today Aarohi took me to her room. Her room was on the first floor of the house. The room at the very sight took my breath away with its elegance and artistic appearance. It seemed to be the largest room in the house. There were 2 large cabinets in one corner of the room and her bed was painted in sky blue. It was enormous enough for 4 grown adult people to rest comfortably on it. The walls to her room also were painted in shades of blue, and the ceiling was painted in purple, with star-shaped cut-outs sticking on it. She told us that when the room is dark, the stars glow, forming the impression that we were looking at the night sky. She showed us the contents of the 2 cabinets and I was bewildered by them. In one of them, there was a huge collection of different types of designer dresses neatly stacked. The second one contained a collection of high-end shoes. Monika wanted to try some of these dresses and I was hit with a sudden inspiring idea and could not resist asking if Aarohi would be interested to be dressed in some of my clothes and we will take photos of Monika and her as a couple. I told her I had a digital camera with me and we could snap lots of photos just for fun. I made her wear one of my denim pants and a pair of shirts. Monika wore Aarohi's favorite purple tutu dress and we posed for a lot of shots. As we were recuperating from our photoshoot and just chatting about, out of nowhere Aarohi let us in on a secret which I did not believe at first. Despite not trusting her secret, I could not let go of the fact that if what she said had an inkling of the truth, I could not help but hold great admiration for her courage in living with and keeping such a secret hidden from the rest of the whole world.
She showed me proof and after seeing that I could not deny that she was not lying. In light of this revelation, my respect for her grew ten folds more.
***** I wonder what the secret is, that a 7-year-old child is burdened with. I hope it's not one of the mean doings of the Banerjee's. This family surpassed the limit of weirdness in my books, I would not be least surprised if they have been abusing Aarohi too just like Geeta. *****
28th September 1992
It has been 2 months now since the incident. I have been continuing my regular classes. There was a class test on maths yesterday and like most students, I was not fond of the subject. Due to the matches, we had lost a lot of studies and had to take extra classes to cope up with the curriculum. Soham had regained his lost honor by topping the class and Aarohi and Monika made sure that they didn't let anyone take the 2nd and 3rd spot. As usual, I was 5th. We had 2 new members that joined the musketeers, Sunaina and Surya. Even though Sunaina and Surya were from different sections and Surya is one year older then Sunaina, Monika still let them join our team. The 5 of us were the best of buddies. We still liked to play basketball after class. There was an announcement in class today and all the players who received the S.A.I. scholarship was asked to come to the principal's office. When we entered the room, we were given a form that we were asked to get signed by our guardians. Once the signature is complete, we will have to report to the SAI hostel and our training will commence. We went home and Uncle signed all our forms.
**** Abhinu writes that the 29th and 30th September passed without any incident. Everything was normal and finally, the day came when they had to join the training academy. ****
1st October 1992
Today is the day we were joining the training academy. I didn't want to leave Aunty and Uncle behind and go to the training academy. Aarohi has been sobbing since morning because she didn't want to leave the family either and stay in a hostel. Uncle consoled us by saying that his place of work was right near our training academy and anytime we felt that we didn't want to stay there, we could always call him and he will take us away from there.
Uncle, Aunty and Aamaya didi came to drop us in the training academy. We reached the academy and were told that boys and girls would be staying in a separate dorm room, we were given our class schedules and were told by our training coach that all we needed to do here was study, eat and play. We are indeed little so if we wanted to talk to our parents, we were free to talk to them as much as we want. His words relieved us a great deal. Finally, Coach sir took us to introduce to someone. One of them was Geethu Anna Jose, Prashanti Singh, and Akilan Pari. Coach sir told us that these 3 players were among the best Indian basketball players. Geethu Ma'am was really sweet and had a lot of motivating talk to inspire us.
We came to know that Akilan sir himself was the captain of under 13 Indian basketball team and he said that he had seen Aarohi taking really good shots, but he felt like there was one girl who truly deserves to be on this team of 10 but he doesn't see her. We asked him who that was, but he said he doesn't know the name but she could score really long shots mostly from the charity stripe. He would want to personally train her himself. Later on, we came to know that our coach is Mr. Sat Prakash Yadav who was also the coach for the Indian basketball team but now he will be coaching the Bengal sub-junior basketball team.
***** Abhinu writes that every weekend the family keeps visiting the children and they built such a good rapport with the other team members that it felt like a family and they nearly stopped thinking about their family back home. This is a regular thing. Once you are in a hostel, your friends become your first family and they never let you feel homesick. He also says that the training was a very extensive one which reminded him of the training they got in Purulia. Of all the friends he always missed Monika a lot. It was announced that the state-level tournaments would begin from the 4th of March 1993, so coach increased their training routine to get them ready and simultaneously kept making sure that the team doctor always does a regular check on the members so that they don't fall sick or tire out due to the extensive routine. Before the match started, SAI organized 2 warm-up matches for the states. They were lined up against Tripura and Jharkhand. ****
14th February 1993
Today we had a tryout match against Tripura. We were informed that these matches had to be conducted to check how ready each team is before the state level matches start. The team from Tripura came down to Kolkata to play with us. Uncle, Aunty and Aamaya didi had also come to the stadium to see our match. Coach sir asked me, Sunaina, Aarav, Taposh dada, and Anju to play the first lineup. Aarohi and Justin, Joy, Prakash and Tony will be on the bench. The match started. The boys from Tripura were good but their performance suggested that they lacked proper practice and was struggling to score. Upon seeing the situation, Coach sir decided to change the lineup after the first 25 minutes of the game. By the end of the match we ended up scoring 15 points and they scored only 7 points. We won the first warmup match.
***** Abhinu further writes that the next match with the team of Jharkhand was a draw. Mr. Yadav their coach had to announce after the warmup matches that the Sports body of India had sent them a new circular. They have been informed that during the state-level tournament, 15 players will be selected for the national team so he wanted us to give it our heart and soul. There will be a total of 32 matches they will have to play, one match each against every state and Union territories. It was supposed to be a knockout tournament. Even though I knew how the tournament ended but I really liked the way Abhinu writes his journal. Wow... This sounds interesting... *****
TO BE CONTINUED...