I thought about her techniques and a new gameplan for the whole night. This was my first time coaching someone, so I was a bit tensed but excited.
As a result, I got very little amount of sleep and woke up late, the next morning. I hurriedly dressed up, took my school bag and rushed downstairs. I live alone with my grandfather and, as he owns a small restaurant, therefore he keeps my breakfast and lunchbox ready on the dining table every morning and goes to the restaurant. He is also a very good chef, to be honest.
I had my breakfast as fast as possible, put the lunchbox in my bag, took my bicycle and paddled hastily towards the school. Gladly, I was not much late. I quickly parked my bicycle and went to my classroom.
During the recess, i went to the school washroom and washed my face. On my way back to the classroom, I met Aisha. She looked rather serious than normal. She told me to wait near the coffee shop, after the school gets over.
As she said, I went near the coffee shop after the school. She was already there, waiting for me. As I came, she told me," Prakash sir has not came today." I replied, "So, what should we do now?"
- "Let's go on a date!"
- "WHAT???!!! A d-date?? Between you and me??!"
- "Yeah. Just a normal friendly date, not the romantic one"
- "That's called 'hang out'."
- "You can also call it that, Senior."
At first, she said it so casually that my heartbeat really stopped for a moment. But then I realised that I don't have such a good luck that a girl would ask me out for date. Nevertheless, I questioned her," What about your practice?" She replied," It's ok to take break for a day. Besides, we don't know each other that well. If there's no bonding between the coach and his disciple, we can't gain success. So, let's go somewhere."
- "But where?"
- "Let me think. Let's go to Lake Park."
- "Ok"
We left for journey to Lake Park. When we reached there, it was almost 5pm. I asked her," Wouldn't your parents mind if you are out for so long after the school?"
- "My parents are not home today. My father have gone to an office trip to London and my mother has gone to one of my aunt's house in Surat. She didn't take me with her because of the competition."
- "Oh, I see."
- "What about you?"
- "My parents had abandoned me. I live with my grandfather now."
- "OMG!! Why??!!"
- "That's a long story. It's partly related to that match fixing case."
- "Tell me. We have more than enough time. Let's go and sit on a bench near the lake."
Honestly, I didn't want to disclose it to anyone else. But I don't know why, I felt very secure and comfortable with her, and thought that I could trust and tell her everything.
Therefore, we went and sat on a bench near the lake and I started telling my story:-
"From the beginning only, my mother didn't support me for playing badminton. Although my father did support me a bit, but he thought that badminton can never make my future bright. I wished I have listened to him. When I was in class 7, I started taking badminton classes from Prakash sir. He was the first one ever to identify my talent in the game. He tried to tell my parents many times about it. But they didn't listened to him. But my grandfather understood everything and used to give the fees of that badminton coaching class every month. As a result, I never stopped playing badminton. But as I grew up, my academic marks started to deteriorate. In class 10th, I got only 71%. As a result, my parents scolded me a lot, but didn't stopped my playing, because by that time, I became well known in my locality for badminton. So, in order to keep their reputation, they didn't stopped my playing. A year later, I took part in the Inter-School Badminton Competition on behalf of my school. I did well there and qualified for the finals. In the final, me and my opponent, both had won 1 round each. The last round was the decider one. At one point, it seemed like I was winning. When the score was 11-7 in favour of me, a break was taken for side change. What I saw at that time, touched my heart. I saw that his, my opponent's, little brother came on a wheelchair to deliver the towel. After taking the towel, he smiled and told his little brother, 'Don't worry, I will win the match for you. Then, with the money, you can finally have the operation and free your legs!'. That conversation touched my heart. After that, I couldn't focus on the match and almost lost it on purpose. But my classmates, neighbours and coach thought I fixed the match. Therefore, my whole fate changed from that day, my friends started ignoring me, neighbours started talking behind me and all my reputation and respect went down to earth. Due to this, my parents had to face huge humiliation in their works. That's the reason they abandoned me. But my grandpa believed in me and therefore, kept me with him in his house."
I took a long deep breath after finishing the story and drank a lot of water. I saw her face. She was looking towards the lake, thinking something in her mind. Suddenly, she asked," What colour can you see in this lake now?"
- "Deep blue?"
- "It's indigo. Do you know what the colour 'indigo' symbolises?"
- "No, i guess."
- "It symbolises great devotion, wisdom and justice. Whatever you did in that match, I think you just portrayed the significance of indigo in your character. Don't lose hope. Everything's gonna be alright. Ok then, let's end it up here today."
After that, I walked her to her home since it was a bit dark. On my way back, I knew, whatever she told me that time, don't know if she said it from heart or not, but it surely motivated me a lot. I started to believe that my fate has begun to change a bit and I was slowly emerging towards the right track.