Thursday 3 July 2014

That Badminton Match - A Life Altering Incident

Kapoorniandotherrandomthings turned a month old today! Hurrah and hugs!

Since most of the people reading this know me personally, some of you may know this incident already, since I recited it during a school extempore, upon receiving the topic Describe an incident that changed your life.

Fear not. You can laugh at my stupidity once again.

Getting down to business. Apart from wasting time, badminton is my favourite thing in life. I have an unhealthy obsession with it. I play everyday for hours, no matter what. If I have a Physics exam the next day, my teacher will specifically tell me to not play, but as many of you may know by now, I listen to only the following people -

(You've fallen victim to my tricks again. I listen to nobody.)

Anyway, Mother decided that if I was going to waste so much time, something good should come of it. We decided to get try out one of those Badminton Coaching things. I'm in 11th grade and all my classmates have joined coachings to help with their studies and/or competitive exams, and here I was, joining a coaching for a sport.

What a peculiar teenager.

Anyway, we set out, Mother and me, with high hopes. We went to our city's badminton stadium, in the hope to get me enrolled in one of the classes. I've played at that stadium before and it was extremely intimidating so I told my mother, and I quote, that I will "hide in the car" while she talks to one of the coaches. My plan backfired though since the coach beckoned me to come inside. I entered the stadium and it was just as scary as I remembered. I recognized some of the players and quickly hid behind Mother. The coach sized me up and told me to run five laps of the stadium.

Now. I had just had a McChicken combo, with a large Coke and I was afraid I'd throw up all over the beautiful stadium. But apart from being insanely witty (and outrageously modest) I'm also extremely stubborn. I nodded and began to run like a wild person. I'm good at a lot of things (braiding hair, peeling off fevicole, combing my dog's fur) but one thing I lack in life is grace. That's why I'll never be a good dancer (there goes my pole dancing career). I'm completely graceless. That's why I look crazy walking in heels. And why I look like a chicken when I run. So there I was, running around looking like Godzilla, when the coach had mercy on me and stopped me after three laps. I refused to drink any water and asked him what to do next. He told me to stretch whilst he looked for somebody to play opposite me to see how I played.

He came up to me with a tiny girl. I was kind of humiliated. Really? He was going to make me play against some small kid?! Um, okay then.

That girl was tiny. Honestly, she looked like my child. Nevertheless, we started the match, and I decided to go easy on her.

But she didn't decide to go easy on me.

Long story short, a girl three heads shorter than me and probably 1,000 years junior to me beat me.

Very bad.

Three times.

The coach didn't say anything because she was apparently one of the good players there (thanks for telling me that in advance!) and asked me to return the next day in the evening to start a crash course for three months. I nodded, smiled, thanked him, and left with Mother, with the promise to come back the next day.

Only we never did. I went home and cried and watched Pretty Little Liars on a loop feeling sorry for myself.

That coach still haunts me at night.

4 comments:

  1. Is this the same tiny girl that beat you in that tournament?! :P

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Why do I get a feeling that this is you, Asha?

      Delete
    2. Asha who?

      Delete
    3. Asha I know it's you. Don't play games with me son.

      Delete