Life Lessons-1

It was sometime in the summers of 1991-92 or 1992-93 when I was in class 7-8. We used to live in a colony called Beemanagar in Indore. We had one community hall and it had a playground opposite to it. That ground was the only playable ground in our colony.

During summer vacations we used to get up early and start playing cricket at around 7 am right up till 10 am. We had a team comprising of children between class 4th to class 8th. Me and Kshitij were the oldest of the lot and thus were undeclared captains of the group.

We also had a group of slightly older boys in the colony, may be around 4 years older to us, which in school standards is quite a lot as most of them were in 11th or 12th.

Since a few days the old boys were constantly threatening us that they want to start playing on the ground at the same time as we used to and that we should stop coming to ground at that time. This would have put our vacations in jeopardy. 

The team was discussing this for quite sometime and lot of options including complaining to our parents, finding some other ground outside our colony etc. were evaluated. But at some point, two of us being oldest, the team was looking up to us to find a solution. Both of us knew  that we cannot fight those big boys and we may have to stop playing in the morning.

On one day when the confrontation was on and we were almost about to give up, I proposed as to why not have a match? Elder team versus the younger team !!! On stake was the time slot and whoever wins will get the slot. Most of our team members thought that it was stupid idea as they will definitely beat us and we will have to stop playing in the morning. But Kshitij being my closest friend knew what I was proposing and why I was proposing and he helped me in convincing others. Older guys also thought it to be a win win for them as they were confident to beat us and immediately agreed for a match.

Finally the match started. Me and Kshitij were committed to give our 200% to save our vacations. On that day two of us played as if it was our last game. We hit sixes to each and every baller from the older team and scored a nice total. Even in bowling, since two of us were fast ballers, we ensured that we make it difficult for them to get away at least when two of us are bowling.

At the end of the game, while we ended up being on losing side, we had shamed most of the big guys in batting as well as balling departments.

The match resulted in three things:

• We lost the match,
• We still managed to embarrass older guys who started thinking that they should allow us to play in our morning time slot, and
• Me and Ksitij also started getting opportunities to play with older guys in their matches.

It's a small childhood story, but what I realized is that when you try and convert your threats into opportunities, wonders happen. It still is easier said than done, but then that sometimes is the only option to survival.

Fear can be the best catalyst for a great performance. It is up to us as to whether we allow the fear to overwhelm us or decide to use it to our benefit. Choice is ours.