Game ho jaye ....

Have been hearing about India Pakistan Cricket series .. “ Kya cricket ka khel 2 deshon ki ranjishey mitta sakta hai ?” – typical Aaj Tak style question :D

With my partner 'Pops' :)

I don’t know about sports bridging gap of differences between 2 nation , but I definitely agree that in my life I have definitely come over my differences/perception/reservation about people over game of badminton.

Today was one such day – when

 I partnered with someone who was reason for me to leave a project midway because of our differences , He; let me call him “My friend “ was onsite manager and I offshore project manager head strong not ready to take whatever comes from onsite :D and even before that when I was in different role of resource manager we have had our share of disputes and argument :) Every body in my team knew I left the project because of him – very recently he came back to India for good and saw him again after almost 2 years – first 2 times I behaved as if I didn’t see him when he was other people – then one day when I was in lift and when lift opened in one floor he was in front of me , I smiled at him – a big smile , and he smiled back (little confused smile) , frankly I don’t know to ignore somebody I know even if I don’t like the person , I tend to smile (I might behave completely different at work or when it comes to some discussion with same person) but in general I smile at people I know :)

Few days later when I went to play badminton at near by club , I saw “My Friend” there again with other 2 senior managers - I smiled at them and they smiled back at me , I was waiting for my partner , when onw of them called to play with them as they were 3 people and wanted 4th person (frankly I didn’t want to join , senior manager – I have my set of friends from whom I learn a lot , and playing with them I am exhausted .. but when they called me , I didn’t want to look rude, I joined them , though I didn’t partner with My friend that day , I won all my games against him with another manager , after 3 games I said thank you to them and went to play with my partner – who is a good player, and fun partner, I enjoy playing with my partner – he calls me” Moms “ he started calling me moms when I was pregnant with Ezekiel – in office he will shout – “Hey moms kaisi hai “ I call him “Pops” recently he became dad of a lovely Angel :D So today again I was waiting for Pops when I saw “My Friend” with 2 other managers and waiting for 4th person to join them , so again the other manager asked me to join , I smiled again and joined – again I didn’t partner with “My Friend” I won 3 games against him, then the other manager asked “My Friend” to partner with me – I smiled , was not sure if My Friends was comfortable but he agreed , we lost the game partnering with him, we then again played another game this time I talking loud to him, making my calls “I Shall” “Leave It partner ” “Away” “Good Serve partner ” “Short Partner” , encouraging US , and this time we won – to my surprise he gave me High Five !! :D Next 2 games I played against My Friend and won both the games against him :) I could see 3 of them tired , and I was waiting to play with my partner Pops , so I said thank you again and joined Pops :) I realized that somewhere deep within my heart I had forgiven “My friend” and well it does not take much to actually overcome your reservations for someone – game of badminton is enough for me :D

Pops making us laugh during the match -
reason I like playing along with him :)

I am thankful to Pops for getting me back to play .“Pops” he is good sports person, knows most of the people who come to play, makes lot of noise just like me ;) and frankly playing with him and other good players makes me feel like a kid who wants to learn more wants to play better at the earliest , I feel so much younger …. And guess it shows on court , I see guys much younger playing so good; some of them State level players , I look like beginner in front of them but today when one young guy whom I got introduced few days back , came and told me I play good and I should come more often, I laughed and said , I am beginner here and “Old Aunty” with 2 kids have to leave now to take care of kids at home :D Driving back home I smiled thinking about “My Friend” and the different episodes with him ; and I remembered few more “Friends” with whom I need to play few games of Badminton :D !!6