The last time I was at a Sports Day in school, I was sitting at the back of a giant population of kids in my school, completely disinterested in what was happening. There were some kids running around trying for a bunch of medals, God know why, is what I thought then. Obviously, no parents were there to cheer them ’cause all this was quite frivolous then. Those were the times and then there are times like now. Schools celebrate Sports Day as some huge annual gathering of kids and parents. It is a big big event, one that is never to be missed by parents.
I attended sports day at my daughter’s school on Saturday, and it was an experience in itself. Parents were warned to come in by 8 am (yawn), and take their seats immediately after handing their kids to the teachers. Another stern warning was that no parents should be seen near the tracks or the sports day would be called off. Diligently, we landed there at 8 am, and dropped out little tot to prepare for her race. We then took our place in the parent’s shamiana, right by the tracks for a good view. The kids – ages 2.5-3.3 years – are a fantastic way of enjoying. Their overpowering sense of non competitiveness is actually so very cute. Kids running with their hands in the pocket {mine 
}, kids seeing their parents and stopping to wave, the kid who is leading suddenly feels lonely and lets other catch up by waiting for the mid track, kids who kept running cause they didn’t know the concept of the finish line… Amazing!!! The parents, too bonded very well cheering one and all and the spirit of any competition that they would have harboured evaporated immediately. The parent’s races were again so overtaken by this spirit that people were actually enjoying the prospect of just the running. Yours truly finished the race, with a tumble on the ground in the mass of fathers running for their kids! And the mother didn’t hear the whistle and hence ended up a on the starting block!
But the gem is what my daughter Myra said to me after we got home. When I asked her why she didn’t run fast, she said, “No pappa, you were not there, you didn’t see me running, I won the race”. Suddenly it dawned on me, that for her, it’s the spirit of taking part, not competing is what I need to grow in her. “Yes” I said “You did, my baby, you won”.
