me on ibnlive.com

i had earlier written couple of articles which were published on http://www.ibnlive.com/
for quite sometime, my article link was published on the front page of ibnlive.com
for more, read here.

Kingdom: 20 x 44

Picture a 20 x 44 yard rectangle. Two parallel lines one meter and four and a half inches inside the twenty yards. Got it? That’s a badminton court, my kingdom. I rule it when I am there.

Badminton courts vary from size to size, but the one which will be forever imprinted in my mind is located in United World College (UWC), Singapore.

The first memory of badminton goes a long way back in my childhood. The only image that I recall is the way I used to bore Bhai by making him play with me; a school pro playing with someone who wasn’t familiar with serving properly. After everyone was gone, I would stay back and serve from the end line of one court to the other side. I had to learn how to serve well, after all, that’s the only way to earn a point.

Days, weeks, and months flew by as I learned how to master a badminton serve. Hold the shuttle lightly in your hand; just let it sit there. Then scoop the racket from the back of your head over your right shoulder and make sure the shuttle makes contact with the middle of the racket. But the main trick is in the power; you have to get all the power from your legs.

Finally after a few months of blood and sweat, I started to play well. My school, Ruamrudee International School (RIS), had two badminton teams for boys and girls, Junior Varsity and Varsity teams. I could only dream of playing in the Junior Varsity Girls Badminton team at that time. There was a lot of competition. Out of 50 students, only 16 were chosen. Tried out in 6^th grade. I got through the first cut, but couldn’t make it after that. As a result, I spent more and more hours on the court. Tried out again the next year. And finally I made it. My first dream came true. Now I planned the impossible for myself. I wanted to get into the Varsity Girls Badminton team when I was in 9^th grade.

It’s not a part of the school’s tradition to have many freshmen (9^th graders) in the varsity teams. I was told by my brother and friends not to expect too much. Tried out for varsity. I got through the second and third cuts. Made it to the team.

“This is it,” I told myself.

I didn’t expect more than this. This was all I had ever played for. But someone up above didn’t think so.

There is a major tournament at the end of the badminton season, South East Asian Student’s Activity Conference (SEASAC), and the top five boys and girls get to go and play. That year it was held at UWC, Singapore. I was in 9th grade, and was ranked fifth seed. The world can turn into one big fantasy for a 15-year-old girl to play a tournament played by the pros of the school.

I remember the size of the courts were bigger than the ones we played at in our school. Generally it’s hard to notice the difference, but for me it meant a bigger kingdom. The lines weren’t the ordinary black lines instead they were red lines. The hall had a capacity of holding 8 badminton matches simultaneously. It was pretty cold in the hall. Lunch was served by the school; not that bad, really. By the end of the tournament I won all my matches, and even bagged the mixed doubles championship. What a journey. This was just the beginning.

The most interesting matches I played there, surprisingly, were the mixed doubles matches. Coincidently, I was teamed with a boy form the New International School of Thailand (NIST). The finals of the mixed doubles was between the 2nd seed of the UWC girls team and the 2nd seed of the Jakarta International School (JIS) boys team against my partner and me both rookies ranking 5th. The final scores read 15-9, 17-15, 17-15 favoring us. This was the match that created the most amount of noise by the audience and resulted in dividing the audience into two equal parts, one consisting of players from Bangkok and the other with players from Singapore and Jakarta.

I had never felt that cautious before. All the eyes were constantly set on our smallest moves. Suggestions were screamed by each member of the both the teams while we walked back to serve.

Each serve, return, and shot cheered like a Wimbledon finals. The excitement and adrenaline was flowing everywhere.

It takes a long time to get something right, to get it just the way you want. Ask me, I know.

Less is more

A new club, Association at Webster for Advancing Rights & rights Education (AWARE), was formed on January 24^th, 2006 during the general WTSC meeting. The goals of AWARE are to “promote, monitor and advance student rights and assist students with the realization of those rights. The organization shall achieve its goals through the creation of Focus Groups, which will collectively support, enquire and ensure that the Students Rights, according to the student rights instruments, are upheld and thus creating and maintaining a supportive learning environment at WUT”.

Being in WUT since Fall 1 2004, I was used to the idea of students coming here and complaining and rather than doing anything about the concerned issue. So when I heard that a club such as AWARE was being formed, I was relieved. At least, now students care about issues in WUT. and on top of that, they r willing to do the work it requires. The prime root cause of various issues at WUT is the low student population. Is it really a fact of reality or has it been overused to the point that it sounds like an excuse?

The answer to that is student spirit.

Just because WUT has low student population, it doesn't mean that there has to low student spirit.

Extra-curriculum activities offered at any university can be used as a tool of measurement for student spirit. Sadly, but truly; WTSC was, till now, the most active organization, but with the introduction of AWARE, things do look different. In terms of sports, things looks way better than six months back; there are regular football matches, a basketball and badminton tournaments were organized.

I feel that this is not enough. Pardon me for the cliché, but its true: WUT’s diversity seems to be hindering more than helping. Large communities such as Vietnam, Burma and the rest, hardly interact with the others and vice versa. The only time enthusiasm is seen when competitive events such as COC or Food Fair are organized. If students want things to get better at WUT, then the first step has to come from them, they have to start participating in activities outside of classrooms. Less is more.

It’s time WUT illustrates some student spirit.

"Life is not the number of breaths you take; it’s the moments that take your breath away.”

Drop in Ocean

Drop in the ocean

My first conversations with new students coming to Webster University Thailand:

-XYZ: “So how long have you been in Thailand?”
-V: “Umm…more than 10 years.”
-XYZ: “Really?”
-V: Yah. Well, you see, I was born in India but brought up here. I’ve done my entire schooling at an international school in Bangkok.”
-XYZ: “So you know how to speak Thai.”
-V (face turning tomato red with embarrassment): “Umm…not really, I mean, I can understand but my verbal Thai is not very good.”
-XYZ: “Really, I guessed 10+ years would be enough for one to learn a language.”

And there I stand, embarrassed to death. And then come the questions haunting me: Should I really be embarrassed, after all, I studied at an international school, and live in what can be best described as ‘little India’ away from India; my parents can, to a certain extend, converse in Thai. But what does that have to do with me, I am what I am, and therefore should know how to speak in Thai by now. And now my memory goes down to the lane of RIS, where I remember just a couple of years back, there were rumors that RIS is going to turn completely into a Thai school, but the reality was that the school administration was starting to practice a law (which was compulsory and should have implemented since the start) that they were ignoring till now which was: all international schools had to have Beginner’s Thai classes for foreign students. Makes sense, and now I just wish that they had done that before, it would save me so much of embarrassment. Well, I’m an NRI, ’int it. And that brings me to the next big issue, that of NRIs.

NRI: Non-Resident Indian or is it really, Non-Returning Indian? Call me what you want, I’m more proud to be an Indian than a NRI. NRI has become more of a social status-symbol than anything else. ‘O! You are a NRI; then you must have the ‘name-fame-and hari patti’. Must we? After having a opportunity to study abroad, live abroad, isn’t it our duty; I repeat, not what we should do, but our duty to in some manner or the other go back to our ‘Mother India’ and give back to the community we come from.

Our colony can be mistaken for any other colony in Indore, Chennai, Kolkotta, or any other developed city in India. With the recently build Laxmi-Narayan Mandir, it doesn’t even feel that we are living outside India. But don’t the kids, aunties and to a certain extent even the uncles (who are in their own worlds of peroxide, sulfur and fiber) get excited at the thought of going to India for the summer vacation. And don’t our eyes get moist just at the thought of thinking of our homes and relatives back in India? You might say that it all looks good from here, but once reality strikes, well, ‘jhor ka jaatka, dhere se lage’. With our comfortable lifestyles here; maids who help mummys keep the house clean; no exact electricity and water bills; AC cars; when we return to India, life sometimes gets hard.

“With all the pollution, dirty roads, poverty, heat, corruption, who would want to go back and live when we have a better life here?” True, why should we go through the trouble that the common Indian man lives everyday; we are NRIs, aren’t we?

Hmm..can India give us everything that our Residential colony has over here? Of course, why not. The only hitch in that is that people have to go back and do the work. I know that it is not easy, but life is not easy. If life gives you lemons, go ahead and make lemonade. If even a small percentage of NRIs go back to India and just TRY to make a difference, a lot can happen. Not just in monetary donations when some natural disaster hits India, but in the actual forming a better India, in helping INDIA SHINNING. I don’t know about the others but I definitely am going to try and go back and settle down in India. I might not succeed but at least I can say that I tried.

A drop in the ocean might be small, but the ripples run far.

my kingdom....or atleast that is what i called it...

the 33 x 18 m court with two parallel lines in each border with four boxes and 1 net that makes a badminton court...well, its not a place for me anymore, or atleast that is what i feel and think...

once upon a long time, say 4 years ago, that same box, whether in singapore, NIST, RIS, or the good old colony, used to be my 'kingdom'...the only place i ruled...the only place i felt i deserved as my own...and now...i just dont feel like i can call it mine anymore...

since u r wondering why i'm saying all this...well, was playing badminton on campus..after a long...say after a year or so, and just like the last time i 'tried' playing, i just couldn't....it just didnt feel right...

playing badminton would solve so many of my problems...or atleast help me...physically as well as mentally (J, P, S: u know what i'm talking about, nah???)...

the girl that once upon a time had only 2 crazes (at that point in time): cricket (well, technically dravid really...hehe.) and badminton...

well before the bus from school returned inside the colony every friday, my plans for playing badminton was already made...and then came saturdays and sundays, where i made sure that the evenings were untouched by the numerous plans as i had to play badminton, from 3 or 4 to 8 or 9....that was perfect....

but then one day, i fell down and ever since then i really haven't been able to get up ..to build up my courage to "play" badminton...maybe i wont ever really be able to "play" the way i used to anymore, not just technically, but even like emotionally and mentally...even after more than 2 years...

o! well, i dont want to bore & depress u guys with all this...