Sports Meet

I ended up taking Anisha to Kanteerava stadium for inter school atheletic meet as she was representing her school in the under 8 girls 200m and 4x50 m relay. The meet was organized by KPMG and there were about 170 schools that had signed up sending in a whopping 5000 kids. It was quite a scene seeing so many kids from so many schools. The traditional marchpast was very good and I was impressed by the size and efficiency of the organizers. One of the things that surprised me was a sea change in how schools/parents/kids approached these things. Most schools had their own colorful sports uniforms and many kids were dressed up in spikes for the races. I couldn't help wonder about when I participated in sports and ran on barefoot. There were many kids from govt schools who were participating in the races on barefoot. I was wondering what went over these kids minds seeing their more affluent competitors (since I certainly know what would have gone through my mind if I was there).

As most of you know, a 200m race goes round the curve and in order to compensate for the curvature, they have kids in the outer lane placed ahead than the kids in the inside lanes. Anisha was in the second inside lane and while she had bent down to take off, a thought went through which unfortunately ended up being true. The thought was, most kids of age 6 do not realize that they are all running the same distance although the participant on the outer lane seems little ahead of you at the start itself. As soon as the gun went off, the kids got off the block and when she saw the kid in the outer lane already so far ahead, she lost hopes and slowed down. She came crying saying that the other kids got a head start and I did not have the nerve to explain to her the geometry of why. I really felt sorry for her but the kind of girl she is, she forgot all that and went for her relay the next day. Her team mate ended up falling thereby affecting the team's chance. It was a good experience for Anisha watching and competing against so many kids and hopefully she walked away with something more than just memories.