Although I wish
to put my anger within the bout my opponents don’t want to do so. The talks are
all over that there is a rivalry between myself and Raghav and of course his
coach Eeshwar. And at last Sherlock has found his Moriarity and a Sebastian
Moran(or people around him decided so). After the Chennai match, I had a few
state level matches and I never got the chance to meet Sebastian Moran, but I am
pretty aware that Moriarity is watching me. I try avoided eye contact with
Sensei Eeshwar. But fate brought us together along with Raghav. Next
opportunity came to me in terms of an international match. I have to travel to
Sri lanka as our senseis made some MoS with the Lankan senseis they wanted to
conduct an International tournament and they invited two participants from our
style. So they conducted a selection process and in the top ten names my name
popped in too along with Raghav. They conducted a selection match to reduce the
ten to five and within the five Raghav got selected for his outstanding
performance and consistency and other four has to fight for the single place
available. Unfortunately I won the matches and I got selected for the other
place. Now when comes to the travelling part, I didn’t face the problem of
Moriarity(sorry sensei Eeshwar) as he is not travelling with me. The plan is
that two senior most authorities of our group are travelling with two students.
Sherlock and Sebastian Moran has to be on the same team for the first time.
Shihan Prakash and Sensei Moovendhan travelled with us and we both players bore
the cost for them too.
First we
reached the Trichy airport and then from there we travelled to Colombo the
capital city of sri lanka. There sensei Virat Saman Kumara and Manoj Unantenna
received us and took the place where the tournament going to be held. From there
we had a three or more hours drive to Gampola. We had a day for warming up and
my only companion to practice is Raghav. Now I felt that he won’t have any
repulsion against me as now we belong to the same team now. But as I expected I
am wrong this time, his vengeance was evident in the practice sessions and we
never exchanged a word during that time. Our Shihan was busy in practicing Kata
for his open battle. I felt a bit awkward on staring the opponent in practice
session like he is my arch enemy and in words in my mind running “I will skin
you, I will burn you” kind of stuffs. So I decided to call of the session and
practiced Kata and concentrated on it heavily. The night before the match was
the worst night I ever had. During that time there was not even a landline
phone facility available in my house and none of coaches carried a phone with
them. They all called their respective houses from the public phone there and I
informed that I reached there safely through a neighbor’s phone.
The longest
night ended at 4 AM itself and I started warming up and I have been informed
that I will be having both the Kata and Sparing at the same day. I was keen on
Kata and I wanted to shine in sparing too. My previous official fight was a
nightmare to me and it still haunted me at that time. I wanted to get out of
it, all I felt was that I just played a gentleman’s game but I gave a room for
the opponent. Now I have big stage and the fights are big, so I can prove
myself big. The match started sharply at 9 AM and my event was scheduled as the
third event and it started at 11 AM. The Kata event went as a slice and I won
the first place. It was not even difficult as in nationals, by now I have
excelled in some major Katas of other styles thanks to my personal coaches. I had
to go through 5 rounds and I used 4 different Katas and in the fifth round I performed
the same Kata I performed in the first round. All of the four were advanced
Katas. After my match it is Raghav’s match and he won first place in Kata and
silver in Sparing. I belonged to a different category as they categorized on
age basis. Now I have to get at least a third place and that was my aim too. In
my bout in order to reach the finals I need to face 8 opponents. It was quite
difficult than I expected, totally opposite to that of the Kata. There were Africans,
Pakistanis, Korean and Indians of course. I lost at the semifinals. So I need
to face another match and win to get the least medal of the third place. As I expected
that was the toughest match, the player was a native and support is huge and
all the referees were natives. I felt déjà vu, but still I don’t want that
nightmare to haunt me at any course. I need to win the match by any means
possible so that I can get away from the nightmare.
The bout
started and the first round the score was zero on both sides as we both tried
to defend ourselves. None of us attacked. Then in the second round suddenly
flashed a thought, what am I doing? Am I afraid, have I lost my moxie? What I need
to do is to score, not to defend myself any attacks. All of this thought
flashed and suddenly I gave a slap in his face and he fell down and the match
is over. I have knocked him out and my first international win is a knock out. So
I got back my confidence to face another fight. Then we went to Nuvarelia a
place near the venue and later it was told that it is like Ooty of Lanka. I
always had the problem with the food as the most available food there was
non-vegetarian and I am unable to take much. But the victory made is nothing to
think of. To be frank the food served later was worst(only to me) but I felt something
beyond happiness on eating it.
Others had the
privilege of enjoying the non-vegetarian food and I don’t wanted that privilege
and a simple bread and Paratha without a side dish sufficed for a whole week. Very
later I realized that the maximum wanted it that way. Even after the victory I never
exchanged a word with Raghav, even when I try to start a conversation he was
stubborn in ignoring me(stubborn as a dwarf). Luckily in the flight I got a
seat which was not near to any of my fellow travellers and it was a pleasant experience.
The steward was very kind to me, he provided me with a special breakfast and he
even gave me some playing cards while my nearby passenger was asleep. It was
due to the reason that I travelled alone as a young passenger. Even we had some
chat and the steward was very kind enough to fill my stomach with some extra
snack. In the whole travel that was the tastiest food I ever had(actually real
food as I can’t count breads as food). The saddest part is the short span of
the journey. It was only 50 minutes from Colombo to Trichy. From there we took
a cab to the home town. I haven’t bought anything for my parents, not for me
but the others including Raghav had a bunch of stuffs carrying to home. I had
no Photos, not anything apart from the certificate and medals, the only thing
that proves me that I have visited Lanka is my passport and as a memorabilia I have
the playing cards which has the symbol of Lankan airlines in the back(thanks to
steward). Now I felt betrayed, this feel was too bad when compared to the fear I
had. The fear of betrayal was the worst thing I ever had at that time. I was
too young to make quick moments or comments and later I came to know they
bought two bottles of liquor which cost a few thousand bucks here and came to
them as a compliment.
Now all the
three became a part of the one group and I am alienated. I was at brown belt
degree at that time the next step is black belt. After these incidents I detached
myself from the group and maintained a low profile and postponed my black belt
grading. The money spent for the trip was huge and my Shihan and sensei enjoyed
the free trip and profited a lot from the tournament. Still I was unaware of
the treaty between the both of bringing a couple of students for their
tournaments and making the profit underneath. Although the tournament was
genuine, the money was not.
Comments
Post a Comment