Special Moments

When questioned about 4th of July the world would answer of what made it special, and if it was about 15th Aug 1947 the entire subcontinent would answer. Very few people in the world would answer if questioned about 11th July 1982; it was the day when team Italy beat Germany in the soccer world cup finals and lifted the Soccer World cup for the third consecutive time but there was something else that happened too. A baby boy was born exactly the same time when Paolo Rossi of the italian team lifted the world cup for his nation.

This baby could not even write English alphabets on the day before the lower school annual exams. It was only during the exam he managed to write all the alphabets and got a nod from the teacher to get into the next grade. This boy found it very comfortable to sit on a rice cooker and watch his mom cooking for him .One fine morning he got up from bed to find his mom not in the kitchen and sat on the cooker but sitting on a hot fuming rice cooker was never going to be comfortable. This part of life can be aptly called "ignorance".

Days passed to gave way to years but still the "cooker" nightmare remained. The baby grew to be a kid and everyday dreamt of sitting on a hot cooker. Then came the primary school cultural events and the kid was forced to give a speech about the school to an audience. That was the first time the kid found his hands and legs shivering. He thought it was nightmare number two but after giving away the speech it was a proud moment though there was little applause from the audience. There were only lessons to learn and orders to receive, so this part of life can be aptly called "slavery".

Years passed to give way to a decade and the kid grew to be an adolescent. The "cooker" nightmare was history. Being a pet to many teachers he became the vice captain of his team named "Shamrocks" but little did he know that the job of a vice captain was to just hold the team's flag on the sports day marching event. Everything else was supposed to be done by the senior grade student leaders but still this fellow tried to make a difference by shouting "left" "right" "left" so loudly that none of the audience never found it difficult to spot where the roar came from. This part of life can be aptly called "silly".

All senior grade student leaders were already great friends of this fellow now. The school teams were in a fight to win the year's "best team shield" but unfortunately "Shamrocks" lost. The senior grade folks cried like babies as it was the last chance to win something in their school lives and the vice captain was starring at them. The "shamrocks" captain stopped crying, walked towards the starring vice captain and said "will you get me the shield next year”. Still not sure what this part of life can be aptly called.

The following year the vice captain was one of the "Shamrocks” student leader and found his fellow leaders very talented and hardworking. Their motto was "Fight, Kill or die”; the shield is ours" and obviously it was their shield that year. This part of life was "friendship".

School days were over now. The college was a different life, a life where the guy knew what the world is like. It was the time when he learnt about people who do not open their huge cash boxes to spare a penny to a poor kid and also about people who break their earthen pot to give their life savings to a unknown distant sufferer of natural calamity. It was the time when he saw people who pray in the name of God and also people who fight in the name of God. It was a time for the quest of knowledge, information and survival. This part of life was called "stepping into the world".

Years passed and his mom still finds it difficult to believe that he finished his UG in a professional course. Though not an achievement at all it was an achievement for her perhaps she knew about the "alphabet" struggle.

Two and a half decades passed from the day Paolo Rossi lifted the 1982 world cup. The baby who is a young man now works for a technology company and is trying to peep into the future to see if he can achieve something precious like what Paolo did.