To "sports" or not to "sports" is the question !

Growing up in India, Sports was but a luxury for every kid. Our sporty ordeal was a sealed deal starting with 'Tag' and ending with 'Hide and Seek'. There were occasional spurs of hourly rented bicycles and short sprints to the local grocery stores. It would be overly generous to say there were handful of kids who learnt 'How-to' of any kind of sport.
Fast forward life to this country -USA, married with two kids. Without any agenda in our minds, from an early age of four we let our kids be actively involved in soccer and Tennis. They enjoyed every day, every season and so it went on for years. There were skipped playdates, missed get-togethers, last minute cancellation of 'visiting-your-friend family' date. But sports became and still is the very center of our kids lives.
There were times when I got perplexed looks with questions in their minds; "Why Sports? Why all this craze?". Honestly, this question never popped in my head before. Yet the looks forced me to gaze upon my kids, step back and think about the WHYs. Is it for the so-called desirable sports scholarship , or is it because it makes their application more appealing to the prospective colleges? Do they get any extra credits? Why is all this so essential?
Well, what I learnt in these years is Sports is a religion. It's a way of life. It develops integrity,  teaches you the relevance of hard work, persistence and perseverance; working in a team for a common goal,  respecting your opponent irrespective of the outcome.
Most important of all it teaches "How to win humble and loose gracefully".

Now isn't that what life is all about?

Just another day

It was the first beautiful, non chilly , sunshine day of the week. Just another day but yet it was peaceful, bright and a perfect-day-to-start-your-week-with kind of a day. A whirlpool of thoughts for the tasks to be done for the day where zooming around in circles , priorities to be set and keeping a tab on whats humanely achievable .
Midst of all this , the first task was to drop the kids to school and then step on my gears to mission impossible!!
Ours is a regular local road stretching straight from my house to the school. I could see kids walking alone or with an adult(s), enjoying the pleasant morning. Cars wheezing slowly dropping off kids. A fine day, I do my part of the deal, send my kids off and on my way back home, looking forward to next task in line.
One thing for sure, come what may , I always follow rules . STOP  sign means a complete stop for at least 5 seconds , speed limit at any school area during drop off and pick up, never more than 25mph. I guess its not a "save in kindness box" type of generous ordeal. Its just what everybody does. That is what I assumed up until now.
I was on my way home at 25 mph, a car started tailgating me too close. At first I ignored. It's just the way I am going to drive considering the school area and timing. No matter the rush the lady following me was in I was not going to speed up anyway. Then suddenly I hear a HONK. I  was pleasantly annoyed to put it decent. I still chose to ignore. She could fly if her car could take her off but 'not in school zone' was my thought. I crawled at my own speed not being bothered by her unending urge of crushing me over to get to her destiny.
I hear another honk, I have a human urge to slow down even more to "calm" her down a bit!! Keeping my cool I keep my speed and wait to turn at my street keeping enough space for her to zoom away to wherever her emergency was. Then taking my alms to her benefit ,she honked the best she could, zooming away at more than 50 mph.
The sanity I cherished up until now broke down. Before I could turn my vehicle around and give her a reality check she was off like a ghost lost in a fog of human commitments.

There is no time more precious than the time being with your loved ones. Saving couple of minutes of travel time won't stop the earth from rotating. But one rush, one so-called emergency speeding might stop someones time forever.  All those years of education that helped you reach a level where your presence at work could be so valuable is futile if you have failed to understand the meaning of "Time" and essence of "Life".