Butterflies and Tigers

 

The look...it will stay with me for a long while...

The look of a butterfly.

A butterfly in anguish, fear, frustration, pain and suffering.

No! Not a war or a riot or a calamity. It was just a game of tennis.

The kid, playing well but still losing points, kept on staring after each such loss. Staring at her Mom with tear filled eyes, her face red with dirt of the clay.

More afraid of failing her Mom, it was not just a game of tennis for the butterfly!

At some point, I heard her Mom telling her to step away from the game if she couldn't stop her tears from showing up...

Unbearable it was. I couldn't watch the spectacle anymore.

Since when a game of tennis for a seven eight old kid becomes an acid test? A test of success vs failure?

Sports, is joy. The exhilarating physicality, rush of adrenaline, fist pumps and hand shakes. It was all that and some more.

Not anymore...

With so much hyped up glory and glitz awaiting the winners, joy keeps evaporating like a rare bottled perfume.

The day it completely disappears, it will not be sports anymore, for the players AND the spectators.

Maybe robots would take the place of both, then.

The kid gamely tried and eventually won.

It didn't really matter.