Coach-Ram

Written in 2014 He left his shoes outside and entered the small mud dwelling. At the door, he and his friends were welcomed by a young lady with the  thali ( traditional plate with a lamp).He folded his hands and said ‘Namaste’ to acknowledge the reception. After entering, he looked around to see a small room with mud walls covered with semi-torn calendars and posters. In a corner, there was a small make-shift pantry with  a few stained  vessels.  A  wooden table with a broken leg  rested against  the wall and a couple of plastic chairs complete d  the furniture. Amid this rather somber surroundings and right in the middle of the room, sat the children.  Ram  put them in the age group of 2 to 7 or 8 years at the most.  Apart from Kamalabai, the lady who greeted them, there  were a couple of other ladies in the small room. E veryone  were now staring at the visitors as if waiting for our next move. ...

  It was a warm summer evening in London. The city was  teeming  with tourists  as it does every summer but  this summer was special with  the city  being the host for the Summer Olympics. While the main event was over a couple of weeks ago, another not less important one was now underway and reaching a grand finale. The 2012 Summer Paralympics, an event where differently abled sportsmen and women from around the world compete not only against each other but also against their own selves. The past week had been a spectacle with world records being broken and the  spectators were given the opportunity to watch th ese amazing competitors who would have given a majority of abled men and women a run for their money. The athletes were at the starting blocks after a few minutes of warm up and introductions. The buzz among the spectators slowly died down and there was almost a pin drop silence as everyone waited with bated breath for the starting g...