Change of Heart

Class 06 English

Prabhat always wanted to win. His parents, teachers, and friends said that he did not know how to accept defeat. The fact was that he could not bear losing, not even at marbles.

He felt so good when he won that he never wanted to give up that feeling. On the contrary, losing made him feel terrible. He thought that losing was the worst thing that could happen to anyone.

If Prabhat sensed that he would lose a game, he would not play it. He would take part only when he was sure of winning, even if the game lasted only for a minute. You could not stop him from playing the kind of games he was really good at, like badminton.

A new student joined Prabhat’s school, and his name was Surya. Surya was an excellent badminton player. Prabhat waited for the last Friday of the month. Last Friday was significant. This was when the coach conducted friendly matches in the games period. The teams were decided on Monday and it was no surprise when Prabhat and Surya were chosen to play a round against each other. Prabhat was given the responsibility of keeping score for their match.

On one hand, Prabhat prepared for the match with great seriousness. Surya, on the other hand, seemed relaxed, not taking the things seriously at all. He walked about the whole time, smiling and cracking jokes about all sorts of things. But on Friday, at the badminton court, Surya was a real phenomenon. He won points again and again, laughing and joking all the time. However, Surya was paying so little attention to the match that Prabhat managed to change the scoreboard while his opponent was looking elsewhere.

Prabhat managed to win by cheating. He made a big thing of his win, but it did not matter to Surya.

“It’s been fun. We should play again some other time,” said Surya.

II

On that day, everyone was discussing their game and how Prabhat had played so well. Surprisingly, Prabhat could not sleep well that night. He had won the game but he did not feel as happy as he usually did. What was surprising was that Surya did not feel bad about losing. What was more surprising was that Prabhat saw Surya playing basketball the next day. Surya was so hopeless at it that he could not score a basket for ten minutes. Yet, he enjoyed playing the game. His happy smile never left his face.

Prabhat kept a close watch on Surya for some days. He was great at some things, terrible at others but what was common was the enjoyment. He enjoyed everything equally. As Prabhat went on with his observation, he realised that to enjoy a game, you did not need a scoreboard to keep a tally of your scores. Neither did you have to worry about winning nor losing. You needed to enjoy the game for its own sake. What matters is trying to do well, and enjoying every moment of it.

Prabhat learnt something through the observations every day, soon realising the change in himself. He had even begun playing hide and seek, and felt sad whenever it was about to end. He also started joking while playing badminton. Soon, the other students started talking amongst themselves, “Good fun playing with Prabhat, that fellow definitely has a great sporting spirit.”