To Arjun & others, medal or no, you shine

Deepti Babuta

Arjun tum nahi haare, kismat haari hai.
Abki baar aisi tyyari karenge, ki kismat bhi kahe, ‘Le Arjun, tu jeeta. Main tere aage ghutne tekti hoon.’
(Arjun, you haven’t lost, but fate has. Next time, we’ll prepare so well that even your fate will have to bow before you and say, ‘Arjun, you have won.’)
My son Arjun lost out on winning an Olympic medal by a whisker in Paris, coming fourth in the 10m air rifle final, but there’s always a next time. To him and to all the young players, I want to say, enter the field like a fighter, remain calm like the ocean, give your 100 per cent and never lose patience.
Don’t lose before you lose, don’t celebrate before you win. Every player wants to win, but not all win. But no one actually loses. Only the numbers move from up to down. What if Arjun came fourth, next time he’ll get a better rank. Accepting defeat with a smile is real sportsmanship.
Times such as these can be very challenging for parents as well. But, in such moments, they forget about themselves and are only worried about their loved ones, who need emotional support. However, since the children are far away, parents can only pray to God to give their child the strength to accept the loss.
Communication is underrated. There’s nothing better than it. Arjun and I talk at length on every topic. Judging his mood, I start a conversation with him but eventually try to take the conversation to the space where he feels relaxed.
Arjun loves Shiv Kumar Batalvi. That day will be a new lease of life for me if he wants to write poetry. He is a book lover, a very sensitive and sensible person.
Dekho, humein ek doosre ko jaise hain ussi roop mein sweekaar karna chahiye. Jo jeet kar aata hai woh bachha hamara hai, toh haarne wala bhi hamara hi hai. Jeet ka jashn manao, na manao, haar mein harr haal mein apne bachche ke saath rehna zaroori hota hai. Main Arjun ke saath hoon, hamesha — achhe mein bhi or bure waqt mein bhi.
(We should accept each other the way we are. If the one who’s won is our child, the one who lost is ours too. You may or may not celebrate your child’s victory, but it is important to be his or her support when they are down and out. I am always with Arjun, in his good as well as bad times.)
It is natural for every athlete to dream of becoming a star. And each of them is a star in his or her own right. Just like in the sky there are a multitude of stars — some sparkling bright, while others are dim. But every athlete aims to shine bright and be a pole star like Neeraj Chopra.
I’m a big fan of Pash. To quote him, ‘Sab ton khatarnak hunda hai saadde supneyaan da mar jana (The most dangerous thing is the death of our dreams).’ This is just the start of Arjun’s Olympic dream and a fourth place can’t end his journey.
— The award-winning Punjabi writer is mother of Olympian shooter Arjun Babuta