No, not the relieving shot in the arm in the sense that it is used, but quite literally. Anyway, about that idiom, the first time I read it, I was slightly bemused for it didn't make sense for someone to have gotten shot in the arm to feel better. They could have picked better anyway for even if the long term results are good, picturing an injection as a sign of assistance doesn't work very much.
Coming back to the point, this is to write about what happened to me today morning. I am located close to a godforsaken place called Bangalore University which pulls our country's already entrenched higher education system further down. It is but a mere excuse for handing out a degree.
My father and I frequent upon their running track for our dose of morning exercise. Also, students training to becoming physical training instructors of tomorrow, train there today. It so happened that I'd cycled there today and while my dad proceeded to run on the track, I endeavoured to go around it(outside of it) in circles on my cycle. One such physical training trainee stopped me half way, came around, and without saying a word proceed to rap me on the shoulder. I was completely taken aback. He then proceeded to tell me, outraged at my having brought the bike to the running track, to get off the bike, likening himself to a cop of sorts( Yeah, the bad kind). I proceeded, still dazed and confused, to call him an idiot. Then, a mob of trainees formed around and one of them chucked my cycle away like it were trash to be discarded. Luckily, one sensible trainee and my calm as ever father were around to see that I didn't get beat up.
I wasn't defiling their track. Even if it was a transgression, I am not some creature you can't communicate with, which would understand only blows. I shudder to think of all the children at the disposal of these uncouth barbarians tomorrow. They take it that they are rejects in every walk of life and enrol at the worst course in the worst university around as a last ditch. This is how we treat sportsmen and athleticism in our country. These are the values on which they are bred.
However, I learnt a valuable lesson. Never should one be confrontational in the face of a battle he has not a chance of winning. And besides, when somebody shouts out in barbaric anger, its much better to yield than to resist. Weathers the storm does the grass stalk that yields and not the deep rooted tree that resists.
Coming back to the point, this is to write about what happened to me today morning. I am located close to a godforsaken place called Bangalore University which pulls our country's already entrenched higher education system further down. It is but a mere excuse for handing out a degree.
My father and I frequent upon their running track for our dose of morning exercise. Also, students training to becoming physical training instructors of tomorrow, train there today. It so happened that I'd cycled there today and while my dad proceeded to run on the track, I endeavoured to go around it(outside of it) in circles on my cycle. One such physical training trainee stopped me half way, came around, and without saying a word proceed to rap me on the shoulder. I was completely taken aback. He then proceeded to tell me, outraged at my having brought the bike to the running track, to get off the bike, likening himself to a cop of sorts( Yeah, the bad kind). I proceeded, still dazed and confused, to call him an idiot. Then, a mob of trainees formed around and one of them chucked my cycle away like it were trash to be discarded. Luckily, one sensible trainee and my calm as ever father were around to see that I didn't get beat up.
I wasn't defiling their track. Even if it was a transgression, I am not some creature you can't communicate with, which would understand only blows. I shudder to think of all the children at the disposal of these uncouth barbarians tomorrow. They take it that they are rejects in every walk of life and enrol at the worst course in the worst university around as a last ditch. This is how we treat sportsmen and athleticism in our country. These are the values on which they are bred.
However, I learnt a valuable lesson. Never should one be confrontational in the face of a battle he has not a chance of winning. And besides, when somebody shouts out in barbaric anger, its much better to yield than to resist. Weathers the storm does the grass stalk that yields and not the deep rooted tree that resists.
