All of us have felt pain at a certain point in our lives. Cause of the pain can be attributed to many reasons reaching infinity. There is the physical pain, mental, and I would also like to add metaphysical to describe all those not associated with the other two categories. Have you at anytime experienced ‘good’ pain?? I’m sure this would come off as ironic, but I have felt it. Many days after rugger practice, I would come home battered and bruised moving on my reserve store of energy. After the many fitness and stamina drills, rehearsing many tactical moves; later playing full contact sucks out every ounce of energy. Sometimes the next day I wouldn’t be able to take a deep breath for my abs would hurt; muscles on my leg would quiver as I started to take my steps, but all that pain made me realise an important thing- I gave it my all and left nothing behind. I experienced the same phenomena once again.....yesterday.
My mates decided to go ice skating and all the plans were made. We arrived at the rink –after having lunch at Wendy’s- and got our skates along with the gloves. There is only one word I can sum up for the gloves, which were pink and purple- gay!! Imagine six guys wearing gay gloves and skating?!!? Definitely not a sight to behold (shiver, shiver). For a spectator the entire activity may be amusing due to many newbies falling countless times, not to mention laughing like mad. We were ready to get it on.
My first steps on the ice made me realise that skating would take a lot of finesse. It would require grace of mammoth proportions, and my rugby skills were redundant. The first five minutes I held on to dear life thanks to the boundaries of the rink. One of my mates entered in a marvellous manner by falling on his bottom after two steps. We all erupted into fits of laughter- totally classic. Like I’ve said before, he dropped it like its HOT!! He still holds the records for the most amount of falls on his bottom......... and overall. As I was not ready to let my feet –that suddenly started having a mind of its own- move any further, there was a meek “excuse me.” It was a girl about 5 or 6 years wanting to pass. She was eager to go ahead, not scared at all. Then I told my self ‘screw it’, like I always do and went forth.
I learnt how to stand and move a little bit by moving my legs. Secret is to make sure that your weight is distributed equally and maintain your centre of gravity. If any one of the two is out of place you will hit the floor- and hit it hard. In my first fall, I went face first along with my entire torso; the icy water gets soaked into your clothes making it even chillier. There onwards I saw continuous progress on my footwork, which is the key for skating. An uncle who looked a pro was doing the moonwalk on ice leaving me flabbergasted. He was the MAN!!! If that was not enough he started jumping up and down on the ice and doing all sorts of whacky moves.
After a couple of hours everyone was bruised and tired. We decided to do a final few laps in order to finish on a high. After all, there is only so much falling on your ass one can take. In the end, one guy sprained his ankle. As for me, all was well after the adventure. We ended the night by going to an Indian restaurant and wolfing down masala thosai, naan and downing everything with fresh milk. It couldn’t have got any better than that; oh, but it did!!
After coming back to the room, I realised my right knee was not in good shape. I’m finding it painful to outstretch it to its full proportions, but it’s nothing new. I have to pray sitting on a chair. Needless to say, tiger balm will be a close companion for a few days. But the memory of gliding on ice eclipses the pain. There are some things you can’t get back; that moment is everything and nothing can compare or equal it.
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