Sports Day Celebrations

Before the Sports Day Celebrations and Prize Distribution Ceremony at Betu's school fades away from my memory, I finally decided to write it out here.

The said event took place on December 5, 2008 at the Saket DDA Sports Complex. We were to be seated by 10 AM and I reached well in time by 9:45 and half the podium was empty. I found a friend and his wife who's child also is in the same school. I was glad I had company in case the event turns out to be boring. But there was no scope of any boredom thanks to some weird set of parents about whom you shall read in detail later in the post :)

So as we took seats, and settled down by 10:00, there was a lady sitting right in front of us who had 'reserved' 4 seats for her acquaintances by placing the program schedule over the seats. Despite protest from a few parents, she just wouldn't let go of those seats. The funny part is that her acquaintances didn't turn up till 1 hour after the start of the program. And during that 1 hour one parent actually ignored this lady's protests of these seats being reserved and settled down. I was glad that someone did that finally. And then one of the organizers also came and told her she can;t do that and let other parents take those seats which left this lady fuming :D

Even though the podium was 60% vacant, the program started right on schedule. Or rather 5 minutes before scheduled time of 10:00 AM. We were surprised but glad too.

It was an International Sports Meet and schools from other countries had also come for the event. A team from an Iraqi School had flown down especially for this event. And teams from Russian school and Japanese School which were located in Delhi itself came down as well.

Soon the formal march past started and after that the casual march past of younger kids. The parents went totally berserk...as if their kid has broken a world record trying to capture their kids in the digicam/handycam. They didn't even bother if they were being an obstruction to the people sitting behind them. Within seconds, I had a wall of people standing in front of me. But I kept calm till this point. A organiser came and asked them to all settle down.

Then the cultural activities started and again all the parents went hysterical. And again the organiser had to come and settle the parents down. I still kept calm till this point. Surprised? Even I was with myself :P

The third time this happened I just couldn't keep my cool anymore and in my loudest of voices told them to please all sit down as we can't see a thing. I told them "We all are educated, literate people and lets behave like one and not like untamed animals." Lot of eyebrows and nasty faces were made while looking at me but that didn't make any difference to me because they did sit down after my statement.

When the fourth time they again stood up, I again shouted "Can you all please sit down? We have also come to watch the program. And why don't you go to the back if you want to click pictures?" This time again everyone turned to glare at me and some sat down while some didn't. I could hear some snide remarks like "Trying to show attitude!" and "What a snob" etc. But I just couldn't resist answering back to the lady who said "Peeche waale log co-operate bhi nahi kar rahe". I told her "Pahle co-operate ka matlab dictionary mein dekh kar ayo before using the word. Cooperation is not one sided. It has to be mutual." But then as you all know, such people are just incorrigible, shameless and insensitive. Whatever you say or do doesn't make any difference to them. I have wondered time and again why are we becoming so selfsih natured and I still have no answer. It really bogs me down but I really don't know what should I do.

The friend couple who I was sitting with told me that there is no point telling them anything and we moved away to find a better place and we actually did. We sat on the stair styled seats and managed to click some good pics as well. Sharing some pics from the event:

In his costume!


Kids running in colorful costumes!


Iraqi School


Russian School


Japanese School


here's my little champ!


Japanese students playing their special drums.