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My "Non-Existent" Trophies!

In high school I never ever participated during the sports week until I was in the tenth standard. So why did I sign up in the tenth standard? I signed up because my best friend said we should at least have the story to tell; in hindsight a story that is probably more colourful than the actual experience. So we joined our team, signed up for the marching team of our respective teams and got ready to put up a BIG fight.  We soon found out we would be competing with the bigger boys. What does that mean? Our school had this practice of categorizing us based on our weight and height. Category A was the tallest and heaviest ones, and Category B were their younger brothers that they could push around in a game. Well, you guessed it, me and my friend Category B playing against Category A. 

As they say, "the spirit is willing but the flesh is weak" we found ourselves in high spirits but in want of loads of stamina. We also happened to be assigned to different teams so we competed against not only the other contenders but each other. It was in the "each other" part that we had more successes than with the "others." We tried our "legs" at jumping and gave our names for the high jump contest. We jumped three times in the qualifying round and each time the rope marking the bar was wrapped around us at the end of each jump. So we moved on to "shot-put" which was no better. With each throw the shop put ball was nearer to the line where we were standing. The 100 metre dash was the "shortest" dash we ever made and yet left far behind proving that our "shortest" was still way longer than those of others. Off we went to play badminton and never knew when it started or how it ended. Somehow we both lost to our opponents. How did I know this? The umpire calmly said, "it is finished!" So we finally decided that it would be to our advantage to allow others to benefit from the participation (read - "disqualified in all the preliminaries") for the next three days. On the final day we duly reported to our group for the final for the final parade only to discover the captain of my group missing. All that I remember is that we were able to make that last march but was it our captain or somebody else who stood in I don't recall.
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