Major Rajan and I began playing golf at around the same time. His game soon became much superior to mine. Unsurprising, because he was a retiree and could afford to hit the course every single day while I was busy contributing to the nation's GDP and only had the liberty of teeing off only once every fortnight or so.
I realised pretty quickly that golf is a game where the delta between watching and playing is probably the highest when compared to any other sport. It grips the player in a manner that a casual observer will never be able to fathom. Ever.
I got dragged into it by my friends, ostensibly to give ourselves a plausible alibi while hanging out together often enough, because frequent tippling was being frowned upon by our spouses.
I was curious to know what got Major Rajan into the sport.
"My wife", he said, and I'd barely finished my question.
"Is she a golfer too?", I wanted to know.
"Not at all", he replied. "She loves the sport because it keeps me away from her". Guffaws followed.
"I picked the game up over a year or so after I retired from the Army. Golf actually gave me reason to get out of my house everyday, so that peace could reign inside. In the first year after retirement, my wife and I just didn't know what to do with all this free time that we had together. We moved around the furniture every second day. When we weren't moving furniture, we squabbled over the television remote, or the way a particular piece of furniture was placed, or who'd open the door when the bell rang, and such-like. We'd be at each other's throats constantly"
"This so-called second childhood was getting to be quite tedious, until one day, a former colleague introduced me to golf. The world was suddenly a much brighter place"
"With golf, I find it easy to forget about about life's minutiae. After 5 hours on the course every morning, I spend the rest of the day pondering over the whys, the why-nots and the what-could-have-beens, and, at the time of going to bed, visualize my plans for the next day's game. I sometimes see a microcosm of life in every single game of golf. Elation, pain, pride, humility - only a golfer will ever understand it"
Imagine that guy with a faraway look in his eyes, breaking into a little smile? That would be Major Rajan.
"The key to happiness", philosophizes the retired Major, "is to look forward to the next day. Golf gives me a reason to wake up every morning", he chirps, as he steadies his stance to scoop the ball off a bunker.
I realised pretty quickly that golf is a game where the delta between watching and playing is probably the highest when compared to any other sport. It grips the player in a manner that a casual observer will never be able to fathom. Ever.
I got dragged into it by my friends, ostensibly to give ourselves a plausible alibi while hanging out together often enough, because frequent tippling was being frowned upon by our spouses.
I was curious to know what got Major Rajan into the sport.
"My wife", he said, and I'd barely finished my question.
"Is she a golfer too?", I wanted to know.
"Not at all", he replied. "She loves the sport because it keeps me away from her". Guffaws followed.
"I picked the game up over a year or so after I retired from the Army. Golf actually gave me reason to get out of my house everyday, so that peace could reign inside. In the first year after retirement, my wife and I just didn't know what to do with all this free time that we had together. We moved around the furniture every second day. When we weren't moving furniture, we squabbled over the television remote, or the way a particular piece of furniture was placed, or who'd open the door when the bell rang, and such-like. We'd be at each other's throats constantly"
"This so-called second childhood was getting to be quite tedious, until one day, a former colleague introduced me to golf. The world was suddenly a much brighter place"
"With golf, I find it easy to forget about about life's minutiae. After 5 hours on the course every morning, I spend the rest of the day pondering over the whys, the why-nots and the what-could-have-beens, and, at the time of going to bed, visualize my plans for the next day's game. I sometimes see a microcosm of life in every single game of golf. Elation, pain, pride, humility - only a golfer will ever understand it"
Imagine that guy with a faraway look in his eyes, breaking into a little smile? That would be Major Rajan.
"The key to happiness", philosophizes the retired Major, "is to look forward to the next day. Golf gives me a reason to wake up every morning", he chirps, as he steadies his stance to scoop the ball off a bunker.
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