Journey of children’s life from infancy to adulthood is marked by many milestones. The years pass by and they begin to spread their wings to fly leaving behind them a few memories. As I dusted the old “Scrabble” I remembered my younger son saying “It is not interesting to play scrabble with you any more”. “Why” I queried his reply was pert “because you play to lose”.
It is always very difficult to keep the children involved during summer vacations when you want them to be engaged, creative, constructive and disciplined; managing all these fronts is where you need to show your talent in. This is where the scrabble fitted in very well for me.
Day after day for hours and for years we played scrabble. Initially I would be the mentor to both of them. I sometimes made exceptions to continue the game taught them to make words so that it would not come to a dead end. Being older I was the inevitable winner and I always managed to hide my excitement about my winning status. It was a logical conclusion that they derived too and they developed a desire to beat my score, to double and triple their scores. The instinct to make complicated words using maximum score letters of X Z H B Y W F was beginning to develop.
Soon, I was no match to their acumen. A simple addition of letter S to any word would sky rocket their scores beyond my imagination. Each game reminded them of their wins against their opponent.
For them the winning streak continued there on and for me a losing one. As the two boys began to play with each other I began to withdraw and preferred to be a spectator.
Occasionally an invitation was extended towards me and now even my acceptance was halfhearted. It was at one such instance I was told that I play to lose. I may have lost the game but my purpose was fulfilled.
Amazing experienced.Why thinking small is the secret to big success.
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