Sacrifices !!

   A cold sweat broke out on his forehead and he mopped it away with his forearm. His heart  was beating  a mile a minute, probably because of fear or excitement. Excitement was not even near to the emotions he felt, so it was the former,  'fear'. Fear of failure, fear of humiliation, and above all fear of what his parents will say if he under-performs. Sitting on waiting bench for the Ranji selection, all this thoughts were mingling around in his mind.

            

          Kash Mehta, a young boy from a small town came to Ahmedabad for the Ranji selections to aspire  dreams, 'NO' not his, but his father's dream to see him as a prominent batsman playing for India. Kash from his childhood was interested in Tennis, and has developed a passion for it, but his father denied telling him that he should play Cricket rather than Tennis. He asked few times about Tennis coaching to his father, but instead of Tennis coaching his father enrolled his name for cricket coaching. The reason for his father's inclination for Cricket was that he himself wanted to be a part of the game but situations didn't allowed him as his father couldn't afford all the coaching and stuff which he can now for his son. So he wanted to live his dream through his son's eyes as  the best batsman of Indian Cricket Team, though Kash has passion for something else. Kash tried to tell him few times about his love for tennis but his father recounted him all the sacrifices they made for him and so feeling guilty about it he accepted what his parents told him.

  

  As his turn was coming near, his heartbeat increased more and more as if the heart was going to explode, and his name was called. He prayed a bit to God for performing well, but secretly wishing to fail so that his father will let him play tennis. He reached the pitch and started batting. The bowler was giving him a murderous look as if he was going to kill him which further frightened him. He  dodged the first three balls as he couldn't see them coming, played fine the fourth one, beautifully  timed the fifth one and injured his left leg on the last ball. The ball was towards his leg side and he  miss timed it resulting in hitting between his left thigh and knee and he fell on the ground. On a first  look, the injury was not serious as he had worn the thigh pad, but the onfield doctor said that some  tests need to be done.

  Kash's father who was all the time there was highly disappointed with him as he was rejected along     with worrying for the injury. The test reports left everyone shocked as the results were awful. The ball has done some serious damage to his leg and he wouldn't be able to run like a sports person ever. Though he would be fine in few months with regular exercises and all, he will walk and slightly run like a normal person but he wouldn't ever become a sports person. This conclusion  shattered two dreams, Kash's dream of becoming tennis player and Kash's father's dream of seeing him as a batsman for India.

 Kash didn't took this thing maturely and on coming back home  complained his father that had he not  forced him to play cricket in which he was not at all interested none of that might have happened. His  father was worried about his son's leg, but somewhere inside the disappointment of shattering of his  dreams once again was more than that injury. He on listening to the complaints started telling that  they had done a lot of things for him and he was not able to do just a  small thing for them. The fight  grew more fierce as the hidden arguments and thoughts buried deep inside Kash due to that guilt  came out like a tsunami and developed an irreparable crack in the father and son relation. Later with  time Kash's father understood the mistakes done by him which has cost more to Kash than him and  apologized Kash for all the things. Though slight crack was still there in their relation, but things  became normal soon. Kash became fit for walking and normal running and moved on leaving behind  Tennis which was very mature way of handling the situation. Kash found his passion in something  else and now his father is supporting him completely.

It is said that 'Everyone doesn't get everything'. It's true also because if everyone started getting everything then no one will value Life. Life is uncertain and no one knows what life has decided to give  him/her, which makes life priceless. Sacrifices are a must because in order to get one thing we need to sacrifice other, because we can't hold on to everything we have, we need to let go one or other thing. It is also said that ' If you don't sacrifice for what you want, what you want will one day become a Sacrifice'. Sacrifices are a must, for great achievements are the results of the extreme sacrifices. So never hesitate to sacrifice a thing if in return you might get a thing much better than that. Your sacrifice will one day prove to be the greatest investment done by you for you.Just remember one thing nothing great was ever accomplished without any sacrifice. 

Parents sometimes knowingly or unknowingly mistook the sacrifice they made in their life and asks their children to do something for them for all their sacrifices in return. Parents are great, no doubt they had done an awful lot of things for their children which the children can't even think of paying back, but the problem lies in expecting their children to return that favor.It's not that children don't do anything for their parents. They also do some small sacrifices as compared to parents they stand nowhere, but the point is that they do. From the childhood small sacrifices like sacrificing to go  somewhere where the parents were denying, sacrificing a particular thing or two which they wish to buy, but parents were denying. In short doing  things which parents want us to do rather than what we want to do is also a type of sacrifice. Its good also and children should also do something for their parent's happiness. But problem arises when parents increases their expectation to a level which can't be satisfied.

That level comes when they start wanting their children to fulfill their dreams instead of his/her own. Parents forget that their child is also an individual with his/her own wishes and dreams. Forcing him/her to fulfill their dreams instead of his/her thinking that they had done a lot for their children's happiness and its the least he/she can do, this is asking a lot, probably lot than a life. Its because you want your dreams to be fulfilled by him/her which is snatching his/her individuality and it makes him/her an order following robot. The parents should suggest their wishes and guide their children, but if they are not comfortable they should not force him/her. They should be happy in such a way that though time didn't allowed their dreams to be fulfilled, but their children are fulfilling their dreams and desire. They should be the guide to their children's road to success and proud of them as the sacrifices they made, made their children's life wonderful.

So the point is Sacrifice till you are not losing something big, or your individuality, in short in a limit. Live happily and make your parents also happy!!