You Work As You Play

This photo was shot around 1996 and this is one of my favourite photos of my children Manal and Maaz. Long before digital photography, I had shot this on film and enlarged it for a photo exhibition held at our Youth Center. Their seriousness and sheer concentration is so captivating. Catching tiny coloured fish that dart in and out of every niche and cranny of the corals during low tides must have been one of the favourite past times of our children since time immemorial.

In a still photo that takes about one sixtieth of a second to capture, we may not be able to know who the leader here is and who is guiding the action. But when you watch someone at play, you know a lot about that person. The person’s dedication to his or her hobby or sport will be in the same proportion he or she puts into life, or chosen field of work. As a nation the Japanese play hard and work hard. I cannot think of any other nation that plays so hard and also works so hard. It is scary to watch the Japanese when they fell a huge tree, strip it off all branches and pull it down a steep slope and people just jump on to this huge log as it goes crashing downhill! One would think they are out of their minds!

We all know that children learn a lot about life through play. Important aspects of life such as teamwork, not to give up, do your utmost even if you are dead tired and what is more important, how to lose with dignity and be gracious in victory is what we learn through play.

The mature people among us must have seen how the latter two qualities have been fading in sports and also how our society has changed now. Coaches stress on winning, not enjoying the play. Coaches in schools must emphasis on the importance of enjoying what we play because if we instill this in our children, they know that they did their best and they enjoyed, even if they did not win. If we stress on the importance of winning what does the losing team get? Nothing, not even the sheer pleasure of the game and we teach our children that the end justifies the means! We must teach our younger generation that the journey should be enjoyed as well as the destination!

Thank You