The games we lose and the games we win

sby Tale Weaver

Weaving tales,
breaking stereotypes

TALE Tale Weavers is an initiative that aims
to engage with children and the youth
weavers through stories that challenge stereotypes
and break the barriers in creating a just
weaving tales, breaking stereotypes society.
​
We welcome you to our world of stories
where simple conversations, colorful
illustrations, and powerful characters
help break the stereotypes and create an
inclusive learning space which is free
of bias - be it gender, religion, race,
nationality or ethnicity.

This story is part of Tale Weaver’s
breaking the stereotype series that
challenge gender stereotypes and aim
at creating a more balanced narrative.

Story: Vaishnavi Sundar Illustrations: Bairave Sajenthan

“Bye mom!” yelled Maya as she hurriedly cycled her

way outside the quarters compound.
“Come back soon and don’t drink the tap water,”
shrieked her mother sprinting to the door in order to be
audible. Maya wouldn’t miss her volleyball summer
camp for the world.
She has gotten so fervent about the sport after watching
her brother, Sathya who was a state-level volleyball
player and her paramount source of inspiration.



Though she would never admit it in public.

She admires him secretly and goes around telling
the other kids, “See that guy over there? That’s my
brother!” and derives worldly gratification doing so.

The way to the ground was a very beautiful one,
with lush green canopy overlooking this little girl’s
exhilarated smile, clouds of thick white flamboyance,
barring the prickly sunrays.

The smell
of summer
flowers
arousing
the holiday
essence in the
kids, that sets
the right tone
to the
beginning of eventful summer evenings.

Maya was always the popular kid in the block and

had some exclusivity about her. Barely had friends but
always surrounded by people.
Most of them didn’t care about her existence and the
rest loathed her for always having people buzzing
around her.
She had a strong animosity towards people who made
fun of her peculiar élan.
And would often go to great lengths in expressing such
contempt, like hitting the ball at her deliberately and
pretending to be innocuous.
Or getting the older Annas (brothers, in Tamil) to
chastise them and make them regret the day they were
born.



The Annas had a large role to play in Maya’s life, they

adored her, and they missed her if she didn’t show up.
Would pick her up from home and drop her back if she
showed any signs of absenteeism.
She would referee their matches, standing on the referee
tall stand and would penalize the team that gave her
lesser number of chocolates. Life was good.
Every now and then Sathya would accompany her
during the ‘beginner’s time’.
He would just stay there and chat with his friends.
Sathya was not particularly proud of Maya.
He loved her yes, but wasn’t exactly okay with
proclaiming Maya to be his sister to his friends. She
had a boyish facade that he absolutely despised.

Beginning from her hair to her clothes, she was THE

odd one in a group of girls and for that matter a group
of boys too. He would try and make every effort to end
conversation she would have started while he was in
the vicinity of his friends.All was fair in the process of
growing up, this grudging detachment didn’t bother the
two of them much, and they lived merrily in their own
little worlds.
It was the end of summer vacation and time for
mundane school routines to take over life again.
Maya, no matter how many years went by, had a very
discernible struggle in breaking the summer camp
routine. Sathya had the advantage of being in the school
team that let him play volleyball every day after school
but Maya had no such option. She was a little too young
to be on her school’s team yet.



After every annual camp, a friendly match between

the kids was the ‘most looked forward to’ event.

It was customary to let the kids go home on a high
note, that they have learnt something in the camp and a
persuasion to come back next year.

All the Annas including Sathya were part of this annual
ceremony. They have been around for a while. Though
Sathya was still very young compared to the older
Annas, Maya always held them in the same league as
far as talent was concerned.

It was time for the match and to her dismay, Maya
found that she had a previous enemy in her opponent
team.

A guy who she threw the volleyball at and pretended

to stay oblivious –because he would do the same to her!
It did not deter her; she knew what she was doing. The
match began and tension was in the air. All the Annas
and Sathya were seated, waiting, as their ‘proper’ match
would be held next.

Every now and then they would hear giggles from the

onlookers about the amateur display of the great sport
but the only thought that ran inside Maya’s head was:
they must have walked this path to be where they are.
That elicited her to play even more ferociously. The
previous enemy seemed like he had a plan and was up
to something. It was his turn to serve and Maya was the
center back.
As if caught by curiosity, the ground became silent in
the anticipation of what was going to happen in the next
few seconds. It was a question of pride for Maya and a
matter of revenge for the enemy. Maya could at no cost
be inflicted by the shame of losing to a boy who had
annoyed her in the past, not in front of Sathya and the
other Annas.
Her acceptance has already become a matter of concern
to her and this would jeopardise everything.

The boy served his best service; the ball flew its way

to Maya with such lightning speed, analogous to his
anger. For a moment it seemed to Maya that it was the
boy himself, flying,holding a fist, about to crash-land on
her.

For one tiny jiffy, Maya’s eyes met Sathya’s, he looked
tensed, but he nodded a ‘you can do it’ sign. She
attempts to tackle it, but by the impact, falls down and
drops the ball. The whole ground hurled a sigh.

Maya gets up, dusting her brother’s shorts carefully,

watches the opponent team celebrating.
She takes a fleeting moment to realise that it was just a
match after all, walks up to them and congratulates the
boy with a high five. He grins, pats Maya’s shoulder
and says, “Hey great match, keep it up”.
She smiles and turns around to the bicycle stand to head
back home. Standing by the stand, she sees Sathya tell
his friend, “See that kid over there? That’s my sister”.
Unable to emanate a suitable reaction, she sits down
and smiles to herself, with tears flowing uncontrollably
from her eyes.

The End



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