RESTART…

It was December 2023, and after six months, I felt I had fully recovered from the hairline fracture in my left hand (scaphoid bone) when I had fallen in Tennis court in May 2023. I was ready to restart playing Tennis post-injury, which I had restarted in April 2023 after a gap of 14 years until I met with an injury a monh later in May 2023. It was my second restart, and I was excited when I felt my game had started improving towards the end of December. I started planning to take my game and fitness to the next level in the first six months of 2024. In fact, I wanted to be the fittest version of myself in 2024, and I was super confident that I would achieve it. I bought a new pair of Tennis shoes and wanted to gift myself a professional Tennis racquet. However, the year had a different plan for me. I met with a minor accident on 6th Jan, fractured my hand badly and had to undergo surgery. I was told I needed atleast six months again to return to my regular routine. It was precisely opposite how I had planned my next six months…

On the way to the Hospital, I was telling my wife I would be able to bear the excruciating pain daily, but what I could not bear is the anguish of not being able to play, the agony of seeing my plan turn into ashes in front of my eyes.?My radial bone was disfigured, but all the while in the Emergency room, I was asking the doctors when would I be able to play Tennis again. People thought I had gone nuts; they asked me to focus on my treatment, which was the most crucial bit, rather than worrying about playing.?

Tennis was not just a game I loved; it had a magic potion that healed my migraine. During the COVID-induced lockdown, with limited physical activity and more screen time, I started having severe migraine. I was put on solid medicines for ten months, but it wasn't helping. One day, I came across one of the Twitter threads where someone mentioned that he had migraine for years together and was also under a lot of medicines, which didn't help much until he started running, and it was gone entirely. I, too, started running; it did improve, however, not fully until... I restarted playing the game I loved since my college days. The good part about playing a game was that it improved my concentration because I had to focus on the game, unlike running, where some days I used to be planning for the day in my head, and I didn't feel fresh at the end. I felt lighter and more productive after playing Tennis. I hope someone too reads this post and picks up a game - trust me, it will change your life :)

The next few days were tough for me. On one hand, I was guilty of burdening my wife, and on the other hand, every morning I when opened my eyes, I remembered packing up and heading to the Tennis court in Poona Club - how I loved the sound of tennis racquet-hitting the ball on a perfect shot? My wife then asked me to take it easy, not overthink, relax and watch some movies. I wasn't interested in watching any movie because I'm very picky about choosing any movie, and most of the time, I keep watching many trailers and end up choosing none. I had heard about the latest Bollywood movie, 12th Fail, which had the best IMDB Bollywood movie rating to date. I casually started watching and I cannot explain what it meant to me. It felt like the Universe was conspiring to send me a message. I will not provide any spoilers about the movie, but one word that struck me was 'restart', which they emphasized throughout the movie. I will stop here lest I uninentionally start divulging more spoilers about the movie.

As I write this, I’ve made up mind to bounce back, go back to zero and “RESTART”. ?Is anyone else planning to “RESTART” or have a “RESTART” story? If so please share your story and I’d love to hear.