The Excerpt #5 for Discussion: from 'The 'Slow' Command'

"I decided to reach out to all friends, readers and guests and seed some thoughts on 'An Other Tale of Two Cities'. this is the excerpt #5 from the book" 

from 

Chapter 11: The 'Slow' Command

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The friendlies not only exposed the weaknesses of the Chinese B team but also brought to light the ascendancy of the challengers from India. That Meiling barely scraped past the Indian in a wholly unconvincing manner aided only by a dubious complaint and an equally or more dubious refereeing decision, added neither to the Chinese prestige nor its confidence. Unfortunately every one who was relevant to the match's result, seemed to have been overwhelmed by the weight of expectations on the Chinese team and had chosen to play along with Meiling and had supported her claim.

        Dan thought about Meiling’s claim all evening and yet could not concur with her that Kula and Jay were practicing sorcery and he scorned at the idea that they controlled her mind, through something like black magic. He could proudly stand being profiled as xenophobic as he had been all his life and career. But supporting Meiling’s claim would brand him as 'irrational' chauvinist, something he could not take. He was not comfortable with this bizarre allegation that did not bring repute either to the Chinese Team, Games or the Chinese hosts. He had grilled Meilling sufficiently to conclude that she had no basis for the ‘sorcery’ allegation, except that she had been distracted by the red dot on Jay’s forehead; that she had been disturbed by Jay’s meditation, closing her eyes between points and a deep cross legged meditation before a few of the games of the match, chanting ‘mantras’. Dan noted that while these acts could distract and irritate an opponent player slightly, they may not be illegal. It would be difficult even to prove that they disturbed the mind of the opponent and would be even more far fetched to claim that one player tried to gain control of the mind of the opponent by these acts.
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Next, he went about intently studying the strength and weaknesses of the Indian team from the videos of the friendlies to devise appropriate strategies and tactics. As the China-India friendly was a planned event, Dan had ordered recording the friendly from every angle and every perspective. He could capture not only the speed, trajectory and angle of the ball against the position of each player, but also the spin, its axis, the speed of the swirl and the wobble, using powerful HD cameras.

Dan had studied the video of the match carefully for weaknesses and strengths and was planning his tactics and strategies, including assigning players who would play against Kula and Jay during the Games from among his team. He was confident that he had found answers for every move of the Indians and had clearly laid out an excellent strategy. But one particular exchange between Meiling and Joy bothered him. He viewed this exchange from every perspective and he still could not comprehend what happened.

That pertained to the frenzied exchange of the ball back and forth between Meiling and Jay, for the point that Jay scored just before she had made that sorcery allegation. Meiling at one moment acrobatically digs out from close to the ground, a well placed return from Jay and expertly sends it crashing towards Jay’s side ‘like a bullet’. Dan let a gasp of relief and appreciation for her and noticed that the crowd had gasped and been relieved too. The ball sped exactly like a bullet, till it flies near the net, still on Meiling’s side of the table. Then the unbelievable happened. Kula jumps up from his seat and shouts a command, as if to the ball ‘SLOW’, with a wave of his arm and the ball seemed to actually slow to his command. Dan immediately thought of Meiling’s sorcery allegation and then immediately followed up thinking it was irrational and plain stupid of him. His ‘Party’ trained mind could not reconcile to this bizarre claim. He still could not get himself reverse his own stand on Meiling’s weird claim.

It did look like Kula had commanded the ball to slow and it did. It was true that Jay, who did not anticipate the beautiful return from Meiling, was a shade late in responding to the speeding ball. But as the ball slowed and as she had a coincidental alert from Kula, she had not only the benefit of the slower ball but also had an alert just in time for her to adjust her footwork and smash it on Meiling’s side to win the point. 

But was this evidence in support of Meiling and her claim that looked absurd at first? Two events happened almost at the same instant. ....

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Nothing in his long coaching career had he watched anything that baffled him as much. In a way, it did look like Kula had commanded the ball to slow and it did. But in another way, it looked like Kula’s waving and shouting was just coincidental. He was definitely looking at the ball, but could have been shouting to alert Jay, Dan felt. 

Meiling, who loses the point in desperation, seeks the referee’s intervention against the ‘dot’, Jay’s bindi, and invokes a sorcery claim. So Jay looked as if she had the benefit of the slower ball and knew about it in time to position herself well and the subsequent winning smash. Dan knew that he had enough evidence to build a case against the Indian team, in support of Meiling’s sorcery claim....

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Happy Reading :-) Merry interactions :-)

Ravi Krish

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