Sport – Don't hold your breath

State of play

If a man wone him silf bi summe þouȝtis or spechis..forto gendre into him desijr to heuenly placis, myrþis, sportis, dignitees and officis to be had in heuene, ..
R. Pecock, Reule of Crysten Religioun (1927) 242 (Middle English Dictionary)
[Composed c1443]

Sport, game, play; a fun set of connected words. It was a nice sport to read a dictionary in an attempt to trace the connection between these words. I gave up when I came to the quote you see above; reading Middle English really slows me. But the connections between the words seems to go back several centuries more into Old English. But the fact that some of the corresponding words have similar relations in modern Indian languages may mean that the connections between the concepts are much older than the roots of today’s languages. So I let it go, and looked for photos of people at play, in today’s sense of to amuse, divert, or entertain oneself; to take one’s pleasure, have a pleasant or leisurely time.

Football lessons during the monsoon, Mumbai

A chosen few Alone the Sport enjoy, nor droop beneath Their pleasing Toils.
W. Somervile, Chace iii. 141 (1735 CE)

For the young trainee monks released at the end of a long morning service in the Tawang monastery ten years ago, play was football. Clearly they were enjoying themselves at this hectic and physical activity. I had a bit of fun watching the way they were acting out after that long morning of enforced quietness. The children in the other photo, with their balls and kits were a more mixed bunch. Some of them clearly enjoyed kicking the ball around the muddy field in monsoon, but others were still not sure.

Competing in an archery tournament in Paro

Spectators as an archery competition in Paro

Rydyng a hontyng, hym silff to sporte & playe.
(1485 CE) quoted in F. J. Furnivall, Political, Religious, & Love Poems (1903) p. xlvi

In Paro, seventeen years ago, we came by chance on an archery competition. This is a big thing in Bhutan. The competitors, in the photo on the left, are in formal dress. The number of spectators increased as we watched. It seemed to be a team game, because at the end the winning team did a very martial dance. I found later that archery and cricket were the most popular sport among common people, and football the game of choice for monks.

Myrthe and sportes maketh the soule remyse, slacke, and neglygent.
W. Bonde, Pylgrimage of Perfection iii. sig. EEiii (1526 CE)

And that brings me to cricket, with its immense popularity in south Asia, something that W. Bonde would probably have difficulty accommodating in his philosophy. Just after the end of the pandemic lockdown, I saw these boys at an intense game in the middle of the road in Mumbai’s business district, a street away from the stock market. It was a Sunday, and moreover most people were still working from home. So there was no better time to claim a street for a pitch. Note the wicket and the designation of the width around it.

Chearful, he play’d the Trifle, Life, away, ‘Till Death scarce felt did o’er his Pleasures creep, As smiling Infants sport themselves to Sleep.
A. Pope, To Young Lady in Miscellaneous Poems (1712 CE)

This last gallery is a little cheer for the way people spend their leisure hours: carrom in Thimphu eighteen years ago, a Chinese game of strategy seen in Shanghai ten years ago, a photo of people playing cards six years ago on a Sunday in Nanjing, and learning to sail on the lake in Annecy fourteen years ago (proceeding clockwise around the gallery). It seems that 700 or so words out of every million written in English texts use the words play, game, or sport. That doesn’t approach anywhere near the time we spend on it.

World cup fever

Our first sight of the square at the center of Darjeeling’s Mall Road was stunning. Colourful flags were strung across the open space. It took me a moment to realize that they were there because of the football World Cup. What a lovely idea! There was a large screen showing replays at one end of the square, but there wasn’t much of a crowd around it. Anyone who was interested would have watched it on their TV or phone. The Family wondered whether they would live stream the matches, but at sundown we realized that the square would be too cold for it by the time the first match started.

It wasn’t just the square or the roads that were decorated in this way. We realized that many cars and motorbikes had national flags of famous teams flying from them. There seemed to be a roughly equal division between flags of Brazil and Argentina. The rest had smaller followings. Walking about town I saw that in some small lanes people had put up the full calendar of matches on walls. Football mania thrives, even without big money from Heineken, Coors or Diageo.

On the lake

Naukuchia Tal means the lake with nine corners. The odd shape of the lake gives rise to the story that you cannot see the whole lake from any point on the bank. This could well be true, but I did not walk around the lake, like The Family did one morning, to check out the story. She reports it as being correct, and I take her word for it. Instead I sat on the deck outside the lake and stared out at it. The jetty I could see on a nearby corner made me think that perhaps one could do a little bit of boating on the lake.

“Duh,” The Family said when I told her. “Look across. There are about five families out on the lake.” Sure enough, even down by the pier at our resort there was a canopied boat all set up for a ride. I’ve usually seen these hulls with an outboard motor fitted to it. But Naukuchiatal has finally put in place regulations which forbid motors. The water quality of these lakes have been deteriorating for a while, and this will at least slow the process until someone begins to implement a clean up.

Next to the restaurant I found a stack of these oars. The kayaks were pulled up on the banks of the lake. I considered trying it out. I’ve never done any Kayaking, and I’m sure the first attempt would result in me turning in circles until I capsized. It’s something I would like to try out sometime, but I was feeling lazy. I set off for a spot of bird watching in the woods behind the hotel instead.