“MOTI” – A Short story

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“Kitab Moti ke paas hai”, “Moti ke saath hoon”, “Moti mere ghar aayee”- They were referring to Suparna, a girl studying in 8th Standard. However, her name didn’t matter as you can see everyone found it convenient to call her “Moti”. She had inherited her father’s genes, but she had never bothered about it until now. These days were different. The name calling made her feel inferior to others and hit her confidence at the end of the day. But she didn’t show any sign of it lest people label her unfriendly or “too sensitive type”, the last thing she wanted was to have another label.
But she was not one who could be easily discouraged. She wanted to wear what other slim girls could wear. Currently her clothing options were limited to “XL” size. This encouraged her to look out for ways to reduce weight on internet. She was bombarded with millions of results when she hit on the Google search button for the same. She was initially happy to see so many solutions to her problem. She went through every article which appeared in the first 2 pages of the search. But none of them were giving her a solution that could work for her or for her age. She got exhausted soon and her passion which had kept her busy for past 3 days almost died a natural death. She gave up hope and started living the usual life.

But one day something happened that brought back her lost hope. She was walking back home when she saw a board declaring free table tennis classes by a retired coach. She was never into sports mainly due to her being overweight, but she had always played with the idea of playing TT in her head. Initially she dismissed her excitement as transitionary but as the days passed she became increasingly passionate about it. She approached her parents for approval and they happily granted it since the classes were not too far from their house and it was the first time their girl had approached them with a an interest in any type of sports.

What followed was something exceptional. Suparna joined the classes and picked up the game faster than anyone else in their batch. She soon started spinning and scoring over other girls in the group. She jumped levels faster than any kid in her class. Her ferocity on the table surprised everyone and her the most. She loved her decision to play and practiced sincerely. She trained and very soon she became a popular player in her batch. Seeing her interest and talent her parents even renewed the membership after the duration for free classes got expired.

Everything was changing rapidly. Suparna got busy between playing TT and her studies and had no time for anything else. The next year she played for her school. She won in the regional level. She became popular in the school and an inspiration for others. She was still fat, but it had been long time since anyone called her “Moti”. Everyone knew her by her name. One day she was called to the PT room. She was handed over a packet. It was a packet containing tracksuits “XL” size and a t-shirt with her name and her School name printed on it. She was to represent her school in an inter-school competition. That day was a remarkable day for Suparna. She always wanted to wear what others wore but now she had earned a dress which no one else could wear even if they wanted to. That day when she went back home the memories of the past year flashed by her eyes and she was filled happiness in her heart.