Change of Heart: the lesson

Here is the second part of 'Change of Heart', from your book Poorvi, told in short. Remember: in the first part, Prabhat beat Surya at badminton by secretly changing the scoreboard.

That day everyone was talking about the game and how well Prabhat had played. But that night Prabhat could not sleep well. He had won, yet he did not feel as happy as he usually did. He felt unhappy. And it surprised him that Surya did not feel bad about losing at all. Prabhat knew that in Surya's place, he would have been very upset.

The next day Prabhat saw Surya playing basketball. Surya was hopeless at it: he could not score a single basket for ten minutes. Yet he enjoyed the game, and his happy smile never left his face.

Prabhat watched Surya closely for some days. Surya was great at some things and terrible at others, but he enjoyed everything equally. Slowly Prabhat understood: to enjoy a game, you do not need a scoreboard keeping a tally, and you need not worry about winning or losing. What matters is trying to do well, and enjoying every moment. Lose today, and you can still play again tomorrow.

Prabhat began to change. He started playing hide and seek, and felt sad whenever the game was about to end. He started joking while playing badminton. Soon the other students were saying that playing with Prabhat was good fun, and that he had a great sporting spirit.