ASOBI

“To be heroic is to be courageous enough to die for something; to be inspirational is to be crazy enough to live a little.” ― Criss Jami

It was a bright morning, the Balewadi stadium at Mahalunge in Pune was spotted with engineering students from all over India.  The largest group belonged to the MIT Academy of Engineering, Alandi who were coordinating the National Robocon in association with Doordarshan and today was the final day of the show. The huge expanse of land, the bountiful greenery and the sports arenas intermittently created  pulsating hues for the onlookers. The occasion had led numerous future engineers all over India to the air conditioned Badminton court. The court was definitely one of the largest in India, but the  stars were the  newly created Robots by 150 teams from all over India. The winner would represent the International Robocon, 2017 at Tokyo in Japan. The teams were from IITs NITs, and many other reputed colleges in India. The participants also belonged to Government colleges from remote places like Manchar in Maharashtra, where a massive landslide had swallowed many families with their homes a few years back. 

As people queued to the stands, they saw the future engineers, the most talented ones sleeping after numerous exhaustive attempts on thin blankets, in tough situations. It did not deter the spirit as their energies were focussed on the three minute game that needed an APARE or a complete score. The Robot was a hero here, and it was honed after every game to reach excellence. Diali was a contestant with her team from Vadodara in Gujarat. While the teams in Maharashtra were well acknowledged by the audience for being ‘Amchi’ or ours, the  teams from Gujarat cheered each other with a resonance leaving the audience contented that they belonged to  a rich culture. The youngest to the oldest lot of teachers from  MIT knew  all their students well, they were well bonded with a new vigour as they moved ahead with the coordination. The students who had been  practicing to compere for days looked forward to the final matches in anticipation as they were informed that the compering would be  the lookout of the veterans from the Doordarshan. The team felt it was the best to watch the finale  hassle free.

The  game played using the  newly created Robots is believed to have been based on the Japanese art of ASOBI, where the teams play for  pure joy making one appreciate the fact that the Euphoria matters rather than winning or losing. The game  evolved from the Japanese culture relating the playfulness of landing the fan to topple a target. It was later modified to conquering the target balls that are mounted on tables at varying heights and replacing it with a Frisbee or disc with precision. The entire game is won owing to the remote control mechanism linked to the created Robot based on the knowledge of Aerodynamics.

Diali had cherished this dream of being a part of this contest since she was fourteen when she had witnessed the Robocon on her visit to Pune. Her years of hard work had landed her into one of the best Engineering colleges in Gujarat. She found it hard to believe that their team consisted of only girls. There was an indecisiveness reeling within due to the patriarchial society to which she belonged to. It was the moral support of her teachers that led her to lead her team in Pune. The meagre accommodation, and the hardships made her strong willed and resolute. She loved being with her team that shared conscientiousness and pleasures with the same vigour.  The team encountered numerous hitches in their Robot as they practiced in the arenas, but the poise and determination while amending the Robot to suit the game were two assets that the team had gained from their mentors.She believed in being a part of the team rather than a lead because leadership is a skill of integrity.

The final day games began in the central arena as scheduled after a grand march of the students who had qualified the quarter finals with an Indian musical band. Each team then got three minutes time to prove themselves after months of  creativity and practicality. The remote  control with which they threw Frisbees at calculated speeds to displace the balls could either take them to the next level or leave them in the  lurch  of returning home. The Robots were shaped beautifully, some had fans rotating to add to the precision while many others had bottles to increase the weight of the fragile architecture. Diali and her team caught stardom right from the first day for competing with the other teams which had a mixed crowd.  The Cummins college for women, Pune was the second team that had only young ladies in their team. Diali’s team did well, owing to their patience and serenity. They moved ahead to the quarter finals. Diali’s joy knew no bounds each time they won, the delight displayed by the audience was greater. They clapped for the marvellous performance. The team yelled Ganpati Bappa Morya and the audience fell into the chants nonchalantly.

Diali had got an opportunity to participate for the first time in spite of being exceptionally intelligent and  savvy with communication technology. Diali and her team loaded the Robot with the discs, she sent out the discs with great precision, but today the opponent was quicker and made their  place before  she could. Those three  minutes  were the longest for Diali's team.  This attempt  had  left her satiated even when the Robot could not make an APARE, a hundred percent score. Their team had lost their winning stand, and the opponent team won to move ahead to the semifinals. Diali and her team did not feel bad, instead, shared a few tips  with the Doorshan team as a motivation to the young school students who watched them from the stand with tiny flags in their hands.  Diali at the end was found speaking about the perseverance and hard work that had helped them to sustain pressure. They had  stood in the corner  in spite of their setback, and cheered the teams that had entered the finals with the same zeal creating the Japanese ASOBI, a spirit of pure joy whether we win or lose.

 Winning is about struggle and effort and optimism, and never, ever, ever giving up.” ― Amby Burfoot