Nilanjan was a laid back person. His personality inevitably reflected on his training methods.
His way of teaching players was to only warn them once beforehand and not saying a single word for the rest of the time.
Only speaking up again, after the deed was done.
He never scolded anyone verbally but for some reason none of the players talked back to him.
It was most probably because he always had live examples to support his claims, such as in this case.
Ishan had been warned once right before the final match started.
But after the warm up, Ishan had found that the opponent was rather wobbly in their play style and so he very conveniently forgot anything and everything Nilanjan had told him before the game.
Ishan had indeed underestimated his opponent a bit too much. And by doing that not only had he lost the second set he was also about to lose the third set.
When he saw that things were about to go out of hand, only then did he use brute strength to land smash after smash on the opponent's court until he climbed up all the way to 21 points. Needless to say, he would need an ice pack for his shoulders and wrist after he got home.
His opposite side was pretty agile and flexible, the force in her arms were also slightly above that of girls her age. But she seemed to be a novice as her shots, one way or another always ended up coming to Ishan's range of attack way too frequently.
Ishan stared out of the window.
The scenery outside grew more and more familiar as they got closer to his home.
He tried to imagine how it would feel if it were him who lost today and couldn't help but cover his face in despair.
All his friends and juniors in the team would probably be nice to him on the surface but on the inside, they would definitely laugh at him for losing to a girl!
According to this gentle man's, twelve year old Semi-vacant head, it was fine if a girl lost to a boy but if the otherwise were to happen, there was absolutely no way out of it. It's a stain for a lifetime!
While he was still shaming himself in his mind another sentence was tossed out to him from the front,
"So have you decided on how you will deal with him when you get home?"
This seemingly offhanded comment had the strength of popping the small bubble of imagination Ishan had created in just a matter of a second.
He looked at the rear view mirror, waiting for Nilanjan to meet his eyes.
When they had to stop at the last traffic light, Nilanjan finally met Ishan's gaze- which was filled with pure horror- with a mercilessly calm expression.
On this one day Ishan was away from training because of the match, he had totally forgotten about the final boss, at no where else but at his own house!
While the realisation downed on him he was already at his door step.
He looked at Nilanjan as if he was his last ray of hope and said in a pleading tone,
"uncle, won't you come in for a cup of tea?"
"Unlike you I am quite busy so no, thank you."
Nilanjan, the head coach and also the younger brother of Ishan's mother, said with a slight smile.
Ishan still didn't let it go, he got out of the car and opened the door to the driver's seat,
"Mom misses you very much. She even asked me to bring you along this morning."
"That's odd. The last time I called her, she couldn't recognize who I was for a full minute. Turns out she didn't even have my number saved, hahaha." Nilanjan maintained his smile but Ishan was too young to detect the sarcasm in his words so Nilanjan closed his teeth and once again assumed an expressionless face.
Ishan was totally oblivious to all the complicated relations between adults.
Since his previous method didn't work, he moved on to his last as well as his signature move.
He hugged Nilanjan's arm and stuck to him with practiced ease.
Nilanjan was clearly too used to this to even try to escape.
After all, if this follows the usual sequence of events, there would be a familiar voice calling for Ishan any moment now.
But even though Nilanjan put up with this human sized koala for quite a while, his supposed savior didn't arrive. Instead, it was Ishan's father who came outside after hearing the sound of the car engine.
He then dragged an extremely reluctant Ishan back home, worried that he was dehydrated from the constant sweating all day in this hot weather.
Nilanjan was helpless as he watched his youngest nephew being dragged into the house.
After his father had settled Ishaan in the house, he came right back and looked inside the car, through the window.
He was also a tall man so leaning down to the window level caused the joint of his waist to make a crisp cracking sound.
Nilanjan panically got out of the car with great concern for the fragile back of his brother-in-law.
After exchanging some casual greetings between each other, Nilanjan was invited inside once again. His answer was still negative, however this time very politely, totally unlike his ruthlessness towards Ishan.
He actually wanted to make an escape right after he dropped off his nephew but his plan didn't succeed so he just decided to stay outside and chat for a while before leaving, after all it wasn't everyday that his escape plans didn't succeed.
Before he was about to leave, Nilanjan's eyes 'happened' to land on the first floor window. The first floor included the rooms of the two boys in the family. One of the rooms was facing the main entrance to the home.
At the sight of the person who was leaning against the open window, Nilanjan paused. He then smiled.
All his actions were very well coordinated. Not at all appearing out of place.
But the moment he saw the other person give him an overly kind looking smile in return, Nilanjan knew he was busted.
This was a young man of around sixteen or seventeen. He was also tall as most of his family members.
Actually Nilanjan had seen him the moment he got out of his car. He was waiting for the boy to call Ishan back, like he would have done any other day. But for some reason today he just silently watched without making any moves to rescue his uncle.
The reason for this petty behavior only indicated one possibility. An underlying grudge.
Nilanjan was well aware that he was the cause. So he could only try and ask for a truce, "I was busy with the match preparation since morning. And didn't get to talk to you the whole day today. It's a bit late but congratulations."
The boy seemed to have accepted the half hearted excuses and this time his smile was quite genuine.
He changed his position from leaning on the side, to resting his elbow on the window sill,
"Though a simple text probably wouldn't have taken half an eternity, it's alright. Excuse accepted. And thank you."
Nilanjan thought he was done. But the boy continued, "But I do hope, the reason wasn't something like it 'slipped my mind'."
Nilanjan maintained his impeccable act on the surface while feeling a hint of despair for having been seen through.
Finally after some back and forth Nilanjan looked up at the young man properly.
It was for a very short while though, so short that it went unnoticed by the other person.
His gaze was soon covered by his eyelids gently dropping over. Effectively concealing the melancholy.
He then said in a casual manner while trying to change the subject, "Go easy on Ishan. The little guy has had a long day today."
"That would depend on the intensity of each of the mistakes he had made."
Nilanjan didn't say anything in return to that, only shrugged.
'At I can say I tried my best if Ishan were to accuse me of not helping him later.'
Afterwards, he waved to the boy, turned to his car and drove off from this cozy little home of four.