ANGRY, annoyed and depressed, Omar lay uncomfortably on the ground of his garden. Omar had again lost at his favourite game of tennis against his rival, Bilal. He had come closer than ever to beating him, but in the end, he made a careless mistake by missing a shot that even his seven-year-old brother could have struck.

“Lost again?” inquired his father, walking nearby.

Omar stared at him, carefully masking the jealousy he felt. While Omar was not the greatest of tennis players, his father, Hasan, was a very famous and popular player, the first Pakistani to win a Grand Slam. In fact, Omar’s entire family was talented in tennis. His younger brother, Imran, was a true prodigy and was respected by friends and family alike, while his older brother, Saad was the junior tennis champion of Pakistan. It seemed Omar did not get the tennis skill genes from his father.

“Father, why don’t you even try to help me?” said Omar, “It’s obvious that I’m the weak link of the family. Everyone has their talents, but I, I’m simply talentless.”

His father was shocked to hear this, but he didn’t show it. Instead he took a deep breath.

“That’s not true,” he insisted, “not everyone is talented at the same thing. You know how good you are in soccer and cricket. You outshine everyone in cricket, let alone soccer.”

“But it’s a family tradition to play tennis! Why do I have to be so utterly terrible at it?” said Omar.

“Cause you’re talentless,” mocked Omar’s older brother Saad, overhearing the conversation.

Omar looked even further down in the dumps, while Saad continued to smirk. Their father, sent an icy cold glare at Saad who silently walked away.

“No father, he’s right,” said Omar, feeling hurt.

“No, he’s not,” said Hasan, raising his tone. “Family tradition is nothing to me, go play what you desire, not what your family does. You have your own life to live and your own talents to use. Why don’t you sign up for the inter-school match trials that are being conducted next week? In fact if you get selected, I’ll throw in a visit to your favourite burger spot as well. And if you’re not, then I’ll train you at tennis personally and won’t stop until you beat both of your brothers.”

“How can you say all this?”

“Just try it, okay,” said his father, exasperatedly.

Omar hesitantly nodded and tried to put on a determined look for his father. “Thanks dad,” said Omar gratefully. “You don’t know how much that means to me.”

“Oh, I know,” admitted Hasan, “you feel the same way as I felt when my coach decided to enter me for the junior championship, when I was but a lad.”

Early in the morning, around 6am, Hasan was awakened by a weird but familiar noise. He looked outside from his window, only to see his son, Omar, practicing soccer in the garden and magically avoiding the breaking of any flower pots. Hasan felt proud and gave a smile.

“I must win,” Omar encouraged himself, as he dribbled the ball to the goal, dodging his frustrated opponents who were constantly trying to make him slip. Omar gave a smirk but did not get in the least cocky or over confident. He saw his father cheering him on from the sidelines and that was all the encouragement he needed.

Omar was nearing the goal and the goalkeeper knew that he had no chance of stopping the ball, still he had to try. The goalie got ready to defend the goal, however, what he didn’t expect was that Omar would pass the ball to one of his teammates. Omar was usually an independent player who played solo.

The goalkeeper turned his attention to the other player, only to see the ball missing. The next thing he knew was that the ball was inside the goal. Apparently, the player had passed it back to Omar, who had shot it before the goalie could’ve done anything about it. The moment the goal was scored, the referee’s whistle blew and the match was over.

“The names of the selected players are...” said Coach Ishaque some 15 minutes later, “... Jawaid Rafae, Ahmad Babar Khan, Tahmoor Mohummad, Ali Kamran and the captain is Omar Hasan.”

Omar was astounded and his father started clapping very loudly and reached out to embrace him.

“I did it!” he suddenly shouted, cheerfully. Omar learnt one major thing that day; everybody has a talent, whether it is playing cricket, soccer, tennis, chess or even running. Omar realised he was a talented soccer player and it was the game he loved the most.