Spoon without a Lemon

Yet another sports event fascinated my little girl Swathi. And it was none other than ‘Lemon and Spoon’. I am sure all of you must be aware of how this game goes on. Kids are expected to tie their hands behind and walk forward with a spoon holding a lemon on their mouth. The person who reaches the finish point quickly without dropping the lemon on the way is considered to be the winner. If it falls anytime before you reach the finish point, they are considered to be disqualified.

My little girl does that well. She is extremely good at such things. She can move around quickly but I wasn’t sure how big the size of the lemon would be. Shruthi having a loose tooth was not quite sure how she could hold a spoon with a lemon on her mouth. Apparently, she was eliminated in the trial rounds and Swathi was selected for the event. There were four qualifying rounds and the fifth round was the final one. In the initial four rounds, she outperformed everybody (she was proud to have beaten some of the boys in her class) and came first every time.

When it came to the final round, the poor girl lost the game. She came home with pride and disappointment; pride for having come first in all the qualifying rounds and disappointment because she did not win. I encouraged her telling how glad I am to learn that she came first in many rounds.

She answered, “Amma, I will not get a certificate though”
Me: That is ok. I am glad you reached up to this level. The spirit lies in participating and not in winning.
Swathi: But I touched the finish line first
Me: Is it? In that case, you have won. Why do you say that you lost?
Swathi: I touched the finish line first but the lemon fell down in transit

I had to laugh silently this time. The moment the lemon falls down, in this game, you are supposed to stop moving further. I just imagined my little girl walking diligently with just a spoon in her mouth until the finish line. I knew that my laugh would spoil her day because as such, she had had a bad day. I just kissed her telling that it is all part of the game. She forgot about all these in an instant and started hopping all her way to her room.