7 The Best Form of Recreation

Variety is the spice of life, says Cowper. Continuous labour in any form makes life dull and monotonous. A students life is more or less continuous labour; he plods at his books day and night and prepares for examinations, the carpenter works at the chisel and the hammer and earns his bread by the sweat of his brow; the blacksmith goes to his smithy every day and beats iron into shape; the clerk goes to office in the morning and keeps himself buried in files and ledgers till evening; and the porter goes to the marketplace, carrying loads from one place to another and earns his livelihood. The businessman opens his shop and entertains customers of every variety from morning till evening and makes whatever pile he can. This is a random list of some of the ordinary vocation in Pakistani life. But whatever the vocation, every man wants some recreation. Recreation or diversion is a necessity. Mans whole vocation is not merely to earn his bread. It is said that man does not live by bread alone; he has to look to the things of the spirit. Even apart from the things of the spirit, one cannot chase the flying rupee all day long. It seems that man can earn money the better and pursue his vocation in life the more; successfully if he steps aside, for a while^, and takes part in some form of recreation. ~ Recreations are of different kinds. Some play cards, some tennis or badminton and others football or cricket or nockey, volleyball or basketball. There are people, both young and old, who resort to long walks in the morning or in the evening as a recreation; * it is in fact a common sight how men of every age of frequent public parks in the morning or in the evening, soon form into small groups and walk, talking about politics, high as well as low, in a more or less irresponsible manner. Agam, we have often seen city-bred boys playing cricket in the afternoon, each thinking himself to be another Larwood. In fact, different recreations appeal to different temperaments. The best form of recreation is, in our view, a game of Tennis in the evening. There are certain obvious defects in Football or Hockey as recreation; one cannot control oneself in such a game as that, there is too much of abandon in Football or Hockey. Again, in Cricket, for example, there is a segregation of the sexes; it is a recreation for the males. Tennis as a recreation has some special features to present. In the first place, it is an international game; it is as international and representative in character as is the United Nations Organisation. As Sir Samuel Hoare says, Never was there such an international game and never was there such a sociable game. Whether Tennis is played on the Centre Court at Wimbledon or on the mud-plastered court in the club on College .grinds, it draws men and women, boys and girls and is played with both en>vment and enthusiasm. The ^int about Tennis as a form of recreation that makes a special appeal to in jS that it calls into play every inch of muscle and every ounce of strengtr, ._H teacnes tne sense Of time. And yet one can have control over ones H .i(_ical energy; one can p|ay just a game or a set of game*- There are H^n|e who condemn Tennjs as mere pat-ball in.fl|cn men merely thrubL,nd ew/ ha,k wjthout aim or plan. ~r^ attack is of course frankly unfair. ^./sical energy is not self-sufficient-; <c is always controlled .,e inner powers of the mind. Most people forget this fact and i.ome to grief. Recreation brings into play those inner powers of the mind which make one play with great efficiency during the hours of business. Just think of the top-spin drive in Tennis. It is a drive made with the

object of hitting the ball fairly hard and yet not sending it out of court behind the opponents baseline. Then there are the backhand and forehand styles of drive. For one at any rate, after coming back from office, to play a game or two nf tcm-iia is an ideal form of recreation; it is also the bcot form of diversion for students. Recreation is not the idling away of time: it is not a vacuum in life. It is on the other hand a diversion when one does not talk shop, forgets the worries of life and enjoys oneself in an activity in which there is a release of the best powers of mind and body proportionate to ones total capital of energy. The whole game of Lawn Tennis consists of attack and defence, stroke and counterstroke. As Mr. Burrow puts it, the opening stroke of every rally is the service, and this ought to be the opening of the attack. And then follow the volleys - the defensive volley, the smash vplley and the lob-volley of different styles. The person who always plays Tennis as recreation gathers a kind of creative energy which he can well apply to the more serious business of life with the greatest of ease and elegance.