Source: http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/1017310.cms FEBRUARY 11 MIDDLE: Swing-wing King - Rajan Gandhi I really worry about the kingdom of Nepal, and with good reason. I played hockey against the current king at school back in 1965. He was then a Spadgie, i.e. he studied at North Point, Darjeeling, whilst I was at the considerably loftier rival school, St Paul's. He was then known as G Shah and played left wing for the North Point First XI but used to forget this and often swung to the right. As the opposing right half, I was supposed to mark him closely for he had a mean reverse flick. However, this tendency to swing both ways had me completely confounded. I've always felt that once a man takes a position, he ought to stick to it. That wasn't his only quirk; he would suddenly change flanks and then use the reverse flick when a straightforward one was perfectly adequate. This had his own right fullback colliding with the left inner who was running backwards to receive a pass which should have gone forward. It wasn't as if young G Shah was being deliberately devious. He was just being a dyed- in-the-wool Spadgie, which meant not knowing left from right, right from wrong, East from West, forward from backward ? the basic building blocks of logic and reasonable behaviour. So at half-time, I strolled across and told him very firmly that he was a left-winger and should know his place, dash it. The left wing was not supposed to take extreme right position else darkness and chaos could ensue, said I. He pondered over this awhile and said he saw considerable merit in my proposition and that he agreed with me. Then when the game resumed, I found him on the wrong side of the field. He'd decided that he'd continue playing left wing, so what if we'd changed ends and left meant right and the goals had switched. Such a man is capable of doing great damage to himself, his opponents and to the game of hockey. But he mustn't be held personally accountable. He is, after all, a Spadgie and in the considered opinion of Paulites, they have always had this legendary inability to know what they're doing, why, wherefore, the meaning of cause and effect along with their difficulties in distinguishing port from starboard. Whilst the king deserves our patience and understanding, our pity should be reserved for the Nepalese Maoists. Imagine trying to understand a swing-wing king.