books you may love: Take The Shot (Play The Game Book #2) by Amar Shah

After thoroughly enjoying the first book in the series, copies of which I bought for D's friend as well as for D, I turned to the library to request the second and third books in the series. Not for any reason other than the fact that I'm waiting for D to actually read Book 1 before I thrust the subsequent books upon him.

The lovely child has a funny way with recommendations. Sometimes they motivate him. At other times he chooses to ignore them. His mind has its own beautiful way of working, and who am I to interfere with that?!

Anyhoo, I tore through this book over two days, reading while D was at school, when I ought to have been working. So engrossing it was!

Our protagonist, Raam, returns to Orlando after a summer break with his cousin in California, his passion and motivation to play basketball having come back in full force.

Only, grade six begins with an unexpected disaster. His arch nemesis, Payton, who had humiliated Raam by posterizing over him at the Hoop Con earlier that summer, has now joined Raam's school.

To make things worse, Raam's bosom buddy, Cake (Chirag), is more interested in developing his social media profile and takes to following Payton like an eager pup, leaving Raam friendless and confused.

We also get a glimpse into some family drama with Raam's mother now running a dance studio and finding herself up against some glitzy competition within her community.

Throw in the possible return of a long-lost love interest, and an unexpected family crisis, and our boy is tugged in all directions with everything that could possibly go wrong in his life falling apart.

I was depressed when the book ended — nothing at all to do with the story, which was an even more exciting development over the first book in the series — but because the strong presence of Raam's grandparents in his life sent me back to the old anxieties of D's own grandparents being sorely absent from his.

One of my biggest worries about living in Canada is not having a network of family and friends to count on in times of need or even otherwise on a regular basis. And that's not for lack of trying.

I have met many people through my time at MBA school, freelance work, as an indie author, playdates at the park, D's preschool and, later, school, conversations with neighbours and as a regular patron of the local library.

Two things have stood out to me through the course of the past decade and meeting so many people from different walks of life.

• Relationships are fluid.

That's the nature of relationships. They're fluid. They're fleeting. Ephemeral, to say the least.

People come and go. We've had so many lovely neighbours move in and out in these past several years. I've written about this here and here.

Friendships themselves change in dynamics as interests and activities change, as life circumstances alter, and cause us to outgrow old relationships and forge new ones.

There's a lovely lady (also named D! but let's call her Di) who lives right across the road from us. She's a soul-sister. From the instant we met, we forged a very special bond and took every opportunity we could to get together with our children. She went back to a full-time job about a year ago. I've seen her all of 3 or 4 times in that period. Our children go to different schools and have probably forgotten all about each other's existence.

D has enjoyed a great friendship with another child in his class, E. Their family is also from India, so we've have opportunities over the past couple of years to get to know each other fairly well.

Over the past few months, D has begun distancing himself from E. Some mean words were said, and my child was brave enough to call E out on them. Sometimes other children say mean things and while D stands up for himself, help from E is rarely forthcoming.

These experiences have led D to forge other friendships and, even more importantly, take to pursuing his interests even if it means doing so alone.

This is a skill I never learnt and struggle with even to this day – the art of enjoying one's own company. The art of choosing solitude over discouraging companionship.

• Help always comes, even if from unexpected quarters.

One of the reasons we feel the need to surround ourselves with people, to immerse ourselves in a community, so to speak, is to have the solace of knowing that if we needed help on any occasion, there are people we could turn to in an emergency or a crisis.

But what if the person listed as your emergency contact is out of town on the day you need them? What if they are unwell? Or unreachable for some reason?

Is the solution to have 10 names on your list of emergency contacts?

Well! Good Luck, because keeping one close friend is hard enough, considering the amount of time, attention and affection it takes to cultivate a close relationship, let alone 10!

What I've noticed in the times I've needed help is that help has always come.

Not necessarily from known faces, but often from strangers. Not necessarily from close friends, but often from that mom I may have walked past in the school hallway with just a smile and a hello, acknowledging that our children are in the same class but not having anything in common beyond that.

I love Mister Rogers' words: Look for the helpers.

It's actually something his mom used to tell him. “When I was a boy and I would see scary things in the news, my mother would say to me, "Look for the helpers. You will always find people who are helping.”

I've added my own embellishment to that line: Look for the helpers. Be a helper too.

I've been holding on to these words more and more often these days, feeling quite like the little boy, Fred, who saw scary things in the news.

I'm also making it a point to remember that every time trouble has come, we've either found a solution or found help.

I believe strongly in this, and this belief keeps from needing to interact with people with some ulterior motive in mind.

I can simply be a source of pleasantness and joy in any interaction with another person instead of wondering whether or not my investment of time and effort in cultivating this particular relationship will serve me in good stead in the future.

Well, that was quite a roundabout way of saying that Take The Shot stirred some very emotional heartstrings in me, so much so that for an entire day after reading it, I missed home and family far too much to be functional.

That almost put me off from reading the third book in the series, Time To Win. But I'm not going to make the mistake I made with the Thirst series by Christopher Pike.

My dear friend, Helen, recommended these books to me. I tore through Books 1—5, and my dear friend gifted me a paperback copy of Thirst No. 6! That's the book I haven't read to date.

I read the other books more than three years ago. You can read about my musings on Thirst No. 1, Thirst No. 2, and more on the Thirst series as a whole.

I recently borrowed the first book from the library, hoping to go through the entire series once again to refresh my memory, so that I could finally enjoy the gift my friend gave me. I wasn't able to get into it; too many other real-life things were demanding my attention and left me unable to enjoy the story. I suppose the season for it is not now and will come later.

But having had that experience, I don't wish to leave the Play The Game series unfinished. It's next on my to-read list, when the characters and their stories are still fresh in my head and heart, and I look forward to reading it.

By the way, I had no idea that you could see alligators crossing the road in Orlando?! Raam and his father encounter one such reptile while on a drive through the heart of the city. How exciting?! Or terrifying?! 😂

Meanwhile, we've been highly engrossed in the NBA Playoffs. Rooting for the Philadelphia 76ers today against the NY Knicks.

But if it will be 76ers versus Pistons in the Eastern Conference Finals, my heart will break for whoever loses.

Right now, D is listening to the Pistons' players introduction song — The Final Countdown by Europe! An old-time favourite. Only a few minutes before Game 3 begins. Go 76ers, go!