MNIT Sports Tournament Day 2,3
Day 2: The Semi-Finals
“Tauba tera service…tauba tera smash…..Tera Emosanal…Aatyaachaar!!”
My ears were ringing with the taunts as I watched my team-mate play the singles match with the best player of MNIT Jaipur, a girl called Preeti, who I think is also their captain. She looked as malignant on the court as she looked sweet otherwise. The score was 19-17 against us. I tried to concentrate on the game, cheering her as much I could, when another one came our way. This time I couldn’t help grinning at the creativity of it.
“Jo hamse takrayega, BITS BITS ho jayega!” They couldn’t be more obvious.
We lost to MNIT in the Semi finals but that didn’t dampen our enthusiasm for too long. After a light lunch at a food stall, we spent a gloomy afternoon and dozed off at the Computer Room that was where we were put up. Two of the team girls went shopping at Shopper’s Stop while the two of us went to watch the girl’s Volleyball finals against MITS. I spent the whole evening cheering for my college, be it Volleyball or Baski! Finally at around eight, the Badminton court was filled with meaning and a purpose for me yet again. It was the guys match against NIT Calicut in the Semis. I have never had my mouth so in my heart, for 2 long hours, over a game before! It was the most thrilling two hours of my college life! Matches are normally played ‘Best of 3’: 2 singles and 1 doubles. Each of these is again played best of 3 games. A total of eight games and 1 hr 45min later, the score between Tanmay and a darkie from Calicut (apologies for the racism) was 15-19! I was scared to breathe, lest it blew off the shuttle in the wrong direction!
It was 10 o’clock. My stomach gave a groan. Each of us quietly ordered something to eat at the food stall outside the courts. The guys all looked like they had lost their best friend. Tanmay looked all sweaty and disheartened. I couldn’t say it was only sweat.
8:30 was the in-time for girls at MNIT. For us it had been extended till 10. We realized it when some uniformed cops, patrolling around began to shoo us back.
Day3: (Final day.. )
A long day is always followed by a good night’s sleep. Only, I had no idea, that the longest day was yet to come! With both our teams having lost, I thought the remainder of the trip would turn out to be quite a bore. The guys didn’t look like they would budge from there rooms till their mourning was done with. (which didn’t look like a long time from then) The boy’s Basketball team, however, reached the finals and played NIT Calicut. (aah…revenge…!). I was up by 9 so decided to go join Monu bhaiyaa and cheer the team. It was a nice, pleasant surprise to see Vinay, captain of our guy’s team, there with him! So, henceforth, I gathered up my courage to voice my deepest desire.
“Movie dekhne chalte hain!!” I exclaimed, like a 10 year old, trying to convince her parents for a weekday movie! So after lots of persuading and influencing, I finally got my way! This is just one of the many advantages of being a lone-kid in the family. You get adept at such stuff since you HAVE to do them all by yourself.
“We’ll see Delhi-6, otherwise…lite le lo!” was Monu bhaiyaa’s final verdict.
I awoke with a start. Nothing in particular woke me up. Abhishek and Amitabh Bachchan were looking down at me. They were sitting in a white backdrop of clouds. I think it was Heaven. It felt more like hell to me. It was not the 60 bucks I lamented over. It was the three hours of time that mattered more. I pushed myself out of the reclining chairs. Apparently ‘Raj Mandir’ was the first cinema house in India that had such novelties and had got the first appearance of a Multiplex. (Though it isn’t one). My feet ached. They had been all over the city. They had walked all over the Jaipur zoo, had been on a ghoda-gaadi from there to the famous Raj Mandir Theatre, had walked into a Rajasthani dhaba so that its body could feast upon proper Dhaba-khaana like Lassi and Missi Roti and finally they were taking me back (in an autorickshaw) back to the Institute.
We missed about 89 minutes of the girl’s Baski final match when we arrived back. With one minute to go, we manage to catch the euphoria and excitement a Gold medal often gives people, even if it had been rather evident an hour ago when the score had been 15-32. The organizers were preparing for the Valedictory Ceremony. As if reading each other’s minds, all unanimously decided not to attend it and instead we walked to ‘Saras’, an open air place that served sweets and tid bits of snacks.
It was 11 pm. Siddharth carried a carton, big enough to fit in a small microwave oven, into the Tavera. It had a big red “M” drawn on it. It carried, probably breakfast, for all our wingies. Each of us were carrying atleast 5 burgers each back home.
After about ten games of Mafia, a real funky game Siddharth had taught the rest of us, and after Vinay didn’t look like he was going to give up on accusing me of being Mafia, we finally stopped. It was 1 am. Everyone was hungry and we stopped at a roadside dhaba as planned. An hour later, after polishing true dhaba-khaana (not like the Connot stuff) and cracking jokes, we climbed back into the Tavera and this time no one wanted to resume Mafia. We were full, had had a long day (I think it could easily be the longest one in my life) and we headed back home: BITS Pilani.
“Tauba tera service…tauba tera smash…..Tera Emosanal…Aatyaachaar!!”
My ears were ringing with the taunts as I watched my team-mate play the singles match with the best player of MNIT Jaipur, a girl called Preeti, who I think is also their captain. She looked as malignant on the court as she looked sweet otherwise. The score was 19-17 against us. I tried to concentrate on the game, cheering her as much I could, when another one came our way. This time I couldn’t help grinning at the creativity of it.
“Jo hamse takrayega, BITS BITS ho jayega!” They couldn’t be more obvious.
We lost to MNIT in the Semi finals but that didn’t dampen our enthusiasm for too long. After a light lunch at a food stall, we spent a gloomy afternoon and dozed off at the Computer Room that was where we were put up. Two of the team girls went shopping at Shopper’s Stop while the two of us went to watch the girl’s Volleyball finals against MITS. I spent the whole evening cheering for my college, be it Volleyball or Baski! Finally at around eight, the Badminton court was filled with meaning and a purpose for me yet again. It was the guys match against NIT Calicut in the Semis. I have never had my mouth so in my heart, for 2 long hours, over a game before! It was the most thrilling two hours of my college life! Matches are normally played ‘Best of 3’: 2 singles and 1 doubles. Each of these is again played best of 3 games. A total of eight games and 1 hr 45min later, the score between Tanmay and a darkie from Calicut (apologies for the racism) was 15-19! I was scared to breathe, lest it blew off the shuttle in the wrong direction!
It was 10 o’clock. My stomach gave a groan. Each of us quietly ordered something to eat at the food stall outside the courts. The guys all looked like they had lost their best friend. Tanmay looked all sweaty and disheartened. I couldn’t say it was only sweat.
8:30 was the in-time for girls at MNIT. For us it had been extended till 10. We realized it when some uniformed cops, patrolling around began to shoo us back.
Day3: (Final day.. )
A long day is always followed by a good night’s sleep. Only, I had no idea, that the longest day was yet to come! With both our teams having lost, I thought the remainder of the trip would turn out to be quite a bore. The guys didn’t look like they would budge from there rooms till their mourning was done with. (which didn’t look like a long time from then) The boy’s Basketball team, however, reached the finals and played NIT Calicut. (aah…revenge…!). I was up by 9 so decided to go join Monu bhaiyaa and cheer the team. It was a nice, pleasant surprise to see Vinay, captain of our guy’s team, there with him! So, henceforth, I gathered up my courage to voice my deepest desire.
“Movie dekhne chalte hain!!” I exclaimed, like a 10 year old, trying to convince her parents for a weekday movie! So after lots of persuading and influencing, I finally got my way! This is just one of the many advantages of being a lone-kid in the family. You get adept at such stuff since you HAVE to do them all by yourself.
“We’ll see Delhi-6, otherwise…lite le lo!” was Monu bhaiyaa’s final verdict.
I awoke with a start. Nothing in particular woke me up. Abhishek and Amitabh Bachchan were looking down at me. They were sitting in a white backdrop of clouds. I think it was Heaven. It felt more like hell to me. It was not the 60 bucks I lamented over. It was the three hours of time that mattered more. I pushed myself out of the reclining chairs. Apparently ‘Raj Mandir’ was the first cinema house in India that had such novelties and had got the first appearance of a Multiplex. (Though it isn’t one). My feet ached. They had been all over the city. They had walked all over the Jaipur zoo, had been on a ghoda-gaadi from there to the famous Raj Mandir Theatre, had walked into a Rajasthani dhaba so that its body could feast upon proper Dhaba-khaana like Lassi and Missi Roti and finally they were taking me back (in an autorickshaw) back to the Institute.
We missed about 89 minutes of the girl’s Baski final match when we arrived back. With one minute to go, we manage to catch the euphoria and excitement a Gold medal often gives people, even if it had been rather evident an hour ago when the score had been 15-32. The organizers were preparing for the Valedictory Ceremony. As if reading each other’s minds, all unanimously decided not to attend it and instead we walked to ‘Saras’, an open air place that served sweets and tid bits of snacks.
It was 11 pm. Siddharth carried a carton, big enough to fit in a small microwave oven, into the Tavera. It had a big red “M” drawn on it. It carried, probably breakfast, for all our wingies. Each of us were carrying atleast 5 burgers each back home.
After about ten games of Mafia, a real funky game Siddharth had taught the rest of us, and after Vinay didn’t look like he was going to give up on accusing me of being Mafia, we finally stopped. It was 1 am. Everyone was hungry and we stopped at a roadside dhaba as planned. An hour later, after polishing true dhaba-khaana (not like the Connot stuff) and cracking jokes, we climbed back into the Tavera and this time no one wanted to resume Mafia. We were full, had had a long day (I think it could easily be the longest one in my life) and we headed back home: BITS Pilani.
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