I have always wondered, how my life would have been if I were a sports person . Right from a really young age, I loved sports-Cricket, Football and Tennis. Studying in a school that gave least importance to sports especially when it came for girls, I had no option to even dream of playing in a team for a competition. Always took part in the school competitions, but nothing worked out. I never practiced. I also did not know that a whole lot of dedication, involvement and practice gets into one's effort in winning in a game, be it any game. In school, during the games period, we girls used to spend time playing either Throwball or Cricket, rather a form of cricket we had invented for ourselves. I used to love catching balls always. Being a really short person in school ( pretty much now also), I was always asked to be in the front-for assembly and for the games. My classmates were not so interested in playing with me as I was always mistaken for a Geek or a Nerd or a Non friendly person in school- I guess I really seemed like one then. But then Appa used to play badminton with us when time permitted.
Things changed pretty much when we shifted to a new flat, where I really got friends for the first time. My new friends-Merlin, Sam and Bindu-accepted me into their gang. We spent most of our time walking around our building and talking and gossiping ( of course, after all girls right!). Sam and I used to find time to dodge the ball to play basketball on the a torn,old basket that hung near the stairs. We also found time to play badminton, our newer version of cricket, 7 tiles, Medicine and Poison, Hide and Seek and many many other games. We used to play with the younger gang ( Lals gang- who were more into gossips I suppose) and sometimes rarely with the boys gang ( Gopz gang), who were really aggressive. But this did not last for long. Merlin left to India for her higher studies. And I left to India too in about 2 years after she left.
Nothing was same there. New place, new friends, new world and no family near me. Everything was new and my priorities changed. Always friends. I thought very less about sports and games. I remembered sports only when World Cup comes up. I had always supported Brazil in Football and South Africa in Cricket. And also whenever Tennis Opens happen- as I was (am) an ardent fan of Roger Federer right from 1998 and before him, it was Pete Sampras. I felt so void by not being a fan of anything. After a gap of about 5 years, I got a teeny weeny chance of getting back to track temporarily, when I stayed at my mother's sister's place in AP for a project. She had a daughter, Devi , of my age. We played badminton for hours, continuous rallies till both of our shoulders ached. We used to also play blind fold, dumb charades, kho-kho and dance with all the kids there, whenever we got chance. This did not last for long either.
Little changes did come in when I started working. Our company used to conduct a festival every year. When I joined in, I was in the hosting/program committee. Also, I was a part of one of the team, our company was divided into 4 teams. One of the outdoor competitions were Throwball for girls. I was so happy to have that in the list. After a long long time, I got my hands on it. And I was not all that bad. Only problem being, I could not play as I was in the committee. Hence I took all chances to practice with the team. Wow I felt so happy to have started playing again. As expected, this was just for the program and hence did not last for long.
When I met Kichu, he told me that he was basically into every sport except Football. Well, what else did I want more. I can definitely get into playing everyday. Along with travelling to USA, my dream of playing also started to come into picture. Kichu always loves going to the gym too. Well, I wanted to explore what a gym was like. I joined the one near my home in Irinjalakuda, and started going there. My first experience was not a great one- I fell off the treadmill, i was all exhausted in about 20 mins and I could not even walk back home. :(. I did not experiment much. Since I was at home for about 7 months, before my marriage, Gopz and I used to have a great time watching Football, rather Soccer. He used to watch most of the English Premier League matches and he was a die-hard fan of Chelsea Football Club. Now the "Men in BLUE" always had a bad time with one of the "Men in RED", Manchester United. So I used to take sides with ManU to just agitate him! That was indeed real fun. But I never knew I would miss watching Football ever , till I came to USA.
After coming here, things changed again. For a while , there were no sports as I had come here in Winter. In March, we got a chance to go to an Ice Hockey game, with Kichu's friend Susan and her husband, Pete. At the last hour, they could not make it to the game, hence we had Harsha coming in with us. In the first quarter of the game, I sat quiet as I understood nothing. At the first interval, I understood that this game was played in quarters and not halves, also there were 4 quarters of 15 minutes each, with timeouts and intervals between quarters being more than 15 minutes. This literally means that the game does not end in an hour or 2. Second quarter was interesting, as I saw all of them fight with each other for the puck, smash each others face with their gloved fists, and blood oozing out. And the crowd enjoyed it! The men whom I had come with too enjoyed the fights. I started to feel bored. We left the stadium when there was just a quarter left as it was getting too late, and the stadium was so over packed that we would not be able to take our car out for a while.
Next venture was at a baseball game. Again, Susan had sponsored the tickets. It was on April 8th, a day before we left to Vegas. It was really cold out there, moreover the ball park ( ground) was on the side of the river. Hence it was all the more cold. I somehow tried to kill time, 1st innings,2nd innings and so it went on till 8th innings. We sat till about 5 innings- the game between Cincinnati Reds and New York Mets at the Great American Ball Park, Cincinnati. As it started to get more cold, we left the park. But trust me , from Day 2, I joined Kichu in watching all the MLB ( Major League Baseball) matches of Cincinnati Reds. We did go to the Ball Park again to cheer for REDS. I learnt the rules of the games, and the various players names and guess what, I started commenting on their games too. MLB has two leagues in it- American League and National League.At the end of season, the winner of AL plays against the winner of NL. And in 2009, the world champions ( if any one wins in US, then they are world champions-irrespective of the fact that no one else plays it), were New York Yankees who won against Philadelphia Phillies. Baseball does not work as fast as cricket, it is slower than Test matches too. But once you learn it, it is fun. I am waiting for the next season to come up, but I do not know which team to support this time- as both Yankees and Phillies are local to us!
Slowly, as the weather permitted, Kichu taught me how to play Tennis. I was overwhelmed with happiness that I did not want to miss it any day. I learnt to serve, play with both right and left hands, hit forehand and double handed back hands for more power and what not. Since tennis was more of an individual game, it required more dedication from the player's part. I really started to wonder and feel what all players or for me , Federer, would feel in each serve or game of his, if he goes down one set what would his thoughts be. It really takes a long long way of involvement and passion to reach such great heights. I never missed a chance to play tennis. We played daily, and I mean it. Everyday we made sure that we would not miss tennis if the weather was all good. One of the advantages of summer is that, sun sets only at 9pm or later. So we have longer days to play. I miss summer a lot! Kichu was not able to play a good game with me as he had to lower his standards to match mine. In between, we used to call Harsha, for Kichu to level up his game again!
Cincinnati Tennis open was in the pipeline in August, the peak of summer. Kichu had to go on an official trip. I was all alone for 4 days. And I took the guts to drive alone all the way to Mason, which was 30 mins from home, to watch Federer play! I had reached there early in the morning, firstly to avoid traffic and rush, secondly to see players practice. The first person whom I saw was Novak Djokovic, World No.2 now. Like all other people around me, I had gone wearing an RF cap and had a pen and a book in my hands; I also stood in the queue to get his autograph. He was such a nice person that, after his practice, he took time to sign autographs for all of us. He also took time to smile at each of us when he signed for us, and yes I was in it too. :) After a wonderful start, the next person to practice there was my favourite, not just mine but most of the people's favourite. We waited there for almost an hour, when Fed came there to practice with former champion Marat Safin. They did not practice much. We did not care much about the practice. I watched him play in front of my eyes, at the same time saving my spot for the autograph. It was the first time I was seeing my favourite sports person, right in front of me. But little did we know that we were all waiting in vain. He could not sign autographs for us, as the court had to be used for the upcoming game in 10 mins. Felt so disappointed that I did not get his signature, but then felt nice that I could atleast see him. Never had known that I would be able to watch him so close. Gosh!! It was a real big dream come true. After this, I got a chance to see Andy Murray (No.3 now), Leander Paes, Stanislas Wawrinka, Gael Monfils, Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, Andy Roddick( for whom there was a long long queue), Marin Cilic, Bryan Brothers Davydenko and last but not the least, of course, Rafael Nadal. I could not get his autograph either as he was not practicing anywhere when I took a stroll around. My tickets were till about 6pm. I left the grounds at around 5pm, an hour in advance, due to the same reason, rush! I drove back home with a fully contended heart of a true sports fan.
American Football, American version of Rugby, was another sport that came into my life, just because Kichu loves watching it. Want to know the reason? Ever watched Rugby? If you love to see players fight and push each other, then yes, both these games are the ones you will love to watch. Rugby is hell! American football is better organized than Rugby. Wonder why they call it football, despite the fact that the game is played with hands, except to kick, that is just twice! The season for NFL( National Football League) starts only in Fall/Autumn. And the players play in winter and snow. Have you seen any of the players? All of them are atleast 6 feet tall and weight more than 200 lbs. To be frank, they are bigger than Kichu too-really big. They practice real hard by pushing such heavy weights of more than 500 lbs. Now that is how they practice to fight and push! Even though I am least interested in the game, I watch it every time Kichu watches and I do understand interception, field goal, touch down, yards and the key terms one should know just to prove that he/she can understand it! :)
One of the biggest advantages of being able to study in countries like USA is that, the education system gives equal importance to sports and books. Kids start playing and working at a real young age.Gopz and Kichu would have loved to be brought up here. Despite being brought up in places where only books are studies, both of them love to play everytime! All day! Wonder why does not that come into practice in our countries too? Wonder where all of us would have been , if we were allowed to play equally with our studies as a part of our curriculum? Definitely, we would have chosen a different career path, even if not in sports, but sports would have been a part of daily life.
Things changed pretty much when we shifted to a new flat, where I really got friends for the first time. My new friends-Merlin, Sam and Bindu-accepted me into their gang. We spent most of our time walking around our building and talking and gossiping ( of course, after all girls right!). Sam and I used to find time to dodge the ball to play basketball on the a torn,old basket that hung near the stairs. We also found time to play badminton, our newer version of cricket, 7 tiles, Medicine and Poison, Hide and Seek and many many other games. We used to play with the younger gang ( Lals gang- who were more into gossips I suppose) and sometimes rarely with the boys gang ( Gopz gang), who were really aggressive. But this did not last for long. Merlin left to India for her higher studies. And I left to India too in about 2 years after she left.
Nothing was same there. New place, new friends, new world and no family near me. Everything was new and my priorities changed. Always friends. I thought very less about sports and games. I remembered sports only when World Cup comes up. I had always supported Brazil in Football and South Africa in Cricket. And also whenever Tennis Opens happen- as I was (am) an ardent fan of Roger Federer right from 1998 and before him, it was Pete Sampras. I felt so void by not being a fan of anything. After a gap of about 5 years, I got a teeny weeny chance of getting back to track temporarily, when I stayed at my mother's sister's place in AP for a project. She had a daughter, Devi , of my age. We played badminton for hours, continuous rallies till both of our shoulders ached. We used to also play blind fold, dumb charades, kho-kho and dance with all the kids there, whenever we got chance. This did not last for long either.
Little changes did come in when I started working. Our company used to conduct a festival every year. When I joined in, I was in the hosting/program committee. Also, I was a part of one of the team, our company was divided into 4 teams. One of the outdoor competitions were Throwball for girls. I was so happy to have that in the list. After a long long time, I got my hands on it. And I was not all that bad. Only problem being, I could not play as I was in the committee. Hence I took all chances to practice with the team. Wow I felt so happy to have started playing again. As expected, this was just for the program and hence did not last for long.
When I met Kichu, he told me that he was basically into every sport except Football. Well, what else did I want more. I can definitely get into playing everyday. Along with travelling to USA, my dream of playing also started to come into picture. Kichu always loves going to the gym too. Well, I wanted to explore what a gym was like. I joined the one near my home in Irinjalakuda, and started going there. My first experience was not a great one- I fell off the treadmill, i was all exhausted in about 20 mins and I could not even walk back home. :(. I did not experiment much. Since I was at home for about 7 months, before my marriage, Gopz and I used to have a great time watching Football, rather Soccer. He used to watch most of the English Premier League matches and he was a die-hard fan of Chelsea Football Club. Now the "Men in BLUE" always had a bad time with one of the "Men in RED", Manchester United. So I used to take sides with ManU to just agitate him! That was indeed real fun. But I never knew I would miss watching Football ever , till I came to USA.
After coming here, things changed again. For a while , there were no sports as I had come here in Winter. In March, we got a chance to go to an Ice Hockey game, with Kichu's friend Susan and her husband, Pete. At the last hour, they could not make it to the game, hence we had Harsha coming in with us. In the first quarter of the game, I sat quiet as I understood nothing. At the first interval, I understood that this game was played in quarters and not halves, also there were 4 quarters of 15 minutes each, with timeouts and intervals between quarters being more than 15 minutes. This literally means that the game does not end in an hour or 2. Second quarter was interesting, as I saw all of them fight with each other for the puck, smash each others face with their gloved fists, and blood oozing out. And the crowd enjoyed it! The men whom I had come with too enjoyed the fights. I started to feel bored. We left the stadium when there was just a quarter left as it was getting too late, and the stadium was so over packed that we would not be able to take our car out for a while.
Next venture was at a baseball game. Again, Susan had sponsored the tickets. It was on April 8th, a day before we left to Vegas. It was really cold out there, moreover the ball park ( ground) was on the side of the river. Hence it was all the more cold. I somehow tried to kill time, 1st innings,2nd innings and so it went on till 8th innings. We sat till about 5 innings- the game between Cincinnati Reds and New York Mets at the Great American Ball Park, Cincinnati. As it started to get more cold, we left the park. But trust me , from Day 2, I joined Kichu in watching all the MLB ( Major League Baseball) matches of Cincinnati Reds. We did go to the Ball Park again to cheer for REDS. I learnt the rules of the games, and the various players names and guess what, I started commenting on their games too. MLB has two leagues in it- American League and National League.At the end of season, the winner of AL plays against the winner of NL. And in 2009, the world champions ( if any one wins in US, then they are world champions-irrespective of the fact that no one else plays it), were New York Yankees who won against Philadelphia Phillies. Baseball does not work as fast as cricket, it is slower than Test matches too. But once you learn it, it is fun. I am waiting for the next season to come up, but I do not know which team to support this time- as both Yankees and Phillies are local to us!
Slowly, as the weather permitted, Kichu taught me how to play Tennis. I was overwhelmed with happiness that I did not want to miss it any day. I learnt to serve, play with both right and left hands, hit forehand and double handed back hands for more power and what not. Since tennis was more of an individual game, it required more dedication from the player's part. I really started to wonder and feel what all players or for me , Federer, would feel in each serve or game of his, if he goes down one set what would his thoughts be. It really takes a long long way of involvement and passion to reach such great heights. I never missed a chance to play tennis. We played daily, and I mean it. Everyday we made sure that we would not miss tennis if the weather was all good. One of the advantages of summer is that, sun sets only at 9pm or later. So we have longer days to play. I miss summer a lot! Kichu was not able to play a good game with me as he had to lower his standards to match mine. In between, we used to call Harsha, for Kichu to level up his game again!
Cincinnati Tennis open was in the pipeline in August, the peak of summer. Kichu had to go on an official trip. I was all alone for 4 days. And I took the guts to drive alone all the way to Mason, which was 30 mins from home, to watch Federer play! I had reached there early in the morning, firstly to avoid traffic and rush, secondly to see players practice. The first person whom I saw was Novak Djokovic, World No.2 now. Like all other people around me, I had gone wearing an RF cap and had a pen and a book in my hands; I also stood in the queue to get his autograph. He was such a nice person that, after his practice, he took time to sign autographs for all of us. He also took time to smile at each of us when he signed for us, and yes I was in it too. :) After a wonderful start, the next person to practice there was my favourite, not just mine but most of the people's favourite. We waited there for almost an hour, when Fed came there to practice with former champion Marat Safin. They did not practice much. We did not care much about the practice. I watched him play in front of my eyes, at the same time saving my spot for the autograph. It was the first time I was seeing my favourite sports person, right in front of me. But little did we know that we were all waiting in vain. He could not sign autographs for us, as the court had to be used for the upcoming game in 10 mins. Felt so disappointed that I did not get his signature, but then felt nice that I could atleast see him. Never had known that I would be able to watch him so close. Gosh!! It was a real big dream come true. After this, I got a chance to see Andy Murray (No.3 now), Leander Paes, Stanislas Wawrinka, Gael Monfils, Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, Andy Roddick( for whom there was a long long queue), Marin Cilic, Bryan Brothers Davydenko and last but not the least, of course, Rafael Nadal. I could not get his autograph either as he was not practicing anywhere when I took a stroll around. My tickets were till about 6pm. I left the grounds at around 5pm, an hour in advance, due to the same reason, rush! I drove back home with a fully contended heart of a true sports fan.
American Football, American version of Rugby, was another sport that came into my life, just because Kichu loves watching it. Want to know the reason? Ever watched Rugby? If you love to see players fight and push each other, then yes, both these games are the ones you will love to watch. Rugby is hell! American football is better organized than Rugby. Wonder why they call it football, despite the fact that the game is played with hands, except to kick, that is just twice! The season for NFL( National Football League) starts only in Fall/Autumn. And the players play in winter and snow. Have you seen any of the players? All of them are atleast 6 feet tall and weight more than 200 lbs. To be frank, they are bigger than Kichu too-really big. They practice real hard by pushing such heavy weights of more than 500 lbs. Now that is how they practice to fight and push! Even though I am least interested in the game, I watch it every time Kichu watches and I do understand interception, field goal, touch down, yards and the key terms one should know just to prove that he/she can understand it! :)
One of the biggest advantages of being able to study in countries like USA is that, the education system gives equal importance to sports and books. Kids start playing and working at a real young age.Gopz and Kichu would have loved to be brought up here. Despite being brought up in places where only books are studies, both of them love to play everytime! All day! Wonder why does not that come into practice in our countries too? Wonder where all of us would have been , if we were allowed to play equally with our studies as a part of our curriculum? Definitely, we would have chosen a different career path, even if not in sports, but sports would have been a part of daily life.
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