The Force that Unites
Ample have been evidences when sport acted as perfect glue to stick together fractured relationships or weaved a yarn of harmony tundeer which many a communities flourished together to form a nation that emanates the array of colours, yet remaining cohesive within. Here I tell you a story of how Cricket match, one that we lost mind you, helped to rise over our loss and more importantly over our differences.
The reality of life grips at the moment you least expect it to. Can't really believe that only a couple of years ago, we couldnt think of a day without each other and now we even struggle to find time to talk to each other.
It was raining in Mumbai when I was returning home from my office in Powai. There was something that I was missing and all those memories from Firodia flooded me. It is humanely impossible to account each of them in this short space. There was one incidence though that stood out for its sheer rarity and spirit of Firodians.
Those were the days of Inter hostel matches in the year 2006.The 'khunnas' mania had gripped every lobby. It was matter of life and death as far as Egos were concerned. Our lobby was ably lead by Tempo, and we all know what Temps is all about. He incidentally captained our cricket team. The batting revolved around Baccha and Sachin Sancheti mostly and few others like me who could do a little bit of this and a little bit of that. I can’t recall the opponenets, but that is immaterial. We had to win.
We batted first that day. Sachin, the never say die guy, again fought bravely and gave us a respectable total, I guess around 47 in 12 overs. It wasn’t great, but competitive keeping in mind the crazy rules and turf conditions. Our bowling was superb initially and we had the game under control. And then Something hit us. Badly. Poksi suggested Tempo to come to his square leg position. Temps ignored, he kept fielding at Long on. Normally a safe pair of hands, he dropped a sitter. Misfortune struck twice and temps dropped
once more. The game slipped. Last over was a nail-biter. Last two balls, two runs required. We lost! End of competition, a dream shattered. Forever. We won the Trophy, but we lost the battle that mattered.
Everyone walked back to the lobby, shoulders drooped. Sachin was inconsolable and refused to talk. Asu wasn’t his cheery self, nor was bacchha. I was disappointed. As usual, Mahesh was indifferent. You couldn’t say a thing to Temps and the entire lobby was into a bout of silence. We never new where to hide.
And then we rose. Nishant Karnawat started the Tape-recorder. We went in front of room number 328 and started dancing. Chandan saw us dancing, and bingo we were three of us. Dancing in the face of defeat required guts, guts to handle the risk of reclusion. The worst punishment meted out for worst crime in hostel parlance. But Chandan saved our skin. Dancing crazily, with bodies sweating and smelly T shirts. Remember BONGA dance?
Slowly noticing a sudden change, all came out from rooms to check what was happening. Temps had to be pushed, but others just wanted to be a part of it. In 5 minutes time, there we were cheering, singing and dancing away the sorrow of our defeat. From remixes, hindi songs to marathi songs, we danced on whatever we liked. No glamorous lights, no liquor on the floor, but we were on a high. It was world's best dance floor. The word spread and all other friends from Firodia gathered, first bemused and then enchanted, to participate and enjoy the moment. We Firodians were united in the cause-cause of celebration, a cause of seeing the lighter side and making most of our time together.
We lost the match, but the spirit of being a Firodian conqured that day. I miss it. Do you? That's the power of Cricket. The force that unites.
Love, peace & energy!
YogaN
Post a comment
Notify me of follow-up comments?
Post comment to Facebook
subscribe to rss 
Archives
RCB CALENDAR
hot discussions
WANT TO BE A
FANATIC FAN?
FANATIC FAN?
Latest comments
Keep up the good work but i thought the quality was limited to certain extent, need to improve even better.
Jagdish T
Hope u can do.