Highlights

I’ve never been too much of a Sports guy. Tried my hand at every game that comes by, but somehow, never managed to excel at any of them. Probably Fooseball is the only game I marginally decent at. Somehow seem to have a quick eye for it, and better than most people I play against. But who would call that a Sport!
So like every kid, I think my first game was Cricket. Being a leo and probably in the possession of some innate leadership skills, I anointed myself captain of my class Cricket team way back in 7th/8th. I was a horrible player, but I loved telling who should go in to bat and who should bowl. And for some reason, my friends always let me take that decision. But in the 9th std, Karthik R travelled to Sri Lanka to represent a club in Cricket, and he became an over-night sensation. Suddenly he became captain. I remember he took the job real serious. There was one day when he made all of us toil on a hot weekend to “create” a Cricket pitch. And no matter how much sand we moved, and how much water we poured, the damn thing just didn’t happen. Karthik R was as much a fake as I was!
There was an incident where despite my lack of skills in Cricket, I got chosen to be part of the class team that Karthik was leading. The final two slots were between Jeetu and me, and Jeetu was absent on that day. Karthik asked people to vote for one of us two, and me being the guy present that day, people just voted for me to not offend me. I myself would have probably voted for Jeetu if it was on merit, but once again, I just sneaked through, probably in the same way I was the self-anointed captain 2 years earlier.
Jeetu was not happy at all when he got to know about this, and demanded a re-vote, but I don’t that ever took place. Poor Jeetu, the guy was always fighting for his rights. Actually, he was just always fighting. Being a Sardar just brings it out of you I guess. And that too, a Sarday in South India. I mean, who would understand a guy wearing a turban, that too, if you’re the only one in the entire school who does that. So Jeetu picked fights with so many people, and poor guy always seemed to be at the receiving end to things.
But he was always sweet to me nevertheless. In spite of all those things I did to him, he’s been nice to me to this day.
Anyway, not digressing, let me actually move to those few moments in my brief Sporting career, where I made a difference, and remember it to this day.
So to begin with Cricket - I was always so lousy at it, but during the phase that I was self-anointed captain, I remember one clear occasion where I caught the ball while fielding right next to the batsman, complete with a dive and a throw of the ball in the air after the catch. It was one of those rare spectacular moments, when my body reacted faster than my brain did, and pulled off something that stunned everybody around. It definitely stunned me – I remember that catch after nearly 17 years!
Then there was a time I pulled off a catch running all the way from the boundary and just about latching onto the tennis ball without having it pop out of my hands, like it did most of the time. This had happened when I wasn’t captain anymore, and was asked to field near the boundary where the ball rarely comes. If I were captain, I would always keep myself right next to the batsman, where I could be “in the center of things”!
These 2 catches are probably my only memories of the Cricket I ever played. I barely remember ever doing anything great with the bat, and I never bowled. I remember going for coaching classes in HAL (what a disturbing episode that was – but that one makes an entirely different post) and then the coaching classes that Hari and I went, and he became an instant superstar, and I remember getting to bat only once, during which time also I got screwed by the coach for trying out his kit instead of a local one that was lying around – now how was I to know that! But that was the only, and last time I tried on pads, gloves, and gave a shot at batting. It was the time I got hit in the eye by a spin bowler – a mark I have to this day. And I never padded up ever after that..
The next game I remember playing in school was football. It was the easiest game to play during that stage in school, coz there was nothing apart from a big and dusty playground, where we would place 2 stones to make a goal post and play around them.
In the 10th std, the girls began to play with us. They did that for a brief time – just the 10th std. Not before, and never after that. I actually remember once in the 11th std wondering why the girls don’t play football with us anymore – but my guess is that they realized they turned into ladies that summer.
Anyway, so there was this one game of football I can never forget. It was on the day of my birthday, and it was definitely led out of the adrenaline that got pumped into my system on a day that was clearly the most important day for me – and as per me, the most important day for most people around me 
So that one particular game, we won 4-0, and I scored all 4 goals. I even remember how some of those goals took place – been 15 years, and I still remember how they went. It was one of those rare rare moments for me. And one of the last times I played that sport as well..
11th and 12th std, it was more of basketball. Once again, a game I tried desperately to excel in. And once got my shot at it, coz apart from Tunu and Noel, there was nobody else in the Blue House team. Yellow House had Upkar and Praty. Red had Hari and Gopal. Green had just Bala (poor guy was the only saving grace for that House – whichever sport or event there ever was). Blue was the best house for all creative activities, as we even had Aash and Sush, but in Sport, we were never quite there.
Anyway, I used the opportunity I got being in a team with very few players. But there was once when we played a school of another team, when we got completely hammered, but Noel and I were on the bench that day. And Noel got a shot at playing for a brief moment, and I couldn’t even get that much. In spite of the fact that we lost so bad. People later said I should have given a chance when we were anyway losing, coz I ended up being the only guy on the bench that day..
Well, as the story goes, that was again the last time I played Basketball..
Since school till now, I’ve tried my hand at other sports like swimming, volleyball and badminton, which I keep playing every time I get the chance to. And today I try playing as much of squash as possible, to keep me fit. But I’ve come to terms with the fact that I can never excel at any sport I play, and I should just play it for 2 reasons –to get the exercise, and to enjoy the time spent on it.
So that’s the Sandeep-Sport love story – a compromise achieved, to live happily now and after.