Wednesday, February 18, 2009

I won ... !!

This is that kind of a day that everyone dreams about in life. Excelling in something and proving yourself against the toughest of situations. If I had doubts about what terms like PRESSURE-COOKER-SITUATION and ADRENALINE-RUSH meant ... it was put to rest today. What a day... I am going to photo frame this day ... ;)

It was our penultimate league match against Orange. Orange boasts of arguably the best player at office ... Samir ... he is also our VP. Orange also has our manager ... Sonal and one of our UI team mates ... Rahul. So it was quite a grudge match. Playing against your manager is daunting and fun at the same time ... this was expected to be a 2-1 scoreline match ... but we were not sure in whose favor ... after the bad match we had yesterday. We were a bit down in the confidence department.

We had already won 6 out of 6 and were secured of a spot in the semis. We didnt tinker with our combination. Prabhash and I were to play the singles and Sabhtarsha and Sandip were to play the doubles. We decided that I will play the first singles .. against whom? .... well ... against Samir ... Yes ... this was what I was looking forward to since morning. I wanted to compete with him.

I started off very shakily. I dont know what I was doing. None of my smashes connected. Most of my slices hit the net or went out and Samir also hit lots of winners. The first set was gone 4-11. Hardly competed. I was extremely disappointed. I knew I can do better than this.

It was more of the same in the 2nd set. I was just out of sorts. I was down 4-8. I decided to totally shun the smash. Thats when I started competing. I made it 8-8. Then 9-9. Forced Deuce at 10-10. Then it was 11-11. Then 12-12. And then 13-13. I missed 3 smashes on the way to 13-13. Why was I going back to the smash? I cursed myself continuously. Back to shunning the smash. I made it 14-13. Then came the moment of the match.

I was continuously a long way behind the table just to intercept Samir's smashes. He hit one ball to my backhand corner. I was a long way back and with very little options. I hit the backhand slice up the line. Till now ... I was feeding the balls to Samir's backhand corner since his forehand is a menace ... he was always expecting the ball at his backhand ... but he was surprised to see me hitting to his forehand. He had already backed away to his backhand corner. My shot landed at his forehand corner and swirled further away. He couldnt reach the ball. It was 15-13 to me and with that I won the 2nd set ... Bravo Pratik ... I had just taken a set off the best player at AirTight ... the adrenaline completely took over ... it was great walking to the other side of the table thinking that I had come from 4-8 down to win the set ... time to play ball ...

I was now on top of my game. I hit a couple of smashes too ... wow ... my weak shot had started working ... I was up 7-3 ... just 4 points away from winning the match ... then I made silly mistakes ... it was 7-7 ... Samir was not giving up so easily. It was 8-8 very soon. And then 9-9. The crowd had forgotten who they were supporting. I knew my team mates were cheering me. Every point was being cheered ... no matter who won the point. Every point took around 10 shots ... it was my serve at 9-9 ... I won the next point and made it 10-9 ... Phew ... match point against Samir ... this is what I dreamt about ... just one more point ... I took an eternity to serve ... I made up my mind that it will be a different serve from what I had served so far in the match ... I dished out a forehand top-spin serve. Samir did well to return it. But it was at a decent height and not too far away from the net. This was going to be it. I was going for broke. I slammed a forehand smash like there was nothing else in life to do ... it fell right in the centre of the table and went past Samir ... fantastic ... that was some feeling ... Samir and I shook hands and crowd clapped for around half a minute or so ... wow ... what an experience ... I had done it ... Samir was extremely gracious in defeat ...

I was feeling so proud of myself ... I has saved 4 match points in the 2nd set ... Samir actually won more points than me in the match ...

Everyone came up to me and shook hands ... man ... just amazing ... one set down ... 4-8 down in the 2nd ... a tight 3rd set ... and a result I dreamed of ... just fantastic ...

We were up 1-0 ... this was completely unexpected. It was assumed that whoever plays against Samir would lose. We had to win the other 2 matches to win 2-1. But due to this win ... the pressure from the 2 remaining matches reduced substantially ...

Sabhtarsha and Sandip were hurting after yesterday's loss and were extremely determined to start winning again ... the opponents were Rahul and Sonal ... one a Manager and the other a UI team mate ... there was plenty of needle ...

We lost the first set but competed very well ... we lost it 7-11. Again ... we were down 1 set. We played out a tight 2nd set. We were up 10-7 but they made it 10-10. But we closed it out 12-10. 1 set all and our boys were feeling it ... I think the adrenaline rush was very evident. I was shouting my lungs out cheering my team. We played the best set of the match thereafter. Though it became tight in the end ... we won 11-8. Sabhtarsha was exemplary with his chops and service while Sandip was hung up on putting the ball back on the opponent's side. Brilliant result. We had already made it 2-0 and won the rubber ...

By now ... Prabhash had witnessed 2 high-octane clashes. He was more than pepped up to win the last singles ... he just mauled his opponent in the last singles. It was such a masterly exhibition by Prabhash ... he won 11-2, 11-4 ... and hence I dont have much to write about it ...

What a day and what a match ... we defeated Orange 3-0 ... INCREDIBLE SHOW GUYS ...

Its 7 wins out of 7 for us. Top Most 5 also have 7 wins out of 7. We both have one match remaining and thats against each other. Moral victories up for grabs ...

Well done The Blues ... Cheers mates ... !!

Tuesday, February 17, 2009

Stranger calling ... !!

You meet a lot of people in life. You remember some ... and be friends with them ... you dont remember some ... sometimes due to your own ignorance and aloofness and sometimes coz you are not considered too friendly ... part of life ...

There is this person who comes regularly to the pool I go to. We have seldom spoken to each other (or at least I thought so). He comes for swimming and religiously completes his daily quota of laps ... like any other swimming aficionado ...

The gents bathroom is a long rooms of 4 showers. I was having a shower this morning and I was completely oblivious to the fact that this person was doing the same in the adjoining shower. Some excerpts of the chat we had ...

Person : Kaay aaz lavkar nighaala?
Me : (startled by WHO-IS-THIS-PERSON-TALKING-TO-ME) Ho. Office laa zaayacha time zhaala.
Person : Tumhi tithech aahat kaa kaamala?
Me : (Surprised as to how he knows where I work and not knowing what to answer) : Ho.
Person : Mhanje tumhi atta hi Aundh paryant zaata? Waait aahe traffic aaz kaal ... kasa manage karta roz?
Me : Naahi. Aamchi company shift zhaali. Kothrud laa.
Person : Bara Bara. Mag jaasta laamb nahi padat asel tumhaala.
Me : Pan tumhaala kasa kaay maahit mi kuthe kaam karto?
Person : Aaho aamhi bol loy hyachya baddal. Tumhich saangitla hota maala. Visarla kaa?
Me : HHHmmmm ... actually maala aathvat naahi pan saangitla asel ...
Person : Yamaha aahe naa tumchya kade?
Me : Ho. Barobar.
Person : Aani car Zen aahe na?
Me : Right.
Person : Baayko azun hi Persistent madhe aahe kaa?
Me : (man this person knew a lot about me) Naahi. Ti ataa Kalyani nagar chya eka company madhe aahe.

After around a minute or so ...
Person : Tumhi roz 25 rounds maarta kaa?
Me : Kashyaache?
Person : (laughs out loud) ... Ataa swimming laa aala mhanje pool chech round maarnaar naa?
Me : (I was lost) : Arey ho. Naahi asa kaahi nahi. 25 zhaale tar 25 naahi tar zo paryant bore naahi hot to paryant karto ..
Person : Naahi. Mi mozto naa. Kaaran mi 15 maarto pan tumhi 25 maarta.
Me : (I didnt have a clue about how many rounds I do. I smile) Asel mag.
Person : Asel mhanje? Maartaatach.
Me : Ho Ho. Khara aahe. Actually mi mozat naahi
Person : Pan mi mozto naa ... tumhi panchvisach round maarta roz
Me : (by now I was convinced that I do 25 rounds) : Actually aadhi mi 25 maaraycho ... ata mozat naahi ... hot astil 25 ...

I quickly changed and made my way out of the Gymkhana but this man's knowledge about me was amazing. A stranger can know more about you than you yourself ... Cheers ... !!