12.12.2009 - The First Match

The Morning of our first match ... This was why we were here! Finally the time had come ... Though it ws IIT Rajasthan only... still I couldnt help feeling excited ... Anish not having reached meant that I was sure to play atleast in the doubles :) The only pain was that our match was at 9AM in the morning .... and girls had their match at 11 AM... Kyuuuuuuuuuu..........!!! We would have to get up early .. I had to take a bath in the morning before the match to get rid of my drowsiness... Wen we reached the court, IIT Rajasthan was already practising...We knew it was goin to be a cake walk... got ready... I was playing the first singles, Mittal played the second and Aashish and I played our first doubles. Peacemaxx match.... Hardly anything I remember worth writing about ...

The girls had theirs against Guwahati... I forgot to mention in the previous post about Chili Chicken! So there was this chinki girl from Guwahati... for whom Chuunn had developed a "soft spot" ,,,, and we had an extended discussion the previous day about how there should not be a lot of Chili Chicken gravy... but a little bit of it is awesome! (people who whr thr.. Aashish and Chuunn will probably be able to make more of it... I was laughing at Chuun's description like mad!! )..

Back to the match ... Sharada won her singles peacefully as expected ... we were a bit worried about how Nidi would hold up... it was her first inter iit.. nd there would be crowd and shouting... plus we were also concerned a bit for her sevice ... But Nidi! ... was Awesome! She played her part to perfection near the net.. and the contest against Guwahati hardly turned out to be a contest at all ... Peaceful victories recorded in both sets of doubles too... and both the teams were almost certainly through to the knock out rounds ....

Minor mishap .... (only concerned me) ... Nidi had dropped Tang all over my new kit!!! I had taken infi efforts this time to pack my kit... and I could see it all falling apart in Tang powder!! x-( I was pissed!!

After the match, we went back to the hostel for lunch. The weather was really nice... The winter sunshine felt as nice as it is generally described in those romantic novels .. and I was all for sitting on the lawns... we decided to go to watch the cricket match against IITK ... Mittal, being GS, was concerned about other sports too and he was going there in any case....So all of us went to the cricket field...I cleaned up my kit... with minimal help from Sharada :P ... We watched the match for a while...

the others got bored in half an hr 2:30.. and they decided to leave... I expected atleast someone to stay .. but no one bothered! x-( Chuunn was the pioneer of "Going Back to Room Movement" ... He was tooooo sleepy.... I guess I had a good time though.. sitting in the sun... and thats when I started writing the diary about the camp time (which will be up soon)... The match ended by 3:30 and there was nothing else to do there... so I called up Mittal and he was at the TT court... I went along and sat with him .. TT junta were having a close one against Kanpur... They were leading 2-1 when I reached.. but Arnav lost his match against a guy from Kanpur who kept screaming "Yes Cmon! Yes Cmon!" after each point... as if he was winning the Championship point! Mittal and I had a good time there... egging him on... and shouting... We were surprised at how few people had turned up to cheer for Kanpur.... despite being the hosts... it seemed we were the only ones shouting ... the match was tied at 2-2 and Ketan was slated to play the last match .. the guy he was playing against looked very funny every time he served... he seemed to be setting his hair everytime he threw the ball up ... and served... Trust me .. it looked ridiculous... Ketan won his match and "Bombayyyyyyy!! Bombay!" echoed in the hall ... Mittal left to rest for sometime.. I really wasnt sleepy.. and knew that if I slept, I would remain sleeping for a long time... and then wont be able to sleep at night... which eventually would mean that I wont be fresh for the big match the next day ... so I stayed at the TT hall with Pritish and Neehar... watching the match between IITGandhinagar and IITG.. Rohan was playing ... he won peacefully in the end...

Sukhada arrives!

Infi pain maarke ek evening practice session jugaada tha.. Ravi Vikram Singh (the coordinator there) will probably remember me for the rest of his life for the infi pain I gave him .... first I got him to agree to a practice slot in the evening for Sukhada... but he permitted us to practice only till 8... (Anish was not going to reach by then)... then I asked for a practice slot in the morning at 6 .. to which he refused.. saying he could only give me one slot ... then ... Mittal talked to GS Kanpur... and asked him for a 6 o clock morning slot.. and he agreed... and then Ravi said no to the evening slot .... saying you already have a slot tomorrow morning .. in the mess, the court was emtpy... and the girls managed to play...

Sukhada, Sharada and Nidi took over an hour to come.. and I was left stranded at the court with nothing to do at all... finally they arrived .(Sukhada;s hunger was the cause of the delay and my intense boredom).. incidently, I came to know then that Sukhada also got EPFL intern.... CRACKK MAXX Sukhada! It took a while for Sukhada to get into rhythm .... It was almost 8:30 - 9 ... when Anish called up... "Abee.. main room pe pohoch gaya hoon... koi nai hai!" Aashish and Chuunn were in the canteen watching the match and Mittal had gone off for his meeting... I told him that I would be there in sometime .... and we winded up the practice session....
It ws awesome to have Anish back ... big match coming up tomorrow!~ ...Girls had dinner in the mess and then went off to their room... Chuunn and Aashish had been in the canteen all the time watching India defeat Sri Lanka in the T20.. so they werent very hungry... Room mein infi masti kiye ... we discussed perfectly GOD things.. like what if we lost to Kanpur? Then IITKGP would have to lose their match against Patna/Gandhinagar so that they dont have to face us in the quarters... then each time we got happy thinking about such things... one of us would bring us to back to the ground ... "abeee... quarters mein kgp se hi haar gaye to?! " and back to NBD!! But it was fun .. Anish had brought puri and sabzi from home... which formed a part of our dinner... the rest was in canteen ... We watched an episode of F.R.I.E.N.D.S and then zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz