Tripping With Gopal

Credits: Writer - Gopal | Art - Nathan

Dance like no one's watching, Play like you're in a b-school...

Since we’re considered to be some of the smartest in the country, we are expected to suck at sports. Reality is not far off. What we may lack in talent is balanced by the fact that we play harder than we work, as we were repeatedly told when we started out at this place. How hard we work won’t be discussed here.

Everyone learns some new sport in this place. There is simply nothing else to do, so might as well learn.

Sportscom is at the bottom of the value chain. Their events get postponed for absolutely anything. Placom is the biggest bully of them all, but generally an ant-bite to a star player is sufficient for rescheduling. Some of their tournaments last longer than the Formula One season, but whatever they lack in organization, they make up in entertainment. No other event has people hooting and fighting, in our own B-schoolised form of hooliganism.

You know you’re in a B-school when you see more protective gear and branded apparel than talent. But you occasionally come across people like Girish there-is-no-sport-i-can’t-play Nair. Then you see him ferociously guarding the bottom of the acad rankings, and you begin to think maybe it makes sense. On the other extreme, is cricket expert Anish Goel, who commands respect almost exclusively due to his knowledge of local playing conditions. He knows the slope on every pillar, the smell of the grass near mid-wicket, the diameter of the 2 small gutters on his home - the pitch… get the drift?

Over the 2 years, people have discussed sports more than they have played it. More time and thought is spent on forming teams, unless you’re in Section C, where socialism prevails and everyone gets a chance. On the other extreme is the Section B cricket team, for which you have to crack 4 rounds of tests and possess at least 5% of Anish Goel’s knowledge of local conditions to get picked.

Then there are the Medicondas and Gadiyars who only talk. They belong to the pen is mightier than the sword crowd, so when they’re not on the newsgroups, they’re giving their own half-time analysis during games on TV.

Thanks to Pushkar for the thought and Girish for the inspiration – B-school drives home the essence of ‘mind willing, body not willing’. But they say make hay while… so we played as much as we could while our legs still listened.