Cricket...Or Insanity?

To start with...Curse my horrible sister for doing this...but then again...she made me have a good time. So, it's up to you to curse her or praise her...I cant really decide...so I will simply curse her.

What did she do? She took me to a test cricket match between India and West Indies or New Zealand...I don't really know, but India was definitely playing. So we went and sat at the match...in a very sunny seat. The sun was burning me out. After about ten minutes, I could take it no more...and so we went to get a "cuppa coffe"...but we didn't find coffee so we settled for water.

Now it so happened..that just as we came back to take our seats...we were mobbed. It was the LUNCH break at 11.30 a.m.!!! and everyone seemed to be too hungry to sit...and so we got really good seats and we sat there talking about strange things...till the match resumed, and once it did...WE DID NOT CONCENTRATE ON THE MATCH! It was a nice match and stuff and Sachin Tendulkar was batting...We could not concentrate. There were far too many people howling like hooligans to notice the tiny tired Tendulkar who seemed miles away.

To add to the distractions there were people clapping like as if they had never clapped before and shouting as if they would die if they did not and worst of all, sitting as if its their own personal stadium and no matter who saw what, they could sit right through with the most awkward position showing the most awkward of things. (I'm being very subtle about this, and I did not take pictures because it was embarrassing enough to see such people and postures.) We (my cousin and I) made merry, about laughing at such creatures and trying to concentrate on te match. Now it was at this point that our stomachs got the better of us and we had to give away our wonderful, sun-free seats and go to the canteen to try and get some remains. Remains because when we reached the canteen, there was nothing to eat...nothing. Sparing the packet of 'Lays', which did not really do anything to satisfy our growing hunger. Apparently, there were long menus saying things like:

"Wada Pav"
"Veg. Burger"
"Veg. Puff"
"Russian Sandwhich"

...and loads more, none of which was available. Amazing management! Complements to the BCCI...or whatever it is called. People were roaming about aimlessly, following no order or safety measure, people were jumping up and down right at the railings, people were shouting at the players of the team playing against India (they were not very nice things to say...and they were not exactly against racism either.) People were going crazy about this pretty girl walking the outer ring of the Ground (by crazy I mean whistles and eve-teasing and jumping up and down and bending all the way forward to see her in her pretty blue dress.) All of this and more...much more made me really unhappy about the match.

So what if there was a Sachin Tendulkar playing (one reason i might stop cursing my sister), so what if we saw a Test Cricket match and I saw my favourite International Player apart from Sachin - Bravo or Pollard (it's already something I know the names!)

On the whole the match was slow....very slow, another reason why we kept talking about our fellow audience, and noticed their horrible behaviour to such an extent. We also saw random advertisements and came up with our own versions of the advertisements! (They were not exactly nice and I don't want to be sued over critising a brand or whatever that is.)

These two were closer to us, but yet really small.

One of the ads that I wondered most about was the Airtel add on the grass of the ground. The one near us was really small (or so it looked...as my cousin explained) and the one further looked big and long because of the distance but I could not understand this...so I took the decision to believe that the BCCI does weird things and that is why they painted the ground weirdly.

The other long Airtel advertisement. 

 

 

The One Further Away.

Then there was this time when we were really hungry and again we could not find any food...thanks to the management of the INTERNATIONAL match!!! We had to hunt for food, and we did not even get water in a bottle. We had to drink from stupid glasses. However, the food was nowhere and a place where a human could still find something to eat, were crowds so large you could say that no one was watching the match, but trying to grab some food.

The point that was actually good about the other audience was that they cheered really well,,,very well and they banged empty plastic bottles against the railings and made nice rhythmic noises that fortunately seemed to coordinate. They also shouted and cheered the Indian team well.

PLastic bottles seemed to be the the best way for making noise!!!

Finally we found a place where there were 'Subway' sandwiches still available, and after waiting for half an hour, we ate the most horrible 'subs' ever. They were not cooked properly, there was no mayo in the sub. and of course, you could not chose your fillings, what with all of those starving people?

And then I had the worst experience...the worst! After sitting for nearly five hours, it is unreasonable not to expect a person to want to go to to the loo. Now, my sister is a woman, and so she obviously had to go to the women's toilet, but lo! where can she find an open one? After hunting the three floors, we did find an open women's toilet, but WTF? Men are walking in and out of the washroom as if they just can not read the huge sign that says, "Women" or the picture below the word showing a figure with a frock and long hair. But men do not understand which bathroom they are supposed to use. (and again I apologise for not taking any picture, but would you take a picture, being a male of a women's toilet door? I wouldn't, I would not even go close to it.) There is some law that says we are supposed to protect the women or something and this obviously can not be done by going into their bathroom and not letting them go into it.

On the whole the match was a wonder to watch, but then the audience definitely was not, and for some reason our distracting minds did not let us concentrate on the match but on the audience around us.

Maybe I enjoyed it, its fun to see how stupid people can be and behave and its fun to be mean about people who bother you, and maybe I didn't, its not every day you go to see a match and end up seeing tiny figures that you don't really bother about. (or as you read earlier, I enjoyed because I got to see a nice match and maybe I didn't like it because the fellow audience were pathetic!) Either ways I enjoyed both the things and I did not enjoy either of them. But my first cricket match was definitely memorable.

The Wankhade Stadium

Some pictures I clicked during the match and although I could not really get pictures of all the iconic scenes and memories I had, I remember them downright vividly. Use this photos if you must, I have bot copied them or taken them from anywhere. They are all mine.