The joy of belonging ...

It was almost ten years ago ... I was in the fourth grade when I got picked for our school basketball team ... not so much for my skill as for the extra half foot that I was taller by, compared to other people my age ...
I didn't do much ... As I got an early start, I found myself in a team of sixth graders ... guys two years senior to me ...
I could hardly catch the ball ... leave alone pass or even make an attempt to score ...
My job was basically to last out the first quarter, and get fouled out by the third quarter, so that a better guy got to play an extra quarter ...
I know ... the rules were stupid then, and all the teams did it ...

However, we won that tournament ... the first ever I played in...
I did my part, getting fouled out throughout the tournament and helping our cause :)
I distinctively remember that night ... it was a night game ... about 9'ish ... floodlights ... a big crowd ... our seniors cheering for us ... the adrenaline pumping ... the cold sweat breaking down, and the high tension atmosphere ...
Our team captain fell in the fourth quarter ... very badly too ... he was bleeding all over ... but he continued ...
That was all what was needed - to boost our morale sky high, and get the adrenaline going again ...
When the final whistle blew ... we had won ... The match had been pretty close ... how a finals game should be, and that made us happier ...
I even remember crying after the match ... Half the reason, I think, was us winning, and the other half was, I think, due to my inability to get fouled out that game ;) ...
No matter how hard I tried, the referee looked the other way ... I was on 4 fouls when the final whistle blew ...

From the next year onwards, I found myself in a more stable position in the team ... with the "Kamikaze" tag being finally removed ...
Since then, I stuck on ... and our team ( no brag intended ) was one of the best in Pune ...
We won every single Zilla Parishad ( equivalent to University tournaments in colleges ) tournaments we played in and got to represent Pune everytime ...

It is amazing how being in a team, playing basketball ... so dramatically ... changed my life around ...
I was this quiet ... really introvert kinda guy before this happened to me ...
I haven't changed drastically, but have done quite a bit ...

We played ... the same team throughout ... 5 years of our school lives and 2 of our junior college days ... behind the Gulati Hall ... every lunch break and every PT period ...

Another match which comes to mind and makes it really nostalgic was one final, played on a cloudy, gloomy Sunday morning on our own courts ...
The match started late and in a light drizzle ...
All the catholic guys had come to school to attend some Sunday mass ... they waited on the courts ... past their mass time ... rooting for us ...
Even our principal was there ...

We started miserably ...
We were fourteen points down by half time ...
Our principal left ...
But the guys stayed back ...

After half time, we shot the first basket ...
That was all that was needed ...
Everybody was possessed ... it was entirely a different team ...
Everybody outside the courts was shouting ... I couldn't hear my own thinking ...
On the sidelines, I could see my coach jumping ( literally ) up and down ...

The final whistle blew ...
We had won by seven points ...
We had not let them score even once in the entire second half ...

We hugged ... everyone in sight ...
No one cared how sweaty the other guy was ...
We were drenched ... partly due to the rain, and partly from our own sweat ...
We were stinking ... tired ... broken ... and dirty ... and that was the best I had ever felt in my life ...

Days went by ... we kept winning ...
School was over ... then the junior college ... We are all in different colleges now ...

But we have stuck as a team ...

We don't play so many matches nowadays ... nor do we practice so often ...
But we do meet every once in a while ... to play ... behind that Gulati Hall ... where we have played all our lives ... and you know what ?

Its the best feeling ... ever ... the joy of belonging ...