Sangharsh 2008

Of the many threads that united most of the wimwians over the past two years, sports had certainly been one of the strongest. What started way back at the end of first term and built up in energy for the next one year was finally going to come alive again at the start of our final term….. Sangharsh 2008 was here to electrify the batch after we all were back from our holidays. For the uninitiated, Sangharsh is the annual IIMA vs IIMB sports meet whose inaugural edition was won by IIMA at home ground and the second edition was now going to take place in B’lore in the early part of jan.
After our emphatic win last time, Sangharsh had already become close to our hearts and we had been practicing quite decently for the past few days. Agreed, it was not at all an organized practice with a proper plan but even then, we used to keep on playing almost all the sports regularly and barring few sports, most of the players were in decent form in their respective games. I was, once again, part of the badminton and cricket teams. I wanted to try for TT as well as I knew I can make it to the team, but just like last time, I thought I better stick to two sports n give it my best shot there.
Few days before Sangharsh, I had gone to FMS in a sports meet and had won the silver medal in Badminton there. That success had given me some morale boost as I practiced baddy at the IMDC courts on campus. However, its an open court and hence we couldn’t really get some serious practice done. The baddy team had all fachchas except me and Guru. We did hire an indoor court few days before our trip to B’lore and I was quite satisfied with whatever preparation we could muster. SoDo, the other singles player in the team apart from me, was in great touch and though I used beat him earlier in singles, lately he had started beating me in closely fought games and was peaking at the right time.
Cricket practice was much better and organized this time compared to last year. This sportscom, of which I was a member as well, ensured that nets and mats were laid out in time on our college ground so that we could get some serious practice done. But we lacked match practice and little did we know that this would actually turn out to be our nemesis later on.
On a typical day, I would finish my classes and then head out to the cricket ground by 4 pm. Oh boy, what a beautiful time that used to be. Lush green grass and a shining red ball in my hand…..an exciting combination! I would bowl my heart out for as long as I can and then just sit on the green grass n have a light chat with everyone. After dark, I would head out to the baddy court to play some singles with SoDo and by the time I was off the court, I was a dead man physically, but super charged up mentally. Sweating it out hard on the baddy court was the most relaxing thing for me….funny, I know, but that’s how it was!
Similar practice was on for football as well; but I was worried about other sports where we hardly practiced. All we sportscom members would sit late nights to work out the modalities of organizing the trip and then discuss the progress of our practice in diff sports. It felt so good to be back in the thick of action of something so exciting and we all looked forward to retaining the trophy with great anticipation.

As we left campus for the airport, quite a lot of junta had turned up to bid us goodbye and cheer for us. Atom, one of our beloved sportscom members, broke open a coconut in front of the bus, to wish us luck :) As the wheels of the bus turned, so did the knob on my i-pod. I have a habit of gaining inspiration from music and this time was no different. As others chatted around me in the bus, I silently looked out of the window, the music in my ears reminding me of the hard work I had put in to prepare for this event. An year long wait had come to an end and now was the time to make everyone proud. I said a silent prayer for the entire contingent and joined others in their conversations.

It was dark when we reached the IIMB campus and as expected, there were posters and slogans everywhere welcoming us with a smirk! I loved it….these guys have revenge on their minds and will go all out to snatch the trophy from us. I knew that instant that it was going to be an exciting affair and a tough one for us to beat this blood thirsty opponent on its own ground.

Badminton was going to be the first event right after dinner and hence I hardly ate anything. The players reached the court in time and to our dismay, we realized that it is way too slippery. The IIMB guys also admitted the same but that was a constraint under which we had to play and we accepted it sportingly. The draws were going to be crucial. We knew they had a national level player in their team and our hope was to avoid him playing me in the singles as that would have implied wasting my match since I was expected to win my singles against anyone apart from him. It would have been ideal for us had he played our weakest player.
But sports are not played on ifs and buts. Sports are played on courage, a willingness to take on any challenge and hence I didn’t want all these permutations to distract me. If I am a good sportsman, I should be prepared to play anyone and fight till the end. I guess god took my attitude a bit too seriously, giving me a chance to implement all my sports philosophies :) And so with Murphy’s law playing its part, the draw ensured that it was me who got slotted to play that nationals player in singles. But honestly speaking, I was glad after few initial anxieties. I was the captain of the team and I knew I have the courage to take on the very best opponent and not letting someone else in my team get sacrificed. It was the time to grab the bull by its horns and sweat it out to result in an upset win.
As I stepped on the court, my mind was struggling to keep calm. On one side I heard the loud cheers of my support group, rooting for the player who had got them victory exactly one year back….on the other side I was the target of sledges of the opponent’s camp, booing the player who had handed them defeat exactly one year back. I tried hard to shake away all these distractions from my head and concentrate on the task at hand. It was tough. He was playing a flawless game and I was on the backfoot right from the first point. I tried hard to cope up, trying to make him run around the court, but he proved to be one step better at every instant and within a short time the first game was over….As I took a break to cool off my head, scenes from the past flashed in front of my eyes….I saw how I won my singles in the last Sangharsh, I saw how my seniors carried me on their shoulders after the victory, I saw flashes of brilliance that I knew I am capable of …..and as I entered back into the arena that had become the first battleground of Sangharsh 2008, I began to believe a lot more in myself and vowed to die sweating it out before I give up. My game did improve and I felt more relaxed. But my unforced errors continued and even though I was stretching him much more now and getting back into my usual rhythm, he was playing equally well, responding to all my drops and placements with panache. I did win a couple of very good rallies and though they boosted my morale, I started to realize that it’s not long before the inevitable happens.
As I left the court, after being handed a straight games defeat, I was furious with myself. I dropped my racket on the ground and just stood there, my head bowed down lest anyone sees the tears from my eyes dripping on the floor in the pretext of sweat. I was numb….an year of hard work washed away in half an hour of misery. I didn’t know whether to be sad or angry….I knew I am a much better player than what I did out there, I knew I could have stretched him much much more to give myself more chances, I knew that the reason I lost was because I made just too many unforced errors and though I don’t dispute his talent at all, I gave away the match due to my own silly mistakes and may be my over eagerness to play excellently. It’s a bad feeling…it eats you from inside….when you know you frittered away the match due to your own idiotic mistakes when you are capable of much more.
But I guess that’s what sports is all about…. to peak at the right time and to seize your moment. I did neither and hence paid the price. The silver medal won last month was a pale memory now… Sangharsh was far more crucial and I will never be able to forget the reversal of fortunes from my great victory on the courts of Sardar patel stadium Ahmedabad to the idiotic defeat in the first Sangharsh event at IIMB.
We lost baddy that night, SoDo’s lone singles victory going in vain. But we knew we had the firepower to hit back in the other sports….after all, Sangharsh had just begun and there were 11 more sports to go. Football, Snooker, TT & Tennis were the sports we were very sure of winning and we knew that by the end of the day, we will be back in the reckoning to defend our trophy successfully. But I guess it just wasn’t meant to be our year this time. Our football team suffered a shock defeat, once again falling prey to their own follies. We lost very narrowly in Snooker, despite the brilliance of Anubhav and the same fate followed in Tennis, despite the greatness of Shetty’s grit and talent. Two of our champion players won their matches but the team still lost….Snooker and Tennis defeats were the turning points of the tournament. By now, IIMB was in full flow and having pulled out two upset victories, they knew their task was much simpler now. We did make a good comeback when our TT team romped home with a convincing thrashing of the opponents and our volley team, lead by the ever dependable and skillful Gendy, pulled off a well fought victory in front of a boisterous crowd. With Chess also in our bag, by the evening, things started looking bright and we knew if we can just pull off a couple of more good wins, we will be on our way to our dream. Thowball was a very close affair and I give full marks to our girls team which, without any practice, played extremely well till the end but ran out of luck. With Basketball, Swimming and Cricket remaining for the final day, we knew that it was only a miracle now that could save us. Our basky team fought hard but without any success and our cricket team got beaten comprehensively.......IIMB had taken there revenge and beaten IIMA 9-4 to claim Sangharsh 2008.

Sitting in the bus looking out of the window, I could see nothing of the B’lore traffic zip past me….all I could see were glimpses of the past two days flashing by my eyes – Sitting alongside the tennis court rooting for Shetty and his men till it got dark, Clapping hard in appreciation of Anubhav’s masterful game on the green table, Watching guru pot some impossible looking shots and missing out some innocuous simple ones, Shouting for Gendy and his team at the top of our voice on every spike that he hit, Cheering hard for our girls throwball team trying to match the vociferous support that the home team enjoyed and advising the girls as though we were throwball gold medalists….. and Admiring the lovely speech that Adrian, our sports captain, gave at the closing ceremony that moved everyone present irrespective of the college he was from…..

Sports is a great leveler, it teaches you never to give up and makes you humble at the same time….but Sangharsh is much more than that. It’s a bond that we all have shared for two years…..Its the victory shrieks we have shouted together….Its the dismay n disappointment we have felt together…..but at the end of it all, its an emotion which we will never be able to express, an emotion that will manifest itself into action on the ground every single year, an emotion that will always bind all we wimwians where each one of us will stand by each other holding hands…. in times of trials… and in times of triumphs…!