Sporty post...read on

After 6 months in this wretched country with no cricket, a few of us decided that enough was enough. We (Roomie, AT and I) took out my squash racquet and a foam ball and started playing in the hallways of my dorm. Before long, one of the staff seemed to think we were upto some mischief, because at least one of us was jumping up and down appealing for a caught behind when he emerged through the elevator. Luckily the other two delinquents had become adept at hiding the racquet and ball as soon as the elevator opens.

In the urge to find a larger arena as well as to avoid any sort of disciplinary action (which we were quite happy to invite, mind you), we moved to the vacant indoor tennis courts in our Sports Centre. There we began what would become a 45-minute game(s) of rounders with the foam ball swinging like a TT Ball and where the task of hurtling the ball in a legal manner towards the batsman proved rather tiring. So much so that Roomie even ended up using the bhatta route in one instance before the remaining players vehemently protested this blasphemous use of the elbow.

Americans, I have noticed, tend be fascinated with things they don't understand. (this is incidentally my explanation for why bizarre theories in academic papers make super-geniuses out of academicians here) So too with cricket. While a couple, to their tremendous credit, recognised the game (although they may have been european), the others stood watching in awe until their respective games of racquetball and squash beckoned.

Plans are now afoot to bring together a large pack of Indians to appropriately utilise the wide open spaces that NYU has provided within the confines of the warm indoor complex.

In other sporty news, we came 2nd in our division in TT this semester, famously upsetting Columbia. Unfortunately (as is so often the case in these things), my worst form coincided with this happy occurence and so while I won all but one match (the one I lost being non-crucial since we had already lost the tie), I found myself in terrible form and playing a series of under-quality matches. But then...the overall result is good enough for me! Hopefully these kids will pull it off again next year and make it to the Nationals...