Day 1:
The day began like any other day. I went to school, bored, disoriented, not keyed up. We had all promised each other not to get excited about this little trip, until we set foot in Hydrabad. Because when you have a horse as the principal of your school, any kind of bad luck is inevitable. It almost seemed as if, preventing us from going on this trip was her ultimate goal. When Princy told us that Lavi and Rahul will not be going for the tournament, as they hadn’t got a parental consent form, we all had our hearts in our hands. We reluctantly went home, but Princy too, reluctantly let Lavi and Rahul go, as well. We had all assembled at the entrance of the railway station by 5:15 pm. From 5:30 to 6 we were all in a muddle, trying to find our seats. We were all placed in 4 different bogies. :O Compromise was the answer. All the eleven of us, somehow fit into one compartment. We all stayed up, played cards, shared dinner, and went to sleep in our respective bogies.
Day 2:
We reached the railway station at Hydrabad at 6 in the morning. A bus from PORPS had arrived to escort us to the school. The school campus was spacious and decent enough. The room was actually a third class, err…third standard class room. The benches and tables were pushed to a side to make room for us. We literally got a red carpet welcome. Well, the carpet laid on the floor meant for us to sleep on, was red, but it still counts! The room reeked so bad, that I couldn’t get a wink of sleep, during the day, and just ended up reading and music-ing. We spent the rest of the day sleeping, hogging, exploring the campus, watching the other teams practice, etc.
Day 3:
The day began like any other day. I went to school, bored, disoriented, not keyed up. We had all promised each other not to get excited about this little trip, until we set foot in Hydrabad. Because when you have a horse as the principal of your school, any kind of bad luck is inevitable. It almost seemed as if, preventing us from going on this trip was her ultimate goal. When Princy told us that Lavi and Rahul will not be going for the tournament, as they hadn’t got a parental consent form, we all had our hearts in our hands. We reluctantly went home, but Princy too, reluctantly let Lavi and Rahul go, as well. We had all assembled at the entrance of the railway station by 5:15 pm. From 5:30 to 6 we were all in a muddle, trying to find our seats. We were all placed in 4 different bogies. :O Compromise was the answer. All the eleven of us, somehow fit into one compartment. We all stayed up, played cards, shared dinner, and went to sleep in our respective bogies.
Day 2:
We reached the railway station at Hydrabad at 6 in the morning. A bus from PORPS had arrived to escort us to the school. The school campus was spacious and decent enough. The room was actually a third class, err…third standard class room. The benches and tables were pushed to a side to make room for us. We literally got a red carpet welcome. Well, the carpet laid on the floor meant for us to sleep on, was red, but it still counts! The room reeked so bad, that I couldn’t get a wink of sleep, during the day, and just ended up reading and music-ing. We spent the rest of the day sleeping, hogging, exploring the campus, watching the other teams practice, etc.
Day 3:
We all woke up at 5 am, and were at the court by 5:30. The team from Vidya Mandir was practicing. We were speechless after watching them play. They were all practicing in their jammies(!) and one of them was in salwaar kameez. For future reference let’s call them salwaar kameez (SK) team. In a few minutes we had half the court to ourselves. During practice, the girls from the SK team asked Gita, “Who kepten?” Poor Gita didn’t know what the question was, let alone the answer. Gita just walked off resisting the urge to display the colorfulness of her vocabulary. After practicing, we headed for breakfast. As I was new to the concept of breakfast, it was overwhelming at first to eat at 7 am. The inaugural function was at 10. All the teams were supposed to march, headed by the flag bearer a.k.a. the captain. We all had to say the pledge, and this was followed by the releasing of the pigeons by the chief guest (not metaphorically.) I have nothing but one word to describe the weather at Hydrabad- Dhoooop! After the oh-so-tiring inauguration, we all rested for sometime in our room, until it was time for our match. At the tournament we witnessed few of the most phenomenal as well as moronic matches in the history of Clusters. We watched the SK girls playing and I laughed my lungs out. Sometimes I wonder whether the world is actually filled with weirdos or they follow me around everywhere I go. Some of the teams that came to participate were walking fashion catastrophes. Their uniforms were weirdly designed and ridiculously carried off. One of the girls’ school uniform was salwaar kameez…WITH A BELT! Why wear a belt over salwaar kameez? To hold the dupatta in place, of course. :/ :D
The SK team felt that their shorts were way too short, so they were wearing leggings. Ummm…or they were supposed to look like leggings but they actually were their pyjamas. One girl showed up in Patiala pants, and was trying hard to ignore the guys cat-calling her “Alaudin!” :D
Our match began at 4, we entered the court, as nervous as a goat on Bakrid. The BSRKV team looked damn tough. Most of them were tall, they looked well-experienced, and the look of their jerseys itself was highly intimidating. As the cliché goes, looks can be deceiving. We beat them, 18-9. This came as a shock to all of us. We owe special thanks to the juniors who literally had their fingers crossed throughout the match and keeping a mown wrath especially for the team. That night our “chaperon” took our nazar out. What can I say? Certain experiences in life make you superstitious. As I said before looks can be deceiving. The SK team came up to our room to congratulate us and wish us luck for the next day’s match. They were really warm and sweet. In their defense they explained that they were actually handball players and had no clue about basket ball until the week before the tournament, and that they came only with the spirit of participation. Well, that explains their suckishness.
Day 4:
We had to wake up at 4 in the morning for practice. We just took a few shots, practiced a few strategies and went back to bed. We woke up in time for breakfast, and tried to kill 10 hours of time, because our match was only at 7 pm. We found out that we were playing against team Gitanjali. We followed the same procedure of mown wrath and finger-crossing, in keeping with our latest superstitions. We had watched team Gitanjali play before and concluded that even blind-folded babies could win against them. What more could we expect from a team which has its chest numbers handwritten on a piece of paper and taped to their jerseys! But we were taken by surprise when we found that at the end of the 2nd quarter we were 10-all. But in the next two quarters, we bucked up and beat them 28-12. It was an amazing feeling, playing in the floodlights during sunset. We were into the semi-finals, but unfortunately most of our team members were injured, exhausted and the like.
Day 5:
We did make many new friends, supporting and cheering each other during matches. The Navy Children’s School girls were very friendly and we got along really well. Little did we think that sooner or later, we might have to compete with them. In this case, it was sooner than we thought. We were up against NCS in the semi-finals. We put up a good fight against our friends, in spite of the unnecessarily harsh fouls, and made them earn all their baskets. The competition was neck-to-neck. But in the end we emerged victorious. The score was 13-12 and we had made it to the finals of CBSE Cluster vii Basketball Tournament. We were all a nervous wreck, before the final match, though we had loads of support from SKs(Gita’s fans wouldn’t want to disappoint her by not doing so!) and NCS(we were up against Chirec, NCS’s rivals since they got beaten by Chirec at the finals the previous year.) Lavi’s ankle was sprained, Priyanka had an injured arm, Richa was feverish, and Mandy and Gita had many butterflies to deal with. Though each and every one of us knew what the outcome of the match would be, we kept trying, we kept fighting, and we kept cheering. Perseverance, thy name is NHVPS GIRLS’ BASKET BALL TEAM.
Clusters vii was one of the best experiences of my life. I got to know my teammates better, we all made new friends, we made it to the nationals, I personally learnt a valuable lesson about the evilness of pockets, and it brought about the much needed increase in my appetite. In a nutshell, I had the time of my life.
The SK team felt that their shorts were way too short, so they were wearing leggings. Ummm…or they were supposed to look like leggings but they actually were their pyjamas. One girl showed up in Patiala pants, and was trying hard to ignore the guys cat-calling her “Alaudin!” :D
Our match began at 4, we entered the court, as nervous as a goat on Bakrid. The BSRKV team looked damn tough. Most of them were tall, they looked well-experienced, and the look of their jerseys itself was highly intimidating. As the cliché goes, looks can be deceiving. We beat them, 18-9. This came as a shock to all of us. We owe special thanks to the juniors who literally had their fingers crossed throughout the match and keeping a mown wrath especially for the team. That night our “chaperon” took our nazar out. What can I say? Certain experiences in life make you superstitious. As I said before looks can be deceiving. The SK team came up to our room to congratulate us and wish us luck for the next day’s match. They were really warm and sweet. In their defense they explained that they were actually handball players and had no clue about basket ball until the week before the tournament, and that they came only with the spirit of participation. Well, that explains their suckishness.
Day 4:
We had to wake up at 4 in the morning for practice. We just took a few shots, practiced a few strategies and went back to bed. We woke up in time for breakfast, and tried to kill 10 hours of time, because our match was only at 7 pm. We found out that we were playing against team Gitanjali. We followed the same procedure of mown wrath and finger-crossing, in keeping with our latest superstitions. We had watched team Gitanjali play before and concluded that even blind-folded babies could win against them. What more could we expect from a team which has its chest numbers handwritten on a piece of paper and taped to their jerseys! But we were taken by surprise when we found that at the end of the 2nd quarter we were 10-all. But in the next two quarters, we bucked up and beat them 28-12. It was an amazing feeling, playing in the floodlights during sunset. We were into the semi-finals, but unfortunately most of our team members were injured, exhausted and the like.
Day 5:
We did make many new friends, supporting and cheering each other during matches. The Navy Children’s School girls were very friendly and we got along really well. Little did we think that sooner or later, we might have to compete with them. In this case, it was sooner than we thought. We were up against NCS in the semi-finals. We put up a good fight against our friends, in spite of the unnecessarily harsh fouls, and made them earn all their baskets. The competition was neck-to-neck. But in the end we emerged victorious. The score was 13-12 and we had made it to the finals of CBSE Cluster vii Basketball Tournament. We were all a nervous wreck, before the final match, though we had loads of support from SKs(Gita’s fans wouldn’t want to disappoint her by not doing so!) and NCS(we were up against Chirec, NCS’s rivals since they got beaten by Chirec at the finals the previous year.) Lavi’s ankle was sprained, Priyanka had an injured arm, Richa was feverish, and Mandy and Gita had many butterflies to deal with. Though each and every one of us knew what the outcome of the match would be, we kept trying, we kept fighting, and we kept cheering. Perseverance, thy name is NHVPS GIRLS’ BASKET BALL TEAM.
Clusters vii was one of the best experiences of my life. I got to know my teammates better, we all made new friends, we made it to the nationals, I personally learnt a valuable lesson about the evilness of pockets, and it brought about the much needed increase in my appetite. In a nutshell, I had the time of my life.
