A weekend experience of IPL

So it was Sunday ,the 25th of April,2010 and it was Indian Premier League (IPL) Finals. Those who don't know (which is hard ,for Indians are astoundingly crazy for cricket), its a new form of Entertainment and Sport combined, the sport being a cricket match, but that does not matter for entertainment have a bigger do. It was season three (IPL 3) that was running around this year and I don't know when the first have even ended, let alone when did this one start (???). In these matches they only have 20 overs per team and has been devised to be called as 'T20 IPL Season 3'.

Well to start off, I must confess I hate cricket all together. I have never in my life watched even a single over, let alone to talk of Ball. I am absolutely blank (If knowing about four's and six's is knowledge enough) about what cricket is actually, well I was, when Sunday night changed it all.

It was on Thrusday that my mate, Pranjal called me and suggested why not go and watch IPL at the Theater, which was a new thing IPL tried-I told you more entertainment, less sport. I having my own doubts, but wanting to not be thought as a mood spoiler, unsporting, and virtuous enough( yes virtuous, its it to love cricket) I agreed but said he should ask somebody else.

At this point you should know that Pranjal knows I am not into cricket. One should also know he is lazy bones (sorry, but you are) and will not go any where alone, had asked me for he was wanting to go and was not able to find anybody. I being an option of last resort.

On Friday I was called again. He said we would be five going to watch IPL at the theater and to give him my Debit card number to book tickets online. Which I gave to him and which was:

" Write :

53xxxxxxxxxxxxxx"

I am not revealing it here of course.

So that was it, Rs 150 ticket with online booking charges of Rs 15 additional per head on five living humans going to watch a cricket match at a theater,to be live telecast-ed from Mumbai, four of whom were for the love of it and one despised.

Then came the fortunate evening. We entered the Hall at 7:30 pm with the big play ground of 'Dr DY Patil Sports Academy, Mumbai' was focused on the big screen of The auditorium. It was Chennai Super Kings vs Mumbai Indians.

The start, which took about 15 minutes, was of ending ceromony of IPL 3. This was the most interesting part for me. We had Indian actress Bipasha Basu, Shahid Kapoor and A. R. Rehman performing , with Rehman performing "Jai ho"(which every person in world knows) and "Vande Matram" (my favorite). This being the most captivating part of the entire performance.

The match began after a toss won by Chennai Super Kings who decide to Bat. The whole match was captivating for the other four,or should say everybody in that house full hall besides one, who were howling at every out and growling at every miss, for those supporting Mumbai Indians (Sachin Tendulkar) and vice versa for those supporting Chennai Super Kings (M.S. Dhoni). I on my part was trying hard to keep awake and watch my first match in life, probably my last too, for I had paid for this thing.

Well I was able to watch the whole match not without effort. But the match was good and surprisingly I was able to maintain interest and amazingly didn't fall asleep. I was howling whenever my pals did, I could not have gone against them obviously, had to follow their choice Tendulkar.

Well I assume all have watched the match and already know the results, Chennai Super Kings won. Yahoo!! I am always beside the winning team. With all the supporters of Super Chennai Kings howling and praising for Dhoni, my friends were with faces as if I just passed away. With blames,comments and lots of suggestions we came out of the auditorium.

"It was Mumbai Indians bad Fielding to have allowed Chennai Super Kings to make 168 runs". "No the batting order was wrongly put out, Pollard should have batted first" et al was the conversation beyond my understanding and so no involvement.

We came out of all and all out of the black came to realise we haven't had anything for dinner. Yes everybody forgets dinner on a match day, and amazing I did too. Its 12:35 am and Monday has started. We are hungry and start roaming about in our Columbus-ian search for dinner or breakfast or whatever one could have at that hour. We roamed for half an hour when an idea struck one of places open in Delhi for 24 hours. "Which one", one asked. The other replied, "Places where journey starts or ends, Railway station or an Interstate Bus Terminal(ISBT)."

Had i known this escapade was also a part of this "nice IPL match under AC on big screen" experience I would have delightedly escaped. Alas! Had i only known. We went to Kashmere Gate (ISBT) to have our dinner. The auto charged a hundred , double its day price. I should have understood that here at night everything sells at a double, but again I did not.

We had our dinner, not delicious, but since we were hungry, we veggies would have settled for meat I suppose. This too was charged a double. Then gulping a glass of tea each we went to our friends rented apartment at 3:30am where we dozed off within seconds to be woken up by alarm the next day and rushing for classes and then to office.

It was an experience worth a post.