GOAL!!!

As the fairer sex we often wonder what is it about wet mud, rain and a football that makes the opposite sex get up early on a holiday and go play football with the guys! Well, I don’t know if I have got the answer to that or not but I did venture out today on a Sunday (yes.. on a holiday!!) to take part in my company’s ever first Football League!

I approached the ground to find that the matches had already started and that my team was waiting for me. As I neared the group and exchanged hellos, the guys started saying that I would now know what it was like to become dirty and mucky!! My shoes suddenly began sinking in the wet ground as if there was a mud monster sucking in my shoes!! I looked down at my feet with a look of dismay and disbelief as my white sports shoes started turning brown!! The guys around me caught my expression and peals of laughter rang out as they convinced me that there was no way those shoes were going to return to their original colour till I reached home! So that the rest of my body (read legs) should not feel left out a couple of my colleagues “painted” my legs with mud as if it was a ritual to now say that I was approved for the football field..

As I watched the matches being played I wondered in amazement at the fun that the guys had sliding in the mud while trying to tackle the opposition for the ball, or slipping in the mud while kicking a penalty. After a while I became so involved in the game that the muckiness and the mud did not make a difference! :-) As I stood guarding the goal for my team in my first game of the day, my feet sank deeper into the muddy field and as the ball came sailing through the air to me I suddenly realised my foot couldn’t move! With a last desperate effort, I pulled out my foot and moved to the right to save the goal!!

The day went on and players slid and skid and some also got badly hurt so at times I found myself helping with Band-Aids, cotton and bandages, while cleaning the wounds and scratches with antiseptic – but as I did all this I realised that this was all part and parcel of the game. We took breaks out to drink glucose laced water and hot chai from a roadside “tapri” and teamed it up with sandwiches and idlis. We played till we were too tired to move any part of our bodies, but at the end of the day it was with huge smiles and grins that we bade farewell to each other and headed home.