Wishing you all a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.
Not much of a blog update... I'll just let these two favorite music videos of mine do the talking this time.
Cheers! See you all again next year because I don't think I'll have proper net access from home. Oh did I not mention? I will be in Mizoram by tomorrow! :) Home sweet home, here I comeeeee!!!!
Second leg of the 2010 Mumbai Mizo Annual Sports Day took place last Saturday. For this post, I am armed with much better ammunition [photos and videos] than before. My stamina too lasted a bit longer than the previous week, and I retched due to exhaustion only just five times that day!
The second leg was held at this field called LBS ground near LBS College of Advanced Maritime Studies & Research, an unknown location that was not even listed on Google Maps. Hence even with latest tech and GPS guiding us from my droid, we had a tough time finding the place. It was somewhere in Reay Road.
Reaching the place too was a big pain in the mawng, as the stretch of road was almost impassable and the entire area quite deserted. Hence many taxis refused to ply due to the poor condition. But once we got there, the field was truly amazing. Unlike the previous Saturday, we had the entire ground (football and volleyball) to ourselves. Basically, it was more like a private party/picnic just for us. There were lots of trees surrounding the area, and the ocean was just a stone’s throw away!
We started the event immediately by assembling and listening to a few important announcements about rules, code of conduct etc, followed by a short prayer. Unfortunately, unlike the previous Saturday, not many people turned up due to the far-flung location (The previous event was held right next to CST). But we all still had an amazing time.
[Trying out the Vuvuuuuuuzela]
So the games event kick-started with the volleyball matches. Here are the mighty Red House [Samdala] men and women volleyball team. Ah, just being in this team reminded me of those movies like “Remember the Titans” or “Chariots of Fire” or even “Raging Bull”
The first match was between the Blue and Yellow femmes.
This was followed by the Men’s volleyball match between Red and Yellow. We completely decimated the Yellows. In fact we were like the meteor that crashed on prehistoric earth and wiped out all the (yellow) dinosaurs.
This match was followed by the Girl’s finals between Red and Yellow house. Click on pics to enlarge.
Don’t miss the part in the video below where the ball fell into a mysterious hole... After we retrieved the ball, something changed. I could feel it in the air and from the sounds of crickets chirping in the forest. There was something really weird going on with the ball. For starters, the earth started spinning in the opposite direction whenever somebody from Yellow house served. I could sense the aura of restless spirits and demented souls rising from the ground beneath us and taunting our Red players.
And whenever the ball crossed the net, it multiplied and confused our players. The strange thing was, people outside the court could not see this unexplained paranormal activity. As one of the Red house players Teseni later confessed (under the guidance of a Priest and Holy water) – “It was as if I was having an out of body experience. I was there, but I was seeing myself at the same time. I swear I saw some of the yellow house players like James and Zautea burning incense and chanting some eerie voodoo incantation a little away from the court. They had foams flowing out of their mouth as they continued chanting, and they looked completely zombified...”
Ok I know that sounded weird. I mean I can understand the foam coming out of their mouth and looking like zombies part – that’s just the way they are, normally. But practicing voodoo? Now that’s something new.
See proof below:
Hence the reason why our team ended up playing like this:
Saw it? Cameras don’t lie baby. How could star studded players from our team be reduced to something like that all of a sudden after they retrieved the ball from the mysterious hole? In fact, do you even know if the ball they’re using was the same ball that fell in the hole... ??? Yeah, you felt that shiver up your spine? Me too. Weird huh?
Anyhoo... The men’s volleyball finals followed next. Us REDZ versus them blues. It was like a London derby between the Gunners and Chelski. And just like a real match between those two EPL teams, the blue house players turned out to have more stamina than us, while us reds were more handsome than them.
Here is their smash. Full marks to them, if hitting the net was the intention
And here is our response. KABOOOM!! It was rumoured that little Kwame Nbekeki who was sleeping alone in his hut in Rwanda felt the tremor of that smash and cried.
Ahemsss... yeah this guy in red tee and white shorts could really play, even though he hadn’t played any sports in more than 5 years
After the volleyball matches (and three retches), the football event started.
Blue house got humped by Yellow. And Yellow got royally trashed by us Redzzzz! Woohooo! In fact Yellow got beaten so badly by us that they were all black and blue, and the referee had to stop the match thinking some people from blue house were playing for yellow house.
Unfortunately for us Redz, the previous Saturday we were forced to play against Blue house after sunset in the dark because time was running out. And they had torch lights. We didn’t. Eventually we lost that match. And therefore, we lost due to goal difference even though the team that finally won (yellow) was beaten by us fair and square, and they couldn’t even score one measly goal past our formidable goalkeeper.
[The above video is almost 9 mins long. You might find it boring if you were not there that day. I was planning to edit it, but due to extremely heavy work load, I barely managed to complete this post. Hence I didn’t edit anything. But if you do wanna watch it, don’t miss 0:11, 4:54 and 8:02 – amazing saves by the Red goalkeeper ]
There were two other events after the football finals.
In one event, 15 members from each house had to huddle together and form a circle (reminded me of my School days PT teacher screaming, “Form a straight circle, I say!”). The house leader got inside the circle, while all the other members surrounded him/her and faced downwards. And then the race started! Haha it was bloody fun like hell!
The other event was called “Atom Bomb” where every member took part. There were various locations on the field (Worli, Andheri, Bandra, Sion etc) and members can run to any location. One area was bombed at a time, and if you happened to be in that area, you’re out. Eventually, only one area was left standing. The house that had the most number of members in that remaining area won! And of course naturally, WE were that house.
Before leaving – group photos.
[Red House]
[Yellow House]
[Blue House]
[All of us]
Cheers!
** All pics in this post courtesy Rossi. Much thanks to him!
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Bonus pics:
Some more pics from the previous Sports Day (Day 1), again from Rossi’s album. I loveee the “kawi” photo, fifth pic below (“Kawi” in English is Entada / African dream herb / snuff box bean and its botanical name is Entada pursaetha / Entada rheedii. Thanx for this useful info, Rara Avis). Also check out the expression on some of the participants in that event.
Muscles aching Head spinning Bones cracking Stomach churning
Pride... slowly dying.
Yup, that was me. One lousy game of volleyball and I was completely rendered defunct. An impotent soul. Trampled by youth and vigour. Praying for rejuvenation.
Last Saturday, the Mumbai Mizo Association conducted its Annual Sports Day. It was the first time I was participating, and will most probably be my last time too. I mean, the event was amazing. But right now, I cannot even double click my mouse. That’s how much my entire body is aching right now!
We were divided into three houses – Yellow House (Chhurbura), Blue House (Chemtatrawta) and Red House (Samdala). I was in Red House and was all pepped up to play Volleyball and Football.
Hehe... In the first (out of three) volleyball match, everything was going well. Our entire team played well and jump timing, service, blocks, alley and spikes all went according to plan. We won the first game easily. Second match onwards, most of us were tired and we started screwing up everywhere. Eventually, we lost the second and third match, purely because of our unforced errors. Daymmmm.
After that, I didn’t even play football as I could barely move. I just sat outside with my girl, wishing I was like He-Man who would suddenly get this incredible super power...
“By the Power of Grayskull...”
“What?”
“Err... nothing... I mean, Grey’s Anatomy... The power of Grey was amazing, you know...”
“Here, have some water. It’s probably the sun.”
(Phew!)
Some of us from Red House:
What I like the most about my House is that, as a Mizo in Mumbai, when it comes to interacting with other Mizos, I am quite an introvert. Shy, quiet and... innocent. I’m the type who would sit quietly in a corner all by myself at a party, or the one that girls would call “zeilo” and make fun of. Hence I know just a few Mizos in Mumbai. And the very few Mizos who happen to know me, are in Red House too! That’s why Red House rocks!
We lost in Volleyball (Men), Football (Men), Football (Women) and came third in the mixed relay. In other words, we came last in the mixed relay since there were just three Houses overall
But then, we were quite close. Here is a video I took. Fun to watch
There was also another event called “kawikah”. It is an ancient Mizo traditional game that was (and still is?) very popular among Mizo youngsters. Using a large seed of a particular plant, you have to hit other seeds.
We... ermmm... we lost in this event too
But then, if you look at the video, you will see that our girls almostttt hit the “kawi” on every occasion. We should be given an “Almost” award for this!
Apart from the various games, it was fun meeting friends and catching up. Many people took this event seriously, and there was a lot of campaigning... banners and tee-shirts, shouting slogans, coloring their hair with their respective House color etc!
Here is a video of some of my Red House teammates working on the hairspray.
Of course nobody asked me if I would want my hair colored too... because they could all see that I got almost no hair left. :(
Here are some photographs of that day, courtesy friends on Facebook.
Fortunately, we did win Volleyball (Women). In a way, it was quite funny watching the match as most of the points were awarded to one team because the other team couldn’t serve the ball across the net
Here is our mighty girls’ team that did us proud!
Next Saturday, even if I do go for the second leg of this event, I will be at the sideline cheering for my House. No more playing, my boy. These ageing bones must rest. I’ll try to collect better material (pics and vids) to update my blog with too. Cheers.
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Ps. I just realized it’s been more than three years since I last uploaded a YouTube video! Hence from now on, I will be uploading more videos to my YouTube profile Mizohican and link them on my blog, especially now that my awesome Samsung Galaxy S can record videos in HD
