Glory Days

Gauri (Gaurav Singh) is leaving Hyderabad tomorrow. He is going to pursue his academic interests in Sales and Marketing and then go on to become one of the shrewdest brains in the Marketing industry. And I aint sugar coating my words just because he is leaving and people tend to get soft, goodie goodie when someone near and dear to you leaves. Honestly, I have been a big fan of his business acumen and knowledge for a long long time. The range of books that he has read and the amount of information that he has gathered is appreciable. And worth appreciating also is his enthusiasm for the field he has chosen for himself. Being a softie was so not right for him.
Gauri has been my flat mate for two years. Among other things that I will remember about him, one of the firsts would definitely be Air Hockey. Dunno how many grown ups actually play this game, but for the three of us (Tushar, Gauri and I), this has been our favorite outdoor indoor game(considering its only available in shopping malls and game arcades). Tushar and I have a long history as far as this game is concerned, the rivalry stretching back to our college days; the two of us always have tried to prove supremacy over one another, the incentives sometimes being a silly college crush, sometimes precious nothing. We introduced this game to Gauri around July of 2005, when the three of us had landed for our maiden job and had shifted into the same house.
Air Hockey is a game usually played by kids before they hit their teens, or by oh-so-much-in-love-couples. Needless to say, the game that these people play is rather slow and monotonous. The goals are far and few in between, the puck is more likely caressed than hit and the mallet held more like a flower than a sword. Fortunately, most of the air hockey tables have timers installed, which let you play for only a limited time, something around 3 minutes. And that comes to rescue of these hapless chaps, whose fruitless pursuit for goals and over lived misery is brought to an end.
We play this game in a slightly different manner. For us, the game is all about power, clever angles and dogged defense. We don’t claim to be the firsts to come up with the idea, but yeah, wherever we have went we have seen people trying to emulate our style of play. Like the Europeans changed the way Field Hockey was played, bringing about their aggressive brand of hockey; we claim we brought about a change in the way this game is played and will be played with our own homegrown brand of power play.
While we were introducing Gauri to our kind of game, it was pretty easy to beat him. For the poor fella was still grasping the nuances of air hockey and the way Tush and I played it. Those were the days when Gauri was almost always drubbed. But my-oh-my, this fella was a quick learner. And was fast in adapting to the conditions. Not long after, he started beating the shit out of us. Guess, he devised his own style of the power game, which we hadn’t faced as yet.
Tushar’s game was about clever use of angles. This devilish genius used to use the side rails to the maximum of his advantage, creating angles that were tough to defend and were almost always goal bound. And yeah, some times he used to sneak in a slower, straighter hit; almost never expected and always achieving the desired result.
My game was characterized by power (which I extracted from my shoulders) and a strong defense, and the trait of never giving up. I used to hit the puck as hard as I could and as straight as I could and for as long as I could. The idea was to pester the opponent and slip in a goal from the slightest of gaps that he left. And then defend as if my entire life depended on it.
Gauri invented a slight variation of the straight shot. He added swing and swirl in his game; and it all came from using the wrists. His straight shot always started from middle of the table, giving an impression that it is coming straight at you, but before you realize, comfortably parking itself into the far corner of the goal slot. And the power behind the shot used to Akhtarish (the word derived from Shoaib Akhtar’s pace), bamboozling us. And that’s how he started beating us. And more often than not. And it was frustrating, to say the least.
The old champions that we were, we were not to give up that easily though. With a new competitor on the horizon, it improved our games too. And took it to a different level altogether. Whenever we used to play, I remember, I could see people gather all around us to see our games.
Tushar left Hyderabad a year ago, leaving the mantle of the game on Gauri and yours truly. And from then onwards started the greatest of rivalries this game has ever seen. Our scores more often than not being separated by just one goal, and not before we used to hit the crescendo, the peak of our games. At times, the level of game that we used to put on display amazed us ourselves, the intensity and the quality of the effort put in used to be exemplary. And with time, this rivalry grew bigger and better. And so did our individual games.
Such is the pace and power level of our game that actually very few tables can support it. We tried the one at Prasads, Hyderabad and the first shot that I hit flew right from the fourth floor down to the ground floor. We tried our hands at few tables in Bangalore, but the result was disappointing again. The puck used to fly left, right and centre. The one at the Hyderabad Central is the one that can keep the pace with our game, and the one at City Centre, Hyderabad just about does the job.
And such is the brutality of our game that we out rightly reject the offer of playing with outsiders. And at times, when we have no choice, we just beat them into submission. This Feb I was in Mumbai and had this urge to play hockey. I asked my friends (Tush and Gauri were not there that time) if anyone is interested and wants to play, poor old Riyaaz volunteered, saying that he know something about this game. And hell yeah, he knew something, none of which reflected on the scoreboard though. The LED displayed the score as 7-0, and the poor guy claimed he never knew the game could be played this way too.
Tushar has rejoined us, doing his summer internships on the weekdays and playing hockey on weekends (if we are sober, that is). And off late we have played a lot of triangular tournaments. I must admit though, time has slowed his reflexes and occasionally he looks out of sorts against the frantic pace of ours. Last week though, we could sense he was coming back to the old champ form of his.
Alas, we just have a solitary Saturday to celebrate the trinity and celebrate the game that gave us so much happiness and ecstasy. Tush is here for one more week though. And guess, after that I have just two options. To sit back and remember the glory days, or groom someone who can challenge me (us). To groom whom is tough to imagine though, ‘cause the enthusiasm we share for this game is almost impossible to match.
Gauri, that air hockey table lying right there on the 4th floor of Hyderabad central will never be same without you.