Striker

On the occasion of completion of ten years of our unit, we had a week-long celebration in the office. Four teams were formed and a number of competitions were organized. Numerous team meetings were held, strategies drawn up, slogans typed and onward we marched into the battle-field. Each of the teams competed intensely – the whole floor would often resound with yells as the teams cheered their players and took pot-shots at the other teams. I represented our team in carrom and chess and though we lost our carrom match, I had a great time overall. We were pitted against the best carrom team of our unit and we fought really hard during the match. We had started on a good note, winning the first board. However, the tables had soon turned and our opponents had taken a significant lead. I didn’t want to lose and certainly not lose without a fight. Thankfully, we managed to stage a recovery and before the last board, the scorecard read 27-24, 24 being our score. We still had a fair chance; however, our opponents won the last board comprehensively, thereby winning the match. The whole match was one of the more nerve-wracking situations I have been through in recent times. With more than 20 people surrounding us and cheering our every stroke, the pressure was very high. Further, the stakes were quite high in this game as a win could potentially put us at the top on the points-table. While I was quite dejected immediately after the match, I now feel that it was a lot of fun. And I do look back at our performance with a lot of satisfaction. Winning the match would have been an icing on the cake, but it was good to have put up a great fight.