Travel & Games ...

I was in my 11^th standard (FYJC) and exploring new set of people and friends. I was at the top of my 6 feet 7 inches and confused what to do with my Height. A friend of my father(Abbas, top basketball player of India, and an Arjun Award recipient) came to meet him and saw me and asked what sports I play, well the usual games we played gulli danda, hide & seek etc. He laughed and said why you don’t come to the Basketball grounds where he played. So after a week I went to Nagpada Neighbourhood House club to play my first game. That built in my confidence and I began Learning and practising the game. The same year I was selected for National’s Maharashtra Junior team (Pune 1980-81). Well we lost at quarter finals but that put me onto playing basketball for no of years and also to travel. I came back from Pune and was offered a place in Western Railways team. My appointment was under sports quota and were allowed to work half day in office and from 3pm till 5pm I was at the grounds practising. But my desire to work in the creative field gave me an opportunity to join a theatre group and so my rehearsals from 6pm in Juhu.

But I recollect the days of my travel with western railways team. 

We got 1^st class pass for local travel and free passes for through trains. Whenever we travelled to Ratlam, Baroda, Rajkot, Jaipur, Madras etc. to play games we travelled in First class, the train would reach our destination, then our boogie would be detached from the main train taken to the yard area and stationed there. We would have electricity, water supply and we would continue our stay in the same 1^st class bogie, it would be a problem for me as I would not fit into those sleepers straight, so the space between the sleepers would be filled and a big bed used to be made with my feet going out of my cabin into the passage. Sometimes we would go on top of the compartment to take shower for fun, these big holed pipes would be our shower.

Wow! It used to be fun those days and a different experience of travel and stay. I enjoyed those meals at dhabas and Chais in Kullad( mud Mugs), those lovely snacks on platform, especially those cream roles with chai. Sometimes our bogie would be at the end of the train and we would open the small partition door and sit there watching the rail tracks going underneath. Wow!!! Lovely experience and fun filled days of travel and games.