I, Pea and Yell @ IPL
Wimbledon. Arguably the most revered sporting venue for any individual sport for nearly 150 years, draws its fans from every spectrum of life across all geographical confines. One of the extraordinary features of this fan base is that every age group follows the sport. Tennis, earlier known as ‘Lawn Tennis’ brings out the best from the best. To profile all the fans may be a near impossible task but an attempt is being made to introduce three crazy fans of Wimbledon from different age groups that I encountered in my life’s journey.
The first crazy Wimbledon fan I had known was an engineering student. Having been introduced to the game while he was still in primary school, he followed Tennis, particularly Wimbledon very keenly. I remember him listening to radio commentary from BBC and even recording the scores. He was no ordinary Wimbledon fan. A reasonably good student, this Tennis fan was once facing a dilemma. He had an important end-semester exam to appear for on Monday but on Sunday was the final of Wimbledon. Writing Exam or watching the Wimbledon final? Life-defining career or following his heart and passion? To further complicate the conflict in his mind, the hostels were not allowing televisions in the hostel common rooms during exams in those days.
What does this student decide? Knowing pretty well that failing an exam will disqualify him from appearing for campus interviews and potentially a black mark that he may have to carry all his life, he shut all the noises in his brain. Exams will come and exams will go but this Wimbledon final between his then heroes may not happen again. He requests his friend whose house he could watch the match and can sleep if the match lasts long. He travels nearly 300 km and watches the Wimbledon finals. He missed the end-semester exam the next day. He was happy that he watched Wimbledon finals and did not care much about what he missed not only on the academic front but also to the extent to which his career was going to be impacted. At the cost of being castigated as a regional chauvinist, I have to term this South Indian student a crazy fan for preferring to watch the live telecast of a Wimbledon final on TV missing his exams and staking his future career.
Understandably, a student can be a crazy fan. I came across a faculty member of a premier engineering institution later. The middle-aged academician was mature and possessed good academic and professional credentials. Initially, I thought he was another regular fan who was a passionate follower of a sport. However, I was stunned when I came to know of an incident that showed how crazy a fan of Wimbledon he was.
He revealed an incident that took place soon after his wedding. His father-in-law made arrangements for the honeymoon of the newlyweds at a faraway hill station. Upon reaching the destination with his newly married wife, this professor found out that he could not watch the live telecast of the Wimbledon finals as the hotel did not have a setup for TV due to signal issues in that hill station. What does this professor do? He cancels his honeymoon, buys tickets to fly out of that place, and reaches home in time to watch Tennis. Uh! Another crazy fan, this time from the very north of India.
Well, as the days pass and people grow old, their personal and professional commitments will take away a huge chunk of one’s passion for sport as it is no longer a priority. So I thought. However, I was wrong in believing so when I came across this man who was close to retirement and occupying a statutory official position. I knew his interest in sport but he was playing his age as he should be and sport was not on his plate. Of course, this old man was as enthusiastic as any child, jumping with joy while watching Tennis on TV.
He was once selected to be a part of an Indian delegation that was to tour UK on the invitation of the British government to explore the possibilities for bilateral collaborations. Members of the delegation were assigned different regions. Our western India based senior functionary was to travel to cover Manchester, York and Newcastle on the northern part of England. His itinerary included landing in London and taking a connecting flight to Manchester in the evening.
Our old man lands at Heathrow from Mumbai, forgets jet lag or freshening up, takes tube to SW19 and makes an entry to Centre Court and breathes Wimbledon air. He was living a dream. He was dreaming a life there. He was so blown out by the aura of Wimbledon that he completely forgets that he had a flight to catch. But by the time he realizes and reaches Heathrow, the other delegation members have already left. Anyone would make arrangements to join his team but our old man goes back to Wimbledon, and watches the last match on outside courts also not bothering whether they are on the main draw or other sundry matches. He leaves Wimbledon and goes back to Heathrow and takes the first flight to Manchester and joins the official delegation. He had no chance to sleep for nearly 48 hours but he was happy that he had experienced Wimbledon.
So, here we are fans from three different age groups, three different regions, and as different as one can categorize sports fans. One thing that bonded all three of them was their crazy passion for Wimbledon.
So, as I was reflecting upon Wimbledon the other day, I thought that I should summon these three crazy fans together to sum up their love or craze for Wimbledon. Summon I did all three of them together, only to realize that all three of them are none but a crazy Wimbledon fan, yours faithfully.
