We both landed on the planet during the same year… 1984. I was just a little older. The person I am talking about is Basty Sreenath Shenoy. As a quick introduction, this guy is one witty person. He can talk about any topic ranging from cars to politics. Yet, he is one devotional guy. He has complete belief in the existence of God and performs puja everyday without fail. His nick name is ‘Dreamer’. I know what might be running in everybody’s head right now. Why was he called Dreamer? Well I am not so sure but what I remember is, this guy used to get a lot of scary dreams when asleep. Every time he saw a scary dream he used to wake up screaming and he wanted his mom to sleep beside him. Hence the name Dreamer. 

We have spent most of our childhood days together. Almost every time during our vacation, I used to stay in his house in Mangalore. There were 2 families staying in his one big house. The other family had 2 sons Samarth and Abhay. This guy Abhay being the eldest was at most times in his own world. Samarth was the same age as we both were. Dreamer hated Samarth and vice versa. These guys just wanted my attention. I was caught between the two of them. Since Dreamer was my direct cousin, I was more close to him. There was also one more guy named Ashwin who was a neighbor. Even Ashwin used to spend a lot of time with us. 

We used to play a lot of carom. Both Dreamer and Samarth were excellent with carom. All 4 of us always used to have tough competition. Other than carom we used to read a lot of story books. Dreamer had a huge collection of story books. Out of all these, Tinkle Digest was our favorite. We used to read a lot of Tinkle Digest. I guess this was one of the only books I enjoyed reading. If we were not reading story books, we were doing a lot of sketching. This guy Samarth was very good with coloring. He used to use a different sketch pen and the pictures looked neat and balanced.  There was a craze with trump game and we did not miss out on this. Everybody, including his other friends used to carry one pack of trump cards. 

During breaks we used to drink lemon juice. These guys had an Ice candy maker. What they did was fill it with lemon juice and keep it in the freezer. It then was like eating candy. We have eaten a lot of such ice candies. Other than candy, there our favorite junk food… Rotato rings made only by Modern Kitchens. This was what I loved to eat. It used to be in the shape of a ring and hence the name. It used to be very spicy. We used to put it onto all our fingers like a ring and then gobble it up. 

We used to see a lot of television as well. Zee Horror Show was one of our favorite serials. We used to see it in the nights. It used to scare us to death but we used to pretend like it never was scary. During the day, we used to watch Tom and Jerry. It was our favorite cartoon. We used to laugh our hearts out. Other than that, we used to see Philips Top 10 in Zee TV every week. There was this song ‘Tu cheez badi hai mast mast” from the movie ‘Mohra’ which was our favorite. We always wanted this song to be at the number one spot. After this song, Akshay Kumar became our favorite hero. Then there was a movie ‘Mein Khiladi Tu Anadi’ once again acted by Akshay Kumar and Saif Ali Khan. We loved the songs “ole ole” and “Churake dil mera” from this movie. But we hated the song ‘Ek ladki ko dekha’ from the movie ‘1942 A Love Story’ which released around the same time as Mohra. For weeks together, the number one and number two spots were given to the songs from these two movies. We used to be completely disappointed when the song from Mohra was not number one. We both were big fans of Jackie Chan and we loved watching his movies. 

I remember the time when Steven Spielberg had created another master piece ‘Jurassic park’. We had seen this movie in New Chitra theatre. This was one of the first English movies I had seen in a big screen. Then, on another occasion, we had been to a Kannada movie named ‘Annayya’, Ravichandran being the hero. There were two theatres close by and other place had some action movie. We both wanted to see that movie but Dreamers mom insisted that we see this Annayya because the poster of the other movie looked like there was lot of violence in the film. We did not enjoy this movie at all because it was a romance movie and we hated romance. We wanted some good fighting scenes. 

In the evenings we used to go to Kadri Zoo and Park. It was quite close to Dreamers house. Dreamer had a pet dog named Snoopy. It was a very friendly dog. Snoopy always used to follow us where ever we went. There was a zoo on one side and the park on the other. We used to tease all the monkeys in the cage. We were particularly interested to see the King Cobra. We loved sitting in the train ride. I still remember once occasion where one Aunty scolded us for bringing a dog inside the park. Her point was it could bite her daughter or any other kid. We did not give a damn to what she said. Snoopy never ever troubled any other person. 

On other evenings, we were taken to Panambur beach. It was fun playing in the water. We used to get completely wet. We used to make a small mountain using the wet sand and build a tunnel. Our aim was to have the maximum number of tunnels from the same mountain. We also brought our naughty thoughts out. We were experts at making traps. We used to dig a deep hole, cover it with leaves and branches and then slowly fill it with sand. And then we used to wish someone would fall into the trap. 

Then there was Eden Club. It was very close to Dreamers house. This was a sport person’s paradise. We used to go there to play table tennis and sometimes Badminton. This was where I saw Squash for the first time. The main reason we used to go there was to the restaurant. This was the place where I was exposed to the delicious Chinese food. Our order was very straight forward.. Sweet corn Mushroom soup, Gobi Manchurian and some noodles. We loved eating Chinese food. Even today, my first choice in any restaurant is Sweet corn mushroom soup. As they say, old habits never die. 

Once every year, there is a fest that takes place in Mangalore known as ‘Karavali Utsav’. We always visited this fest. Our main attraction was the ‘Torro Torro’. This was a giant wheel which rotates horizontally unlike the Giant wheel but it also used to swivel up and down which made it a more thrilling ride. We also used to enjoy the Giant Swing and the Giant wheel. Then there was food as usual. We loved eating Cotton Candy. It looked like colored cotton but tasted very sweet. It was sticky too. Even today, I love to eat cotton candy. We also loved the Mensinkai bajji (Chilli Bajji), a dish prepared out of a giant yet not so spicy chilli. 

On other days, Dreamers mom used to take us to the Tagore Park. Our main reason to go there was to enter the Maze. It was a puzzle where we have to enter from one end and find out the exit. It was fun solving it because we sometimes used to get lost finding out the exit. But since we had been there so many times before, we slowly figured it out and it became a piece of cake. 

I think I have already written a lot about our childhood days. I can go on writing and may be end up writing a book on this topic. Those days were really great. It won’t come again. With this sentence, I will finish this topic.

It was a zebra. It was the first time I saw this animal at such a close range. He was truly majestic. His black and white stripes gave him a unique look. He was one restless animal. He never stood in one place at any point of time, grazing around on the lush grass. Even he was quite curious to see so many people staring at him. Seeing him so close to the fence, I fancied my chances of getting a good close-up photo. But there were too many people. I tried taking a few photos but this Zebra never stood at one place. He was constantly moving which made it difficult for me in that rush. That added to my problems. I somehow squeezed into the crowd, pushed my hand forward so that there is no one blocking the view. I just waited for the right moment and as soon as the zebra paused for a second, I immediately took the photo. Somehow, this one photo gave me a sense of satisfaction for the amount of hard work I had to put in. The photo that I managed to take was truly fantastic and I was happy with my effort. That’s the reason I am sharing it with the rest of the world.

I and Dummi used to spend a lot of time in this park located in Jayanagar 4T Block during those days. One fine day, we took our camera along with us. I was just clicking anything interesting that I could see. Something caught our eyes. The place where we sat had a lot of ants walking around in a nice and straight line. There were these 3 ants which I was more interested in. I turned on my camera. I had to go as close to the ants as possible to get a good photo. I used the Macro mode so that the focus is as much on these wonderful creatures as possible. The flash is off by default in this mode. It was a little dark outside so I kept the flash on. I had to hold the camera at ground level. I somehow managed to balance my self and with steady hands I clicked. Unfortunately, one ant on the extreme right turned its back exactly at the very same moment. I had to work hard to get that pic. Nevertheless, this one remains one of my favorite pics to date.

For thousands of years, different civilizations considered different things as God. The Inca civilization worshiped the Sun. They believed that they were descendents of the Sun. Another civilization called the Olmecs worshiped the rain. Some other civilizations worshiped fire and water as their God. It’s a well known fact that we cannot survive without any of these natural resources. Then how did God evolve into a human being? This is what I have understood from my study.

Humans started becoming smarter by the passing day. Man invented many tools which helped him live a better life as compared to his ancestors. They realized that it is easier to survive as a group than as an individual. This group of people settled down in a place where food and water was easily accessible. Different groups now held a territory of their own. To control the group of people, a leader was chosen. But man is known to be selfish. He started expanding his territory. He started conquering neighboring territories. As the group became bigger, the leader was considered powerful. In order to inflict fear among the people and to make sure they follow his instructions, the leader was projected to have supernatural powers. People now believed that this leader is capable of performing any feat.

People soon started worshiping the leader. When a person can do anything, he is considered as God. All followers of this God became part of one group and this rose to the creation of a religion. Different people were proclaimed as Gods and that led to different religions. But there was a problem. This newly created God became older by age and had to die some day. People learnt to play politics with God. In order to retain the supporters, God was made invisible. This ensured that God cannot die. He was given a new face and a new name. In order to make the people believe that this invisible God really existed, God was now made into statues and installed in various places. It was told that these statues are a way to communicate with the invisible God.

Human mind is very fragile. It is believed that rumor spreads faster than fire. People traveled around the world trying to increase support for the newly formed God. This God soon had new followers around the world. Over time, people looked up to this God as the ultimate force. Every religion was given its own customs and traditions in order to differentiate it from the rest. People now wanted their religion to be the biggest. People wrote about God. Stories about the heroics of God were spoken and documented. As time passed, these stories became the way God was and people found new reasons to worship him.

Today, there are so many religions with each having a God of its own. How can there be so many Gods when biologically, we all fall under one species called Homo sapiens? Today, people fight in the name of God and religion just to prove that their God is the only supreme. Today, people are either bribed or forced to join a particular religion and to worship its God. When will people be wise? Let there be God. But let people choose it. Today, God has been a part of everyone’s life. The existence of God has influenced modern man to such an extent that God is believed to be the very reason there is life on this planet. I believe that the 5 basic elements of nature, that is earth, fire, wind, water and space coupled with time is what I consider God. These are the basic resources that has kept me alive. So did those people from ancient times.

Does God really exist? I dont know. I’ll leave that for each one of you to decide. But in the end, I still have one last question to ask…

Did God create man or did man create God?

It’s finally time to post my fifth and final part of The Gaming Bug.

It has been 12 long years to reach this stage. It was a great 12 years. The name, the respect, and the power everything was worth experiencing. But all that starts should end at some time. That time had finally come and it was at my door step. The next four years would change everything.

Once I completed my Pre-university education, it was time to go for higher studies. I never wanted to study on the first place. For the way my life had shaped so far, I knew the Indian Army is the only place when I can live that way. But it was not meant to be that way. I was forced into engineering. I joined SDM College of Engineering and Technology, Dharwad, one of the top institutions in the state of Karnataka. I chose mechanical engineering as my preferred subject. Things changed completely. I had to stay in a hostel. Everything had changed. Everybody was new to me. There were a lot of them from my old college however and quite a few around my native place. So I never felt out place at any time. Even I wanted to change my self. I wanted to control my temper. For that I had to reduce the amount of football I played. I tend to get more aggressive when challenged. So lesser football could help me reduce my temper. Unfortunately for me, there was one person in my batch who knew me very well. It was Shashir Shetty. He was the same guy who was part of our state level football team a few years back.

Soon, seniors from our college started forming a football team for the VTU Zonal football tournament. These guys were very quick to hunt down other football players. On of my room mates during the 1st year was also a football player. His name was Francis. This guy was completely mad about football. Yet he was a very nice guy. I was once again dragged into the world of football. I was given a call for practice thanks to Shashir. Other than him, I did not know anyone else from the new team. I met guys like Vageesh, Lesley, Prashanth, Deepto, Rakesh who would be our goalie, and Francis. We had a good team but these guys not at all serious about the game. This is the time I got to know Francis. He was a professional football player. I would say he was the best from the group and also from the entire college. He played as a full back. I on the other hand was given my favorite place, the role of a striker. I soon realized that I had lost my stamina. I was not fast and my passing was not as good as previous years. My interest in football was decreasing. To some extent, the attitude of the other players did affect me decision of not playing football any more. It was just me and Francis who were really serious about practice. We had a problem with who would be the goalie. Rakesh said he used to be a goalie during his school days. Looking at this guy, no body agreed. He was a little on the healthier side which made people think otherwise. A goalie must be highly flexible and very spontaneous. This did not seem to work well with Rakesh. Shashir knew very well that I can be a good goal keeper. So he asked me if I was ok with it. I said I had no problems playing anywhere on the ground. Nothing significant happened for the rest of the first semester.

I was now in the second semester. We did practice a lot during these days but I was not at all my personal best. The weather in this part of the country is very dry and at most times very cool. It was nice to pay football in the cold breeze. We did not sweat much at all. This was a bad sign because I never got to know how physically fit I was. The food I ate in hostel also did not give the necessary nutrients needed for a football player. The VTU Zonal tournament was organized at Bhatkal. This was close to my native place. We were not even given a jersey to represent our college but football was not considered the main sport. It was volleyball and cricket over here. We put our money and got ourselves a college jersey. When we reached Bhatkal, it was a very hot and humid place, unlike Dharwad. We reached there one day before and believe me, there was no decision yet on who would be our goalie. Looking at the condition of the hostel there, we decided to stay in a lodge. That evening we did practice a little and I told I would be the goalie. That was the plan for the next day. That night, all these guys when to a bar and got drunk. I was not at all happy because we were there to play a football tournament and not partying around.

It was the day of our football match. I don’t really remember who our opponent was. Rakesh insisted he would be the goalie and we all took a tough decision. Rakesh was not to the goal keeper. He did not even have enough practice as a goalie because I was the one who did that most of the times. Francis was the back bone of our defense along with Deepto and 2 other guys. His job was to shield Rakesh. This guy is so superstitious that he takes a painkiller before very match! He thinks that if he did not take a painkiller he can get injured and won’t be able to play!

It was really hot that day. The time for our match finally came. As I was getting into the ground, I met one of my old class mates who was studying there! There were a lot of spectators out there. Everybody started laughing looking at Rakesh when he went to the goal post. When the whistle blew, I realized that I could not even run. The high humidity was killing me. My passing was lost and my kicks hardly made any impact. To my surprise, I had some support even here! This friend of mine along with some of his college mates was shouting my name “SIPRA SIPRA”. I was completely embarrassed looking at my performance. Francis on the other side was holding up our defense like a rock. He played really great. The opponents were unable to penetrate him. To everybody’s surprise, Rakesh played like a top goal keeper. He made some breath taking saves and our team fully cheered his effort. It was thanks to him that the opponents could not score a goal the entire match. Even the very same crowd that laughed at him now started supporting and cheering him every time he was in action. Other than Rakesh and Francis, Shashir was the only guy playing well. He tried hard to score goals on his own as there was no support at all from the rest of us. We were already burnt out in the first 5 minutes of the match! This was an ordinary opponent. I am sure if ever we met this team during my school days, we would have destroyed them completely. The game finally ended 0-0. We lost the match in the penalty shootout. Frankly, I did not want my team to win. Most of us did not have the energy to play another match. We came back the next day. I was completely relieved. This was probably the last time I played competitive football.

This was the time I was introduced to the game Max Payne. One of my cousins, Shyam gave me a Demo of this game along with another game Return to Castle Wolfenstien when I had come home for vacations. I thoroughly enjoyed played both the games. I now wanted to play the full version and was desperately searching for one. Being in the hostel, the addiction to PC games was slowing increasing. One of my friends Vishwanath had a PC in his room. We were glued to the PC every day after our classes. We used to play games like Age of Empires and Caesar which was highly addictive. Then there was Project IGI and Sims. This was where I got both Max Payne and Wolfenstein full versions. Max Payne is still one of my favorite games.

Having different people from different parts of the country, we got access to the latest pirated games. We were crazy about PC games. My interest in football slowly vanished. It was replaced by Fifa 2002 in the PC. However, I did play football at the end of the year as part of our hostel day. We being juniors were told by our seniors to form a team. Most of the university team players were from the first year. We won the tournament easily but my performance deteriorated with every passing day.

When I moved into the second year, I had new roommates. One of them was my fellow football team mate Prashanth who had a PC. I was full time into computer gaming now. I completely stopped playing football. I did not participate in any football matches for the hostel day tournaments that year. When I moved into the third year, one of my frinds Ramprasad approached me if I would like to be part of his football team for the hostel day. He told me very clearly that the team had no experience in playing football. I agreed. We did play well. We also had Prachanth who acted as a goalie. We won the first match but lost the next one to the then winning team lead by Shashir.

When I moved to the final year, I had not played football at all. But then once again, I went to Ramprasad to see if he had any football team ready. I just wanted to experience the game of football one last time. He was happy to take me in his team. When the hostel day tournament started, there was some confusion with the fixing. Two teams boycotted the tournament. We were lest with 3 teams. My team decided its not a good idea to participate. I on the other hand, was called by Francis to form a strong team. He told me that he has arranged all the top players under one group and wanted me also to part of the group. We had to play just one match and we won it. This was the last time I played football. We all just wanted to feel the adrenaline of the fast paced game.

With this one game it was all over. My journey with football was done for ever. I have learnt a lot from this wonderful game. From the rise of Sipra to the very end, I have enjoyed every moment of it. I am glad I ended my stint as a football player on a winning note. This is truly the end of an era.

This concludes the 5 part series of ‘The Gaming Bug’. Hope you guys enjoyed reading those excerpts of my personal experiences.

I am back with the 4th installment of The gaming Bug. This part focuses on my pre-university days.

Once I completed my 10th standard, I continued my pre-university education from the same college. I took PCMB as my subjects. During my first year, things changed drastically. I no longer played any sport. The reason was, I could not find the time. Football was a distant dream. All we did was talk about how things were in high school. There were no houses like the previous years and no rivalries with any other section of my college. It was really boring. I however maintained my reputation as a hot headed guy. As for physical fitness, I used to do a lot of cycling. This helped me maintain my stamina even though I had no other physical activity.

This was the time video games came into the picture. Of course, they were in my head ever since I saw one. But now, the interest to play more and more video games started kicking in. Games like Super Mario, Adventure Island, Contra, Donkey Kong, Mortal Combat, Street Fighter and so many more were the happening games during those days. My concentration slowly but surely drifted from football to video games. There was a rumor about some district level football tournament but no one came to me saying the same. I too did not bother much because I had enough of football in my life. I completed the first year and completely forgot about football in the process. But.. I guess time had fixed one last appointment that would once again drag me to the football ground.

I was now in the second and final year of my pre-university days. All of us were quite busy with our subjects when there was one more talk about a district level football tournament. I was not too interested. I thought it was another passing rumor. But it wasn’t. Swapnil one day came to me and told me that there will be a district level football tournament which once again would be held in our own college ground. He also told me that this was the last chance for us to relive those olden days and to do what we do best.. play football. I did not even think much and just agreed.

Once again we had a great team. Some of the guys from the state level football team like Satya, Swapnil ,Shashank and Arun were once again reunited. There were some new guys like Deepak and Manju. Shivananda was also part of the team. The problem was we had very less time to practice. Some of us had lost touch of the game. Because some of them were new to the team, we had a difficult time understanding each other on the ground. But training takes you only that far and then comes pure instinct. We had a great team. Once again, we had a rock solid defense. Our attack was balanced. Unlike the last time, I was one of the main players in the team. All other players came to me for suggestions and tactics. We planned our positions and were all set for one final show down.. the time of our lives was here.

When the time finally came, there were 5 teams for the competition. The 4 colleges that came were EMHS, Suratkal College, Karkala College and SRS College. Over time, SRS College had become our sworn enemy. What I heard as a rumor during my first was in fact real. Our college has then lost to the very same SRS College. Some of our team members who were part of the team that lost to them knew that team very well. We on the other hand, were excited and waiting for the challenge. Our fixtures were Us Vs Karkala College and EMHS Vs SRS College. The Suratkal college got a bye which meant they directly played in the finals.

They say experience counts. This was the first time I understood what that meant. Most guys in our team had not played competitive football. Most importantly, they had no idea how to handle the expectations of the huge crowd. Some of us had been there and done that. So it was up to us to calm these guys down. We just told them to concentrate on the ball and play like how we always played during our school days without worrying too much about the crowd.

Ours was the very first match. The whole college was let off only to see our match and to support us. It was some atmosphere. This team from Suratkal was not so good. Our defense proved too strong for them. I may not have played much football over the last one year. But the magic was all there. It came back the moment I got into the ground. All the spectators kept screaming our names each time we got the ball and booed the opponents whenever they got the ball. This brought down the morale of our opponents. Shashank with our fellow defenders stood like a wall at the back. No body could penetrate them that day. The BIG 3 from the previous games were no longer there but these 3 guys never gave us any chance to worry. Satya was as good as ever as a golie. This was the time me, Shashank and Arun played as a unit. Our One-Two-One passing was tearing our opponents down. They had no answer to our focused counter-attack. Swani and Swapnil along with all the other guys were as good as ever. We had a lot of chances to score in the first half but we did not convert any of the great opportunities. It was in the 2nd half that we got our chance to break free. We got a great ball from Satya back from our goal. Our team was passing effectively and Swani took the ball the opponents’ goal. There were 3 defenders in front of him and I was behind. He could not penetrate them alone. I just called him from behind and he quickly responded with a pass. The crowd was getting anxious with every passing minute. I tapped the ball and just shot it into the goal. The very next second, the crowd was dancing and cheering “SIPRA SIPRA” because it was now 1-0. I had scored again and this time in front of my open people. It was a great feeling. I just ran around like a mad dog celebrating and my team mates joined the party. Satya came running down to me and he reminded me of the same situation back during our state level match. We won the match 1-0. The other match was won by the SRS College. The next match was against our worst enemy.. SRS College. It was a match we were waiting for. The time had finally come. It was the final showdown of our lives.

Swapnil and Satya knew this SRS team well. More specifically, had a bitter experience with one guy.. Ryan. They told us to watch out for this guy. We all saw who this guy was and were all ready for the match. There was good support for the SRS team also. When the match started the entire crowd erupted once again. We got better completion from these guys than our previous opponent. Just before we could get into to the groove we were shocked at what we saw. Enter the scene.. Ryan. Every time this guy got the ball, their supporters went crazy and they kept shouting and cheering “GO DIXCY GO”. And god! I now understood why those supporters loved this guy so much. He had amazing control over the ball. He single handedly dribbled past every guy from our team. He on his own easily penetrated the powerful defense of ours. For the first time, there was a crack in our wall. He was so fast that we could hardly match him. This guy what the best football I had even seen in my life. But from the opposite team, even we were amazed by this guys game. He was highly professional and played a clean game. But this was not the time to relax. We somehow managed to control those guys till the 1st half. During the break, we were just talking one thing. How to control this Ryan. We knew that if we had to win, we had to contain Ryan. So we decided that each time he got the ball, every body would target him. It was like a pack of hungry wolves chasing down their selected prey. And to some extent it worked. When the second half started, we made sure Ryan did not get the ball. Every time he got the ball, all of us would just forget the other guys and just run to attack this one person. They say nobody is perfect. So was this guy Ryan. He was a great dribbler but a very bad finisher. He could single handedly take the ball till the other end, ripping our famed defense apart but he could not score goals. In fact he did not even attempt to score goals. He never passed the ball which was his biggest weakness. Our team had finally cracked the Ryan code. We had a lot of good chances but could not convert. Time was running fast. Almost at the dieing moments, I got the ball and I gave a precise long ball to Deepak. He did well and took the ball till the very end. His cross was prescise and right in front of the goal. There were 3 of us running for the ball and no defender to stop us. We were hardly a meter away from the goal post. Unfortunately, the ball was intercepted by my other team mate Rakshit I think his name was. He did not try to stop the ball. He just put his leg forward. The ball bounced onto his knee and went above the goal. We were all disappointed. This was the last minute of the game. If ever he left the ball, I was in line and may be the result would have been better. But this is football and sometimes things don’t work as expected. He apologized but we said it was not his mistake at all. The game ended with a draw 0-0. The match went to a penalty shootout. SRS went on to win the match. We all were disappointed but the experience is all that kept us alive. It was the last time for some of us and we enjoyed the moment.

After the match, we congratulated the SRS guys. I went and shook hands with our tormentor Ryan. I told him he was great with the ball and wished him the very best for the rest of the tournament. For my surprise, he told me I was the best among my team and I must continue to play football. We hugged each other and hoped to meet again in some other football match. we then walked away. It was all over.

This concludes the fourth part of ‘The Gaming Bug’. Stay tuned for the fifth and the final part ‘The End of an Era’.

This is the third installation of The Gaming Bug. This explains my time during the 9th and 10th standard.

When I reached 9th standard, I was one of the best volleyball players in school. I continued playing volleyball. But for most members in my school, football was everything. Losing a football match was more like losing a life. During those days, my class was being beaten black and blue by the A2 section every time. Most of my classmates used to play volleyball. There were hardly about 10 members playing football whereas almost everybody from the A2 section played football. It was more like 10 from my class Vs about 20 to 25 members from the other! Now can you believe that competition? A1 Vs A2 was more like a war between two countries. We hated them and they hated us. All our differences were settled in the football ground. There was less of football and more of cold war. My friends tried hard to get me to football. They just wanted the numbers on the ground. This was where time infused another twist of fate. I finally decided to help my friends with football. So from the mid term, I was into football. Some of my friends knew I am a good football player. They just wanted me to find my ground and I did. I can say that this was the last time I took volleyball seriously. I was already enjoying the new challenge in football.

We had really good football players compared to the other class. People like Swapnil, Ramprasad, Logi, Sunil S to name a few. The best among the lot was Shivananda, nick named Swani. People soon realized that I was no push over. I had a lean and tall body but that’s exactly where they under estimated me. I did not have a good technique like some of the other guys. What I lacked in technique, I made it up with superior physical fitness. I had very strong and hard bones. My body was extremely flexible yet tough. I also had unusually high stamina. This meant that I could run for long periods of time without getting tired. I was not the fastest runner out there but I was fast enough to outrun most guys. Add to that my mean temper. I was a nuclear bomb waiting to explode. All these were exactly the right ingredients I needed. I knew that in this game, there will be lot of physical contact. So I started going to the Gym to get myself stronger. This is probably one reason why my temper went out of control. The fitter I became, my temper got even worse. I used to wear a sport shoe which had bolts in the side. I used to literally thrash my opponents without even seeing them. When I charged at them, it was more like a battle ram running in full force ready to destroy anything on the way. Nothing significant happened for the rest of the year. I was getting better and better with each passing day. That soon put me in my opponent’s radar. It was during this time that Swapnil started calling me Sipra in the ground. It was easier to spell the word Sipra than my real name. Sipra is the name of a cold drink manufactured locally. But this name clicked. Everyone now started calling me Sipra even outside the ground.

When I reached 10th standard, I was full time into football. I was also considered a good player. But for me, being good was not enough. I had to be the best. I quickly earned the reputation of a goal scoring machine. I was at the peak of my physical fitness and I was now regularly scoring goals for my team. We were beginning to slowly win matches at a consistent rate. There were the odd days when nothing worked for us. At these times, I had just one motto – “Defeat them or destroy them”. Accepting defeat was something I never liked. I had to win and I would do anything for that. I was soon the talk of the town. Everybody from the A2 section wanted a piece of me. But their several attempts to bring me down back fired as I also got excellent support from my fellow team members. I was now rated as one of the best players in my class and was also in the hit list of my opponents. 20 guys now found it hard to contain about 10 to 12 guys from my class. That was the impact I created. I was the force to recon with.

As days went by, there was a talk about a district level tournament which would be organized in our own college ground. The team was already selected but there was one place vacant. I knew I won’t be selected because there were other players better than me. So I never even gave it a thought. They were looking for a person who can play well yet be capable of spitting on the opponents face. Not many had that guts to do that on the football field. I had. One fine day, Swapnil and one guy Venu approach me and ask me if I am interested to be part of the school team. I was not sure what to do. They told me that I would be a substitute and I may not get to play and that they just needed to fill up the vacant place. I agreed. Those days, being part of the school football team means you are someone. People look up to you as a hero and always talk about you.

Venu was the captain of the team and played in the mid filed along were other members like Sudhir and golie Satya. Swapnil was part of our team and even he was good with the ball. Then there were guys like Arun and Shashank. Arun was a master with the ball. His control over the ball reminds of none other than the legendary Ronaldo from Brazil. Shashank on the other hand was a power house. He was part of our BIG 3 in the defense along with Sudhir. Physically strong and technically sound, he could rip any person apart. Both these guys were the very same friends I used to play with near my house. We grew up playing football together and we understood each other very well. I and Arun used the One-to-One passing to good effect. We both knew where the ball would come even without calling each other. We had a great partnership. This made a huge difference in tournaments to come. I don’t really recollect the name of the 3rd person who was part of our fearsome BIG 3 in defense. I guess it was Naveen but I am not so sure.

When the time finally came for the tournament, we were all ready. It was raining heavily that day. I was made to play in the first half. Our school was reputed for its defense with Sudhir being the back bone. Venu was the best in the midfield. I on the other hand wanted to play as a striker as that was I was good at. I played in the midfield. My performance was nothing worth talking about. I was substituted in the second half. We kept our reputation of having the best defense. The final was against the team from Suratkal and we won the tournament. This victory gave us the chance to participate in the State level football tournament at Ujire. It was my first high pressure game. Playing in the home ground made me nervous but this was all the exposure I needed. It gave me the experience I needed. The rise of Sipra was now.

We practiced hard for the state level tournament. When the time came, we were joined by two other guys from the Suratkal team. One guys name was Shashir Shetty. I don’t remember the other guys name. Both these guys were exceptional players. We dropped a couple of guys from our earlier team. I managed to retain my place thanks to my reputation as a mean tempered guy. Our first match in the tournament was against Gulbarga. I was taken as a substitute. But I got to play immediately as Venu injured his leg. This time, I was my self. I was not nervous and was ready for the challenge. We scored a goal in the very first half. Our defense was too good for our opponents. But disaster struck at the very last minute of the game when they managed to level the scores 1-1. We were doomed. The referee was just waiting to blow the final whistle. We tool the centre pass for one last time with all our hopes of winning down the drain. Swapnil took the ball and just kicked it as had as he could towards our opponent’s goal. I was the only guy running towards the ball. There was no one even from the opponent’s side willing to reach for the ball because even they thought it was all over. There was just one defender near the goal post and the ball fell right near the goal. I ran in full speed to get to the ball. The goal post was hardly about 10 meters from where I was. The goal keeper and the defender were not sure who should go to the ball. It was my chance. I just got the ball, dribbled past the defender and just kicked the ball without even seeing the goal post. All this happened at the dieing seconds of the match. The referee blew the final whistle immediately after. He gave me what is called ‘The Advantage’ in football. The next thing I remember was my team mates charging towards me with joy cheering and shouting my name. I was the new hero. I could hardly believe I scored a goal in a high profile match. The very next day, our next round was against Tumkur. This time, I was no longer a substitute. I was now a regular member. We played well and so did our opponents. The game ended with a tied result 0-0. The match was decided by penalty shootout and we won. Our next match was a quarter final. We lost this match to the then winning team DYSS from Banglalore. We lost the match badly 0-5 but there was no shame in that defeat.

We came back home for a heros welcome. Everybody started talking about me including our PT Sir. I now was treated like a legend. But our daily fight with the A2 section continued as usual. These guys now feared me even more. It was somewhere in the middle of the second term that I fractured my toe. I was out of action for 4 weeks. That immediately showed in the match result. Our team once again felt the heat of defeat. All these days, my presence had helped our team win every time. They were highly dependent on me to score goals. I could do nothing but see my team loose from the side line. Once the 4 weeks of hibernation passed, I was back with a bang. I got the rest I badly needed. I tore the opponents into pieces scoring 12 goals in just four matches. It was a record at that time. The previous best was 10 goals. It was somewhere at the end of 10th standard that my opponents finally managed to make me fall to the ground. It took a full string attack of about 6 guys to nail me. The moment I fell down, the entire football ground came to a stand still. Everyone including people from my own team clapped and cheered the event. I still have that scar on my left elbow. By the time I completed 10th standard, I was quite popular as a football star. I enjoyed the name, fame and power till the end of my school days. Even the college Principal at that time, Mr. M. N. Bhat congratulated me for my contribution to the school. I am the only person from the state level football team to be given a certificate from the college signed by the Principal himself.. with a little support from our PT Sir of course!

This concludes the third part of ‘The Gaming Bug’. Stay tuned for more in the next part ‘The Final Showdown’.

I am back with the second part of The Gaming Bug. This section once again explains my exploits at school specifically during the 8th standard. If ever you read the first part, you must have observed that I have not mentioned any names. I’ll definitely mention some in this one.

Once I completed 7th standard, I had to change my school because the one where I currently studied had classes only till 7th standard. I joined Manipal Pre-University College. This was very close to my old school. It had a bigger play area. Interestingly no body played cricket here. Football and Volleyball were the main games. There was Basketball too. I was in the right place and at the right time.

There were 4 sections for each standard. A1 and A2 were for the English medium. B and C were for the Kannada medium. I was in A1 section. All sections had a fixed period to get into the playground. A1 and A2 had the same timings. This new school had an interesting concept. Every class was divided into 4 groups Red house, Yellow house, Blue house and Green house. All these 4 houses would compete against each other during the annual sports day. For the 8th standard, I was in the Red house.. my favorite color.

I continued from where I had left off in my previous school.. Volleyball. There were a lot of good players along with me. And most of them were my own class mates. Some of them were new faces and some where from my old school. So it was really fun to play. I on occasions did have a go at football but not many saw me as a good player. I was an unknown entity in the world of football.. for now. But I continued mastering my skills in volleyball.

Soon things started heating up. The annual sports day was approaching. Everybody was busy organizing teams for their respective houses. I preferred to stay away from the competition. But it was not meant to be that way. Call it fate or destiny. My time was coming.. and fast.

When the time finally came, not many people were interested in the volleyball tournament. Everybody was too busy focusing on the main event.. Football. Even in red house, there were not many volleyball players either. In the end, there were just two nominations for the Volleyball tournament, Blue house and Red house. When it was time for the tournament, there were not many people even to see the match. On one side, there was the Blue house. This house at that time was famed for its volleyball players. Guys like Prakash Kamath and Gautham Pai to name a few. They were eagerly waiting for this day. They knew they had the fire power to blow out any opponent. Not just their main six players, their bench strength was equally formidable. On the other side, there was my team, the red house. We barely managed to find 6 players to form the team. We had no bench. No body even dreamt that we could win. I was never interested to play any tournament. I was forced to be part of the team. Now that I agreed to play, I had only one thing running in my mind.. to lift the coveted trophy.

We had just 2 regular volleyball players. The rest had some touch of the game. But that was not enough to bring the formidable blue house down. There was this guy named Puneeth Kumar. He was the captain of our team. He was a good sportsman and a great volleyball player. He was the only other player im my team who was good with the game. We carefully examined our team. Our strategy was simple. Puneeth was to cover the back line and I with the advantage of height was to cover the front line. Our other members were just for support if ever we both missed the ball. There were no rotation rules and this worked wonders for us. My presence at the front did worry the blue house because they knew I am capable of challenging them. But something happened to me that day. I tend to get more aggressive when forced into action. The beast within me was unleashed. There was bloodbath waiting to happen.

I and Puneeth on our own literally destroyed our opponents’ egos. The spectators got to see the best from both of us. Our opponents were running helter-skelter not to reach the ball but to run away from it. I hit a couple of jumping smashes purely out of instinct which was the first time anybody there had seen in those days. On one occasion, I even smashed one of our opponents nose. We easily won the match and the tournament. I became a well known personality for the way I had played that day. Puneeth would carry on with this volleyball touch. But there was still something missing for me. May be destiny had something else in store for me.

This concludes the second part of ‘The Gaming Bug’. Stay tuned for more in the next part ‘The Rise of Sipra’.

I am back with another post. This time, its a big one so I have broken it down to 5 separate posts, the first of which is below…

For years, I’ve been a gaming freak both on and off the field. This part explains my experiences mostly at school from the 1st to 7th Standard. These 7 years was an important time of my life.

In my childhood days I used to play a lot of carom and I was quite good with it. I always wanted to win. Then there was cricket. There were lots of kids around my house to play with who were the same ages as me. We used to play cricket in the evenings. On a Sunday, probably the whole day. The pitch was a small sand pit near my house. Even in school, our main focus was on cricket. We used to divide our class into 2 teams. Usually, the 2 best players stood as captains. I was not that popular as a cricketer during my initial days of schooling. This was just the beginning of my rise as a star.

We were all controlled by one person. This guy used to think he was the best and always used to make influential decisions which altered the course of the game. Everybody hated him. People soon felt that a change was needed and fast. This bully was killing the game of cricket. It was around 5th standard that everyone decided to form a mutiny and face this bully. Since most of the guys from my class stayed near or around my house, they chose me to be the new leader. This bully could not resist. I was now given the power to make or break a game. I was the new hero.

As days went by, people saw me as a good all rounder. I was branded as one of the top players of my class. I used to open the batting and at the same time, I was considered by many as a good fast bowler. Even my fielding was quite good. The role as a leader took me to new heights and I was feared by many for my exceptional cricketing brain. I changed the ‘One person rules all’ format to a friendlier one. Things slowly came back to normal and everybody was happy once again.

Cricket cannot be played in the rain because the ball becomes slippery and even visibility for the batsman was an issue. However, everyone waited for the rainy season. In our region, being close to the Western Ghats, Boy! When it rains, it pours. This was the time to play football. Everyone loved to get wet in the rain and football was an added entertainment. I was a good football player. I was different from most other guys because I could improvise as a goal keeper. And among my friends, no one wanted to be a goalie. But football was played only in the rainy season. I loved football but never thought about it as a main stream game. Things were to change very soon.

Around the same time while still in 5th standard, we were introduced to a new game.. Volleyball. I had not seen much about this game. We were given an option to choose either volleyball or cricket. My rein in cricket was short lived. I decided to try this new game. This bully, seeing no more support in cricket also moved to volleyball.

I did not take much time to master Volleyball. Once again, I quickly rose to the stature of a good volleyball player. My tall body structure was an added advantage and I had a killer serve. All these ingredients gave me the boost to soon be labeled as one of the best players of the class. By the time I reached 7th standard, I was more into volleyball and less into cricket. In fact I hardly played cricket. I can very well say 7th Standard was the last year I followed cricket as my favorite game. My focus of volleyball saw results the same year. I was unanimously selected for my school team to play the District level volleyball tournament. It was organized in my school itself and expectations on us were very high. Its really difficult to play in front of the home crowd. They cheer for every good shot and boo us for even the smallest mistakes. We lost the very first match to a better and well organized opponent.

Another interesting thing about my childhood was the exposure to a Personal computer. I still remember it was in 5th Standard that we were first allowed to step into the computer room. Those days, having a PC was a big deal. I had never seen a PC before and I was quite excited. Yeah.. These PCs did not have Windows. It was the good old Floppy disk operated DOS OS. We used to play games like Digger, Packman, Space Commander, Alley Cat and Bricks. My favorite was Digger and Bricks. I even created a new high score in Bricks which was talked about till the end of my 7th standard! Outside school, there was a craze for hand held video games. I loved playing games in the PC or a hand held video game. I never realized that one day, I’ll get addicted to PC games. This was just the kick start I needed.

My initial days as a gamer were highly influenced by my time at school. I acquired some important skills like team work, aggression and handling pressure and more importantly, the desire to win and never to fail. All these skills at some point in the near future would make me a legend! I would say 5th standard was the beginning of many more things to come. This one year was the much needed kick-start for many things to happen which I’ll talk about in my other posts.

This concludes the first part of ‘The Gaming Bug’. Stay tuned for more in the next part ‘The Beast Unleashed’.

Since we were 4 of us, I decided to go for the ‘Deal for 4′ option. With this order, we were supposed to get 2 medium pizzas, 2 portions of cheese garlic bread and 4 glasses of coke. All this for 675 Rs.

This friend of mine is one tough candidate when it comes to food. She is so selective that she hardly likes anything thats eatable. We spent about 20 minutes deciding what pizza to order. Since the Deal for 4 had two pizzas, I told Shweta to select one pizza and the other pizza will be selected by me and Dummi. After a long discussion and careful investigation of all the ingredients of each any every pizza, she finally chose Garden Fresh pizza. On the other hand, Dummi was quick to choose Veg Extravaganza pizza. Since all the four of us were vegetarians, we ordered veg pizzas.

The service was as usual decent and we got our coke and cheese garlic bread within 10 minutes. The taste of coke did not seem normal. I felt there was more water and less coke. Soon after, our Garden Fresh pizza arrived and we all just sprang into it. Our Veg Extravaganza pizza also arrived. We were quite happy chit chatting about all the ladies from our office as both Shweta and Ram were my colleagues as well. We were quite busy discussing which girl is hot and who’s not when we got what could be termed the “shock” of this year if not of our lives.

The waitress who took our order came with another dish and placed it on our table. We all were surprised as we had not placed that order. We even told her the same. But she replied its free with one of our orders and went away. The dish was a Calzone. We were earlier discussing that our stomach may not be full and we may need to order something else. Seeing this extra dish, we were quite happy. I told Ram to have a piece and give one piece to Shweta. He politely said he’ll just take one piece and he’ll share it with Shweta. He told me to take the other piece and give the remaining piece to Dummi. I agreed.

Ram took one bike of the Calzone and immediately told that it may not be vegetarian. I then just smelled it and believe me, it smelt like one dead rat. I dont eat meat so I wasn’t sure if meat dishes smell like that. I took one piece and tried to take a bite. The moment it just touched my tongue, I felt like vomiting. I just threw it on to my plate. Ram asked Shweta if she wanted a bite. She wasn’t sure what to do. He said it may be because of mushroom it tastes like that. i wasn’t sure because I love mushrooms and even raw ones dont taste so bad. She dissected the entire piece and found something round in shape. She somehow put it into her mouth and she did not like the taste as well. I also dissected my piece and i found the same round fleshy like thing. Dummi then insisted we need to clarify if it was really vegetarian. After some arguement Dummi decided to try one piece and even she struggled to eat it. I told her not to force herself if she cant eat it. She just wanted to get things clarified.

I then called the waitress and asked her to check if the Calzone was truely vegetarian. She immediately told its indeed vegetarian and walked away. She once again come to our table and said with great confidence “If you have ordered veg pizzas this Calzone also will be veg only”. But we were not convinced one bit. We all once again started digging into all the pieces of the Calzone and we found more circular meat like pieces. We were now sure that this was non-vegetarian.

After a while, we decided to put our investigation to test. We called the Manager of the store and requested him to check if the Calzone was vegetarian. He immediately admitted that it was not vegetarian. Both the girls at our table sank into a state of no return. I was certainly furious but there was nothing we could change. The Manager apologized for the mistake but we were not happy with it. We told him to make sure that the customers are well informed about any free offers that are present at the time of order. He tried to be nice but we just asked for our bill. We paid the amount and walked out deciding not to return to this place again.

I always used to tease Dummi telling some day I wanted to taste meat. Never did I know it would end up in a disaster. That horrible taste has been permanently sealed in some corner of my brain. After what happened yesterday, I have decided to not eat meat again.

I now proudly say I am a vegetarian!