Spardha '14!

As I set foot on in Banaras, I observed that it was a lot warmer than I’d been expecting. We stepped out of the railway station, close to midday. We were ushered into waiting SUV’s and whisked off to the BHU campus. Of course, we were here to participate in IIT-BHU’s Sports Fest, Spardha ’14.

Once on campus, I was greeted by an old friend; a friend by correspondence. We immediately took off; I knew not where. We walked out of ‘Hyderabad Gate’ of the BHU campus. We stopped by his favourite chai shop and I got myself some tea. One of my team-mates had come along; she sat looking at us, as an unknown figure pulled his bike to a stop and joined us. We were soon introduced to bike-guy. Rahul and I strolled leisurely, picking up cold-drinks and snacks, while bike-guy took off with Sana.

By 1:00 p.m., we were all perched in various spots, over at bike-guy’s house. We sat around, talking. Aditya & Rahul related stories centred on random odds & ends and had us in splits, the whole time.
We also met Aditya’s flat-mate, Nikhil, albeit briefly, before walking back to the Girls’ Hostel on campus at around 3:30 p.m. There were about eighty girls, from 12-14 colleges, all housed in one large common room. Our team had picked a corner and we parked our stuff, took baths and tried to decide on a course of action, for the evening.
A couple of girls left to see the city and get some shopping done while I made my way to pick up the fixtures for the Women’s matches. I then accompanied Rahul to the Kashi Vishwanath Mandir on campus. A majestic structure, an area buzzing with activity.
By 5:30, a couple of my team-mates and me were at the Basketball court, watching the matches that had just begun. We then decided to grab a bite, first trying the food stalls that had been set up in the field adjacent to the basketball court and later making our way to the Mandir, for the road leading to the mandir had a host of eating places. We picked up roasted peanuts and were on our merry way. It was only about 6:30 p.m., but, it was already looking like midnight, gauging by the sky.

The sole women’s basketball game scheduled for the day began at 7 p.m. with us watching. Our boys’ badminton team won their first match, and our sports fest chapter began on a good note.
By 8:30, one of my team-mates and I were meeting new people, courtesy Rahul. By 9:30, all the ladies who’d gone shopping were back to campus.
At 9:30, Rahul, his friends and I left campus on two bikes and headed to Assi Ghat. All the way there, I looked around eagerly, trying to take in as much of Banaras as possible. We were then settled by the river, though it was too dark for me to be able to actually see any water. We walked along the Ghats, I believe there are 84 of them along the river, for around an hour before heading over to Aditya’s house.
We sat talking; later, Aditya’s flatmate read out a series of beautifully written poems while I merely gaped. We then moved to the terrace, gazed at the stars, Rahul played music and we talked.

There was a Women’s Basketball Match that morning i.e. 6:30 a.m., on the 31st of October. We made our way towards campus, stopping to have tea on the way. Once there, we realised that the match would then begin only at 8:30 a.m. An impromptu plan sprung up; soon, we were at Ravidas Ghat, watching the sun come up. The sun simmering gently, rapidly where it hit the water kept us staring in silence.
We were on the court, with the rest of the team, by 8:30 a.m. We sat watching the Women’s Basketball game, where both the teams in our pool battled it out. Our Boys’ Volleyball team, meanwhile, managed to get disheartened and lose a match that they might have won. We were then informed that our Volleyball match, which was scheduled to happen at 6 in the evening, would instead be played at 10:15 i.e. in about half an hour. One of our team members (and, we had exactly the requisite six) was to arrive only by mid-day. We had a hard time explaining this rather simple concept to the organizers. We then agreed to play a 5-man team, without rotation; then, the match was re-scheduled again, back to its original slot.

We had our first Volleyball match at 2 p.m. Unfortunately, while we won the first set, we lost the match. It was disheartening, but, we quickly moved on. This was mainly because we were rather hungry. We made our way to the Girls’ Hostel canteen and ate all that they had on offer. Of course, about a dozen cups of tea were involved too.
The opening ceremony of Spardha ’14 was scheduled to begin at 4 p.m. It felt like my school sports day, all over again. Contingents from different colleges stood, all perfectly lined up for march-past, around the large ground. Each contingent also had a leader who stood at the head of the contingent, bearing the college flag. It was nice to see the IIM-Indore flag, blue on white, fluttering in the breeze.

As soon as the opening ceremony was over, we made our way to the Volleyball court, for our second match of the day only to learn that it had been postponed. Our Volleyball and Basketball matches both happened at 9 p.m., one after the other. After the match, we were once again settled in the Girls’ Hostel canteen, drinking cup after cup of hot, steaming tea.

We had our last Volleyball match on the morning of the 1st; the match was great fun! Afternoon was spent getting information about the best eating places in Banaras – pan, chaat, chicken and mithai! Before the match at 5, we wandered through the winding lanes of Banaras, watching the world go by. After winning the match, we decided to enact our plan. Almost the entire girls’ team went out to explore Banaras, more specifically to explore the food that Banaras had to offer! We managed to eat all the chaat on offer- tamatar ki chaat , pani puri, dahi puri, papdi chaat, safed matar ki chaat!
Post dinner, we walked around, exploring the IIT-BHU campus- the academic buildings and even the hostels are designed to look like temples! And, each building is at least 50 years old, some even a 100!

The Women’s Basketball Semi-final was early the next morning. We fought hard, but, lost to the home team by a small margin. I felt really bad, and, behaving like a sore loser, ran off the court as soon as the final whistle was blown. I then called up Rahul, from a borrowed phone, for I had no clue about the whereabouts of my own. When that call refused to connect, I decided to try my luck at contacting Aditya. Unfortunately, I seemed to remember only 3 digits of his 10-digit mobile number. I took a chance with the other 7 and somehow got lucky in my first and only try! I then went off to meet my BHU friends, being careful to avoid meeting any of my team-mates, for I did not really feel up to it.
We sat talking all afternoon and maggi was eaten. Evening was spent walking along the ghats, with two of my team-mates, Rahul & Aditya. We even floated diyas down the Gang. The evening ended with plans to go see the sunrise, early next morning and a nice dinner. Of course, the dinner was followed up and preceded by Banaras ka paan!
We decided that the only way to make it to the early morning plan was to stay up all night! We then settled ourselves in the Girls’ Hostel canteen, one more time! We left campus at around 5 , on the morning of 3rd November. We tried to soak in as much of Banaras as we could, in the few hours that we had before we caught an 11:20 train. We even went around the BHU campus, saw the auditorium, the buildings of various departments, the large fields maintained by the Agricultural Science department and even sat by the fish ponds maintained by the Veterinary Sciences department.

Soon, luggage gathered, memories collected, we made our way to the station. We stood around eating hot samosas while we waited for our slightly delayed train. Then, waving good-bye to Aditya, who’d accompanied us to the station, we left Banaras, with memories to last a lifetime.