The Entertainment Machine

The Entertainment Machine

Being an army kid one is taken to many places.. and one learns to enjoy these not so common places.

So here I as in Bharatpur. A place popular for the bird sanctuary.

Telling out of experience there is ntn more to Bharatpur than the birds.. Its a slow moving town with ntn happening..

But still when ur 13 and bored (and an army kid, yes i take a lot of pride in being one) one always figures out something to do..

One day while on our weapons of exploration.. Our cycles.. My friends n i found an abandoned cemented area on a barren field.. It was a very uprising find cuz all that there was on those fields was a bushy thorny plant and dry soil..

We went home asked our dads abt wat it was.. No one had any idea.. We ( 2 friends of mine who happened to be brothers and i) begged our dads to get that patch a bit cleaned off.. We helped in the cleaning ourselves.. Well wat we found that it was a rectangular large patch of cement.. And it had some white lines made on it.. Wait a second was it a tennis court!?!?

Yes it was.. Well that was it.. That was the solution to our boredom.. A tennis court though in tatters is still a tennis court..

We started playing day in and day out..literally.. In the summer hols we would get up at 530 with the sunrise play till 8ish.. As the sun became harsh (Bharatpur is in Rajasthan at the edge of the desert) we went home and slept.. Again in the evenings at about 5 530 we were on the court again and this time till about 7 ish when it became too dark to see the ball..

The funny thing was that it being an erstwhile abandoned court it dint hav a cage or a net.. The net we found berried deep in the mess'es sports store room but there was no cage.. So we lived with that.. Every time one would hit a fast shot and the opponent would miss it the ball would would go rolling away to a minimum of 20 feet away.. We played with just one ball so invariably whenever a person won a point the other would hav to run to go get the ball..

Whatever said and done we really had fun!! A lot of fun..

It seems now that we had just too much of fun.. All the units uncles would pass by us in the morning when they would go to office and when in the evening they would comeback we would be on the court again.. Them seeing us enjoy our selves so much had the 'tom sawyer' effect on them i suppose.. They just had to play..

So one fine day one of the uncles joint us.. In a few days a few others.. They all complained about wat we had gotten used to the lack of the cage and them having to run to get the ball..

10 15 days passed then one afternoon we say some work happening at the court..

When we reached there we found out that a cage was being built.. Wow now this is awesome.. Within 2 days the cage was ready and now even more uncles came to play.. We had to wait out for matches.. But that was okay just one one match each.. It was fine..

Days passed the court was now throughly cleaned.. And the next day painted.. The court gained speed the ball would now bounce off faster than it had done in it second life now just about 1 and a half months old.. Wow our barren cemented land was gaining popularity..

In a few days the number of ppl playing increased the waiting increased.. Lemon aid! Neebu pain , tea, coffee, real juice God knows wat else stared being served there from the units mess.. It was like a daily sports party..

Well all this triggered our idea.. We started a tournament.. Ad open ( ad = ammunition depot) we made some money just before school reopened..

In the evenings then we seldom ever got a chance to play.. Life was back to the boring days.. Now we cycled with the glow of the lights from the tennis court in the background..