Of Gujjus and Marvadis and fierce competitiveness:
Yesterday, we had a nice session of cricket at my place in Mount Ridge. We play a game of four overs, with typical 'feki' bowling and anything which hits the walls directly is out ( BOX STYLE ). We ( Jeetu, Suraj and I ) have been playing this sort of cricket everyday at our house since our return from India and it is a cool game which we enjoy a lot. But yesterday a totally new perspective was added to our cricket..the competitive edge. Vishal and Anubhav, at my place after a visit to the Isckon temple, made me realise what happens when a Gujju and a Marvadi play..there was everything SLEDGING, CHEATING, and fierce competitiveness. The one incident which still resounds in my minds is the game in which Anubhav and I were in one team and Vishal and Jeetu formed another. A confusion about the target we were supposed to chase arised and we had a smallish squabble whether it was 31 or 32(runs).
Anoop: "Abbe..kitna run chahiye jeetne ko"
Jeetu and Vishal: 33 runs ..hum logon ne 32 banaya tha
Anubhav and Anoop : Haan kya? hum logon ko laga 32 hai jeetne ko
Vishal ( turning his head to Anubhav) : 33 yaar....Apna Baat ho gaya tha

"Apna Baat Ho gaya tha" ..What on earth could justify his statement other than a case of serious 'sattebaazi' match fixing instincts.

We battled for matches and matches galore..first Vishal and I teaming up against Anubahv and Jeetu and then Anubhav and I teaming up against the other two."5-1" was the scoreline in our favour in the first and the series was tied "1-1" in the second, which included a well fought two tied matches.In one of the tied matches, Anubhav finally chose his occasion to showcase his talent allowing Jeetu to score 27 runs in one over of his bowling as I was the fielder happlessly seeing the opposite team equalise the target with a last ball four of my bowling. After they ( Vishal and Anubhav ) left, Jeetu and I had a discussion about how gruelling the cricket session was; how tired we felt after 11 games of four overs each which we have never even felt after 20 games in our normal routine. We discussed how the everyday cricket games we played was a gentleman's affair with a high level of tolerance and zero argument kind of like the English cricket. And now introduce a Gujju (Vishal) and a Marvadi( Anubhav); the game changes to a fierce Indo-Pak style cricket with lot of abuses, arguments, sledging, and close finishes.