Diaries of an English Journey

Wimbledon Weekend

The weekend for which I had waited impatiently finally arrived in the form of a late morning.Sita was in the kitchen having her last breakfast. I asked her about wimbledon and the first thing she said was that they had left at 6:30 in the morning and here I was at 8:30 merrily munching away at some toast and jam. My jaw fell open when she nonchalantly remarked that I would be inside only by 5 pm if I went today. I cursed myself at not having woken up early enough.
Grumbling to myself, I caught the bus and thought about what I should do.On reaching the location, there was this humongous line that appeared atleast thrice as long as the Siddhivinayak Temple Queue. Almost wailing, I joined the line where I met a banglorean and a French guy and we got started talking about general Tennis.I proudly mentioned about Sania and her beautiful shots and curves.
The crowd in the meantime had begun waking up from their slumber and a steady motion of legs was soon observed.Soon, the pace quickened and by almost a miracle we were there inside by 11:45 am just 15 minutes before the Leander Paes-Zimonjic match was to commence. My nerves had already reached a neurotic state on having come to know that their match had to be suspended the previous the day due to bad light. I was only a few yards away from the action. The match turned out to be awesome and the duo quickly converted into a good victory for themselves.
Then, accompanied by the bangalorean dude, I watched the Max Mirnyi singles match....tall lanky and a seemingly uninteresting match because we had to catch the Bhupathi-Pierce 2nd round encounter. The Match was a complete disaster for the opponents who were very much a mismatch in any case. Bhupathi-Pierce dispatched them with utter disdain and after the match it was time for some fun. Bhupathi was mobbed by the Indian junta and he waited patiently for atleast 30 minutes makin sure that his every fan was satisfied,including me. Happy with a wonderful picture and a weird autograph, I made my way to a phone booth, as I had promised my family that I would call them up from Wimbledon. All of them were busy watching the event at Neha's place. After the long call back home, I darted for the one thing I had especially come for...STRAWBERRIES AND CREAM!!
After a huge pizza chunk and the special dessert, the one match that I had to see was the Sania-Aspelin Mixed Doubles match. The Indian crowd was unfathomable and it would not be exxagerating if I said that we made more noise than the adjoining Centre Court where the Federer match was on and the Court No. 1 hosting the Murray-Nalbandian match. Sania was beautiful beyond words and I think I fell in love with her during the match.
After the match, she graciously accepted my small scrap of paper, held it on real tightly when it was about to fall down, smiled at me, and signed on it. I know I died at that very instant.
We then clambered upon Henman Hill to catch some action on the big screen. The Murray match soon became a dud as he almost came to a standstill in the 4th set. Both of us decided to call it quits for the day, took some photos at some prominent locations and left for our respective homes.
The next day, Akshay and me left for a London tour. The first stop was the Buckingham Palace where the Changing of the Guard takes place evey day. Real life Toy soldiers marched all around the palace accompanied by the band. It all seemed excessively weird. We had no idea how the guard actually changed and why these soldiers did random horizontal and vertical walks every 5 minutes.
Anyways, it was time to be kids again as we merrily bought 2 tickets for the London Aquarium and with wide grins came in through the card reader doors. The collection was quite good with the sharks being the centre of attraction. We also had this huge tanks wherein we could dip our hands in and touch the fishes and rays. It was a scary thought to touch the rays but then I gathered enuf courage to actually touch them and it felt so leathery and soft. Nemo was also busy in his own tank. The Clown fish were extremely cute with their tiny fins and striped bodies flapping themselves beyond their own pace.
In the evening, we made our way to some familiar London locations that Akshay wanted to see...The London Bridge, The Tower Bridge, ..... , The Tower Hill...and then, A rare sight was unfolded. The Tower Bridge actually opened and it was a treat to watch it. We had arrived at the precise moment when the ships were about to pass.
The day got over for us and Akshay made his way to his future jiju's place whereas I went to my Grand-Aunt's place who had flown in especially from California just to meet me. The place was beautiful with a line of houses on a small hill.
But then, what you see is not normally what happens, does it?I heard stories that got sadder by the minute. The food was typical Punjabi with alu-baingan, rotis and pakode. I had arrived at the place with some huge expectations but went back reminded of the fact that I have a home to get back to.
I came back to the room seeing that my new room mate had arrived. Guiguem Osca Gunther?...from Valencia, Spain...An innocent types guy who would be easily misled if he were in India. I also met 2 other americans involved in internships, living across the hall, Magen from Pennsylvania and Hunter from California.
Then I braced myself for the luckiest week of mine of the past 21 years.....The next weekend was the most unexpected thing that could happen to anyone....Believe me!

posted by Rahul @ 2:29 AM