Kick-Off

“Bloody blade! Run back faster man” yelled pinto as he scrambled to stop the ball from crossing the side lines.

“I am four beers down. Be glad that I am standing here” screamed back subbu.

He knew that it was not the beer that stopped him from running. He stretched his back again. He was glad that they were not playing in a proper football field. He couldn’t have run till the half line mark. He would think twice before he said yes to a walk on the beach, let alone playing football there.

“Oye, barricade. Come on man. We cannot lose it today. We still have got it in us. We are the corporate champs dude!!”, prateik’s words made it’s way through his twisted tongue.

“Barricade” – Subbu repeated the word and smiled. For over 2 years he went around calling himself that, trying to spread the cool nickname. He wanted to emphasize how good a defender he was. But the first time he said it, he was under the influence of old monk. And Rajan heard it as blade. He has been blade subbu ever since. Subbu stood under the Goa sun trying to keep himself balanced. He was not sure if it was his head spinning or it was the sign for flash-back that he was seeing. But he was transported to D-704 where 6 of them lived in a 3 bedroom house. 3 bedroom Junkyard, may be.

They were the champions, alright. If the clock did strike 5.30, they would be out on the ground practicing. Most games they played were for the corporate tournaments. They had only one feeling towards all the opposition teams that came in for the tourneys – Contempt. They used to laugh amongst themselves, passing comments on the uncles who turned up to play football. They beat the other teams most of the times. Pinto the striker, Rajan the other forward, blade subbu the defender, Prateik and manu the midfielders, shahul the goalie, all of them lived, played, ate, drank together. It was a wonder, Manu playing football. For the workaholic he was. He had to skip/reschedule most of the meetings. There were occasions when he used to wire himself with hands free while playing. He would be attending a con call while dribbling the ball. Once he had forgotten to mute the call and referee blew the whistle right in front of him. The next day the clients told him that they ran out of the building thinking that there was an alien invasion happening. He was christened as Jhadu mannu after that. Jadoo being too cool a nickname was vetoed.

Rajan even declined Amrita’s invite for a movie fearing for his life. He had to choose between a match and a taste of Amrita’s lip gloss. He chose the match. Prateik later told Rajan that it did taste good. The fight that followed was rated the best ever. Most fights were indeed nasty. If they lost a match, no one would talk to each other apart from running the blame game. That was until the night when the bottles came out. After that the swear words competition would follow. All the opponents’ moms and dads would get their due.

Subbu was brought back to reality when the ball came out of nowhere and hit him on his nose. “Fuck you lil bastards”, he screamed out in pain. He then turned towards Pinto and gave him a piece of his mind for calling the match. And that too against a bunch of 10-12 year old kids. They were almost sneaking in between his legs and scoring goals. “That’s it. I am done. 33 year olds are not supposed to be playing football. They are supposed to have beer watching the sunset” He murmured as he made progress to the bench.

“You can’t leave the field. Respect the game, man”, Manu tried to bring him back.

Subbu pushed the next kid who came close to him down onto the sand and said, “Oh damn. That has to be a red card. I am out!!”. Pinto convinced the kids not to beat Subbu up.

He sat on the bench watching the rest of the four run 3 steps and pant for 2 minutes. Except for Pinto, who kept himself in some good shape. Rest of them could use a sports bra and a belly tucker. It was a hollow feeling that crept in. The game was never going to be the same again. Life itself was not. The get together had happened after 4 years of planning. If he came to India, Prateik couldn’t make it from London. Or Manu would be on his 3 week onsite trips. Or Pinto’s wife would be carrying. The reasons were not important. The end result was. It has been 4 long years since they sat together and had a good laugh. Shahul was anyways out. He was the first one to break out of the ‘group’. The moment he married Aisha, he divorced 5 of his friends. Rajan heard from someone that Shahul has moved to the emirates. No one could confirm. Pinto almost pulled out, but then agreed to make it a second honeymoon trip of sorts. The others were not comfortable with the idea of wives and children making the trip too. But no one complained. It became a couple’s retreat.

He did not want to see the sunset that day. The sunset would mean that the day would come to an end. And on the day that followed, everyone would be back to their bases. He would be taking his flight to Chicago. Prateik to London. Pinto to Trivandrum, Rajan and Manu to Mumbai. He almost thought that those guys were lucky to be in the same city. But he knew that even they had met each other last a couple of years ago. He looked out for a ship to blurt out the “Dekh raha hun wo jahaz” dialogue. But couldn’t find one. If Dil Phir Chahta Hai were to be made, he thought, Akash would have flown back to Australia with Shalini, Sid would have moved to Europe to get more inspiration and Sameer would be living in Mumbai with Pooja and children.

It would be back to the comments on facebook, the odd phone calls, the con calls if everyone was available. The virtual friendship was never a good substitute. He was sure that it was the beer working over time in his blood streams. He was trying hard to prevent his eyelids getting moist with the salty discharge. A hand came from behind and hugged him. Shamika said, “It’s ok barricade” and gave him a kiss. Subbu turned around to attend to her, and to his new life.