Of sticks and stones...

Id never done this before. Nervous? yeah...exicited?..hell yeah.... yup this was it...something i'd been wanting to do for a long long time...I finally managed to attend my first 'polo' match....

Polo as its called is definetely the "game of kings"...The game's a little different from the other's...teams of four per side...two refrees..four 'chakars'( or quaters)...10 pony's (suprise suprise: yes pony's...horses arnt used in polo!)... each time a team scores a point or a goal, the side's switch. So if youre on Team A and manage to score on the left post, your team needs to score on the right post the next time...and no, there's isnt a goaliee on either side...so you wont see two horses galloping accross the field everytime a goal's scored.

But thats not the point. Polo's really not about the game persay, but more about the atmosphere. Its as if youre transported back, a number of years, when the kings and prince's called the shots. And it still attracts its share of royalty....so almost all the blue blood in India from the Scindia's of gwalior to the Rajputs of jaipur "claim" to be confortable with the sport....

I havnt mentioned the Wadiyar's (pronounced "Oodiyar's", as my south indian buddy tells repeatedly)...Now I can only imagine what happened to the poor pony once Mr Wodiyar managed to mount on him...I mean its a pony for a god's sake!...i'm not sure if even the famous 'mysore' elephant is too confortable with the "not so lean" Mr Wadiyar...

Where the royal lineage flows, so does the elite... thats why i wasnt really suprised when i spotted Mr. Jindal hob nobing with the Anil kapoor's and Saif Khan's of the world...
The polo community has still remained very true to its true past, still following all the customs and traditions of the yester years.

An intresting one was "treading the field". This happens at the end of the third chakar. The MC of the event invites the entire spread of spectators to walk on the ground. No, she wasnt trying to ignite the health bug in us, but in effect was asking us to smoothen the ground, roughed up with all the running...

Or so she thought....

The custom, as history goes expects the spectators to walk the entire length and width of the ground but the spectacle i saw was quite different. There was booze..lots of it...some people did get up... but only till their first step into the ground. They sipped on some delicious champagne, got a few pictures clicked by the press( some of which almost got run over in the process!) and promplty went back to their seats.

The term "remaining true to one's custom" in a whole new dimension...

It wasnt soon after that i realised that polo is also a game of sheer patience. No, not for the players but for the bored, rather intoxicated audience. I would be too..sunday afternoon..chilled beer..women...horses..ahem...

But seriously speaking, the game does lose its charm after a few chakars. Firstly the spectator's are too far away from the action. Us the new generation, fed on satelleite TV and mobiles are far too used to being in the center of the field. The only time one gets to see the ball (ie. the polo ball) is when the players come charging towards your end of the grandstand.And at that time, you scream..not to cheer...but in true, unadultrated fear!..

Well, it did end. thankfully. But before the "la di da" headed for some more pressing matters like the "after" party or a pedicure, the Jindal group had few antics up their sleeve. They did lose, but dint fail to entertain. So the trumpets sound and one suddenly sees a man balancing his entire 45 Kgs by standing vertically on two galooping horses. Now if that wasnt enough..he manages a handstand on the same as well..

I think i distinctly heard him praying..something about the two horses getting along......ouch!