A Happy Coincidence

Now, just as I was wondering what to do with all the free time on my hands, I decided to go watch the ‘Rajkot City Police & Jyoti Challenge Cup’ Football Tournament 2013, where my Dad was one of the organizers. Here’s the part where the Universe said, “You want to do something? Fair enough.” It so happened that the announcer at the tournament had to leave the city in an emergency and they had no backup. This caused something just short of panic among the organizers.

Who would speak now?

Who would make the announcements?

Who would declare results?

Who would read out advertisements?

Who would entertain the public?

At that moment my Dad said to me, “Brendan, take this list of names and go make the announcements – in English AND Gujarati.”

I said, “OK.”

I went right ahead and read the whole thing off. The Gujarati speaking crowd were quite impressed, even if it’s I who say so. The organizer’s then handed over the department to me entirely and I got promoted from audience to announcer.  It was a new experience for me but challenging nonetheless since Gujarati has never been my strong suit but I think I managed it and before long I was making other announcements and issuing instructions to people on and off the ground.

On the day before the quarter-final matches were about to be played, I started a running commentary during one of the matches and fortunately for me, the people in charge loved it. That gave me a certain modicum of confidence and I started giving full-fledged commentary in three languages: English, Gujarati & Hindi. I had now been promoted from announcer to commentator. It was fun to describe the fast-paced game in all its glory. 32 teams from all over the state of Gujarat in India had gathered to play in this tournament.

It was quite the adrenaline rush to put into words the passing of the ball, the sprinting of the players, the right or wrong tackles, the marvelous headers, the venomous volleys, the searing attacks, the solids defences, the arcing clearances, the diving saves, the occasional tiffs, the fleeting injuries and the fantastic goals that were the highlights of this tournament.

At last I had found something to do that I loved. I continued my commentary till the end of the tournament and I at the organizer’s after-event meet, I was declared the official commentator for the Challenge Cup 2014. And so, April 21-28 was quite eventful for me.

Looking forward to more opportunities such as this. I wish they would come like this:

“Knock! Knock!”

“Who’s there?”

“OPPORTUNITY!”

Here’s hoping…