For
an activity that takes your heart and soul, involves your mind and body it was
a natural progression. Games begin in the mind before you move on to the real
act itself. And nothing gets players in the heat of the game more than some
mental stimulation. And thus began Titanomachy this year. The play for
Titanomachy began with blitz chess. Team TNHP and HOM sounded the battle horn
and knights started flirting with queens. Meanwhile GKG and GOK started dueling
on the sidelines. Rooks were slaughtered, bishops were sacrificed and when the
fog of war cleared, the pawnsters from HOM that emerged the champions of blitz
chess, defeating GOK in the final battle of the checkered board.
The
battle was won but the war remained, from Space Circle, where Balls of Fury
were whizzing around at sonic speeds in the Table Tennis encounters. Solo,
doubles or mixed doubles you name it. Table Tennis at Titanomachy had something
for everyone’s taste. Nakul Gupta showed deadly table edge precision while
Dipanjan Biawas was his usual Bengali self. GOK came out to be the TT Champs at
Titanomachy 2013 after Vartika and Nakul won the mixed Doubles match to take an
unassailable 3-1 lead.
Basketball is one of the most physically
demanding sports there is and it was arguably the most aggressively contested
one at Titanomachy.
Gaurav Bajaj (2012-14 batch) writes:
“Thundershowers, lightning, drizzle,
beautiful fast rains - we all must have witnessed these weathers through our
lifetime. But it's not every day that you get to see these weathers in the same
day - something that was adamantly visible on the Basketball Court at Space
Circle tonight. For those of you who were not a witness to the basketball
chronicles today, well - you really missed something! Especially if you like
the typical masala-stuffed Bollywood movies or turbulent TV shows like Bigg
Boss (I thought I should begin with a joke but this one actually turns out to
be true)
In our first match for the day, TNHP went
one-on-one against GOK. The match turned out to be a mauling (with no
disrespect to GOK, they just could not match TNHP's swagger). The score line
stood at 20-0 at the end. It was like the scene from 3 Idiots - TNHP said
Chamatkaar and GOK got Balaatkar! GOK just fell behind in line, caught in their
own tails; eventually the misery was contemplated in just one dialogue - "Abey
Kutte aage aa!" Everyone present could not help themselves but
chuckle upon hearing this frivolous cry of frustration from a player in angst
who tried valiantly but just could never get the proper service or the skills
from the team! Ah, the moment is unretractable but i firmly believe etched in
the minds of all those present. TNHP, on their part, had a strong set of
players who contemplated well with each other - a fact aptly displayed by the
score line
And after witty dialogues and hearty laughs,
all die-hard Bollywood dramas need some action! And action-was-a-plenty in the
second match, between HOM and GKG. Both teams had players with good abilities -
it was a good match on paper; on the court, it turned out to be an all-out war.
Players crashing on the court, rough fouls, strong backing up and both teams
keeping their defenses tight. The score remained 0-0 in the first half. The
second half started in the same fashion - same tempo but with a basket scored
by GKG. But it was as the third quarter ended that the match took an
unprecedented turn - actually for the worse! All hell broke loose with one
instance of a punch thrown; within moments sledging turned to physical
involvement, heated exchanges, on rush of people from the audience to separate
the engaged parties, more sledging, news of the match being abandoned, 40-50
ppl stacked up on the court, Anarchy, Chaos - it was a scene the Joker would
have been proud of Anyways, after more than half an hour of mayhem,
Batman saved Gotham (captains and referee sorted it all out together) and
the match was back on again with three FTs awarded to HOM for the foul - one
was converted and score was brought to 2-1. A rapid last quarter saw both teams
firing baskets and finally, GKG prevailed 8-5 to reach the finals. It was in
the end our own Hillsborough disaster - only difference being
that the competitive spirit and sportsmanship was what died a meager death
here. It can be treated as a gossip story but it was essentially against sports
etiquettes. In the heat of the spirit, we do regrettable things against
our basic morals. Just hoping that it will not repeat in the remainder of this
Titanomachy edition and we see rest of the sports played in the right spirit of
competitiveness
And after that moral epiphany, back to the
remaining games. 3rd Place was taken by HOM in a 6-2 win over GOK. GOK
performed immensely better as a unit in this match but HOM ran away with the
solitary point with a defining performance, totally reflective of their true
caliber
The final between GKG and TNHP was a game
between two giants. Although time deficit caused by the earlier debacle led to
each quarter being restricted to a 3-minute time frame, both teams stepped up
to the plate with strong conviction and a quality set of players. Over the
first three quarters, TNHP took a 2-pt lead twice, both times equalized by GKG.
The game involved rapid attacks by both teams along with more offensive
strategies. A third basket in the 4th quarter of the game seemed to give TNHP
the edge but a final needs to have a special moment - this one had its when GKG
hit a three pointer in the middle of the last quarter to take a 7-6 lead. And
that's how it remained till the end. GKG played catch up during the entire
match but just crossed the line a bit better than THNP in a true photo finish.
Both teams surely deserve a great round of applause for the enlivening the
spirit and enthralling the crowd; in fact, all four teams did that. And
despite the shadows of negativity still present in hunches, it turned to be an
extravagant affair - one thoroughly enjoyed by both the audience and the
players.
P.S.: A special mention for the 'Jaddu
ki Jhappis' one of the players gave to opposition players from behind
during the game. I don't believe you are going to witness that again in a
basketball if you missed it tonight (then again, I could not have predicted
what happened today either).
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