Corridor Cricket

I joined the college hostel in 6th semester. It was winters and we got the top floor in A Hostel. No block was left with 5 rooms together. We were around 6 people who wanted to stay together. Our other classmates were in another block. So me, Nandi, Manu, Chotu, Dua and Walia came to stay in Block D.

First night we shifted by around night 9. Manu and Nandi were about to stay in one room so we shifted one bed and that took us this long. Well it was never too late to start at the new place. A chair was brought out and with bat and a tennis ball. We started with one of our favorite time pass activities throughout our engineering, “Corridor Cricket”. There were 7 rooms in that block, out of which we occupied 5 and 2 rooms were with some guys from civil department.

The game was simple, just like cricket apart from the fact that we had to bowl without rotating our arms, one tip out and runs only on the off side. Every stop was counted a run and the far end of the corridor was the boundary. Direct hit on the wall at leg side was out, and so was if the ball went down. We have played this for all the last 2 years of our engineering. I still remember the exam time when everyone used to have notebooks in hand, roaming around studying. Nandi used to take out the bat and I had the ball in hand. We used to start with a little hit here hit there. Soon after chotu used to come out saying “saalo tum padhne nahi doge” and used to join us. Now the chair used to come out and we 3 started to play. Manu would try hard to study and not get distracted but he was never able to hold for long. Soon we would form a team clubbing in Malhotra, Dua, sometimes Jagi and Gaurav. Sometimes jaini and Seth used to join too. Played till we were tired and someone would realize that we haven’t finished our syllabus with just few hours for the exam.

Chotu batted well but used to do a lot of showoff, Manu was a cool customer, a good batsman and a good bowler. I was ok type, used to bat in need but I would say I was good with the ball. Walia was a genuine player but for this form of cricket he wasn’t up to the mark. Nandi was a wall, seriously, not that he batted for long cause he played good but cause he was so big that he used to stop every ball moving towards the stump with his legs or his bum. Malhotra ji and jagi used to come for time pass as they got tensed for the syllabus before anyone else. Dua was a good baller when it came to rotating the arm, but here he too missed the nick.

I still remember, the very first morning in D block, we saw the two civil students leaving the rooms cause of us. There have been many whom we have annoyed with our skills.