Sunday Evening Blues

For more than one and half years now there is one thing I am almost certain to do any given week. Play a game of pick-up soccer at 4:30 p.m. on Sunday. This is as if no matter what-else is happening rest of the week I will be there in the park waiting for all other people to turn-up. It is wonderful group of people I play with. As it is a pick-up game and nothing close to being competitive, people are laid-back and sometimes just 4-5 people show up. We end up kicking around for sometime and very rarely the worst comes true - only couple of people showing up! Playing soccer on Sunday evenings sets me up perfectly for the work week starting Monday morning.

Its kind of deja vu for me. When I was in college back in Hassan, India, we played Cricket with tennis-ball at 4:00 p.m. every Sunday. I have wonderful memories those times. It was really fun to play with my buddies some of whom I had known since kindergarten. I did this for almost 5 years. No matter what else I did rest of the week, I was there on the Cricket grounds at 4:00 p.m. Sunday. Even then sometimes it so happened that very few people showed up. It forced us to just knock around for sometime. Although I didn't have to worry about a work week starting Monday, Sunday Cricket was still one of the things I enjoyed most.

There is one more similarity and Irony to those times. Back then, we played in a ground which was common for Cricket and Soccer. On most Sundays there was no one playing soccer And we could play without being bothered. But now and then people showed up for soccer practice. We hated those guys as we had to move from the big ground to a smaller ground next to it. Now, here in Durham, North Carolina, we play soccer in a public park where there are separate fields for Soccer and Baseball and Softball. Soccer field has been closed for renovation for some time now and we end up playing Soccer on baseball field. Now and then people show up for baseball practice and we have to move to a field which is vacant.

I was playing Cricket then and wished no would show up for Soccer practice and Now, I am playing Soccer and wish no would show up for Baseball practice (Base ball being relatively similar to Cricket). As they say, What goes around, comes around!