The Velvet Morning: Chapter Five - A Basketball Clash

“ Try that at home, now give it to me”- Kiran barked at Sulav for taking a long time in winnowing out the best part of the weed. He took a bunch of inflorescence on the hard surface of the notebook and crumpled.

“ Sulav, give me two cigarettes!”- Kiran ordered.

Sulav took two sticks of cigarette from his pocket and handed them to Kiran-“ Here, they are.”

Kiran meticulously emptied a portion of cigarette tobacco on the notebook and shuffled it with the weed. Putting the empty frames of cigarette into the mouth, he sucked in the tobacco-weed mix.

“Who’s got the pills? – Kiran dictated in their marijuana meeting after preparing two joints.

Rabin took out a strip containing five tablets of Nitrazepam and took out four tablets, each for Kiran, Sulav, Manoj and himself.

Kiran and Manoj are the seventh semester students. Sulav and Rabin are the classmates of Abhinav.

“ Come on, let’s do it as fast as possible. Abhi is waiting for us.”- Sulav  stated about Abhinav in the basketball court.

As soon as the sublingual tablet absorbed into the blood they lit up the joints and waited till they were lost in the tranquility of euphoria.

×××

“I wonder why Abhinav is alone in the court. He should be with his team, shouldn’t he?”- Sanita made a remark as she held the ball in her hand and faced her opponent Priyani in the break-time table tennis match.

“ Serve the ball. It’s none of our business. “ – Priyani replied laconically.

“ Girls, you really don’t wanna know this.”- Urmila intervened in the conversation as she waited her turn for the play. “ Sulav and Rabin from our class are often seen with Kiran and his friends. I heard that Kiran is a drug addict. And may be they are in the storehouse taking drugs or smoking ganja.”

Meanwhile Kiran and his team came out of storehouse that was adjoined to the college boundary on the north.

“Look, they are coming.” Priyani revealed her interest on druggies of her college.

“ If they are high on ganja, you will probably notice their red eyes.”- Urmila continued to explicate on the topic.

“How to you know about all these stuff? – Priyani asked inquisitively.

“Manav told me about this. He knows Kiran.” Urmila replied.

Rashmi was sitting on the base plinth of a Pine tree and reading “The Lucky One” by Nicholas Sparks.  She apparently seemed to be captivated by the book and miss the gossip.

“Rashmi, come on lets play.” Urmila pulled Rashmi by her hand and handed the bat. Rashmi bookmarked the page she was undone with and joined Urmila. Priyani and Sanita went towards basketball court to play with Abhinav.

“Hey, Abhi pass the ball. Let’s play rounder. “- Sanita yelled at Abhinav.

“Guys are already here. We are practicing for the match this Saturday. So may be we can play rounder the next time.” Abhinav passed the ball towards Sanita. Sanita made a weak shot that went lower to the board. She giggled at herself and left the court.

×××

“Abhi” Sulav waved signaling to pass the ball.

“Where were you guys? “ Abhinav showed his anger at Sulav.

“ We were having a good time. Let’s play.” Sulav passed the ball to Kiran. Kiran made a three-pointer attempt but the ball hit the ring and bounced towards girls playing table tennis. The ball stopped at a point near Rashmi. Meanwhile, Abhinav came fetching the ball.

“Rashmi, ball” Abhinav hesitantly requested to throw the ball.

Rashmi grabbed the ball and tossed towards Abhinav. She smiled briskly and Abhinav smiled back as he got the ball.

Afternoon class bell rang.

“You guys are always late for the game. We have not been practicing well. We can’t win games this way.” – Abhinav commented forlornly.

“Our team is the best team and the most feared team in the tournament. So stop fussing around about winning and losing. Take it easy. Let’s go to class. We will play this evening at Pulchowk Youth Club.” Kiran replied.

All of them left the court to go to their respective classes.

Match Day

“ Two quarters are already down and here is the score at half time. Kasthamandup College is leading with the score of 37 and Jawalakhel College is trailing 6 points with the score of 31. Let me remind you, this is the 4^th match of the Intercollege Basketball Tournament. The knock out stages will continue till Monday and pre-quarters will be played from Tuesday. Well, each team has 10 minutes time to devise their strategy to win this game. Spectators, come on cheer up loud for your team.” – the announcer emphatically detailed about the match.

The music was playing loud on the background and there was a deafening noise in the hall. Kasthamandup College team was gathered at a corner of the basketball court. Chetan, the captain, stood in the middle of the circle to instruct the team.

“Guys everything is going good. Our margin of lead is not that huge so we need to be sharp on the break. The no. 6 player seems to be a real threat. He got too many scores cheaply. Kiran, you got good height to check him all the time. Sulav, do not try the shot when you are surrounded. First intersect into the box and pass outside. That would create a lot of space and time for player outside the box to attempt a successful score. Now take this glucose water and gain some energy to show these guys what we are really capable of.” 

Kiran poked Sulav to go to the restroom. They both left the team behind to go to restroom. Abhinav sat with the towel around his head and seemed like he has envisaging the result of the match in their favor. He stood up to call Binay from the stand. Quickly scanning through the crowd, he saw Binay sitting next to Rashmi. He could not believe his eyes.

Rashmi was sitting in between Urmila and Binay. She looked cool in jeans and t-sirt. Hair untied and hanging around the shoulder truly magnified her beauty. This was the first time Abhinav had seen her outdoors. Her image in his mind would soon be configured from a naïve looking college girl to a supermodel. For few seconds his eyes denied to look elsewhere. In fact, he totally forgot his intention to call Binay. He recollected his memory as he removed his sight from the stand.

 “ Binay “ he shouted and signaled him to come.

Binay came running. “ Look at the stand, there is your chief guest. Play extraordinary to get your reward from the chief guest.” He smiled gesticulating the presence of Rashmi.

“ Go get me a can of Red Bull “ – Abhinav ordered.

The game resumed. The score leveled to 58-58 at the end of the third quarter. Into the fourth quarter, Manoj passed the ball to Abhinav from the baseline. Abhinav threw a long pass to Kiran but he failed to grab the overhead ball that was within his limit. Abhinav shouted “ Come on. Don’t lose the ball.”

Their opponent seemed quicker on the ball. Kasthamandup college defending went bit loose. Kiran failed to return on the rebound, as he seemed pretty exhausted. Sulav, too was sloppy on dribbling and passing. Trailing 76-72 and clock ticking down Abhinav was frantically shouting at teammates to pass the ball to him.  At the final whistle the score read 80-78 and Kasthamandup College lost the match and was knocked out of tournament.

Chetan again stood up to analyze their game as the whole team sat in a corner. “We should not have lost this match. We committed too many mistakes in the fourth quarter. Especially our defending was poor.”

“ Why don’t you point at Kiran? He is man of the match.” – Abhinav interfered Chetan to show his sarcasm about Kiran’s game.

Kiran stood from his position and pushed Abhinav by his face. “ What do you mean to say?”  Abhinav nearly stroke his head on the floor from the push given by Kiran. Abhinav was infuriated. He stood up, gritted his teeth and punched Kiran right on the face. Such a massive blow was enough to produce a concussion. Kiran laid unconscious on the ground, while Abhinav moaned with pain as his right hand swelled up. People on the crowd were shouting with fear.

Binay came running and grabbed Abhinav’s hand. “  Not a wise decision.  Get the ice pack.” He then turned towards Kiran. “Somebody call an ambulance. We need to take him to hospital as soon as possible.”

Pandemonium broke out but Abhinav was the only person to perceive the silence in such an agony. He lost the match and then his temper. All he could do was wait for consequences.