Every year, just before Christmas is the time for the Kolkata Polo Season. This time in December 2007, it was jointly organised by the Fort William Polo Club and the 144 year old Calcutta Polo Club at the very famous Pat Williamson Grounds,which is at the centre of the Race course.
It was my first time to a Polo match and that itself was thrilling.
We went on 3 different days and watched 5 games.
It was definitely a great experience. The mid afternoon during winter seemed like we were transported to a different land, with the hazy light, clouds tryin hard to block the sunlight and especially with the Victoria memorial as a distant backdrop was truly enchanting.
The horses looked amazingly ready for the game with the Polo players and their mallets(the stick used to hit the ball).
The language of Polo includes Chukkas (the basic period of play... each chukka is seven and a half minutes long and there are four chukkas in each match), Handicap(comparative rating of polo players awarded by the Polo Association), Throw-in(The game is started with a throw-in where the ball is literally thrown in between the line-up teams by the umpires), and the usual penalties, fouls and goals....and it took me one whole game to understand it fully.
2 comments:
Whoa!! sounds like an interesting experience...and bravo on understanding the game the very first time :)!
hey ravi, it was an incredible experience. And one of the reasons for understanding the game was because I was sitting with people who knew just too much about the game... :)
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