The calm before the norm!

It has been slightly over a month since the 2024 Paris Olympics concluded and the curtains came down on a long taxing period for New England based Indo American sports fans like you and me. What a relief to finally enter a quiescent period where one can enjoy watching sports, without being too concerned over the outcome.  

It all started mid-April with the concurrent Ice Hockey and Basketball playoffs where the Boston Bruins and Boston Celtics (the B’s and the C’s) were expected to contend for the championships. Sadly, the B’s fell short, exiting in the second round, a performance below expectations for their fans. Thankfully, after a long arduous run, the C’s delivered the NBA championship to a hungry New England Fan base. It was a long 5 year wait for Boston fans since the Pats won the Super Bowl in 2019.

Yours truly, unlike every other C’s fan, was rooting for a 7 game NBA Championship, for I happened to be in India for the concluding Game 5 and had planned my return (months earlier), coincidentally on the scheduled 7^th game of NBA Championship.  Thanks to the wonders of the Internet and social media, I was able to correspond with my kids, my brother and my friends during the games and savor the C’s championship from afar. I was doubly glad that my daughter Serena and my brother Nilesh and his kids were able to attend their first C’s victory parade. Oh well, I will get my chance maybe next year.

Concurrently with the Celtics run, Team India was ploughing through its opponents at the  T-20 Cricket World Cup and 12 days after the C’s, clinched the World Cup after a hard fought win over South Africa in the grand finale in sun kissed Barbados. It was on this high note that I eagerly anticipated the Paris Olympics. Unexpectedly, the Indian Athletes underperformed, delivering less medals than the previous Tokyo Olympics, several disappointing 4^th place finishes, and a forgetful disqualification of India’s ace woman wrestler not helping it’s cause. Still, there were moments to savor, the Indian Men’s hockey team repeated its Tokyo performance winning the Bronze medal, Manu Bhaker became the first dual medal winner for Team India at the same Olympics, and Neeraj won a Javelin Silver to add to his Tokyo Gold.  And as the games concluded mid-August, I breathed a sigh of relief, looking forward to chilling out more and sleeping a lot sounder, with no major events to lose sleep over, while eagerly anticipating Fall.

Part 2 continues in next issue

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