Special Mom’s blog

What are your favorite sports to watch and play?

My grandfather was glued to tennis and cricket when I was growing up. From him I learnt to how to play the cards but also learnt to enjoy tennis! He was always proud of his brother who played tennis. His brother didn’t win any championships but was commented as a good player by Fred Perry. But I never played anything. As I had written, we were an orthodox family and I was an obedient granddaughter 😉!

If you live in India, cricket was a part of you. But my brother never allowed me to watch the same since he felt, if I watched India would loose a wicket. He would ask me to sit and pray and locked me in a room! Boy, I too was sentimental and never watched it. A five day India and Australia game that went into a draw because Maninder Singh was not able to hit a single run! I did not watch because I had to pray! It was the time test cricket was loosing popularity and one day games popular.

Yea, I enjoyed watching sports growing up. Kapil Dev was my favorite cricket player and since my brother liked Boris Becker, Ivan Lendl my favorite tennis player.

Then I got married and I moved to the States. I think my interest in sports just stopped all of a sudden. This prompt did make me ponder why? I really lost touch with cricket but I did start watching sone NBA basketball games with my husband.

We were in Boston and Boston Red Sox won their first championship and New England Patriots were having a roll with their star Tom Brady. Did I watch the games, not a full fledged game but enjoyed watching the celebrations on tv!

When my second kid was born, he was just 3 and was so glued to all the basketball games. Oh, my happiness was through the heaven. A typical kid . My older autistic one never watched any television. But then I came to realize he was getting addicted to all sports like the rest of the men. We had to draw line as to when he can watch television! Now this is when I really stopped watching sports. I had become the parent who hated sports!

Oh did I play any games after my marriage? I played every ball game with my special one as a therapy and shuttled my younger one for his soccer and swimming classes. I have spent a good part of my evening life stuck in traffic shuttling my younger one to these actions and I have demanded that he get me a Hawaii vacation package once he gets a job!

After nearly two decades my younger one off to a college campus I enjoyed 2023 World Cup Cricket! Really sad India lost the finals but I was having memories of the games I watched with my brother and my grandfather!

But I am not hooked into sports anymore like my teenage years. I still do not know why. My brother told me the vibe in IPL cricket and I have added that to my bucket list.

Pittsburgh doesn’t have a basketball team and we even drove for Cleveland for a game between Cavaliers and Celtics. We were offered free tickets for a Pittsburgh Pirates baseball game and I enjoyed the enthusiasm and vibe!

We have visited Basketball Hall of Fame, Football Hall of Fame and even Swimming Hall of Fame in various parts of this country. Yes, with so many men in the house sports is a part of me and I think I have a love hate relationship with it 😄😄!

Finally a great prompt for Bloganuary Day 29. A topic I have not dealt with😊.

PS: I completely stopped watching tennis and it took me years to relaize that those US Open that I had watched in the middle of the night was just a few driving hours from me! So I am adding that to my bucket list 😊!