Bengali Blues

Playing on public courts has its risks. Since you're not paying for the court, there's a desire to keep the court as long as is reasonable.

If you go often enough to a court, you see some regulars, people who are there time and again, day after day.

In the courts, near Hard Times, Shrini and I are the regulars, but we see a bunch of other regulars. There is a Taiwanese doubles group of elderly women and men, uttering Swee-uh (basically, "beautiful", but with more passion). There are two Asian guys who hit well while one girlfriend (presumably) stands on the side. There are two older white guys that hit flat, but have power, and volley well. There is the Vietnamese American who occasionally coaches.

Then, there are the Bengalis. There are five of them, so that makes it awkward.

These guys are in their forties or fifties. And they hate to wait.

To be fair, many people hate to wait, but they tough it out.

Not these guys. They complain if you're wearing the wrong shoes. They complain if you're playing singles. If they have to wait more than 15 minutes, they want to explode.

Imagine their horror when they were still waiting for an hour, and no one was budging off the courts. Was it possible that they had come at the worst time possible? That everyone on the court had arrived minutes afterwards?

In this case, yes, that's what happened, except for the Taiwanese group.

Now, the question is, how long would you expect to stay on the court. Many people would, if pressed, want to play at least an hour and a half, and if possible two hours. Tennis isn't so tiring that you couldn't play for two hours.

However, people also hate to wait for more than half an hour to get on the court.

So these guys, having arrived shortly after we got on the court, were pacing. And pacing. And pacing. 20 minutes became 30. 30 became 40. Why won't anyone get off the courts.

Eventually, after they had waited an hour, they decided to take action. They were simply going to go on the courts. They would warm up in between the courts, and insist you leave.

Indeed, because they were waiting, it seemed we were on the court much longer than we were. When I checked the time, we were on the court together for an hour fifteen minutes.

The Bengali guys would find some reason they could stay on the court for two hours. They're playing doubles. They're old. Some reason.

The funny thing is that the first group of people they're likely to harass are Indians. Why? Because they are familiar with them.

They sometimes like to ask the Chinese group when they are leaving, but the Chinese tend to distrust everyone anyway. They will say "We just started playing sets!", so they can get at least two sets in. The Chinese also don't want to give up the courts. They want their two hours too. One hour not enough!

Of course, the real solution is more courts. But somehow, no one wants to build 10 tennis courts. 3-4 tops. And lights? Maybe, maybe not.

And if you're regular? You feel the courts should be there for you each and every day. After all, you've been loyally playing for years. And even if you haven't improved a lick since 4 years ago, it doesn't matter.

And so with the utterance "You must leave now", I was faintly aware that they felt the spirit of Gandhi, and we were the British, treading on the lands that rightfully belonged to them. In the spirit of non-violence, we stand on the courts, until you realize the folly of your ways and leave, because 100,000 British can not stop 5 angry Bengali men wanting to play doubles if they refuse to cooperate.