NUTMEG, CHAPTER 5: MATTERS UNFINISHED

18^th SEPTEMBER 2018, 11:00 PM

The dim lights flickered slightly, complimenting the slow jazz music in the background and the occasional horn from the traffic outside. The ice melted slowly, dripping stealthily from the solid cube into the depth of the glass, mixing effortlessly into the rum and coke mixture. About a hundred eyeballs were glued to the giant screen in the front, where a short man from Argentina placed the ball on the ground for a free-kick. It was as if the world had stolen few moments from their lives to witness the sight, as the little ‘flea’, as he is affectionately called, placed the ball on the turf and took a few steps back. Everyone froze as Messi kicked the ball following his usual short strides. The ball rose above the wall of opposition players in slow motion and as if guided by a GPS inside, magically curled towards the right hand top corner of the goal post. The ball gracefully touched the net inside the goal and the strands of the net bulged outwards on the impact as the final act of this masterpiece in making. “Yeeaaaaaaahhhhhhhhh”, screamed Prabhu Dada, almost knocking down Parth’s glass as Barcelona players surrounded Messi in jubilation of the goal, after all, it was the first of the season on the grandest stage of club football, the UEFA Champions League. At the end of the first forty-five minutes of game, Barcelona went into the break a goal ahead, against their opposition of the night, PSV Eindhoven. Despite the lead, Parth and Prabhu Dada were hardly at ease as they had witnessed continuous counter attack from PSV, led in attack by Mexico’s World cup hero Herving Lozano and knew the game was still too close to call.

With flashes of his college football memories still fresh in his mind from last weekend, Parth had decided to reconnect with Prabhu Dada, his closest friend on that team and a midfielder by position, belonging to the same batch as the captain, Kunal. It just helped that Prabhu Dada was also one of the most die-hard Barcelona fan that Parth had ever encountered and the Champions League Opener game screening at the local sports bar provided the perfect opportunity. He had reached the venue 15 minutes before the game kick-off and immediately spotted the ever-eccentric well-built frame of Prabhu Dada from a distance. Time may have rolled several times in the last few years, yet Prabhu Dada stood there unaffected by the winds of change. “Chotte!”, he yelled on seeing Parth as that infectious smile still graced his face and his love for bright kurtas hadn’t diminished at all, judging by his squawky orange clothing on his torso. They sat and ventured into the alleys of memories made on the college campus, over a couple of drinks, until the match begun.

The second half was still a neck-to-neck encounter with both teams cancelling each other out. Barcelona had more possession of the ball but were unable to find clear cut chances to make their dominance count, while PSV were dangerous on the counter-attack but were let down by the inaccuracy of their final shot on goal. The deadlock persisted until a moment of magic by Ousmane Dembele, who with a swift move carried the ball past two opposition defenders and unleashed a powerful volley into the goal. The crowd at the sports bar erupted in joy. “Hardly any PSV fans around”, reckoned Parth, still marveling at the beauty of the goal just scored. The goal opened the floodgates as Messi added two quickfire goals to complete his hat-trick for the night and earn the right to take the match ball home, handing Barcelona a 4-0 victory to kick start their Champions League campaign. Parth and Prabhu Dada were left enchanted by the fierceness and impact of their footballing idol when Prabhu Dada exclaimed, “Messi really means business in Champions League this year. He really wants to win it this year after watching our rival Real Madrid clinch it for three years in a row”.

“True, he even mentioned that they had unfinished business, while addressing the Barcelona match before his first match as Captain”, agreed Parth, further adding, “This is what being a captain means. Not like that joke of a captain, Kunal".

Prabhu Dada stopped short of his celebrations and asked wide eyed, “What do you mean?”

“He was adamant to make me play as a goal-keeper when I play best as a striker. Scoring goals is what I know”, the alcohol allowing Parth to speak his mind freely.

Prabhu Dada let out a loud chuckle and teased Parth, “Hey Mr. Goal scorer, weren’t you the fourth striker in the squad?”. “F**k you man, I would have got my chance with time”, was the only reply Parth could muster.

Prabhu Dada breathed in heavily, contemplating something for few minutes before finally uttering, “Kunal had hurt his back in training one day and the doctors he consulted had advised him for a surgery which would have forced him out for nearly 6 months. True, there was the second-choice keeper of the team, Anirban, but he too was about to be unavailable for an internship in Bangalore. That is when lady luck played its part and you came on to keep during one game. Kunal saw a spark in you, a sense of positioning and fearlessness which is very rarely seen. Sure, you had rough edges but nevertheless, one that could have been polished to ultimately replace Kunal himself. He was basically training you to take his place in the team, not as his backup but as his replacement. That is the reason he was adamant to play you as keeper, every time, to make you gain experience. Then you had your famous meltdown and ever since your departure, Kunal played in tournaments with heavy medications to avoid the pain of the injury he sustained until Anirban returned from his internship.”

Parth was dumbstruck. He almost half expected Prabhu Dada to regain his mischevious smile and say that it was just a prank that he was playing on him, but his grim expressions revalidated his seriousness. “Why didn’t anyone tell me this?”, quizzed Parth in a faint voice.

“Only the seniors in the team knew about Kunal’s injury as it would have impacted the morale back then. Anyway, would a hot-headed naive jerk like you have listened?”, asked Prabhu Dada rhetorically almost instantly. Parth knew the answer to that question himself but chose to remain silent as Prabhu Dada summed up, “Always putting the team before himself, that was the type of captain that we had”.

Next day at office, as he opened his laptop screen, Parth was greeted by an all too familiar e-mail. The mail was from the company’s Sports Committee asking employees to register their participation for their favorite sport, which he had conveniently ignored until today. He gazed long and hard at the content of the mail and then with a determined look on his face, typed in few words and dragged his mouse cursor to press the button that was soon about to trigger a chain of events in his life, ‘SEND’.