Bangalore
Solo traveling without a plan has good days and bad days. My lack of planning leads to both spontaneous adventures and huge time sinks.
Nothing encapsulates this like my trip to Pondicherry and Bangalore. While we’re hanging on the rooftop in Pondicherry, Jed mentions that he’s going to watch India play in a T20 match in a few days in Bangalore. He spends 20 minutes buying tickets to no avail. I’m bragging that without me, he’d be dead in the water. Luckily, a few drinks in, I decide I’m going to join him and watch India play live. This is a dream that I didn’t know that I had. T20 is one of the few cricket formats that is over in a reasonable amount of time. The entire match usually ends in 3 hours (we’ll come back to this). I am so excited that I message my cousin who lives in Bangalore (and I know he is obsessed with cricket) to come join us. For my last few days in Pondicherry, I feel so accomplished that I do nothing but walk down to the beach and drink beers on the hostel rooftop. One day before the match, Jed and I arrive in Bangalore.
On our way to the stadium, we find out that there are a lot more sections to this stadium and we accidentally bought tickets in a very good/expensive section. In our defense, we thought that was the only section available and our currency advantage made it seem reasonable. We’re sitting at center pitch, three rows away from the field with folks bringing us snacks, chai/coffee, and dinner. Beyond our seats, we have a very unique match day experience. This is a game for the ages. Rohit Sharma plays from beginning to end and bats a century, Virat Kohli, needing 6 runs to break a historical record, is out on his first ball with 0 runs, and both India and Afghanistan are showing their athleticism. To top things off, we witness the game ending in a tie. I’m not super familiar with cricket and look for someone to tell me what happens in this situation. Enthusiastically, Jed is yelling super over! Super over! It sounds like there’s gonna be another over by each team. As luck would have it, at the end of the overs, we’re tied again. Jed is losing his shit. To cap off the drama, Afghanistan bowls a brilliant over to keep India to a low run count and then India bowls an even better over to win the game. After 4.5 hours of play, we are jumping, hugging, and losing our voices from screaming.
After that once-in-a-lifetime experience, I might as well have gone home. Bangalore was comfortable so I got stuck not planning. I spent a few days lounging around the hostel and a day or so reading in public parks. I can look back and think that it’s just time I needed for myself, but really, I was just too lazy to find things to do. Somehow, I still found a way to get scammed by a walking tour and spend most of my money on drinks. I am annoyed with myself and hopping on a train to Mysore to do some yoga and change up the pace.