#i cant stop writing about this guy with ice cream and ice cream relatives.. what is wrong with me..

[atsoomi]

It's been exactly 2 days, 4 hours, and 32 minutes since you and Kuroo got married.

It was the kind of wedding you thought you’d never get the privilege of having— small, comfortable, and filled with familiar faces— not to mention, the most memorable day of your life. You’d never thought you could be that happy, or that you’d be surrounded by so many people who shared the sentiment. But if Kuroo has done anything through the course of your entire relationship, it’s prove your negative thoughts wrong.

And then, of course, came the honeymoon. 

Previously, you’d argued with him a lot about where to go for the honeymoon period. He thought somewhere in Japan— like Hokkaido with its breathtaking natural scenery, or Kyoto with its countless temples— would do just fine. But you’d nagged him about taking you somewhere outside the country, reminding him of the fact that you live in Japan; you have the rest of your lives to travel around Japan, but who knows when you’ll get the chance to go to Europe again?

After a few weeks of going back and forth, discussing all the possible locations and looking up things till one in the morning, you finally agree on Italy, specifically, Venice. It’s the perfect mix of culture and fun for both of you, and you’d be lying if you said you weren’t dying to see The Grand Canal, especially with all the lights at night.

So, after a day of post-wedding packing, and a long day of traveling, you’re finally in Venice. In Venice, on your honeymoon. And it would be absolutely perfect, if you hadn’t lost your husband of two days in the crowd of locals. 

You’d done a lot, a lot, of research on spots in Venice that you wanted to visit during the 3-week stay. And you’ve always known (after a lifetime of fantasizing about this trip) that if you come to Italy, you have to try their gelato. So you went through a few articles, bookmarked a few websites, and found this shop, Gelateria il Doge. 

It’s been described as a hidden attraction, and you’ve always loved discovering hidden gems. The excitement was so overpowering that the first thing you decided to do once you settled down in your hotel room is go out and find it. Kuroo can’t say no when you’re so excited, so it only took twenty minutes to find yourself at the desired spot.

You went in, without Kuroo because he insisted on slowing down and taking some more pictures, and you finally ordered the gelato you’ve been thinking about since you agreed to come to Italy. But it seems to have cost you your husband.

He’s not where he was standing five minutes ago, you turn and scan the mass of people walking by, but you don’t spot the familiar head of dark hair. Your phone rests in your cross bag but your hands are full with gelato, so you hesitantly accept your fate and sit on the nearest bench you can find, assuming that you’ll just spot him when he comes back from wherever he went. 

You sit and admire the cold treat in your hand, it’s beautiful and inviting and it makes you feel like you’ve never had ice cream before. It makes you feel like your life is about to be altered permanently, even though you’re not completely sure what flavor you got— something about poor Italian skills and taking risks.

You’re about to taste it for the first time, practically salivating at that point, when a strange guy sits on the same bench, seemingly popping out of nowhere. You pause, mouth shutting, as you peer at him with caution. He’s undeniably good looking, skin-kissed tan skin and brown hair falling over warm green eyes, but he’s not exactly your type. No other man could be.

You attempt to ignore his presence, but he turns his head and you make intense eye contact. Your mouth hangs slightly open as he scans your face, it’s awkward and you feel the awkwardness paralyze you into speechlessness. You’re sure you look incredibly dumb but your mind is too busy malfunctioning to save you. 

His eyes go down to your hand and he says something in Italian that you don’t understand. A few seconds pass by before he reaches for it, your hand that is, with wide eyes. You reflexively flinch away, alarmed at the sudden approach. What the hell is going on?

“Oh my god, you idiot, the gelato.” He speaks, frustrated, this time in the language you can understand, with a heavy Italian accent. 

You look down at your hands and you’re surprised at the trail of melted gelato on your hand. Oh, he’s not a creep, you realize, he was just trying to help.

You bashfully keep your head down, embarrassed at how you reacted and the fact that you were too tense to realize he said the word gelato about 3 times. God, this is embarrassing, where is your husband when you need him? 

“Sorry about that,” you lick the melted sweet off as discreetly as possible, “I don’t speak Italian.” 

He raises an eyebrow at you. “Yeah, I can tell.” 

You’re silent, ashamed to be specific, as you eat the rest of your gelato before something else happens. He observes you for a few minutes, as you eat from both cones to prevent any disasters, before he chuckles quietly. 

“Tourist?” He asks. 

“Kinda,” you answer, slowly relaxing as the embarrassment wears off. 

He nods, “How did you find this store then?” he points to Gelateria il Doge. It stands there proudly, almost mocking you for making a fool out of yourself in front of a local.

“Oh, lots of research.” You laugh to yourself, remembering the sight of a very tired Kuroo by your side while you’re on your thousandth new tab. “It actually wasn’t that hard.” 

“Do you like it?” He asks. 

“The gelato?” 

He shakes his head, “Italy.” 

“Oh,” you smile, “yeah, it’s lovely and I’ve wanted to visit for a really long time.” He hums approvingly so you go on. “You’re Italian, aren’t you? Grew up here?”

“Kinda”, he retorts and you giggle, “I grew up in the south, but my brother lives here.” 

You nod your head in understanding; more questions are on the tip of your tongue (like his name for example?) when you’re interrupted by a familiar voice. 

“Oh I thought you looked familiar.” You turn your head and see your husband of two days walking towards you and this Italian stranger. He beams at you, happy to be reunited with the sight of your lovely face, but halts for a second when his eyes shift over to the guy. He tips his head to the side, silently asking about him, and you just smile. I’ll tell you later. 

“You weren’t going to eat both gelatos yourself after all,” the Italian says, which reminds you of the two cones you’ve been holding yourself the whole time, and the fact that your husband walked off and left you all alone, in Venice of all places. You’ll definitely yell at him once you’re alone, but for now, you settle on standing up and handing him his cone. 

“I’ll leave you lovebirds alone now, enjoy the honeymoon, ciao.”

He winks at you discreetly, maybe not discreet enough because Kuroo suddenly places his arm around your shoulder protectively, and you manage to wave at him before he’s gone. 

Kuroo turns to you, eyebrow raised, “was he hitting on you?” 

You laugh, “that’s all you care about, isn’t it? What about telling me where the hell you’ve been? Or apologizing for making me wait so long,” you slap his chest, “it’s actually your fault I had to entertain another man.” 

He holds your hand against his chest, grinning at the fake annoyance in your voice, “I apologize my dear, dear wife.” His eyes rest on the ring he put on your finger for a second, feeling prideful. “ Let’s sit, we have to finish this before it melts.” 

While you eat, you tell him about the whole interaction with the Italian man and every small thing that happened while you were apart. He scoffs at the events between you and the guy, fully convinced that he just wanted an excuse to touch your hand. You laugh and tease him about how attractive the guy was, telling him maybe you should’ve gone with the guy who didn’t leave you all alone. He flicks your forehead before you can continue and that conversation gets lost between all the other topics. You ask him what he was doing while he was gone, and he smiles, all-knowing and mysterious. 

“You’ll see.”

[boloorsportsmania]

#500 Journey from Boloor to BoloorSportsMania ..:-)

499 blogs were all dedicated to sports updates, achievements and milestones across the globe. For blog number 500, time to be a bit selfish !!. Its about Sandeep Rao Boloor and his journey from Boloor to BoloorSportsMania !! Passion for sports is due to various incidents and experiences which I have been fascinated about.

I was just an above average student as my attention and intrest was always in sports. Even when my mom used to teach, my attention was to peep through the gap of the closed window as to who is playing outside and what are they playing .!! Games varied from cricket, lagori (local sport!!), football to badminton !! My childhood has been mainly spent in Bangalore and Bhadravathi before moving to Chennai as a 12 year old. I was never good in any sport though decent in cricket but passion of watching and learning different strategies and aspects of it gave me an amazing thrill. Coming to studies, I was a quiet student . I never made much noise in class. That helped me stay away from the radar even when I got low marks. I was a student who would study hard during exams but for rest of the period,  before anybody said anything, I would be in the ground playing cricket or watching it. During holiday season, it was thrilling as playing cricket and cards with cousins non stop gave me a high which cant be defined in words. Sudhir, my cousin used to be our cricket guru those days. Myself, Supreeth and Kitta did and played as he instructed.  He used to bowl left handed which impressed me. During post lunch, we were not allowed to play cricket as it used to make noise. It was then cards used to be the game to pass one's time. 10-12 cousins and a couple of aunts used to join for cards. Gossip used to be main topic discussed there. Cards was secondary. There were a couple of years when all relatives (about 25 of them) would gather in a stadium  at 6 AM in the morning to play cricket. Sudarshan used to be the captain. This phase was even more thrilling becase cricket was played with underarm bowling. I never imagined that one can bowl fast underarm. The speed with which arms came down and ball thrown was really thrilling to watch. I never managed to get that speed though I tried a lot. In Mangalore which is my native , tournaments are conducted throughout the year. Matches would be played in this stadium every weekend. Even in 80s, these matches had live commentary. Sudarshan used to do commentary too. It was amazing to listen to him when he spoke in english like Farookh engineer. These tournaments were taken so seriously that almost every match a player or two would get injured but they would continue with a bandage !!. I struggled to play with a plaster sometimes !! This whole locality in Mangalore is called Boloor which happens to be my surname. Hopefully the reason behind my blog name BoloorSportsMania is clear by now :-)

Just like Boloor, Kankanady was another locality in Mangalore where my mom was from. Our holidays used to be split (15 days in Boloor and 15 days in Kankanady). In Kankanady, my mom's brother Vinod Mama used to play cricket with me once he was back from office. A bat was created from coconut tree stem and pots used to be wickets. In Kankanady, they used to have long pots which was ideal for wickets. Mama used to keep bat and ball ready during holidays those days !!  Vinod Mama used to take us to Kadri park almost in every holidays in his ambassador car. That used to a differet thrill. Eating charmuri was always a delight in Kadri. During marriage season, all used to gather in Kankanady in huge numbers. During this period, there was always a cricket match in the evening. I still recall hitting winning runs during 1991 season!!. That was the last time we played there. Post match, we used to feast on Ideals ice cream . Ideals ice cream was every Mangalorean's dream ice cream and still is. Gadbad and Parafait is unbeatable and I have never tasted anything better.

In 1980-84 period, only incident where I clearly recall was dad buying a TV just to watch Asian games and cricket world cup. His cousins had come from native to watch opening ceremony and Ind-WI finals match. Even our much richer house owner didnt have TV !!!.  We used to keep a window open and they used to watch all programs through that. I guess my sports passion is inherited though my dad would never agree with it :-).

1988-90 have been 2 years which I can never forget. Dad had taken rented house just in front of APS college ground. It was like a resort to me. This house balcony was like a pavilion to a stadium. It had that view. During summer holidays, I used to play till I got tanned to charcoal black :-) 5 rs and 10 Rs matches used to be the theme in summer holidays. Atleast 1000 calories used to be burnt to win those matches. During non rainy season, tournament used to be conducted in this ground as well. I used to watch almost every match from the balcony. Naturally my studies got hit. I even failed for the first time here in science. My mom was shocked and by the time I realized, she took me 85% marks in next exam. Whenever I played, she ensured she made me study more. That was the mantra. Every evening post school which was just 2 min away, me and my school friends used to play cricket. Niranjan's bowling was almost impossible to hit. He was so tall that I felt Garner used to bowl. Subba and Vijay were pretty good with the bat as well. All these guys are part of my whatsapp group friends now. Time flies.

Once I travelled to Chennai, my life changed. School was a bit far off. I never had chance to play cricket or other games post school with school friends. It was a bigger city and it had its advantages and disadvantages. Advantages was that lot of focus was on study which I needed :-) and disadvantage was that my playing days was almost coming near.   When we moved to Chennai in 1990, our TV was not working and was given for repair which took 9 months. I wanted to watch 1990 world cup football badly.  I almost forced dad to rent a TV !!. My dad freaked out!!. My grandfathers sister's place was 5 kms away. They had TV. They invited me to watch football or movies during weekend. I used to cycle 5 kms just to do this. It used to be thrilling. Till 1992, I had not much to do though post school on week days.Thats when STAR TV was launched. Just for 1992 world cup, dad put Star TV on my insistance . Post that TV was and is my best friend. I even put leave to watch Ind-Pakistan match.I watched cricket and tennis like there is no tomorrow. But biggest change was I started liking golf. 1993 British open was the first time I watched golf. I learnt golf through just watching as there was no net those days. Nick Faldo won that year. I became his fan. I used to wake up at 3 AM in the morning just to watch golf matches !!. My dad thought I had gone mad !! My friends used shake my head to check if I was fine !! My dad used to think I am the only person in earth to watch golf. Only time in Chennai when I used to play cricket was in weekends near my friend Arun's house. He had a huge mansion which was always fun place to be in. There was huge ground near his house where we played cricket. KC chandrasekar used to be the most accomplished batsman in our team!! All these guys are part of my whatsapp group friends now. Time flies.

There is always a balance in life and that happened when I married Vaishali. She hated sports!!. Her intrests in books was almost opposite to what I do. I hate books and she hates sports. But thats what has keep us balanced. She allows my space to write and I encourage her to read more. I even presnted her a kindle to further encourage her. Life has never been better. Shreyas is as of now a mixture of both. He likes reading novels, encylopaedia, etc and also likes to play. He skates like there is no tomorrow and started his hand in basketball. He hates cricket though. Thats for another day !!.

For now, get ready to read my blog number 501 in a few hours time !!!