A ‘Bet’ter Experience

It has been a long time since I last wrote something. I blame it on so many things that kept me occupied such as the university exams which seem to me as a never ending phenomenon. As soon as the End term actually ended, I initiated some thoughts but couldn’t launch it here. It was only on this typical wednesday afternoon that while sipping the tea with my old pals in college, I managed to grab an idea for my blog.

To cut a really long and winding story short, I was discussing the celebrated and illustrious Indian Premier League and the chances of Delhi Daredevils against Mumbai Indians in the match that was going to be held that day only in saddi Delhi. My dear friend refused to budge from the fact that DD was much better than MI. The discussion finally ended (after he and I had divulged all the strengths of our respective teams) with me and him betting on our preferent teams. I won’t unwrap the amount of money we betted because that might entice the CBI to take action against me on the charges of match fixing (possibly) and sattebazi!!!

Here is a closer look at Bet…or ‘Shart’ as it is called so frequently.

A ‘bet’ is an interesting concept. For Sachin fans a ‘bat’ might seem a better concept but for me, ‘bet’ is definitely ‘bet’ter. Now, you know why the word ‘better’ is not spelt as ‘batter’.

My first bet in life was when my close friend and 7th standard classmate Deepak Chawla (if you are Deepak, I have been looking for you for 5 years!) and I fought over who was Indira Gandhi’s father.

I was saying she was Mahatma Gandhi’s daughter while he stuck to Jawahar Lal Nehru. Like it always happens in a bet, there were indications that it will be a hands down win for me…after all why would Indira’s second name be Gandhi if she was Nehru’s daughter?

Today, people settle their bets in two seconds flat (that’s the time Google takes to throw up the results). Back then we didn’t have Google…so bets took a while to be settled. We went around asking our seniors in school. While they didn’t know the right answer, they started taking sides…soon enough everybody in the school was involved in the bet – each individual was siding with either Nehru or Gandhi.
With everybody in the school looking up to us to decide on who won, we were under tremendous pressure. With nothing else to do, Deepak and I went to our History teacher and asked him: “Sir, who is Indira Gandhi’s father – Nehru or Mahatma Gandhi?”

“You came to the wrong place sons…you might want to ask her mother.”

After a week of questioning people, a man whom both of us thought was a CBI detective posing as a begger in front of our school told us that Indira was Nehru’s daughter. Apparently, Feroze Gandhy (Indira’s husband) changed his surname to ‘Gandhi’ …probably to align himself closer to the Mahatma…just before his marriage.

Many years have passed by since my first bet. Just to recollect some of my statements which forced me to enter into a bet and lose –

• Viagra was invented & subsequently named by a guy who was traveling ‘via Agra’

• The Indian book with maximum number of pages is titled ‘List of things I can’t afford’ and was written by Mukesh Ambani

With years…experience has taught me that while agreeing on a bet, if it looks like you are going to win…chances are you are going to lose.
In the end, I would like to share a phrase which I read somewhere. Please give it a thought

Bangkok, though it sounds like someone with very limited command over the English language crudely telling you to engage in sexual intercourse, is an actual city situated in Thailand.

I hope to write on some more eventful and epochal topic someday. Till then, Ciao.