Caught In A Dream

Mumbai - The capital city of Maharashtra. The cultural capital of India. The city of dreams. In this city of nearly 11 million, I was just another boy chasing my dreams, fighting a war with struggle everyday just like most of the people in this city.  The daily routine of catching the local trains, reaching for practice, getting all sweaty and muddy and returning back home in a train so packed, you have to literally search for the tiniest matter of space to keep your legs on the train. Yet there's something so charming, something so magical in this city of dreams which never let's anyone leave without smiling. I came here to fulfill my dream of becoming a professional footballer, and hoped that by the end of this year, I'll get a contract to play for the senior team.

As the national league edged closer, we started working harder than ever. Training sessions got tough, fitness got tougher and the day got tiresome as ever. Life in Mumbai could sometimes prove to be a very lonely one. Mine was no different. I lived a really simple and lonely life, away from all the buzz and the society's norms. So in order to keep myself fit and in shape, I joined the gym nearby. Surprisingly, I made some new friends there and we all got along really well. We lived near the infamous Marine Drive so we would often go there after our Gym sessions just to talk about our lives and speak everything on our mind. Everyone was a good friend but I became attached to Tanya, mostly due to the fact that both of us were the only single people in that group. We both got along pretty well and it was fun being with her. After months of struggle and pain, I finally started enjoying life again. I always liked the journey in the local trains and the public buses. There is some kind of insomnia in them which you just can't ignore. One day after Gym, I heard Tanya listening to 'In My Veins' by Andrew Belle. I was surprised at first but inside, I was so darn happy that I had finally found someone who shared the same song on the top of our playlist, someone who had a different taste in music. Tanya was not only beautiful, but also different than others. I don't know why but I started spending more time with her than anyone else. But as the rule of life states, always be ready for something bad if life's been treating you surprisingly well for a unexpectedly long time.

It was November and we played our last friendly match before the national league, I was named the captain of the squad. I acted like everything was normal and nothing extraordinary had happened, but inside, damn, inside I just wanted this moment to pause for a minute so that I could scream out loud and pump my fist in the air and just cry. This is it I thought, the dream I came to chase is going on the right path, I just have to do right in the league. But life had other plans, in the 38th minute of the game, a loose ball pounced in front of me and the defender. It was a 50-50 ball and we both went for it bravely. I was quicker than him so I chipped the ball over his head but the defender's follow through caught my leg and broke my shin bone. I lay there in tears, angry and disappointed. I knew the dream I watched of becoming a professional footballer had suffered a massive blow.

My friends visited me frequently in the hospital but Tanya visited me daily. She always brought different movies with her everyday and her face was the first thing I would see after my lunch. She also came to drop me home when I got discharged from the hospital. A month after the injury, I started my physiotherapy sessions in the gym. It was Christmas week and everything looked happy around me. Everything except me. There was still time for me to play a couple of games, but the league was almost over and the scouting had already been done. I knew I wasn't getting a first team contract, at least not this year. One fine evening, the sun had just set and the orange sky lit up the Arabian Sea. Everyone was enjoying the view and I just sat there, dejected, angry, and in pain. Everyone left shortly but Tanya stayed. She asked me to share what was irking my mind, even though she knew it already. It felt so weird at first, someone asking me to speak what had been going on my mind because no one had actually ever done that before. She did manage to hear everything from my mouth. Just as I finished, she grasped my hand tightly and told me how everything was going to be fine and how big a footballer I was going to become. She sounded like a storyteller and at that very moment, I realised I was sitting with the most beautiful girl I had ever met. The way the ocean breeze played with her hair, the excitement in her voice, the mini heart attack I felt whenever she looked at me, this was it. I realized Tanya was my happy place. Everything faded away at that very depressed moment of my life. All the sorrow, the pain, the anger, everything faded away like a luster in the evening cloud. It felt like I was drowning in the ocean sitting in front of me and Tanya pulled me out just in time to keep me alive. It's funny really because I always used to say that I'll only date a girl who shared the same taste in music as me. Call it fate or coincidence, it was happening with someone just as I imagined and everything started feeling happy around me again. 

I played three matches before the end of the league. Our team finished 4th in a group of 8 teams. After our last match, something shocking happened. Our coach introduced me to the Head Coach of the city club which played the highest club level league in the country. He said they had been tracking my progression for a long time and they decided to offer me a new contract for a couple of years with an option to extend it further. This meant I was going to be youngest player in the club's history to play for the them in the league. I wanted to share this news with Tanya so I told her to meet me at the Marine Drive. After telling her everything, she hugged me tightly. There was a brief moment when I looked into her eyes and everything felt upside down. She leaned forward to kiss me and nothing was the same again. I came to this beautiful city of Mumbai to accomplish my dream but instead found myself a new one. Finding myself someone like Tanya and spending my life with her was no less than a dream and I'm glad that I found someone amazing like her. She was my good luck charm and I guess I only have this city to thank for it. Mumbai doesn't just fulfill dreams or stays awake all the time, it also connects hearts and if you're lucky enough, you find your forever.