growing up is scary when, i go to an allen solly store to shop and at end of it i have to fill up a form for a membership card(which by the way i find very irritating to fill,and try to avoid) and i have to tick my age.there are 6 boxes 5-9,9-13,13-18,18-23,23-30,30-45.i figure in the 18-23 category and realise there are 3 boxes before me and only two left behind.i dont know why but that moment was a little scary,and i kind of told of myself,” excuse me but you are getting old!!”

growing up is horrible when,my mom every other day reminds me of my age and tells me that i have to get married in the next two-three years.she goes like “an ideal age for a girl to get married is 24,i m giving you 2 years bonus because you are playing.its always good to have kids before 30 nahi toh bohat complications ata hai pregnancy mein pata hai.”moms i tell you. 🙂

being single as of now, i get scary dreams of a guy coming home to see me,and i am all dressed up in a saree getting him chai,and his mother asking me can you cook,and i answer ofcourse i can make maggi and the fat mother says “chalo munna yeh ladki tumhe zindagi bhar sirf maggi khilaygi,nahi karni is maggiwali se shaadi” and they walk out.man!i cant imagine having an arranged marriage it gets the headlights out of me.i know im being very stereotypical about it,i mean i have friend who called the guy to meet at a bungee jumping place.she had told me if i see fear on his face its a no,if excitement its a definite yes! ok now she is a little crazy,but it is much cooler than getting chai and answering weird hypothetical questions which start with tum shaadi ke baad……god please send me a guy…and quick!:):)

growing up is exciting when you see yourself transform from a girl into a woman.when your mom can discuss each and everything with you not worrying that you might not understand it.when you can plan a whole party and presents with your money not worrying about your pocket money as you are eligible now to swipe a card.when suddenly you face a challenge and you know how to deal with it by yourself because you are so much more experienced.when you can plan a holiday with your friends in paris and you are allowed.when you realise there is so much more to do and you havent nearly come close to doing it.

recently i read shobha de’s article on being sixty and not being old.she says even if you are sixty you have a lot of things to look forward to.in todays time sixty is not the end of life but the beginning.though i agree with most of the things she said i have problems with her perspective about looking sexy when you are sixty.i mean when i picture myself as sixty i see myself with the wrinkles,my skin loosening,white hair(if i dont loose all of it by then),with a nice simple plain saree,sitting some place peaceful satisfied with life around me and reading a book.i dont want to look like an item bomb and as young as in my 30s. there is a certain cuteness about being old.its like we start a life with complete innocence and end it with complete innocence.i really dont think being young has got to do anything with looking young.its all about the heart,if you are young there then you never have to worry about getting old.life keeps changing every second,the culture,the technology,the language ,whats hot whats not,the definition is changing every time.if you keep updating yourself with that you might end up being a cool sixty year old,not really because you have a clear skin without the wrinkles.

my ultimate dream is that when my grandchildren think about me(subject to me getting married,having kids,and them having kids) they tell themselves “she was not just a badminton player,she was so much more than that,so much more.”if i can achieve that it would be sign of a great life lived!!!!

I know most of you must be wondering what must be going on here in delhi.i thought it would be a good idea to give you guys first hand information from here.so here it goes aditi mutatkar reporting live…….:)

we arrived at delhi domestic airport at 18.40pm on the 30th evening.as we landed we were taken to the international airport for our drive to the village.there was tight security and loads of volunteers all through the airport.saina,jwala,and gopi bhaiya were our star attractions so they were mostly surrounded by fans all around.rest of us were at peace with our snacks and drinks which were provided to us as we waited for accreditation and stuff.being celebrities is a test of your patience i learnt that after looking at the three of them.so after we all were done with the procedures we were taken to our buses.one bus for the players and the other one for our suitcases,why so?security reasons.i had a feeling as i said bye to my bag that there was going to be some kind of jhol!!!but i told myself its cwg,how the hell will they run with your bag???i left it at that.the journey to the village was around an hour.ofcourse throughout the journey we didnt have to wait for signals,dogs,traffic,pedestrians anything.we all were VIPS so everything stood stand still as we passed by.i almost fell sorry for delhi,anyways there so much of traffic here,im sure we must be getting cursed.

anyways once we reached we had to wait for around 30mins for registration and getting our blocks and everything.block no 31 was our home for the next 12 days.as we entered our apartments i so hoped that everything i had heard about it was untrue and i was really pleased when i found out it was.we have a huge apartment with three bedrooms,kitchen,washing machine,tv,wifi,bed,and my most favourite thing in the flat the purple,yellow,pink quilt!it has cwg written on it,its soft and warm.i have no doubts about carrying it home with me when i leave.the flat is cool.the bathrooms are huge with water for 24hrs,hot and cold.the cleanliness levels ok,its not the cleanest place i have ever seen.i have seen flats neater and worse than this!so its alright.

after discovering the flat it was dinner time.the food arena is superb.it has all the cuisines.african,italian,asian,u name it and its available 24hrs.there are fruits,desserts,drinks and every yummy thing there.imagine craving for a chocolate pastry at 3am in the night and actually having it right there in front of you,unlimited and free of cost.hahaa….that feeling cant be beaten,can it???the only problem is though that there is so much to eat that you are either confused or the magnitude of it overwhelms you and you actually end up eating very less.though i am overcoming that problem now and managing to hog!i have decided every new cuisine everyday,it makes it easier that way.

after dinner we were all dead and very sleepy.we came back to the flat only to realise our bags had not come.we got to know that they might come by 12am.anyhow we all slept off.the bags ofcourse didnt come at 12 they came at 3am.we went down looking like ghosts our hair all over the place.saina got her bag and went to some other flat when she saw me and realised she was headed the wrong way,ashwini went on another floor all together and got scared that she was lost until she finally found her way.i mean poor us what do you expect at 3am,in a new place.and me i was the star.all the girls got there bags and when i went there my bag was missing.i was all hyper,called gopi bhaiya he told me to relax and said that there were few other bags that had not come so i was not the only one.this is the part where i learnt that not being the only one does make you feel better for a while.he told me to sleep and not worry.which was difficult i didnt sleep well at all.any way we did get our bags at around 1 in the afternoon the next day,which meant 4 of us missed a session of practice.i have no clue why we didnt carry our bags with us in the bus???security reasons,as they say!

as i didnt go for practice.i explored a little bit.we have an international zone here.this place is huge.it has a disco,supermarket,bar,coffee,shehnaz hussain beauty parlour,central bank,internet cafe,gaming centre,and the best attraction an open theatre.this place is awesome you have performances here everytime right upto midnight.parikrama played yesterday.it was superb,live guitar,drums,head banging,it was rocking,ofcourse we had to retire by 9 to our rooms.but that half an hour was great.i didnt like the rahman song though somehow,i thought he could have done so much better.

as of now i got a chance to see abhinav bindra,vijender singh,tejaswini the shooter as far as the big names are concerned.abhinav and tejaswini seem to be very simple people.as far as vijender is concerned he seems to be a complete rockstar.white glares,billabong shorts.extremely eye candy..;)…though havent got a chance to speak to anyone of them.hopefully will get to do that sometime.i still havent seen our tennis stars,eagerly waiting to meet them.and ya also saw the squash team.joshna chinnapa and everyone,again havent spoken to them yet.

the practice hall and the main stadium werent new to us.as we have already played in both.the stadiums are great,absolutely no complaints.

so as you see most of the media talk could be plain trash.with whatever resources and kind of people we have working here we have managed really well.things are amazing as i said as a player i have everything that i need to perform.gyms,swimming pools,a nice stay,great food.i have no complaints and i am all ready to come out and play!

though on the sidelines of all this,there is a thought that did come to my mind as i was looking outside my window on my way to the hall.what about the life outside the cwg village???what about the slums who have been pushed away homeless,and foodless?was it really right for a nation like us to spend insane amounts of money on a sports event?when there are hundreds of them without there basic necessities of food,water and a decent education???

questions i tell you,never end do they???…but i guess whats life without the RIGHT questions!

p.s. next up the opening ceremony on the 3rd evening.should be exciting…:):)