Q for Quidditch

 Harry Potter books have so many interesting details that the readers may forget quite a bit as the years go by. But one thing that is kind of indelibly implanted in our minds is the sport of the wizards a.k.a Quidditch.

It is played in the air with the players mounted on brooms and there are keepers and quaffles and bludgers. A snitch is an elusive flying object and the team that manages to catch it  usually wins the game. Harry Potter himself is a very talented seeker!

Wikipedia tells me that now there is really a sport called quidditch with its roots in J K Rowling's fictitious pages that is gaining popularity in different parts of the world.

Every country has some sport that sort of a national favorite. In India, it is cricket.

We kind of grow up with cricket. Almost everyone watches cricket. Every time there is a new series, the elders and kids alike would be glued to the television sets with equal fervor. We celebrate the victories of our teams and the achievers in the sport are idolized. Apart from the cricket played in school grounds, the kids and youngsters would find some option to exercise the love for the sport. A vacant piece of land, apartment parking lots, car driveways and even the streets. There are those among us who passionately keep track of cricketing facts and history. Some matches of more than a decade old are remembered fondly. During my childhood days, television was not common in all homes. Friends would gather in the houses that had a TV and passersby would hear intermittent screams of excitement from the windows!

When India won the cricket world cup for the first time in 1983, I was 2 and a half years old. When it won the second time in 2011, my son was 2 and a half years old. Sweet coincidence!

Another sport I learnt to watch , thanks to my dad is tennis. I remember him drawing the tennis court on a black slate with chalk and explaining the rules. He used to follow the  French Open and Wimbledon series which used to be relayed live.

I like to play badminton now but I don't have much patience to watch a game end to end. Any sport for that matter.  I remember the book "Men are from Mars, Women are From Venus" or something else on a similar subject having an explanation about how and why men can watch some sport for hours at a stretch! Something women usually find it difficult!

What is your favorite sport?