Been in Delhi for one and a half years. I play tennis on some Sundays, when the fancy strikes me and a friend. We play real bad tennis.

And now another friend wants to try out badminton at Siri Fort Sports Complex. Why not. Badminton racket weighs less than a tennis racket, it can only be easier!

So away we went, through what some people call a rain in Delhi. A dozen droplets, approximately, keep falling on the windshield every 2 minutes. That’s torrential rain here. Generally people in Delhi blow a fuse and drive in such a fashion that their movement can only be described in terms of quantum physics. Newtonian physics doesn’t explain their driving at all.

Anyway we found the Siri Fort complex - it was bloody 2 minutes from home! So my friend and I both have this sprawling sports complex so big that just walking around it looking at all the courts and buildings would get rid of our potbellies - and we never even went there. We should be ashamed of ourselves. But friend should be ashamed of himself much, much more indeed. He’s the delhiite, I am not. Shame on you, you big fat slob!

So we found the indoor court and he talked to the couple of employees sitting at the counter. The complex’s indoor badminton courts have wooden flooring - they asked me to show them the soles of my shoe. Thankfully, the aging cheapo shoes have a flat bottom. Yay! No such luck for my lazy, fat friend - he has that macho sole on his shoes - but he is okay with playing barefooted.

That is when I see the white t-shirt and white shorts next to me. There was a man inside them, obviously. Tall. Moustache. He told the employee that he has a court booked. The employee asked him if he was a member of the Sports Complex. The white shorts and white t-shirt did not like it at all. He stared down at the employee. I am a founder member of the Siri Fort Sports Complex, ha! Do you know what a founder member is? Nope-nope, the employee shook his head in bewilderment. The Founder Member, Siri Fort Sports Complex looked about proudly having established who he is, and went away.

Way to go, Siri Fort Sports Complex Founder Member! It was the highlight of my one and a half years in Delhi. I have met so few founder members in my life of anything. Yea I can say my dad is the founder member of our family and all - but the Munjanattu family in the back alleys of Kerala compares not to the Siri Fort Sports Complex. I met the man who is something like a Jawahar Lal Nehru and Mahatma Gandhi of Siri Fort Sports Complex! The Lenin of indoor badminton courts! Rich is my life.