A Polo Match in India

A friend of a friend is a polo player and happens to live in a beautiful Haryana farm house with a polo ground attached.  He invited me to attend a polo match at his place which was being hosted for the Swedish Ambassador.  The combination of watching a new sport + free food + an Absolut sponsored bar was too tempting to turn down so I told him that I'd be there with a friend of mine who was visiting from the states.

India is fascinating. To get to this particular farm house, you have to get off the highway, drive for about 30 minutes on a completely dug up road lined with vendors selling malnourished chickens, and then turn left down another even more beat up road until you get to a smaller dirt road that leads to a farmhouse.  Once you drive towards the farmhouse the first thing you see is massive field with grass cut finer than any other grass I've seen in India.  On the field are 12 beautiful horses and on those horses are 12 men riding around hitting a ball while groups of rich Indians and Swedes drink Vodka and eat fancy food.  It was such a weird transition of 2 worlds that even my driver, Samir, who has seen it all, said in Hindi, "What the hell just happened?"

I didn't really watch much of the match due to the fact that watching the match meant that I lost track of my attempt to eat every type of food that was available.  However, I must say that I have a lot of respect for the skill and endurance a polo player must have to play as hard as they do and then party as hard as they do. Seriously, these guys are amazing at both.  I imagine that riding a horse for 45 minutes and then dancing on tables to Bollywood hits for an hour is not an easy task.

All and all it was a nice afternoon and definately another Indian sports adventure that I will never forget.  

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