Sawadeeka.

Greetings from Bangkok.... its been a long day so will try to keep this succinct and to the point... got here from Bombay at 6am and before i could put my bags down i got a call from Abhinav who was already up and heading to the gym so i decided that i had to also pretend to kind of be an athlete and so i joined him.
After a shower and food we headed to the range, Abhinav had official practice at 1pm and i was perplexed at why we were heading there at 10am but i decided not to argue. The whole Indian contingent was there and it was good to catch up with everyone. The air rifle and pistol contingent comprises of around 50 people and they have been on the road for the last two months so there is no dearth of good gossip. Of course there are those usual stories of people not having seen three of the five coaches ever since they have reached bangkok but being Indian would we expect any different?? Then there are juicier ones that i (as much as i want to) can't really write about but my point being that it was good.
While all this was going on Abhinav of course was not around he had gone to the armory to get his weapons and was sitting behind his shooting point, i assumed he was focusing so didn't interfere.... then after a while he changed into his shooting clothes (better described as armor) and at around 12.30 was standing at his place aiming at his target but not shooting... there were about 30 others doing the same thing so i didn't think it was too odd. Then as soon as the digital clock showed 1:00pm there was this cacophony of gun fire... it sounded like hail on a tin roof and i jumped since i was still busy shooting the breeze with Suma and didn't expect it.
Exactly 23 minutes later, Abhinav packed up his gun got out of his clothes, went dropped off his gun and we was ready to get out of there. So we went there 2 hours early just to prepare to shoot for 23 mins... Amazing....
So in the next ten mins we were on our way back to the hotel, where we went back to the gym, and then headed to re-fuel our stomachs.
The thing I found odd was that its only Abhinav staying in this hotel. He does his own practice, he makes his own schedules, he does his own fitness and there is no one around. Not anyone of his "team" mates, no coaches... i know he probably likes it this way but it is a great reminder of even though it is a team event it is still very individual.
So tomorrow being the Men's 10M event... we are all off to bed early... all the action begins at 6am (that is the time he is leaving for competition preparations) tomorrow so can't wait to actually be a part of it. The atmosphere at a sporting event is something hard to describe it is unbelievable and watching any sport live is a thrill which no sports lover should pass on....