As I was walking along the beach, I saw a group of guys playing football (i.e. soccer, which is played with a normal spherical ball, not some weirdly shaped “thing” that you sometimes catch and and run with, and at other times kick). Normally I would have asked them if I could join them, but for some reason I didn’t. Perhaps in the back of my mind I was thinking of the time I had asked to play football with a random bunch of strangers on Palolem beach in Goa, and in the process had my expensive pair of sunglasses stolen. Anyway, in a short while, a police jeep came by carrying even more players.

They split themselves up into two teams, but the teams didn’t have the same number of players. They were throwing expectant glances towards me and that was more than enough invitation for me to run up, place my bag in the police jeep and join them. The guys were as surprised as any normal Ecuadorian person to find out that I was from almost exactly the other side of the planet.

At this point, I must tell you, dear reader, that I’m a decent football player. On my day, I can give the best of players a run for their money. As a new-player-test, I was passed the ball early on, and in my eagerness to impress, I completely botched it up. It took me a long time after that to prove my worth.

As we were playing, other regular players started to show up, and soon the teams were imbalanced again. In my opinion, when people are playing casual football on a beach; having 8 players in one team and 9 in the other hardly makes a difference. But this was not an opinion shared by one of the players of the opposing side. He started making a big fuss about our side having one extra player and thus having an unfair advantage. An awkward silence followed, and to save somebody the embarrassment of asking me to leave; I myself volunteered to quit the game. But before going, I made sure to thank the guys for giving me an opportunity to play with them.