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TA L K
beaten by our 14-year-old challengers was
not outside the realms of possibility. Our
match that day was spirited and made all the
more enjoyable by the incredible ponies. After
a hotly contested 6–5 win, we had a
wonderful time socialising with the hosting
team. As it turns out, we’d watched two of
them play against each other in an eight-goal
match the previous day.The club where we’d
watched the match, the Rajasthan Polo Club,
has a history just as fascinating as the nearby
palaces. Pictures of celebrity visitors such as
Princess Diana and Jackie Kennedy adorn its
walls. According to the locals, the fields are
standing room only on the days of big
matches, a true testament to the
appreciation of polo that exists in Jaipur.
The spring semester has started and
we’re all back in New Haven now – back in
classes, and back in the arena. But India
lingers. We fell in love with paneer and even
more in love with naan. We bought way too
many pashmina scarves, took an abundance
of tourist photos, practiced yoga with
a swami and witnessed the marvel of Indian
driving. The bravest of us charmed a snake
and lived to tell the tale. In India’s unfamiliar
settings, polo was one of the few known
variables; it was the reason we’d gone there,
but not the only thing we took away. In
unexpected ways, the sport continues to
push all of us out of our comfort zones.
T H E F I E L D S A R E S TA N D I N G R O OM O N LY O N
B I G M AT C H D AY S – A T R U E T E S TA ME N T T O
T H E A P P R E C I AT I O N O F P O L O I N J A I P U R
Opposite
: Leila Chang celebrates Yale’s
win against an Indian high-school team.
This page:
Chang and her teammates
explore the wonders of India
