My first bat was a typical plastic made pale yellow colored. I don’t exactly remember how I got it but I was happy to hit that red plastic ball around. When the bat strikes this hard plastic ball it makes that amazing sound “tok”. I just loved it. I love it even today.
I never had many friends then who shared the same interest. So I would hit the ball against the wall with the bat and go on doing it until I was tired or until my mom would come running with the stick in her hand.
I watched cricket ( though I could hardly pronounce it) but could never understand anything other than the concept of bat and the ball which needs to be hit as far as possible.
After few years, I still watched cricket. I now knew what an over meant and what was a no ball, wide, six and four. The plastic bat was replaced with a wooden, half broken small bat and the rubber ball, the one with the sign of elephant on it( I think it was a mascot of something). I still didn’t have good number of friends who took cricket seriously as I did. They played for fun but I wanted to improve as if I was born only to play cricket. Not that I wanted to be Sachin or someone. I couldn’t recognize them anyway. I just loved the game. The bat hitting the ball and that sound which has now changed from “tok” to “phot” just filled me with joy. When the ball broke, it was the saddest day for me. I still was hitting the walls and sketching the modern art. My mother? She still ran behind me with the stick. May be this time it was a bit longer, for extra reach because I could run quite fast now.
Anyway, fast forward to few more years. I knew how to pronounce cricket and spell it right all the ten times. The half broken bat was replaced with a bat made from the branch of the coconut tree. It was still with rubber ball which smelt yuk when it broke, but never mind since it went flying for fours and sixes with little effort. I used to watch each and every match available on door darshan. I enjoyed playing the game compared to watching. We had 45 minutes of lunch break at school. But It was a sin according to me to waste the precious time in eating food. Cricket was the priority. We would wait in the queue to get the cricket set and n then play our hearts out at 12 under the sun which never seemed to be hot enough. The sweat was no longer irritating. It was so much fun. When India won matches we would celebrate. We would play for 2 hours extra and when we played we used to think of the moments in cricket and try to emulate and gain some confidence. It was more than game.
Few years later when I moved to college the level of my cricket has changed from school friends to the local sports club and with lot of talented players. I knew I was not a serious cricketer in terms of playing with the regular ball of 5.5 ounce and with all helmets, pads and stuff. Simply because I couldn’t afford to do that at that time. As 90 % of the Indians, I too had to choose between the sports or studies. With very less support at home, you really don’t have much of choice. Anyway no regrets. I enjoyed what I was doing and I am happy about the choices I made, also am thankful to people around me then. We never missed cricket. Rubber ball was now replaced with cosco’s. We had pretty good bat to play with. I was the opening batsman of our college science stream. It was no less than being a opener of national team. The spirit with which we played matches was equivalent to any international match or perhaps more than it. We still loved what we did “ Playing cricket” and nothing else. I had many friends now, both in college and in sports club. Many of them I would have never meet if it wasn’t cricket. Some of the friends went on to be my best friends who consider me to be brother till date and will love me for ever. The confidence which I gained by playing cricket , rubbed to my studies as well. We excelled when it mattered the most.
Fast forward to date. We are into corporate world now. The world which weighs everything to $ $MONEY $$$. No matter what I say , a group of people think that they can equate even the shit to money. The more time they take to do that, the more money they loose. So they go on with their stuff, spraying their deadly perfume everywhere to everyone. Now don’t take that thing literally. I am just mad as I right this blog, so I couldn’t get anything better and good to compare them with.
24th September 2007 is a special day to me and to all the Indians. India won T20 world cup. The adrenalin rush, the temper, the excitement on that day couldn’t be compared to anything on that day. It was festival. Yes, it was a festival belonging to no religion, no caste. You could celebrate even if you didn’t have 1 rupee in pocket. This was a festival was celebrated in a way that could probably compared with the day of independence back then on that day when all got together. The winners were rightly rewarded.
There was one man whom I knew had a gloomy face. I was over the moon and with my over joyous face I asked him “ Did you watch the match?”
“No, whats there. I think India won. People are celebrating. What big deal?”
“ what do you mean? It is a big deal. We won it.”
“Yeah. But what did you get? In 1983 also we had won. All Gavaskars and teams are now very rich. What did we get?”
“ What the hell are you talking man? Its not about money. Its more than that.”
“It is about money.”
At this moment, I felt like slapping him but could manage to tell the ‘F’ word and ignored him. He was not in my heart and now he is out of my mind as well. Hopefully I will get out of his sight in a month as well.
Anyway. What do we do with such kind of looser? A pain in this world.
Yesterday I received this email which had a link to cricketnext and which had animated video which showed shahrukh and the Indian team in womens hockey dress. The animation is horrible. I don’t understand why cricketnext who are a cricket lovers have put up this animation.
I shot an email back to this friend of mine telling him that this is bad and horrible.
He replies “No it’s good. I liked it…… and I hate SRK,… he sucks big time….. may be u like him that’y y sucha reaction…..????”
So I relied “IDIOT, I m not talking abt SRK.. I m talking abt Indian criketers made to wear skirts n play hockey.. it’s a shame that these people who have contributed so much to the game and you give them these bulls shit.. its pathetic…”
For which I got a shocker “Well, what have the Indian cricketers done gr8 by winning? All they’ve done is lacks n crores of rupees for themselves and only resulted in decreasing the productivity of India…. When everybody stops working and sit by the TV….. And all that 6 hours traffic jam that happened in Mumbai for their so called welcome….??? What’s all that crap man??? Aah…!!! And don’t forget the after effects of winning some crazy cup…… Alas……, u only get to see Dhoni n Dhoni n Dhoni in every add… every hoarding…. Any where and every where…..…. wov man give me a break…..!!!! You know what? They have done NOTHING for the country by winning this cup ok….!!!! And what about other sports??? These sportsmen cant even effort to continue plating cos of their financial needs and no body even cares a Shit about them….!!! Well, that’s my opinion on the crazy game….. CRICKET….!!!!! And it woudn’t be worse even if the video was made with them wearing bikinis…….!!!!”
I always wondered why people think happiness is inversely proportional to others happiness or success. What I mean is, why should being happy depend on how much you make compared to your neighbour,sister,brother,husband or wife? Do you really think these cricketer haven’t done anything to the country?
Well, I think that cricket is one thing that binds this madly diverse nation. How the hell do you think we could have sustained this diversity for such a long time. Other nations cant even do with one uncommon thing. It creates communal volience there. But in India percentage vice we are more united considering the diversity.
Cricket as I said dissolves the boundaries in hearts. It brings together people. I mean wouldn’t you be proud to tell the world that we are T 20 world champions. Or wouldn’t you be proud to tell someone in Korea or Japan that we are the Asian hockey champions.
I could see people hugging each other, distributing sweets irrespective of what they spoke and whom they worshipped. I know it might fade away in time. But atleast for this moment lets enjoy this. Its better than busting bombs and spraying bullets.
Now isnt it fair enough to reward the people responsible for all this appropriately? Indian team irrespective of cricket or hockey ,deserves it. They have dissolved many barriers with their victory.. They have given people the hope that, its not the mighty that wins, it’s the hunger, hard work, patience, perseverance, tolerance that wins hearts and spreads love.
Love you all. May the sanity, optimism, love prevail. And please don’t forget that “ Human emotions cannot ever be equated to money”
-Jai Hindh
