CRICKET, WILL YOU BE MY VALENTINE?

          Anton Chekov once told “people don’t notice if its winter or summer when they are really happy”. This summer is really an Exception because of the freaking hot weather. It’s all because of my friends there in Tamil Nadu (Especially in Chennai and Madurai) I feel Bangalore has mutated into a burning furnace. I kindly advice my fellow bangaloreans not to boast or brag about the winter climate and the super rainy season which is all set to commence the sooner else we will be prone to be jinxed. After all these happenings, from this summer, I really do believe in jinxing and becharming (popularly called “Mutta vaikuradhu” or “Pooja podradhu” by my friends in Tamil). 

         Every summer had a story and plenty of memories which you want them to happen once again in your life, for me summers during my childhood were as simple as this “Tanned Skin; Crazy Cricketing days; Long nights; I don’t know if my body continued the Krebs cycle each and every day but this cricketing cycle continued all throughout my childhood summer. The IPL Extravaganza, the bit of good cricket that I played with my office team mates which brought the nick back and the kind of cricket I played in my Apartment with my friends has given me plenty of enjoyable nostalgia.

           Cricket is indubitably my first love. It’s not a big deal when my dad was the first person to have made me hold the bat; to have corrected my cricketing stance; to have taught me the rules and regulations of the beautiful game of cricket along with the seam positions for the in swingers, out swingers, off breaks and leg breaks and last but not the least when he was the first person to have introduced and shown me that he is) “Sachin Tendulkar” (The Second reason for cricket being my first love ) in the old solitaire TV with the good old wooden shutter. The Epic conclusion of the above paragraph is that “despite being the only child of my dad and mom I started growing along with cricket and not all alone. I never regretted for not having any siblings for the reason I loved cricket more.

                          Most games are skin deep, but cricket goes to the bone

                                                                                                                   -Aristotle

                         Cricket to us was more than play; it was worship in the summer sun

                                                                                                                   -Edmund Charles Blenden

Cricket - No matter what and where !

         I was such a freak during my childhood that I used to soliloquize myself playing cricket for my nation in the terrace. I personified the flat cemented terrace into picturesque lush green lawn which would either be Chepauk, Lords, Sydney,  Kensington oval, Old Trafford, WACA and what not  for that sake. There were days were I used to go to my dad’s office and my mom’s school during my vacation wherein I would be writing and typing the entire playing eleven of the Indian team with me and sachin opening the batting on the black board and also in the Microsoft word and notepad respectively whilst the other staff’s kids would be busy playing the dangerous Dave. There have been numerous papers that I have wasted typing the cricketers name using those extinct typewriters which was once used in my dad’s office ages back.

And up she goes... come on fetch that up trio !

            The luckiest part in my life was that I always had some good set of friends, friends of friends in school days, college days and also in my office who were not just studious and workaholic, but were also proficient in talking about cricketing statistics and also had some good cricketing skills. Yes at the first impression I do really seem to be a damn reserved guy but you will have to shatter and thrash those thoughts once you start talking about cricket to me. When the technology wasn’t too high some 14 years back a close friend of mine’s magnanimous mom, would keep cricket scores in a chit along with his lunch box during the lunch. There were days in the past where in I had to fight with my grand dad for the sports column in the Hindu early in the morning. There were days, where I used to start a bit earlier with sheer zeal to school just to discuss cricket with my close friends. The next morning cricketing debates and discussions, after some good cricket matches the previous day during my school days were just as memorable as anything could be.

Cricket is more than just a game ! a synonym for joy and happiness

       People around me changed, time changed and along with them even I changed but the only thing that remained unchanged even as I grew older was the excitement and the kind of love I have for the game of cricket. The more I see cricket; the more I play cricket eventually I end up in loving cricket more and more. It’s not that easy for a game to give you sleepless nights, exorbitant enthusiasm and excitements unless you love it more than your lover and when it’s more than just a game and a portion of life for you.

        Down the lane I dreamt only of cricket, I have padded up and executed some good shots and bowled some mesmerizing and awe-inspiring hallucinatory deliveries in my terrace and the corridor of my home where my neighbors would have always thought me no less than a cricketing lunatic. The imaginary balls that I have bowled during my childhoods had sent many stumps gyrating, spinning and have heard them jolting all around which will always be bowler’s sight.

I just don’t know how it feels to others, but for me a game of cricket on a scorching sun doesn’t just bring out the sweat but also helps me to veritably forget the enormous amount of bleakness, anguish and the dismal dumps that were accumulated in my mind. I must confess that it’s quite difficult for me to talk about the game of cricket without bringing in the little master. See the way I just failed even now. Whatever may be the weakness may it be the emotional ones or the physical ones, those will be vanished within a wink, the moment I start playing cricket or when I watch cricket matches in the TV.

To sum up, “people wait around too long for true love”, I am so happy that I got it in the name of cricket ever since my childhood. The game of cricket has not just been a part of my life, but it has always been a personal source of inspiration and a kind of optimism that always keeps me moving forward, no matter what and no matter where. People may come in or people may move out of my life but my life would move on, if ever I get some food that would suffice for my survival in the earth and a TV with cricket being telecasted all throughout my lifetime and with a bunch of people who would play cricket regularly around me.

Indians and cricket: The Inseparables !

If ever cricket apparently gets a life, there is something I would always want to ask her… will you be my valentine? Not just today but forever??

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