" Tere pass woh cork ball wali bat hai na woh lana sath mein." "abey stump pakde ki nahi." "saale woh mangya nahi aaya, kamina unke taraf se khel raha hai, bola toh tha usey pehli batting milegi fir bhi nahi aaya." "abey suna hai unke pass ka woh chandu sidha yorker dalta hai". Opinions and views were flying from here and there about the upcoming match of D colony vs Police Colony. I was 14 and tomorrow english exam was on my mind. But who cares when my team needed their captain to play with them.
Oops, after 2 years i realized they wanted me for three main reasons.
1) I studied in carmel high school. Opposite team studied in zilla parishad. This gave our team an advantage of having somebody who knows how to speak english. I knew the secret of speaking fluet english. The secret was this. Speak only in front of boys who doesn't understand a word spoken. Speak fast no matter what you speak. If opposite party understands english, use hindi instead. I still use this secret. But how does it help in gully cricket match. You know, in my town gadchiroli, if someone is from english convent, it was taken for granted that he is talented and have more knowledge than rest of the team. English ki madat se main aage wali team ko woh rules bhi bata deta tha jo kabhi invent bhi nahi huye hai.
2) Reason no. 2 was i was their sponsor. In my childhood having 10 rupees in your pocket was like having million. " Kitne ki match lagi hai ", "11 rupaye ki", "thik hai main 10 lagaunga aur jite toh 20 mere, kya bolte". This was always the deal.
3) I had a bat, how simple it that. One who has a bat has to play or atleast make a deal with players "agar tuti toh bharke chahiye". aur fir mere paas aisi waisi nahi cork ball wali baat thi woh bhi dhage band ke.
That 11 rupees matches taught me more about life and our attitude towards problems in childhood than this whole education system. Below were the qualities we had when there was a tournament. May be in the web of time, something is lost but let's remember our qualities to remind us that yes, once upon a time we all were unique and thought about one day conquering the world.
Oops, after 2 years i realized they wanted me for three main reasons.
1) I studied in carmel high school. Opposite team studied in zilla parishad. This gave our team an advantage of having somebody who knows how to speak english. I knew the secret of speaking fluet english. The secret was this. Speak only in front of boys who doesn't understand a word spoken. Speak fast no matter what you speak. If opposite party understands english, use hindi instead. I still use this secret. But how does it help in gully cricket match. You know, in my town gadchiroli, if someone is from english convent, it was taken for granted that he is talented and have more knowledge than rest of the team. English ki madat se main aage wali team ko woh rules bhi bata deta tha jo kabhi invent bhi nahi huye hai.
2) Reason no. 2 was i was their sponsor. In my childhood having 10 rupees in your pocket was like having million. " Kitne ki match lagi hai ", "11 rupaye ki", "thik hai main 10 lagaunga aur jite toh 20 mere, kya bolte". This was always the deal.
3) I had a bat, how simple it that. One who has a bat has to play or atleast make a deal with players "agar tuti toh bharke chahiye". aur fir mere paas aisi waisi nahi cork ball wali baat thi woh bhi dhage band ke.
That 11 rupees matches taught me more about life and our attitude towards problems in childhood than this whole education system. Below were the qualities we had when there was a tournament. May be in the web of time, something is lost but let's remember our qualities to remind us that yes, once upon a time we all were unique and thought about one day conquering the world.
- No matter who the bowler is we always wanted to bat first. This was our quality to face the situation even if there are making obstacles ( fielders ) to stop us from reaching our goal.
- We never calculated whether the catch is in range or not, whether it can be caught or not, we just jumped. This was our quality to take risk but today after having degree, white collar, car, mobile phones, many of us think 100 times before jumping in a risky situation for our dreams and ambitions.
- What was the match for? 11 rupees, no. It was about pride and honour. For us winning was more important, not because of financial reward but because we can't let our colony down. Apne ilake ki izzat apne hath mein thi. What has happened today? Its not about dreams or ambitions, today for many the match of life is just for 3.2 or 5.6 package. All this education for a silly package from some MNC. What a shame! ( yeah, you may be angry on this point on me but who cares )
- We played for our team. Together we won, together we lost. Today we play as individuals, alone we win alone we lose. Its about my promotion, my bonus, my reward. How did we change so much?
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