IN SEARCH OF THE SAVIOUR

It's a fantastic feeling.

One day in the later part of 1990s, when I first saw Rahul Dravid, batting in a Test match in South Africa, I saw him defending the express bowling from Donald and Co. For me, in some instances it looked like a soldier fighting the bullets and when he got out finally it looked like as if the war is over and the opposition had won it. During the power-cut break, I went into our ‘vast’ playing area of around 27 yards length and 15 yards width, with an intention of taking up that responsibility of ‘saving the nation’ from the ruins and winning the battle. With the new bat in my hand, that my Dad had gifted that summer, I covered my head with a white cotton towel covering the ears and tied it under the chin to save myself from the ‘bouncers’ and covered it with a sky blue cap on which  it was written ‘INDIA’. I knew what I was going to score and what I would do at the end of the milestone with that cap. It’s a fantastic feeling, honestly.

That afternoon, I played a magnificent innings, which Ravi Shastri had called, ‘innings of a life’ when wickets were tumbling at the other end. I contributed more than 150 in that double hundred partnership with Nayan Mongia by around 4 PM. It was a difficult job to see my favorite stars losing their wickets on the other side while I was trying to do something to hang-in there and score runs. It was even more difficult because, batting and commentating simultaneously are two different jobs and I thought I was the only one capable of doing that effectively till Shane Warne bowled McCullum round his legs in a recent T20 match in Australia. But, somehow, I did it, I did it so perfectly in that tour that even during post match presentations I didn’t have a problem of answering my own questions like, what I amount of hard-work I had put in and how I felt when the batting on the other side was collapsing. But, one thing I couldn’t do on that tour was taking enough wickets to win all the test matches. All-rounders in cricket are not made in a single series, of course. 

Life after that wasn’t easy, I played a lot of test matches for India in the next 5-6 years, sometimes early mornings, and sometimes late nights, sometimes to take a time-out from my 10^th exams preparation, sometimes to prepare for the next gully cricket match held in our building. Most international crickets come back and play lower standard matches for practice. I did it the other way around. I played in Australia in 99-00 series, scored heavily and took enough wickets to win India’s first series in Australia. I went to England, played at Lord’s and brought so many laurels, had an altercation with Flintoff at Leeds and hit all the six balls to six different sides of the park. Yeah, I had a deja-vu feeling when Yuvi did the same in 2007. 

These guys kept winning and I had to retire.

Some years later, I retired from all forms of cricket not because, I was tired but, there were enough players in the team who could do that and I felt happy that I wasn’t needed. I am glad that I exited in glory.

When Rahul Dravid was fighting his life-saving war against English pacers again in his life, he was fighting all alone. If only I could announce my re-entry into cricket. For the first time I rued myself for having not born in Pakistan. What a privilege they have.

Dravid: "I know buddy how much it hurts when you dying to win and your team doesn't back you up"

When Virat Kohli was fighting against the Australian tide in Perth, I knew I would have helped him not only complete his century but we would have made Australia look like Australia in India. I know, he need not had to slog in Adelaide after his century to score quickly nor he had to throw away his wicket to save a night watchman. To be frank with you, there wouldn’t have been a night-watchman requirement there in the first place.

I was told during my formative years of what I call now ‘iCricket’ that when ever there is a deep crisis and the situation couldn’t go any more worse, a small hope is created by the God. Those small hopes can create big wonders and they are called ‘Miracles’. That was how I bailed out the crisis of Indian Cricket then and since the situation cannot get any worser, I guess, The Miracle is just around the corner. 

Friction

When an object moves forward, it does itself a favor by pushing things into the past. It moves forward with a lot of support from within itself and a bit from the external world. The most important of the external world is the friction which physics say is a force developed at the contact point of the object and its path. But, friction may have nothing to do with the contact point or the shape, nature or smoothness of the path the object takes. Since, Physics cannot prove the thinking patterns of that particular object and physics, like law science also lives only on recorded data and assumes the case(object) is dead. 

But, I am sure that when the Latins first used this word(which I dont have a clue if they did), did not know physics and were talking something that is not related to an object moving or rolling up or down. It was not that difficult for that man to say, that overcoming the resistance needs just a unit more than its opposition.

I just wonder what would have happened to that object had it had the power to think, analyse and then act. Will it remain the same courageous object and try to push itself against the opposition? Will it be ready to do it even if its analyses say that it is going to be the opposition that is going to win it? Will it be ready to to take a risk and move forward even though its predecessors never did it?

The object's case is similar to a kid who is walking for the first time without the help of the accessories. His limbs develop and instinctively, he starts walking. He doesn't know the implications of his attempts, nor he has any previous records. But, the very attempt of his transforms his life into a mobile object. 

The power of thinking is always challenged by the frictional forces that comprises different forms of fear. The fear of losing what my conscience calls as Black Blanket, is the Mother of all. Fear is more of an emotion that is in the disguise of caution. Caution is created by the past happenings recorded or possible dangers that exist on the road. Caution is the child of thinking often mistaken as an off-spring of fear.

The ability to challenge the frictional forces is the only reason why mankind(read thinking objects) have been so successful today. The people who unmasked the black blanket long ago are already waiting on the other side teasing us. The difference is you will not be able to see it unless you uncover yourself.

When Nietzsche said "Man ties himself to a yoke and then runs around in circles" probably, he meant the yoke is the resistance to do the newer things which is caused by the programming set in your mind by your parents, teachers, religion etc. Just free yourself from that yoke and you gallop in any direction you choose to instead of going on circling the yoke and complaining about the pain in your neck.