Me (A 5 yr old me & excited): Papa papa.. aaj stadium le chalo na ..cricket match dekne .. Dad (drowned in his account books & frowning) least bothered that his son trying to make the most innocent, sympathy gaining, lower lip out face and without lifting up his head would say "hoon ... chalte hain . chalte hain ...” with no intention of budging from his place.
Me: “Papaaaaaaa” (a shout that would rattle the neighbors and make the newly borns soil their undies).. “le chalo na .. !!!!!!!!!!”
Mom (Jhansi ki Rani, used to break in from kitchen with a belan( sword replaced by belan) in hand) : “Le jao na bacho ko .. dekho kitni der se ro raha hain”
Papa (Now irritated by the disturbance papa would say):- "Kya Vandu tum bhi , jaanthi ho kitni bheed ho gi wah ? ..kaha le jao ka inko ( me and my sis) main .. ticket bhi mehenji ho gi .. Mohit, samjha kar beta .. jitna maza TV par milta hain match dekne ka utna kahi nahi milega .. Dono bheth ke dekhe ge acha ..!!!” Me Still not convinced and would cry the whole day until the match would start and it really dawned upon me that there is no possible way of budging my dad to the playground. A ritual that used to break in our house everytime I had some freind of mine making it to the stadium to watch the match leaving an envous me pestering my parents.
We said: "hi, how ya, phone no.. please, Ok TC, ba bye( all in fake US accent)
Present Realization....
Dad was always right. I went to watch the IPL match played between Bangalore RC and Mumbai Indians. Well, both the teams were already out of the tourney and the match was as useless as the presence of Katrina Kaif for the matches of Royal Challengers played or for that reason it was as useless as the presence of cheer girls for cheering. I mean I am sure that the few sixes that Rahul Dravid hit out of desperation had nothing to do with the cheer girls specially imported from some unknown football ground but I am sure they at least raised the morale of young lads like us. I mean they got a better welcome from the stands than our own pop singers or should I say young guys were so crazy about these cheer girls that if there wasn't a fence between the ground and the stands I am sure a lot of us would have been chasing these girls all over the ground. However these girls were a little adulated and were thinking they have a huge fan following in India. I guess some one should tell them that most of us in India haven't seen a girl wearing shorts as short as nothing. :) and the concept of cheer girls never existed along side with bar girls in India. How could you expect an average Indian male not to tear his eye balls, drool and make a sigh when he sees a cheer girl! We have ample number of photos of them .I mean of the people drooling over them from stands. ;) The atmosphere was electrifying and I also came to know what a Mexican wave is. It’s a huge wave of people applauding from one stand and another set of people following the earlier ones from the adjacent stand and it goes on and on. Quite a spectacle in itself. I saw another spectacle of guys half my age using rancid remarks that made even the foreigners to blush and screw up their faces. For some reason I feel that kids have interchanged the meaning of good and bad, dunno what is it like in the other cities of India. The initial excitement subsided soon and the way the RC played dampened my spirit. Truly, not an experience to be remembered forever. By the way the IPL has excited the economic nerves of my brain. Ponder upon this if Anil Ambani can raise 12,000 crores through an IPO in 3 days then why not Chennai Super Kings or Delhi Dare Devils. I mean these are companies in themselves and if they decide to go public then I am sure every cricket lover would love to invest. 10-15 yrs down the line I can imagine my son saying "papa papa aap Mumbai Indian ke share kyu nahi kharidhte.. Abhishek Nayaar form main hain." :) and an another new article would say Sachin steps down from the post of CEO of Tendulkar Group of Hotels, Mumbai. He said that he was growing old and wanted to spend watching the matches at the most acclaimed stadiums of the world. God knows when Dhanraj Pillay and Baichung Bhutia would become industrialist. ;) quite an irony and economic gap.
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