Someday, today will be nostalgia

  A story is told of two bricklayers laying brick on an afternoon when one wished the sun would scurry back behind the clouds and offer a smattering of respite. This very ordinary scene caused curiosity to get the better of a passerby in search of conversation. As the story goes, a question was posed to each as to what they were building. One replied he was merely laying brick. The other said he was laying the foundation for a cathedral. Ostensibly, the purpose of this story being recounted time and again is to get us to look at dreary tasks with a sense of reverence. And maybe, just maybe, they can turn into a masterpiece. Maybe this zealous approach is the distinction between the humdrum existence of a journeyman and that of an enchanter, who in Jack Kerouac’s words, makes everybody go ‘aaawww’. Which is why there are such few masterpieces, be it a song, a book, a movie, or a sportsperson making the field his stage, keeping an audience of a million glued to...

Virat Kohli must have woken up with a premonition that the world was ending real soon Any other reason which could explain the ferocity of Tuesday’s trailblazer would be deemed unworthy of an innings that seemed to crashland from some parallel universe. But if you dig a little deeper, the collective over joyousness didn’t stem from the innings itself, but what was surmounted to reach that point of no return. The scoreboard is a liar It speaks eloquently of results but not the fight or the heartbreak. The scoreboard since India’s English summer that was dubiously replicated in the Australian summer showed huge defeat margins. But the fan didn’t just grieve for the losses. He grieved for the nature of the losses. There was no fight to reminiscence about, no intent to find solace in. The scoreboard didn’t speak of the nihilism that followed those disastrous outings. The excuses won’t set you free VVS Laxman and Rahul Dravid know a thing or two about conquerin...

Back in 1969, the moon landing gave humanity of its most subliminal moments. Though the vision of man’s first step on the moon has been ingrained in the minds of those who weren’t even around to witness it, not many cameras covered the aftermath. On their return to earth, the astronauts realised that their lives had changed dramatically. Unimaginable, but some of them actually suffered psychological problems and battled depression. The reasons were many but a plausible reason is – where do you go once you go the moon? One wonders if the Indian team finds itself in the position that the astronauts found themselves in. Though experts point out to various factors for the team’s failure, a fan doesn’t read much into them. A fan only shares the pain but not the dressing room. Every consecutive defeat, where the margin of defeat is only increasing shows a certain sense of listlessness in the team. Like they turned up and expected the wind to blo...

The Border Gavaskar series between India and Australia are always marked by a series of verbal volleys, something the Aussies politely disguise as mental disintegration. Much of it has been quelled by Rahul Dravid’s Bradman oration. Mental disintegration worked when Australia had a battery of immortals to back their talk. The Indian Summer of 2001 reversed the tide, when an unassuming VVS Laxman and Rahul Dravid rewrote Indian cricket history. For many years, an Indian win in Australia was always regarded a bonus, not something even a true fan would have denied. The 2003-2004 series, though partly overshadowed by Steve Waugh’s swansong, was the first well fought series played on Australian soil. It gave us the enduring image of Rahul Dravid pumping his fists in the air after winning the Adelaide test. After India conceded the trophy in 2005, the 2007-2008 series was labelled as a clash for the throne. Instead, what transpir...

    Of all the things that Rahul Dravid can stake claim to, savagery is not one of them. Yet, a few weeks back, he found himself on unfamiliar turf. If the sight was a tad bewildering, what ensued a little later was even more startling. In what can only be termed as a momentary lapse of reason, Rahul Dravid turned into an unwieldy mixture of Gilchrist, Sehwag and Jayasuria, striking  3 sixes in a row.  The wall, age 38, being called upon to scale another wall – his first, and last t20 international.   Great players allude to a trait, a style of play that becomes inseparable from their very being. While Laxman’s style is intertwined with sublime artistry, Sachin’s synonymous with mastery, Dravid excels at rigor. His innings are an essay in concentration, a sermon on effort and a testimony on patience, all woven into one. He grinds bowlers down until they stop bowling and start praying. In the last 15 years, his presence at the crease i...

In those days, time was measured in intervals of 40 minutes. That was how long it took for a period in school to get over. In those days, school kids didn’t know what cell phones were, let alone carry them to school to check the score. In those days, kids would run to the school canteen to check the score. On this day, every person that cared about cricket was prepared for the inevitable – the final frontier to be breached. But something went awry. Each time the kids ran to the school canteen expecting the match to have been dutifully completed, they went back a bit disappointed. Some closure would afford them chance to go back to concentrating on their studies. Thankfully, none of that happened. For each time they went to check, a certain Rahul Dravid and VVS Laxman held fort and refused to retreat. Over the next two days, India completed an improbable victory in what is arguably one of the greatest test matches to ever be played. Of all Indian batsmen of note to have e...