Someday, today will be nostalgia

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...

    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...