The Cricketing Saga!

"Born into a cricketer's family." This phrase is all what should define the future of the post that shall proceed henceforth.

Cricket is something that I started when I sprouted out into this world, even before my parents got me admitted to the play-school, when I didn't know a bit about my existence like who I was, where I was, why I was, how I was, etc. Life began with a plastic bat and ball, and groups of people sitting before the screens when a match was to be played, excitedly.

Mothers and sisters used to do pre-match preparations of all the food and eatables in the kitchen, and place them in an easy accessible manner for everyone. Dad, brothers and uncles almost used to wind up from their works for the day. This is a bit of craziness that I grew up with me all-around.

In the beginning of 90's when there no cables and channels, television had to be connected through the antennas that provided signals to connect to the various DD channels, DD Sports, DD National to name a few. There was a huge antenna placed at the top f our house. The neighbouring kids hardly had any experience of connecting the TV's. As a kid, once I saw my cousin fixing up the antenna and connecting the range with it to catch-up the channels. I learned the process.

Also, another interesting practice that followed is shouting and exchanging hi5's at the sixes and the fours, and sadness at the dismissals of the team we were supporting. It is a huge treat and celebrations time whenever a cricket match is followed. We all cousins, uncles, aunts have a lot of fun-sharing moments.

What happened was, one day India-Pakistan match was to take place. The craziness that drives the whole nation on hearing to this news is different altogether. Everything was set at my place. Snacks were ready, food was all prepared, the largest room was vacated of the extra stuff to accommodate maximum members of the family. The match began with all the charm that it is supposed to be associated with.

I came out for a while as I peed in the pants since I was waiting for the over to get over. I heard few kids at the top of our terrace. I knew they were trying to fix the channel for the match. I silently sneaked to the terrace to help the kids. Since I saw my cousin fixing things at home, I had things in my mind. I tried and fixed the things in a little while. The joy of kids was tremendous and they rushed to their room to catch the match. Next day they got me a box of pencils and a chocolate as a token of love. They loved it and I loved it too.

My mother, often used to keep a check on me since then and tried to stop me from climbing the antenna wall on the terrace. But even then I often used to set and connect TV for my neighbours whenever matches were to take place. I used to feel happy, a lot happy.

Gone are the days when we have to set TV channels and have that kind of crazy experiences. Now are the days of optical connectivity, cables, and internet, though not less crazy, but more of technical and smartness is involved and associated with it.