No matter how hard i try it has never happened.
right from the time i shifted to my new building when i was about 2 yrs old to my new office or rather my first office. Cricket has never been too far for me to not be able to reach it.
my first love and my longest relationship.
It's been the best friend I' ve ever had and certainly cherish this bonding.
When i had shifted to this new building in juhu, Juhu Griha Swapna, I was about 10-12 yrs old and was shy and found it very difficult to make friends or even talk to people. but cricket was the single factor that would connect me with the rest of the building people. Either knowing them by playing with them or by breaking somebody's window panes and then apologizing later or in some cases paying for the broken. window pane. i vividly remember breaking Mr. Lala's window panes very regularly and how he used to get troubled by us in the afternoons on all weekdays and early mornings on weekends. We used to hate him at times but now i feel he was still quite kind as he never stopped us from playing but would just get irritated. he's no more now and it's quite a tragedy that we troubled him a lot even in his last days.
back to the topic, after my first few years at this building we shifted to a new one which wasn't too far away. so i thought i would go back and play with my old mates. but that seldom happened and i made new 'cricket friends'. kids of all ages from around the area would come and pay with us. we had formed quite a big team and would often run into the adjoining ground and play over there.
ohh..how can i forget to mention the cricket we played when we were in school. especially in the 9th and 10th std. whenever we sued to get a free period we would rush to the ground and start playing there. this affair continued even after we left school. we would call up each other and all the juhu brats would meet up at the jamnabai grounds and have a fun time.
11th and 12th cricket was with akshay and me. yup! just the two of us meeting for a friendly bowl!...every second day we would be playing in my bldg compound..n improved our skills!! or so we thought!!
n then engineering had another 2 sets. one was when akshayand deep and bell would get done early from coll and second one would be when i would call up dhaval, alok, pratik and the rest to come and play.
then 2 yrs hence or guess abt 3 yrs later i stepped into xaviers. i thot now that i am entering in a set of ppl with totally different thinking and some who don't even have similar interests, this will be a difficult phase in my life. also coming up after a slight depression i was very circumspect.
but then as has happened all these years i found my buddy here too. altho it was just one, Mr.Desai was the sole saviour who instilled my faith in this new generation. i thot most would be the kind who love football and basketball and the likes but there were a few cricket lovers...fanatic if i must say.
saurbah and malay were my last hopes..but then the gang has since become bigger with nihal, saahil, pranav n a few others..
altho we hardly played during college just to have ppl who r interested in cricket was gud enuff. i could discuss and argue with them and debate on various issues. at times this would give me a lot of satisfaction.
n now in my new office...initially for the first 6-7 months i had completely lost touch, no body in off would play cricket...of course no one ever does!! and then ppl in the bldg too had stopped playing for some odd reason. so it was about time when i had started really missing it a lot. i was craving for a game and then in this bid called on some long lost friends from school and we had a match or two on one of the weekends. but that was it. 2 games and it was all done.
but here it was again, off ppl to the rescue. someone somewhere got this idea of playing underarm in the office parking lot during lunchtime. the best use of lunchtime breaks ever!!!
so there we are now a happy group of about 15 ppl who play cricket every day between 1:30 pm. to 2: 00 pm. . the match ends at 2:00 sharp so as to not bother the big heads in the company.
and cricket in the building is also on its comeback trail what with 16 players gathering yesterday and talks of having another nite cricket match like the one we had about 2 years back...
the cricket scene in my life has come back with a vengeance and am so happy!!
also my school bud yash is back, so here 's to a life full of cricket!! cheers
p.s. my gud frnd bax once asked me - " sid, if you were given the choice between cricket and sex, what would you choose?" - my look gave her the answer and i think she knew it too!!!
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