Sir Rahul Dravid

Dear Sir Rahul Dravid,

All I have for you is one word; Respect. If I have to award someone the title of Sir in the game of cricket your name comes first in my mind. I have been following your game right from the day you played your first test match at Lords, the mecca of cricket. And right from that first game to your last game in Australia, I have never seen any change in the committment you have shown towards the game and the way you approach the game. You are one team man who could do anything for the team. Your individual batting talent was always larger that the world. For that very aspect of your game, if you would have been a poor fielder, people would have accepted you and you would have still played those many number of games that you played in your career. But, you did not choose to give any less commitment when it came to fielding. You were always a brilliant fielder and the kind of catches you took in your test career, a normal cricketer can only dream of. Your were never after personal milestones but your commitment towards fielding have made to the fielder with most number of catches apart from a wicket keeper in test match cricket. The kind of team man that you are, any team for which you played was so much honored to have you in the team. Harsha Bhogle once said that if Rahul Dravid is asked to walk on water for his team, he will ask how many miles. Navjyot Sidhu's quote about you is so famous, "If Rahul's team asks him to walk on broken glass, he will happily walk on it." Such is your team spirit. You have sacrificed so much for your team that no other player did in his entire tenure. Whenever you have been asked to open you happily agreed. Whenever you were asked to bat at no. 6 you accepted it with a smile. Your acceptance was exploited to such levels that they even made you a wicket keeper in the one day team. But, you never budged, and you gave your 100% in everything. Had you not sacrificed so much for the team, I am sure your career statistics would have been far far ahead than that of the Laras and the Tendulkars, the Kallises and Pontings. For me you are one single man who has taught every youngster playing cricket, how to respect the game and how to be a team man. Your commitment has never been doubted and in a career spanning more than 15 years this is a tremendous achievement. You were one of the fortunately unfortunate whose entire career was always in the shadows of the Tendulkars and the Gangulys and the Laxmans. But, for me and I am sure there are thousands like me who believe that you are far far better then all those big names. The technique that you possess is by far the best in cricket. There is, never was and never will be another WALL. Yeah, thats the name given to you by the media and you in true sense showed the capabilities of a WALL shielding Indian Cricket behind you from all those deadly bowlers. Your hardwork throughout your career was immense. I have heard that once when the entire team was out shopping on some tour game, you were the only person who was knocking in his room. Such was your commitment towards the game. Very recently you had shown once again in England, when the entire team was falling apart, you were the only player who was fighting it out for the country and the team. Below is an evidence for the same.


True to your name they have built a wall in Bangalore's chinnaswamy stadium. Here is a pic of that wall.



Makes me very emotional as a true fan of yours when I see such gestures from the cricket fraternity for you. Because I have always felt that for whatever you have given to the game, you have not got back your due. You have always given your heart and soul and you always deserved more from the likes of BCCI. For me you are a role model a youth icon for the fitness you have maintained throughout your career and I have hardly ever seen a bad patch for you in test cricket. Something was worrying me off late when I saw you getting out in England and then Australia recently. The manner in which you were getting out was showing some flaw in your ever so great technique. I was very sure that something is coming from you when it happened for more occassions than 3. And the inevitable happened. You announced your retirement yesterday after returning from the tour of Australia. I felt bad at first but then I thought that for a man who has done so much for his team, there must be something he must have thought which made him take such a decision. To move away from a game that you loved so much would not have been easy. But, have you ever done anything in your life that is easy? Again as a true fan I respect your decision that time has come that you make way for the youngsters. It takes great courage and a self less attitude to do something like this. Your greatness is such that you have never played for any personal milestones, always played for the team, but still, you are a prolific scorer in both forms of the game. Let me make it very clear, when it comes to test match batting skills, there is, was and never will be anyone better than you. If anyone deserves the title of Sir, that's only you. Once again I only want to say that all I have for you is one word. Respect. Period.

Your Ardent Fan

HOLI Ankleshwar Di.

"PC,PC,PC", they all were shouting, much to the inconvenience of my parents. I was changing into old clothes as fast as I could and rushed outside. Within seconds I was pushed down by the crowd of my friends and for the next couple of minutes I laid still, till I was allowed to move. I could only stand once the storm had completely passed by and I was covered in innumerable colors of Holi. It was difficult to identify who all did it from the colorful faces and already soaked clothes of my friends. There was no trace left on my face or my body which would help someone identify me. It would have been difficult for me to identify myself at the point in time, even if I was in front of a mirror.



Before you rush to any conclusion let me rest the matter by informing you that the above introduction is of a Holi day celebration during our childhood days in the ONGC colony of Ankleshwar where we used to stay. No one was spared on this particular day. Everyone was coloured from top to toe in the Holi colours. This is how Holi was celebrated in those days. One by one we would go to everyone's house, get our mate out of the house throw him down and color him black and blue and maroon and purple. Ours was a big gang and it would take about 3 to 4 hours to bring out everyone on the Holi day.

Once we were done playing Holi with the traditional colours, the next step was to find out who all can get a two wheeler. Everyone used to partner someone or the other who owned a two wheeler. Luckily, I was always allowed the two wheeler from my dad. The destination was Narmada river at Kabirwad which was about 25-30 kms from our ONGC Colony. It used to be a wonderful ride always. Together we used to go on about 10 to 12 two wheelers with minimum two riders on each one. Reaching Kabirwad would take another hour or so. We would take one halt for having some junk food and cold drinks and then reach Karbirwad for enjoying the bath in the Narmada River. It used to be an amazing experience and we would only return when we were thoroughly tired and there was no energy left. Hardly ever we reached back home before evening.

Holi in Ankleshwar was so much fun in those days. It seems like just yesterday and all the scenes of ONGC colony still are very much alive in my memory. Remembering the Holi of old today on the Holi day 8th of March 2012 is nostalgic. Today we celebrated Holi in our office and the way some guys were hunting in groups took me back to my old memories of Holi. Here's wishing all my old friends from Ankleshwar a very Happy Holi. Those days will never come back but the memories of those days have been stamped in my mind forever.