Those were the days:
We (me and my friends) used to complete our homework, tuition classes and used to rush outside our homes. One / two guys will bring a bat along and we all will contribute (emptying our dad's pockets of course) and buy a Rs. 10/- rubber ball. On occasions, we used to make some bold decisions and buy a tennis ball worth Rs. 25/- (those days, I tell you). Reasoning: Rubber ball can burst anytime, tennis balls usually stay longer. We didn't have a ground near our building so we used to play in the empty places inside the compound.
Here's a description of our compound. Straight behind the bowler is a building. As per our rules (yes, we followed them) when the ball hits the building directly it is considered OUT! Another building occupies the cover region on the offside for a right handed batsman. Needless to say, hitting it directly is also OUT. Square on the offside is an open area with one run declared. Since our stump is drawn on the wall, we didn't have anything behind the wicket. Leg side is where there was more open space and hence most of my friends (including me) eventually became strong on the leg-side. Fours and sixes can only be scored in the long-on region. Simple? Here's a 'architectural' view of the same:
Here's a description of our compound. Straight behind the bowler is a building. As per our rules (yes, we followed them) when the ball hits the building directly it is considered OUT! Another building occupies the cover region on the offside for a right handed batsman. Needless to say, hitting it directly is also OUT. Square on the offside is an open area with one run declared. Since our stump is drawn on the wall, we didn't have anything behind the wicket. Leg side is where there was more open space and hence most of my friends (including me) eventually became strong on the leg-side. Fours and sixes can only be scored in the long-on region. Simple? Here's a 'architectural' view of the same:
Everything's great for cricket, right? Wrong.
Did you notice something in the pic that I didn't mention in my description. Observe carefully.
Car parks!
Yes. Those are the virtual fielders for the bowling side. Always there in India. We used to discourage the batsman from hitting the ball directly on the car. When such an incident happens, the batsman is declared out! Makes sense as they are (virtual) fielders and hitting them directly mean they are virtually catching the ball. The cars, more often than not, used to decide the result of the match. We tend to not like (I cannot write HATE as some of the cars belonged to my family friends) the cars and their owners for obvious reasons.
Fast Forward: 15 - 20 years later:
It was a weekend. I was in my house. Laziness took complete control of me. Then someone called and informed me that some boys were playing cricket inside the society and one of them broke the side mirror of my car. On further speculation, I came to know that a ball hit the side mirror and it's damaged!
Damn you boys! How dare you? Why can't boys play with their playstations or rather study for some exam coming their way! Why always cricket? Why always inside the compound? We pay lakhs to buy a car, lakhs to have a car park here in Mumbai (which is now considered a luxury now-a-days). What were the security guards doing? Don't we pay the maintenance bill so that they get their salaries? The cursing just went on...
Sometimes, just sometimes, life is not always greener on the other side.
That's when my past just hit me! I started missing my childhood a lot. A sense of deja vu, so to speak. And hence the blog. It was a slightly costly deal but it was all worth it! Thank you boys.
Allow me to tweak the Mastercard advert to suit my post: Car - Lakhs, car parks - few lakhs, car damaged - few thousands, the memories - PRICELESS!
This post is dedicated to all my childhood friends. Really loved playing cricket and football with you guys. And to all the society uncles who scolded us day in day out yet allowed us to play and enjoy our childhood.
Damn you boys! How dare you? Why can't boys play with their playstations or rather study for some exam coming their way! Why always cricket? Why always inside the compound? We pay lakhs to buy a car, lakhs to have a car park here in Mumbai (which is now considered a luxury now-a-days). What were the security guards doing? Don't we pay the maintenance bill so that they get their salaries? The cursing just went on...
Sometimes, just sometimes, life is not always greener on the other side.
That's when my past just hit me! I started missing my childhood a lot. A sense of deja vu, so to speak. And hence the blog. It was a slightly costly deal but it was all worth it! Thank you boys.
Allow me to tweak the Mastercard advert to suit my post: Car - Lakhs, car parks - few lakhs, car damaged - few thousands, the memories - PRICELESS!
This post is dedicated to all my childhood friends. Really loved playing cricket and football with you guys. And to all the society uncles who scolded us day in day out yet allowed us to play and enjoy our childhood.
Its indeed amazing how time can change our roles and perspectives :)
ReplyDeleteAnd what I found more amazing was that you thanked those kids ! :D
Truly,memories are priceless:)
P.S : The architectural view.. Bang on!!!
Thanks Kinara :) Yeah, it took me some time to think and prepare the architectural view of my childhood society.. :D
DeleteChildren play for fun and such things do happen. I think we have to be mature abt it and let go :)
There is a different angle to cricket now. Playing it on a laptop. Which kids these days do. We are the last generation who played in the sun, got tanned and dirty and never gave a damn. Noone cared about the dirty clothes also...cos we were kids..we were meant to play.You had a good childhood..which is nostalgic and such memories hold good for a lifetime, cos u dont get to see this on grounds these days.
ReplyDeleteYou are right Anita. Now-a-days children are more interested in gadgets and games on the pc / tablet. They find playing games as too much of an activity. This is really sad. We used play like mad when we were kids, Cricket, Football and then Badminton - all in 1 day.. And still we needed more..
DeleteWow...made me revisit my memories...;)
ReplyDeleteThanks Adi :)
DeleteI know nothing about cricket, but I know that they use a hard ball.. so good that my kids do not play it.. they are only on iPad, haha NOT
ReplyDeleteWe've got an Indian immigrant in our church now, so I'll ask him about cricket:-)
Hope you have a blessed week!
Tania, I can understand. Cricket in Norway is like baseball in India! I am ure your Indian friend in your church will be able to explain Cricket to you :)
DeleteYou know we did that too!! 10 rs mein rubber ball and 25rs mein tennis ball :-)
ReplyDeleteand seriously, we just ran if we broke a car mirror, ran and hid for 2 hours. but it was so much fun :-)
and I just loved the way you wrote this post, that diagram and all the efforts. Really shows that those memories are indeed priceless for you.
You know, things were a lot simpler and stright foward when we were kids. Dunno why I always wanted to grow up then! Life is strange.
Those days Jenny!
DeleteThe same thing used to happen to us too.. When we used to break something while playing, we either used to stop the game that day or used to play a different game at a different location.. :D
Maybe the reason we grew up is because now we can appreciate and look back at those days, what say? :)
Binu, I played a lot of cricket in the same manner as you described and demolished a lot of window panes and lost countless tennis balls!Lovely description:)
ReplyDeleteThank you sir :) Now we know why the glass business is flourishing even during recession :D
DeleteOhhh yes, I forgot to mention. Girls also used to play with us. But it was not due to 'genuine' interest. It was because they wanted us to play Badminton after Cricket :D
ReplyDelete