Bludgeoned back to earth...

It was one of those routine practice matches. So the "War Winners" were forked into two teams. Always I had a say in choosing the members of my team. I called the shots eventhough I was not the captain. Afterall captain is just another player :). I got my favorite buddies in our team and I sent Srini for spinning the coin. Let me describe Srini a bit. Srini was pale and he had an emaciated look. He was a guileless fellow who gave everything for friends. I used to always take him on my team as I liked him. He had shelled out lot of valuable money and time for the baddies of our town. I don't know what happened to him now. Last time when I saw him, he was working somewhere. He was not able to graduate from college due to the same bad company.

As a player, he was ordinary. Coming back to the game, he went and lost the toss. So we had to bowl. In our matches, whoever wins the toss would always bat first.

Though everyone loves batting more than bowling, the real reason was you never know when the ball would be busted. We never had the money to do instant purchases. So people always wanted to get as much batting as possible.

As we got ready to bowl, Tojo came in to play. Tojo was a dark lanky fellow. He was very senior to us. He always flaunted his earrings, constantly ruminated a bubble gum and had this air around him. He thought that he was handsome. I loathed him to the core. Unfortunately that day, we had to take him in our team as we were one player short.

In the practice matches, we chose to chuck rather than bowl. The reason being that bowling would drastically slow down the pace and with chucking you get to play a lot more number of games. I was adept at chucking the ball. I used to conjure up those mad angles by chucking wide of the crease. I was usually not scored off more than 4 or 5 runs an over. That day I decided to bowl the second spell. Since the big fella Tojo was there I had to give him the first spell.

Typically these matches were played for 8 overs per side. Srini's brother Karthi and Vijay were the openers. Karthi was a mediocre batsman. He was quite younger to us and was never dreaded. But he had had his days too. Vijay was dissonant when it came to batting. He was a fatty. He always had bread and butter with him which earned him the nickname, "Bread gundan (fatty)".

Tojo began chucking the first spell along with Srini. The first two overs were normal. They were not able to score much. Tojo bowled the 3rd over. He was completely ripped apart by "Bread gundan". 3 boundaries were scored off that over. Though it was bad for the team, I was on cloud nine. Afterall I had a reason to abase Tojo. I utilised it perfectly. I yelled at him and chided him. He could not say a word. Of course it irked him. I was so elated and contented for having taught him a lesson. He stopped ruminating and went to the long on to avoid me.

Srini bowled a reasonable 4th over. Then it was time for my spell. I was really confident of my chucking and started the 5th over. Karthi was facing me. He somehow managed to survive till the 5th over and it did surprise me a bit. I went really wide of the crease, and bowled one of those disguised slower deliveries. It was smashed for a six. Karthi, the softie became Dennis the menace. Appalled by the shot, I convinced myself that it was a fluke. I continued chucking my warney leg spins. My oh my, I was hit for 3 sixes and a four in that over. Nobody had ever scored so many runs off me in my chucking career. I was totally bludgeoned back to earth...

Now expectedly, Tojo was jumping over the moon. He was waiting for this moment to happen. That day he bemocked and humiliated me so much that I did not go to play again for the next 2 days. This incident taught me a lot of important lessons in life.

"Always be down to earth. Don't ever become proud/complacent."

"Never judge a man by his past. Everyone changes."

"You have to perform everyday. Past performances won't count for long."

"Life is full of surprises. Sometimes you pay and sometimes you receive."

I am not being philosophical here. Just a few observations. I am sorry if it sounded like a management lecture in the end ;).

PS: Karthi went on to become one of the best players. Last time when I saw him , he was representing his college team.