Were you a toddler/kid in the late 70's? Are you nearing 40 now?
Then you belong to a generation that grew up at a time when the radio was still popular and TV was only of one channel and needed an antenna on the roof to work. You have experienced Doordarshan before leaping to the riches of satellite. You have seen Shah Rukh Khan as a young fauji and as a confused son of a circus owner on TV before he became King Khan of the silver screen. You knew of life when mouse only referred to a four legged pest but was quick to embrace the wonders of technology, of the PC and the Internet,. You have started with black and white TV but reached the colour TV age before you passed out of college. You belonged to a time when mobile phone did not exist, but today carry two mobiles in your pocket. You remember when an STD call costed Rs.48 a minute and there were long queues outside STD booths at 11 PM.
When you were young you were told that Hockey is the National sports of the Country and were given a hockey stick.
Then one fine night of 1983 everything changed. One indomitable Jat who was supposed to lead the bowling attack made unbeaten 175 runs with his bat and after a few more nights, you jumped up and down with your family members as the same Kapil Dev Nikanj took the Cricket World Cup in his hands at Lords.
Suddenly the whole of India dreamt of only cricket. The hockey stick was taken from your hand and was replaced by a bat and a ball. As you tried to master the new game, there was news of a young protege from Mumbai, who was then chosen to be a part of the India team going to Pakistan in 1989, all at the age of 16 years and few months. He was brutally battered by one of the deadliest pace attack of the time and showed his class as he continued to bat even after being hit on the nose by an Imran Khan bouncer. Then came that 20 over exhibition match at Peshawar (possibly the first ever 20-20 India ever played). And in one over, with 27 runs, the young boy destroyed the dreaded wizard of leg-spin of the time, Abdul Qadir and proved that he has really arrived.
As you moved through the ups and downs of your life, through high school, college, ragging, girl-friend or lack of them, job applications, work problems, marriage, children, every time you felt down and out, all you had to do was switch on the TV and watch that person take on every single bowling attack in the world and every single batting record in the world and make short work of them.
But the GOD of cricket, the Man from your generation, has finally retired from ODIs. Time time would soon come when he would retire from the Test variety as well.
As for every single man of his generation, its time for realisation that they are growing old, and time is running out.
Then you belong to a generation that grew up at a time when the radio was still popular and TV was only of one channel and needed an antenna on the roof to work. You have experienced Doordarshan before leaping to the riches of satellite. You have seen Shah Rukh Khan as a young fauji and as a confused son of a circus owner on TV before he became King Khan of the silver screen. You knew of life when mouse only referred to a four legged pest but was quick to embrace the wonders of technology, of the PC and the Internet,. You have started with black and white TV but reached the colour TV age before you passed out of college. You belonged to a time when mobile phone did not exist, but today carry two mobiles in your pocket. You remember when an STD call costed Rs.48 a minute and there were long queues outside STD booths at 11 PM.
When you were young you were told that Hockey is the National sports of the Country and were given a hockey stick.
Then one fine night of 1983 everything changed. One indomitable Jat who was supposed to lead the bowling attack made unbeaten 175 runs with his bat and after a few more nights, you jumped up and down with your family members as the same Kapil Dev Nikanj took the Cricket World Cup in his hands at Lords.
Suddenly the whole of India dreamt of only cricket. The hockey stick was taken from your hand and was replaced by a bat and a ball. As you tried to master the new game, there was news of a young protege from Mumbai, who was then chosen to be a part of the India team going to Pakistan in 1989, all at the age of 16 years and few months. He was brutally battered by one of the deadliest pace attack of the time and showed his class as he continued to bat even after being hit on the nose by an Imran Khan bouncer. Then came that 20 over exhibition match at Peshawar (possibly the first ever 20-20 India ever played). And in one over, with 27 runs, the young boy destroyed the dreaded wizard of leg-spin of the time, Abdul Qadir and proved that he has really arrived.
As you moved through the ups and downs of your life, through high school, college, ragging, girl-friend or lack of them, job applications, work problems, marriage, children, every time you felt down and out, all you had to do was switch on the TV and watch that person take on every single bowling attack in the world and every single batting record in the world and make short work of them.
But the GOD of cricket, the Man from your generation, has finally retired from ODIs. Time time would soon come when he would retire from the Test variety as well.
As for every single man of his generation, its time for realisation that they are growing old, and time is running out.
No comments:
Post a Comment