Cricket Fever

 As like millions of other cricket feverish Indian boys ,it was my passionately favorite sport after school.Married men & young boys enjoyed playing equally & together  in our local playground .It is one of those ingrained evenings that would remain vivid for life in my memory.

Match had reached an exciting turn , a thronging crowd of spectators sat circling the wicket keeper. They sat like people sit relaxed after a challenging task i.e. their day's work,farming ,school .......life was care free those days .A middle-aged bowler had to bowl three balls & our team had 12 runs to win !  And guess what I as a tiny  class 7 student was on strike .My heart pounded my ribs, pressure was excruciating ,people expected, cheered & told me to ''keep their team's  honour".As the bowler ,more than two decades older than me,started run up my kid heart nearly exploded ,yet I ,to my surprise had a creative idea ,guess what ! I reverse swept it to 4 .Noise was deafening ,cheers raise me a bit up .Yet,bowler as his team were not moved much, too complacent that they shall win.Next ball,I repeated the same & it was another 4.Now the opposite team looked very concerned and to their doom ,I again swept it to another 4 .Within moments  I found myself on shoulders of people,we had won ! Ever since then I was a desired player .I made our own cricket team with myself as its captian .

    Later I found myself playing at higher level  i.e the stadium of town .It was a difficult one ,match with a cricket leather,requiring helmet ,pads ....... Because it was my first match and because I was having additional advantage of being  a child ,I was given opening ,it took me 10 mins to fix and wear safety equipment properly .and bowler was asked to  reduce speed of ball.Looking at  rims of the helmet I felt Tendulkar to myself .Guess what, I was bowled clean in very first ball !  I wasn''t cheered ,crowds felt silent .

Life may have much the same ,sometimes 4 and 6s  with roaring crowds,other times no runs and fallen stumps,silent  even discouraging crowds . That's simply life and all that matters is how you hold yourself amidst various roller coasters ,how you perceive events and persist regardless of external validation. Much of the external validation is fickle ,vanishes quickly .Focus on the game not on the spectators.