How Do I Thank You?

Someone makes a difference to your life, quite unknowingly.
How do you tell them that you appreciate it?

Someone makes you happy with what they do.
How do you tell them how elated you're for them?

Someone gives you memories you will cherish forever.
How do you tell them that you're grateful?

Maybe the best way is to tell them what difference they made to your life.
Maybe by telling them how a lot of what you did, what you didn't was because of them.
Maybe by telling them how the person you grew up to be had a lot to do with them.
Maybe...

11th January' 2003

There is a family function going on. There’s a marriage in a couple of days. Everyone is in a happy mood, and everyone is preoccupied with a lot of last minute work. Meanwhile, a lady is scrambling from one room to another; she can’t seem to find her son. He is just 9 years old! She reaches the basement and heaves a sigh of relief, her son is sitting atop a stack of boxes, watching the last few overs of the India v/s new Zealand ODI, being played at Auckland, at a 7.5 hours difference. 

12th February' 2003

The 9 year old boy, with a bat in his hand is running upstairs to his father who is listening to the India v/s Netherlands World Cup match commentary on the radio. The cable is not working. In a hurry, he skips a step and falls on the stairs. His right toe starts bleeding. He gives it a glance and continues to run to catch the latest action from the African nation.  The injury wasn't he first, nor the last.

14th-15th December' 2003

The boy goes to bed before giving a warning to his father, “wake me up at 5:30 AM tomorrow. I don’t want to miss it.” Next morning his father wakes him up to tell him “it” had happened. India were playing against Australia at Adelaide and Rahul Dravid had finished the previous day on 199*. He got a four off the first ball the next day to get to “it”.... his double hundred and laid the foundation for a memorable India win that would continue for years to come as India's best performance in Australia. The adjustment to time zone was not a problem. Not for this boy and his father.

1st April' 2004 

A family is at a resort in Shimla, enjoying their vacation. Their tour guide is waiting alongside the car for them to come. The family is all ready to go but for some reason are waiting in the resort lobby. The youngest member, the boy is watching the India v Pakistan match on TV, being played in Multan. The last wicket falls to a short ball, India win the match and the boy was now ready to go.

7th August' 2005
The boy is glued to the TV set. His mom doesn't know why?
India is not playing. He is watching the Ashes, and had been encapsulated by the action on display. The school assignment had been laid to rest without evening giving it a start. The boy watched as Brett Lee & Michael Kasprowicz were fighting their way out to steal victory from the jaws of defeat at Edgbaston. The Flintoff-Lee moment was going to remain etched in his heart for eternity.

Some day' 2006 

The parents come back from office and head to the children’s room to see what they are up to. They are seeing something different. The door, the walls, the almirah, everything is covered with pictures of cricketers, mostly the Indian players, all cut from the newspaper. On the door, there is a picture of Kumble on the shoulders of his teammates after the 10 wickets at Kotla in 1999, on the wall there’s a big photo of Rahul Dravid kissing his cap and waving to the dressing room after the win at Adelaide, on the almirah there’s a photo of Sourav Ganguly playing his famous cut on the off side. There are a few pictures of Brian Lara sweeping, Ricky Ponting playing the pull, Brett Lee doing his chain saw celebration and Michael Vaughan playing a cover drive. The parents had just got the white wash and repainting of the house done, they were hoping for clean, bright walls. Not to be, not in one room at least! 

24th March' 2007 

The boy is sitting in the living room, reading something in the newspaper. He doesn’t seem too happy. India bowed out of the World Cup in the first round itself, he is okay with that. Rahul Dravid, the captain, was being blamed for the loss. There were effigies being burnt of the team members, stones being thrown at their homes, he was not okay with that. He had figured out the kind of fan he wanted to be, and the ones to ignore.

19th-20th December' 2008

The boy is rushing back from the school to his home. He reaches home, turns on the TV to check the India v England score from Mohali. He first checks which team is batting. It's India. He's excited. He then glances at the wickets column. One wicket down. He is happy because it means that man is batting. He then moves to the score. Dravid 50* it shows. He had been in lean form of late and this was a welcome come back. The boy stood glued to the TV set till Dravid got to his hundred the next morning.

27th December' 2010

The boy just got done with his class XIIth pre boards. He had an ordinary last exam. He came back home and resorted to the India v South Africa action from Durban. Rahul Dravid had taken his 200^th test catch, a splendid reflex action. The exam was forgotten. The team bowled brilliantly to castle out South Africa for under 140. India came out to bat. Dravid got out cheaply. The boy was sad again. India ended up winning the match. The boy was jubilant.

21st August' 2011

The boy is now in his first year of college. His love for the game has only grown all this while. A lot has happened over the last few years. His favourite cricketer had been ousted from the ODI team post his giving up captaincy. But he was happily watching the ongoing India v England test match at The Oval. His favourite cricketer was the only man scoring runs, his third hundred of the series. Vintage stuff. Something the world had somehow forgotten about Dravid.

9th March' 2012

That day had finally arrived. Rahul Dravid announced his retirement from international cricket. The boy knew cricket wouldn’t be the same for him anymore. He was no longer going to watch an entire day’s play of Test cricket just because seeing that man in the slip cordon gave him happiness beyond measure. But the show must go on, and he knew that. Dravid’s retirement was followed by that of Laxman and then, the best batsman the game ever saw – Sachin Tendulkar.

20th October' 2015

Virender Sehwag announced his retirement from international cricket. The boy, now pursuing his post graduation, and while in his room, it dawns upon him. All those players he grew up watching had now bid the game farewell. Lara, Kumble, Ganguly, Dravid, Laxman, Tendulkar, Ponting, Kallis, Muralidharan, Jayawardene, Sangakkara, Zaheer and now Sehwag. He will continue to love the game, he will continue to adore these greats, but he knows something will be different now, something won’t be the same now.

That 9 year old boy perched atop boxes in the basement in 2002 didn’t know how much the sport, the players would give him over the next many years. This 22 year old boy in 2015 is grateful to have witnessed all that. Forever grateful.

Thank you Legends.