Tuesday, July 21, 2009

Of Cricket and Childhood Crushes!

Circa 1992:

Friend 1 : So do you think he is cute?

She : That’s not why I like him

Friend 1 : So you do think he is cute?

She : I like his game, I like his batting technique

Friend 1 : But you really do think he is cute?

She : He is a good cricketer and has the potential to be a great one

Friend 1 : So why exactly are his close-up posters up in your room

She : Because I’m not able to get one with him batting

Friend 1 : So you do think he is cute!



Circa 1996:

Mumma : She has her finals tomorrow, why did you let her go for the match

Papa : She loves the game, let her enjoy. She would’ve been miserable and not studied at all if she was home

Mumma : You have to be little strict with her

Papa : And not let her see our future son-in-law bat? (laughs out loud)

Mumma : Now you don’t start and encourage her!

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Papa : So how was the match we enjoyed seeing our son-in-law bat

She : Papa please, he is already married. That’s embarrassing!

Papa : I know, but it is fun teasing my little girl!

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Friend 1 : You actually bought his music cassette?????????

She : Yeah! I thought he has done a decent job

Friend 2 : If only he had done a better one at playing cricket!

She : He was just plain unlucky.

Friend 1&2 : Whatever

Friend 3 : He is okay but I think Kumble’s interview sounds the best

She : We’ll get to your crush later; first let’s listen to the cassette again

Friends 1, 2 & 3 : Do we have to go through this torture?

She : Yes!

Friend 1 : So you do think he is cute!


Circa 2002
Friend 1 : 10 years since you’ve had a crush on him, if you meet him today have you decided what you are going to say.

She : I’m going for A’s wedding , in case you forgot, he is the one who plays cricket now.

Friend 1 : Are you not hoping to get to see him at the wedding? But you have a god damn B- school interview in Pune tomorrow, don’t you think you should leave today?

She : There is no way I’m missing A’s wedding, are you crazy! I’m taking the midnight bus and will reach in the morning well in time!

At the reception

Mom : Did you see him? I think you should walk up to him and tell him that you are a huge fan of his.

She : Are you sure mumma????? Are you my real mom? You hated it when I used to put up his posters in my room

Mom : I still hate that but I know you have adored him, you must tell him

She : He will think I’m crazy

Mom : That’s ok, you can’t hide facts for long

She : Are you my mom at all? Anyways

Slowly steadily she approached him
She :Hi Mr. M, I’m a huge huge fan of yours since I started watching cricket. You were fantastic. I had to tell you this since long, thanks and bye.

And she ran, ran for her life and disappeared from the long wedding queue so that he would not notice her again! What the ^&*$ was she thinking behaving like a teen at 22, an age where her friends were searching for a groom to get married and some were even ready to be moms!

Crushes are embarrassing things. Sigh! Now she knew exactly how it felt like those millions girls who adore cricketers and find them cute!

Growing up with cricket has been a crazy joy ride; it has become an integral part of her life, her oxygen if you may say. The crazy little crush forms a teeny weeny cute memory of her journey with the game. At that point it seemed so embarrassing that she could not tell anyone about it, today she can laugh her heart out at her stupidity and even invite others to do so by putting it up on her blog!

Yeah, as I have mentioned in my Facebook tag on “25 not so random things about me”
“Sanjay Manjrekar was my first serious crush in school and I still blush when my friends recall those days”

P.S:
Absolutely everyone I know has taken my case on this crush of mine, from my friends, my family and my parents. Papa especially loved teasing me! I was recalling this with an old school friend of mine and we thought it would be interesting to relive those memories; which is why this blog post turned up!!

11 comments:

Aditi said...

Wonderful post! Straight from the heart. Loved reading it! I know you are terrific writer when it comes to commenting about the sport but you should seriously consider writing more such posts about your memories of cricket.

JAYDEEP BAGWADKAR said...

Hey Great post. U are a mighty good writer. I need to learn these blogging techniques. Sahi. Keep it up.

Anonymous said...

One more lovely post, this reminds me of my crush on Ajay Jadeja :)
Minal you have got a very entertaining style of writing, and this post of urs is completely out of the box.
Well, going by Ur older post “Sparing Sachin” one can’t imagine you had a crush on Sanjay Manjrekar, seems you have changed loyalties :)
I am a regular on your blog now.
Last time I left a comment with anon tag, this time with my signature :)
Swapna (Ur MDH's friend)

Minal said...

@Aditi: Now that is something coming from you:-)))I'm honoured!
I'll try.

@Jaydeep:Thanks jaydeep - well the offer stands soon you will not get enough time to write ;-)

@Swapna: Oh it was you! I've not changed loyalities - I'm just terribly practical! What is wrong is wrong, have never deterred from calling a spade a spade. Was extremely agitated that manjrekar could make tht allegation on Sachin! Who btw is GOD for me so between a crush and GOD; latter will always prevail:-) I'm stunned you went through my archives - that was ages ago when I wrote tht piece! And thanks for the kind words!

Anonymous said...

Practical & honest - That’s a much desired trait, very impressive indeed!!
And as I said, your posts are very entertaining, hence couldn’t resist from reading the archives… (Excluding the very technical articles on Cricket as those are bouncer for me :-))
Swapna

Truman/Aditya said...

Hi Minal, after a long time to your blog :) Yes I remember the music album you mention here. It was called "Rest Day" and it also had songs sung by Srinath and Kambli!

Minal said...

@truman: hey been a long time indeed! nice to see u back! yup me trying to get back to blogging , difficult to be as regular but trying! hope u doing well and u r bang on target abt the music album!!!

Amol Naik said...

Good one! Nice and honest composition...

It is seriously hard to imaging women, who are true fans of Cricket, than "cricketers"...

Minal said...

@Amol: Aha don't brand me as one of them - see my other posts on cricket and some of articles - I think you'll change your mind - I'm quite the cricket geek:-)

Anonymous said...

It was very interesting for me to read this article. Thanx for it. I like such themes and everything connected to this matter. BTW, try to add some pics :).

Minal said...

@Anon: Thanks but next time you visit my articles try posting with your name instead of posting anonymously.