ah...miss those days!!

Well..if ur wondering what could be different in this one after having read loads of recaps.. i can assure u it aint too very different but without a shadow of doubt has to be the best phase of my life after the initial innocent childhood years.
My family moved into this new locality- Vidyaranyapura which was then absolutely unheard of. I was quite shocked when told that we were moving from PG Halli which was an amazing place in Bangalore not just for its location but also as it had almost all my best buddies from school in close proximity. After a lot of tears and convincing, we decided to move on March 9th 1996..India Pakistan Wc quarterfinal for the cricket minded (which includes urs truly)..

cable connection was ready even before i got there thanks to dad and after lunch we settled down for the match..next few days passed by sumhow coz of exams..and then came the acid test for vpura..the holidays!!..would i be able to spend time and find a set of pals..and find them i did..man a humongous number of friends all in the same age group with one big and common passion--cricket. Right from the outset it was pretty clear that cricket would be the one big unifying force there and we didnt let this go unnoticed..4-5 hours everyday with absolutely no other concerns..man, how i yearn for those days..!

acads and play were balanced quite beautifully and not once did mom have to come up with a "get back home..time for slogging" etc. time kept flying past and before i realized i was into engineering but the cricket hadnt changed 1 bit..matches galore were played with a newer and bigger set of friends around. I was the person to pull people to the ground and dint they flock to it. used to get up every sat and sun mornings at 6:30..mom kept saying- have u ever done that for ur exams..but then who wud hv ever felt like doin that for studies:D.. left home on mom's scooty..went to each friends house..shouted so loud that no man could still sleep..made umpteen fone calls and then went to the ground, cleaned it up of wud u believe any goddamn stuff that may have come in the way of cricket that day..if it had rained the previous day we guys did our bit to ensure that the drainage facilities were world class..lol

people would sometimes not turn up for the next 1.5-2 hrs and i would sometimes be a forlorn figure in the ground looked upon as a good for nothing guy who has no other thing to do except get to the groundd early morning and wake up every soul around...little did i care..all i cared about was getting a good game or 2 of cricket..slowly the other partners in crime--karthik, subhash, raghu(he deserves special mention for all the pains we usually went throught to bring him till the ground)..

the game used 2 start off at about 9 am most times and since we usually had about 16 guys, the test matches which we loved so much went on until about 12:30-1 pm and we were absolutely famished at the end..never did the rumbling stomachs deter the cricket enthu in us..when i finally did go back home after my dad and sis made atleast 2 trips to the ground to remind me there was a home i needed 2 get back 2, i was greeted by a bemused mom who had no idea how their son could be so crazy as to ignore the hunger and time and stay put in the ground since early mornin..i used 2 have a quick shower and gorge like i hadnt seen food for years..settle into the couch catchin up on some movie and soon it was time for dinner plans with friends..this was pretty much a regular occurrence through all 4 years of my BE..calls all thru evening and finally come to a decision by about 7-8 pm. Usual plan used 2 b to get to vivek's house or chu's house and then get to a dhaba sumwhr on ring road..rest of the guys from college would join by about 9-9:30 and the dinner would go on until about 1-2 am..there would still be time for the ice cream at corner house if we were done a tad early else it would be time to get back..kiran the companion on most occasions on the way back home..get blasted for always gettin back that late by mom/dad..

now..3 years later in the US..ive met a lot of frds here and had a great time..be it dinners, hanging out and also playing cricket etc...but the small joys that are associated with home and the friends there not to mention the ultimate joy of playing test cricket on weekends are never gonna come back and my heart longs for those days with every passing minute..!!