The Danglers

As the sun descends down the horizon, Rajeev walks to the nearest bench in the park and sits down. Tired of the drowning city voices, he looks for calmness and shuts his eyes. A young girl, of about 10 years, sparkling with joy comes and takes a seat right next to him. Miffed with himself and his life, he doesn’t even bother to greet the girl, and shuts his eyes again. Thinking of how rude he had been, he opens his eyes, only to find the girl walking away into the winter darkness.

Her seat is quickly replaced by a beautiful woman in her late 20s, who has strikingly similar features to the previous girl, and who is whining about how bad the city has turned and how she has been robbed in a foreign city, with no money to return to her hotel. The worst thing being, s

he can’t even remember her hotel’s name. She had gone to a jewellery store and splurged her money on danglers, and had then been robbed. The only thing remaining with her, were those danglers. Rajeev, who had been patiently listening to her cockeyed fable, with a smirk plastered on his face, asks her to show him the danglers, so that he could actually believe her. She frantically searches for the danglers and mutters angrily that she might have lost them, and storms furiously into the darkness.


 As Rajeev gets up to leave, he sees the danglers lying beneath the bench and runs hastily to stop the girl, and blames himself for not believing her and gives her the danglers and some money, enough to last a week. She promises to return back the money.


As Rajeev walks back to the bench, he finds the 10 year girl, with whom he had been uncannily hostile, searching for something.

“Have you lost something?” he asks. “Yes, my danglers.”


An eerie silence greets Rajeev. He feels like a miserable fool. “Bam! I should have just trusted my instincts.”, he mutters in a hushed tone. He had foolishly parted with his own money.

And then there was Dravid ..

Sheer reverence.
Pure admiration.
I exalt him to my very own God.

I don't exactly remember who made me watch my first cricket match on TV. But all I know is, cricket was never the same again. That moment when insanely-crazy-cricket-struck fans had their mouths opened in awe when Sachin broke a record that nobody knew even existed, there I was, drooling over Rahul Dravid. He was amazing at the game. Crisp, clean, brave and very modest. His courtly determination, absolute professionalism made me love him even more. He enthralled me with his agility, grit and courage.

Yes, before I knew, I fell in love with Rahul Dravid. And it's been years. I can't even recall since when I had a crush on him, like a sloppy love-bitten teenager. Only that it wasn't actually a crush-he was just someone who I looked upto, with unmatched respect and total admiration. I became a regular and ardent follower of all cricket matches that India played. I mean, all matches that Rahul played! The guy was awesome. He reinstated my faith that good men still exist.

Dapper and soignee, I was browsing through the net, when I chanced upon his video, with his wife, Vijeta Pendharkar, now Vijeta Dravid- a surgeon. The sparkles that danced in his eyes, when he looked at his wife, sent shivers down my spine.

 Statistics aside(everyone knows that he is a genius batsman!), I love him for his absolute brilliance. A gentleman to the core. A loyal, unparalleled dedication to his game.
He's the reason why I still call cricket a gentleman's game, even in the face of countless match-fixing scandals. It broke his heart to see his own teammates cheating in a game so pure(or so he thought!). A game he devoted his entire life for. The nation felt cheated, the fans felt cheated, I felt cheated. But what most of us failed to see was, that HE felt cheated.

I have seen India play at the Feroz Shah Kotla Stadium, in the World Cup 2011, (just a day before my Economics exam!). Sachin, Dhoni, Sehwag, Harbhajan, Gambhir, Yuvraj, Virat Kohli. I have seen them bat. But, I miss Rahul. The dignity, the charm he exuded when he came out to bat. I missed my chance to see him play.

He was the epitome of grace.
The classic grace he brings when he enters the pavillion, is unmatched.
Mr. Dependable. THE WALL.

After a long and illustrious career, he humbly announced his retirement a year back. It was dignified and impeccably puritanical. His moral compass always pointed straight north. He earned something, which most fail to. RESPECT. He never played for personal glory, like most of his counterparts. He played for the team. He played, because it was his passion. The joy of pure excellence.

While Sachin and his lesser successors are bathed in the fierce gleam of the modern India, Rahul’s greatest moments seem to be shrouded in a dimming light, like the form of the game to which he was best suited.                                                        
Someone remarked, in response to a question whether Rahul Dravid was better or Sachin?

"Dravid. ALWAYS.Why? You know the answer if you know why some love Batman more than Superman, despite the latter being clearly more gifted than the former.
Because he was the hero Indian cricket deserved, but not the one it needed back then. So, many of us booed him down, because he could take it.
Because he was not our hero.
He was a silent guardian, a watchful protector.
The Wall."

 

 

Indeed, true.

For me, he'll always be the most revered man in the world, which reminds me of one famous dialogue, from a Hindi film. "Rahul, naam to suna hi hoga?". I found my Rahul.