132. Childhood Reminisces – Karol Bagh Memories – 3

More Karol Bagh memories…

We used to play a lot of cricket during those days, and it was called gully cricket.  I used to play in a park near my house, on the small by-lanes where our house was located and also at the school.  I was an all-rounder😊!!

In 8^th Standard, I was in A section (From 6^th to 12^th in this school, I was always in the A section😊),  At that time it was general assumption that section A students were very studious, section B somewhat less studious and section C (being the last section) was the notorious one😊.  Some of the Section C students would look like they will be able to easily physically lift 2 students from section A!!  In the school ground, there was one place, which was the walkway from the gate to the school building, which was much sought out for playing cricket.  Since each sections’ free period was different, there was never a problem in playing in this patch of the ground.  Sometimes, one section will get a free period due to absence of the teacher and they will come and try to see if they too can play on this pitch. We used to play with tennis balls, and not the actual cork or cricket balls😊!!

During one of those times, Section C’s Shiva came to me and said how about a cricket match between the 2 sections.  I knew that we were not a match with them in terms of man-to-man ability.  But I checked with my friends and they said we can play.  I think in the overall matches that we played, we won about 50% of the matches.  I was the only player would could bat longer and bowl faster.  Their team had people who had brute strength and would hit our other bowlers very hard.  So, in the match I will start the bowling and will be bowling every alternate over.  C Section would score more on our other bowler’s bowling than on mine.

Many a times, we will also end up physically fighting each other because of umpire’s decision.  The umpire used to be of the batting side and the C section umpire was always a dicey one😊.  He will suddenly call a no ball, even though we will be throwing the ball from inside the crease and not come running in.  Sometime I will come running in taking a few (4-5) steps and then throwing it from much before the crease.  But the umpire will call a no ball.  So, we decided to keep a fielder near the crease who will also have a look before I threw the ball whether I am crossing the line or not. This always used to be a bone of contention which eventually resulted in a fight.  And obviously, every time, it was our section that got beaten up😊!!  I used to have long nails during my childhood. In many instances, I would use that as my weapon in inflicting damage to the opposite party😊.

We also invented a game of a different type of cricket and called it “lifting”.  The bowler had to bowl the ball slowly so that the batsman can hit it for a six or a four.  The batsman had an option to catch the ball and throw it back to the bowler in case he feels that the ball was not proper to be hit fluently. In case the batsman hits the ball and the ball touches the ground anywhere before the bowler, he was out.  Also, in case he tries to hit the ball and misses, he was deemed out.  I usually made the most runs in this form of cricket and also used to take lots of catches running around, sometimes running for about 30-40 feet and then taking the catch😊.  Maybe that is why I still look young and physically fit, even after crossing 50😊!!

There was one more incident.  One of my mother’s uncle was working in Iraq and he had presented me with a Casio digital watch.  I used to wear it to school on a regular basis.  Once I was wicket keeping and my friend, Badri, was batting.  The ball had crossed him and I was waiting to catch the ball near the stumps (the stumps were actually some 5-6 rocks held precariously over one another😊).  He swung the bat after the ball had crossed him. I had already caught the ball and his bat hit my hand near the wrist.  Such was his force that the bat took out my watch too and broke it😊!!  We then had to literally search in the sand for the various parts of the watch!!  Lucking we got every piece and I was able to have it repaired from the shop!!

Cheers!!

Today’s Observatio 

Two words that are guaranteed to let you have the last word in any argument – I Agree😊