farewell memories!

It surprised even me as it happened. The last two deliveries of the last over of Anil Kumble’s long and magnificent career had me in tears. In tears? Let us be honest here, I was bawling!

Agreed, I am a cricket buff. Get it from my grandmother. In fact my grandmother, my father and I are the only ones in the family who fight sleep to watch a match that begins at 2 in the morning. Never mind the sleep deprivation. But over the last couple of years, I haven’t really had the time/luxury to even sit through an entire one day match. Let alone a test match. I didn’t watch the Kotla match ball to ball either, but I thank god that I was home to watch, what is being called and what truly is “the end of an Era” is. And the fact that my growing years were a part of that era only intensified the emotional moment.

I still remember the time when Kumble got his perfect 10 at the very ground he bid farewell. My mother, sisters and I were out shopping when we got the news, my eldest sister, being the ardent Kumble fan, treated us all to ice cream!! The memory is as vivid as it could be. Us at Mahesh(!!) matching center, watching the little T.V. the shop keeper had. Then I also remember a time when my cousins and I sold a photograph of Kumble which had appeared in the morning newspaper for 10 rupees to another cousin who was mad about Kumble.

All these memories are just mine. To think of what the Man himself must be going through, all His memories of the games he has played. The fact that he was out on the field, wearing the Indian cap for the last time, I guess I was crying for him as well.

Amidst all this, I think I got a taste of what it must be like to be old. I don’t know why, but Kumble’s retirement somehow marked an end of an era for me as well. I still haven’t figured out the mathematics of the sentiment, but just feel that something inside me has ended. If I, with all of 22 years that I have been in existence could feel such emptiness at a thing like a cricketer’s retirement. I don’t even want to imagine the emptiness that the elderly must experience. God only knows how many ends of eras they must’ve seen or felt….