Skip to main content

Remembering Thatha...

It’s been 3 years, but I still haven’t gotten over the fact that I won’t see my grandfather again… Whenever I come back from practice or have done particularly well in a match I think of Thatha and how much of a support he was. When I first started playing, every time we played a match, Thatha would come and watch, no matter how far the ground was from home. He watched me first score my first runs for my club and for the state. He saw me take my first catch. The only thing he missed was my first wicket for the state, which only came in my second tournament!

What I miss most about Thatha was our trips to the station before every tour. He made it a point to speak to every member of the team—find out their name, what they were (batswoman/ bowler/ keeper, etc)—and he would say good luck to each one individually (WITH the name). After one meeting Thatha knew all my teammates! It was rather amazing…

The year Thatha passed away I had what I believe was my ‘breakthrough’ season. I scored my first half century in the Under 19’s and broke into the Senior team. It was a huge break for me and all I could think of was how proud he would have been. There would’ve been ice cream after dinner!

Two years have passed since then and after having done well in the T20’s this season I got another chance to prove my worth—one step higher; and all I can think of NOW is how he’s not here for me to tell him. The minute I was given the news, there was, quite obviously, a feeling of pride and relief, but I also felt slightly empty… The tears just came…

I know that wherever he is, he’s bought a box of butterscotch ice cream and is smiling with pride as he eats it… Hopefully I give him more chances to buy ice cream in the future!

'The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams!'

Comments

  1. My tatha loved butterscotch ice cream=D And chocolates. This blog post opened up some memories, thank you Ananya:) They're amazing people. They are!

    ReplyDelete
  2. wonderful keep posting
    jee coimbatore

    ReplyDelete
  3. An angel who will never leave your side...

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Gouher Sultana: Indian cricket royalty

Some names just have star quality. You hear them and it’s like there’s an aura around the person even before you’ve seen them. Their name sounds ‘big’, royal, even. Gouher Sultana is one such name. “Gouher” means diamond or precious stone. Gouher Sultana? The Queen of Diamonds, Diamond Queen… Take your pick. Either way, it’s pretty darn regal, if you ask me. Who is Gouher Sultana? An Indian cricketer – left-arm spinner extraordinaire – with over 80 international caps and close to 100 wickets to her credit. A Hyderabad captain with over 20 years of domestic cricket under her belt and around 550 wickets in her kitty. A championship-winning maverick who’s carried many a team on her shoulders. An incredible teammate, role model and mentor – arguably one of the best going around. A disciplined, dedicated, hard-working, keen student of the game whose drive has not once diminished over the last two decades. A 30-something-year-old with a great sense of humour, a hearty laugh, a generous ...

More than numbers: The M Shalini effect

I’ve seen a lot of my teammates walk away from the game—most of the time without the slightest warning, without even saying goodbye. I have watched as they faded away into the distance, and each time I have regretted that I/we never got a chance to celebrate their achievements. Recently, another teammate, one of my dearest friends, chose to step away from the game we love so much. It has still not sunk in. Playing in a Hyderabad team without her will be strange, and I won’t believe it is possible until it actually happens. When I heard the news, I realized that I didn’t want to regret letting her fade off, and that it was time to celebrate a career that has had a huge impact on mine. To me, Mantravadi Shalini will always be a super star. When I first started playing, she was the senior whom I used to carry extra peanut butter sandwiches for, who was the ‘princess’ of camp because she had the most number of ‘fans’, and who came whizzing in on her TVS Scooty milliseconds before...

When the ball began to roll...

Like most Indian children, I grew up in a household where cricket was one of the most talked about subjects-- this though, only after i was 7! Till then I had been locked away in the cricket-free country of the United States of America. I spent four years in that country, playing almost all the sports it had to offer, but never hearing the word "cricket" (apart from the insect, of course). Almost as soon as we returned to India, the wave of euphoria surrounding the sport hit me unawares. As a 7 year old, who had no idea that a sport could become a religion in a country as large as India, it was rather scary. I took a while to adjust to it, but like most other Indians, I took to the game quickly. With a lot of help from my grandfather ('Thatha'- my mother's father), i picked up on the various rules of the sport and before I knew it, cricket had become an important part of my life. I started off playing on the terrace with my father and a tennis ball. We had the ...