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. Anonymous12 May 2011 at 21:10

    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. sacshi15 May 2011 at 21:46

    awesome!!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Unknown17 May 2011 at 10:59

    wonderful keep posting
    jee coimbatore

    ReplyDelete
  4. Shebani19 September 2011 at 20:48

    An angel who will never leave your side...

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Remembering a mentor

It’s strange how some people make such a significant impact on your life in a short space of time. Sidhanta Patnaik was one of those people for me. He was a friend, a mentor and an inspiration— someone I turned to for advice on all things writing and many things cricket. I first met Sidhanta in August 2015 when I joined Wisden India. In his own words, “We may not have gotten off on the best foot, but the more we talked I think it is fair to say that we realised we were more alike than we first thought.”  His passion for domestic cricket and the women’s game was something I greatly admired. He pored over scorecards and dug through the archives to find a scrap of information that someone may have missed. That anyone could be so incredibly thorough and meticulous when it came to his work, I thought, was incredible. What was most impressive though, was his willingness to ask questions. He didn’t presume to know everything. When I first started out as a journalist, I was l...
Post a Comment
Read more

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 ...
7 comments
Read more

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 ...
Post a Comment
Read more