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 ...