THE 1983 Generation

Meeting Anees, ( DAS....  dastagir anees shareef ) for the lunch was very special today..  Meeting him after couple of years did not make much difference to our relationship.  we continued from where we left..  There are no complaints, no hidden feelings, no bitterness and a natural understanding and effortless empathy between us..  Obviously it was all about catching up on the times from 1980 to 1992 approx....  Those were the real years of bonding, of innocence.. Those were the times before economic reforms happened in the country... Times when even land line phone was a rarity... pocket money concept was unknown to the majority..  All we would spend was on the split itani chai, osmania biscut and occasional chota samosa and not to foget the fingers dipped water in the steel glass.

We knew not much about the fear and insecurity.. Ambition to own the car, own the house, oppulence, buying was not that popular those days..  What bind all of us was the cricket...  today we talk about the cricket being passion and religion.    Then it was the only religion, the only sport, the only entertainment and the only life, hundreds of us had in several colonies out together...  Cork balls, matches, green mats, glace balls and hardly one pad, wicket keeper gloves, bare foot playing was few characteristic features that can be easily recalled.

every match, we collected some fifty paisa to one rupee as we had to buy the new ball costing some 3 rupees and the rest was to give to the winning team ...  We hardly won with our own team... We had stars like Ratan , my brother who was popular for his left hand bowling.... Vishwanath who had style but his success rate was not high, Dr Ashok who was good but never had the support... Hard hitter Anees and Self proclaimed spinner Venkat and not to forget my defensive opening batting and wicket keeping.  How can i forget Vijay mamu ....  Myself and him started it all in the colony ..  We identifed a cross pitch opposite to my home and Adiseshappa uncle home and played for very long.. All of us joined subsequently..  In curfew we played and offered police men chai and they also let us play ... Sridhar home offered even tiffins to them sometimes ...

But Subsequently, We had cricket series for 7 days when there was curfew and on long holidays too, we were playing cricket and only cricket. We did not know anything other than that..  Sometimes reading in the library was known for few and i also used to join but not like the fun we had from cricket..... Many teams got submerged into one another from different colonies  and after a time the competitiveness of the team got lost... There were popular players like Bhabby who was so huge and people used to dread his bowling and once i took the catch behind the stumps on fluke without the gloves and i became hero from then on... there was a player called Rafat who was six hitting specialist , Venkat who was a hard hitter, Raju a good bowler, Idrees whom i introduced as a surprise bowler , bowled googlies but also many wides....

There were several grounds...  7B was very popular and also the vinaynagar colony grounds, the SBI colony grounds, The New santoshnagar colony grounds, our own Central excise at several places at different times.. Then came DMRL grounds etc etc.. Playing in Central excise colony was very special as we would loose balls to few houses and never dared to ask them back for balls as the children from those houses would not play..  We all wondered what did they do with all those balls.....

Once we collected money and brought second hand gloves, wickets, pads etc and now i wonder if ever such a thing is happening anywhere in the world now..  We all dared to play without accessories and not that one has to do that now... But those were the times and not all homes used to give money.. My dad was opposed to giving money for 3 children to the team and Ratan would chip in with his pocket money.. Mohan did not play for long but he was a good captain.  shekar was a very good player but he took to serious studying after a while..

When Smt Indira Gandhi died, We all stopped playing and discussed for long and all of us felt very depressed and so is the case when Rajiv was assassinated ...  We knew no party, no religion , no preference except cricket.. Everything revolved in and around playing cricket.

No money, no mobile, no FB, no net, No bikes and no nothing ...  Just play cricket and hang around endlessly till 9 pm and come home.....  Wonder what we used to talk apart from movies and cricket and that too for such long..   It was sheer innocence of times which kept all of us very happy...... We had friends who were illeterate, who were aspiring for IAS, IIM and also people who were in poverty and there was never comparisions of any kind.. 

We all wanted to be happy and so we were...  I could call that generation 1983 because till then we did not know what was winning and world cup victory for India , changed us all...... We rejoiced without having TV in all homes...  We felt happy talking and revering for long and long and long...

Meeting and merely recollecting those days, those friends and that innocence and reliving also is so much nostalgic and fulfilling..

Thanks Anees for meeting me today ...