I witnessed another maiden over from third man, a proven position for the worst fielder in the team. I stood there like a convict in exile with no one around other than a stray dog, the sole spectator of the match, who was sitting there for quite sometime for no apparent reason. We looked at each other and yawned – “at least you are sitting” I muttered. They say – ‘cricket is a batsman’s game,’ as I went deeper into the axiom to analyze its relevance in the context of the match or rather more pertinent aspects i.e. my contribution to the proceedings from the third man area, I noticed an object approaching the ground.
It drew closer and gradually transformed into a kid on a bike. That was my friend on an Enfield Bullet, quite a heavy bike for a 7th grader, his feet could barely touch the ground. His bike circled around for sometime searching for a support and eventually came to a halt with his left foot firmly planted on a broken pillar. He followed that stunt with a surreptitious nod; I acknowledged back, emulating a signal mechanism employed by the villains and their accomplices in old Hindi movies before launching a vicious attack.
I stealthily proceeded towards his bike and clambered onto the pillion seat. Needless to mention here that I had already finished my batting earlier which was punctuated by couple of balls missing the off stump and the third one ……. anyway, let’s not digress into trivial details, so yeah, there was not much interest left for me in the proceedings post that.
Roar of the engine blended with a cantankerous voice from the center “you just played your last match!” But can a trailing voice stop a bike partially controlled by a 7th grader and rest by law of motion and God? We whizzed past the trees, ponds, the dog, houses and hit the road leaving behind the ground. His hair fluttered in the air and my confidence succumbed to the enormity of self-developed inferiority complex. I have always envied people with straight and smooth hair, always wished my hair blew in the wind. However, every time the wind gusts, my curly and untidy hair belligerently defies my wishes and tangles up in the air paying a humble tribute to Havells commercial.
Back in those days, once out of the house, we didn’t know where we would go. We never had any plans, we just followed our instincts. It’s been a while yet it seems like yesterday.
His hair fluttered on the pyre one last time and I walked towards the gate of the cremation ground. There was nothing left for me to watch.
Some of my friends are deceased, some moved away, and the rest just redefine the term ‘stranger’ and I don’t blame them at all. I see a childhood friend of mine almost everyday. We don’t talk to each other anymore rather we avoid eye contact; however, one day we couldn’t and we had an obligatory conversation. I learned from him that those fields where we played once are all cluttered with buildings now. And then he just blurted out – “how much fun we had Deb!”
How much fun we had. We jumped from the trees, we swam in the pond, we ran into the wind and we got drenched in the rain.
People had time after office to spend the evening with friend, family members, neighbors; there was no such word called a ‘stranger.’ We heard so many stories over a cup of tea. We went for movies together. There was no expectation from anyone yet everyone gave us so much happiness. We didn’t need any comedy show to make us laugh, may be we were just dumb.
And then television came and immediately became an integral part of our lives; it was a whole new experience for us. When the title track of Vikram and Betal came from the neighborhood, we abandoned the match and ran towards our houses. Vikram Betal followed by an evening movie on DD1, it was party time! We tried to learn various intricacies of farming while watching Krishi Darshan. We sang ‘mile sur mera tumhara’ even though we didn’t understand most of the languages in that song. And then when Gavaskar went out to bat with Srikanth and we were getting ready for school, our long forgotten stomach pain resurfaced. We didn’t realize when that idiot box took the center stage and started telling us stories; it was still good.
When we look back in retrospect, our present always looks glum and drab in comparison. There could be many reasons behind that and I am definitely not qualified enough to talk about it (as a matter of fact, I am not sure whether I should have written this post in the first place or not), may be I am just being biased by my childhood nostalgia and inadvertently portraying a life which I never had. But let me be biased and say we did have fun, life did give us time to pause and live the moment.
Given a chance, I would love to live the same life again, in this small, wretched town where there will be trees, there will be ponds and there will be some small little boy riding an Enfield Bullet.
About Debajyoti
Ah…I love nostalgic posts..though the evident bit about a not-so-fun present is a tad disappointing. Some moments are just like that…never boring…never enough to be remembered. And yes…you’re qualified enough to write about it! Good one
don’t know what i have written. didn’t get enough sleep for past 2 days. thanx for the comment. at least i ll have one.
Spare my ignorance…can’t make out what you mean here?
*hiding my face in embarrassment*
i thought i ll get only one comment
but now i can see another couple.
I doubt that’d happen in your case! I see you have many loyal readers who do make it a point to comment too! Though I must say that its very encouraging when even a presumingly ( by the author of course) substandard post gets recognised.
not sure about this one though. coz i actually haven’t read it properly.
That was a nostalgic trip to the past thick with the memories of impromptu games, trees, ponds, wind, rains, Enfields and friendly dogs. You took me alongside you on the wings of humour and remembrance that hid a surprise sting of death too. All of us miss those sweet days, Deb. They sadly flew past a bit too quickly.
“They will pass you by, glory days,
In the wink of a young girl’s eyes, glory days….”
Thus spake Bruce Springsteen
yes they flow past very quickly. we do miss those days.
thanx a lot Uma and this Bruce Springsteen song is indeed cool.
Amazingly written, and truly fantastic…
thank u so much for this wonderful comment. i was bit apprehensive about it and was not sure whether to publish this or not.
Well if you ever get a chance to come to uk I can assure of that ENFIELD motorbike RIDE
nostalgic , dont we all want ot go back to thsoe good old days as we called them .. but then IF ONLY..
yeah we all want to hahaha. thanx a lot for the comment Bikram
Aah the nostalgia.. Very well written Deb. Another feather in ur cap.. Loved the post
thank u so much Vinay. i haven’t read it properly myself and i m quite sure if i read the entire post it might just sound a bit substandard
. but as long as u guys encourage me i would ignore my limitations and continue to write 
You refreshed memories for me!!! Thanks. The present day is always a little disappointing. When you look back on this day 20 years hence, you will be nostalgic about this day, too. We all miss the days of yore. It’s not that times were different, it’s just that we were children. We had no responsibilities and the worst thing is we miss those days because that lack of responsibility, that sense of freedom is never coming back
“When you finally go back to your old hometown, you find it wasn’t the old home you missed but your childhood” – Sam Ewing
thank u for the explanation and thank u for the comment.
did this rhyme? i m trying to rhyme everything these days
Nahi, o budding poet, this did not rhyme. Aur koshish karo
yup
Nice post. Love reading about nostalgia.. its the most happening memoirs of every writer
yeah it’s the most happening memoirs of every writer and people like me who inflict torture on their visitors
hey u didn’t read my p0ems, come back whenever u have time and read those couple of poems which i wrote. i guess even i missed one or two posts of yours
thank u so much for the comment.
Hmm…so you really did go down memory lane, huh! I thought you were joking on that intro on Indivine. Thank you for letting us into your childhood and bringing up images of an age that’s gone by.
If things hadn’t changed and if life had not brought you to where you are now, you wouldn’t have known the value of ‘those good ole’ days, right? No, you don’t have to think you shouldn’t have put up this post. It’s a good one. Nicely written too. I miss the humour, tho.’ The present is glum and drab? I don’t think so…I remember your post on small town things. It looks like you still live in a colourful world.
if i keep joking on indivine then eventually my blog will be taken off indiblogger.
i ll write a humor post soon but next up is a poem
thanx Nambiar for the comment
Your post strikes a chord with all of us——no let me qualify–all kids are not so lucky as to have childhoods worth yearning for ; but we the lucky ones just love to slip back to those times….when nostalgia overpowers,i remind myself that one day i will term these days also as “those were the days ,we were so happy”….does it mean that the times deteriorate progressively ?
yes all kids are not lucky but then i m not sure whether they yearn for their childhood days or not once they grow up, probably they still want to go back to those days.
right now i m having a peaceful life as compared to past few years but i still fondly look back at those days. i m just confused
thank u for the comment.
Hi,
That was an awesome post, somewhat poetic….And ‘We sang ‘mile sur mera tumhara’ even though we didn’t understand most of the languages ‘ …Wow!!! Still remember screaming the lines in Bengali and Punjabi of which I had absolutely no clue
thank u so much. was that poetic? that’s quite embarrassing
.
didn’t we sing the entire song?
we didn’t even know which line is in Tamil and which one is in Malayalam but i m sure we didn’t make too many mistakes. by the way it was a kickass song unlike the new one.
and i couldn’t visit ur blog of late, apologies for that, as a matter of fact, i didn’t visit any blog. will come and go through all ur posts.
So, the Monday commitment is fulfilled!! Nice
.. But a little unlike your posts in general.. Had become used to your cribbing and cynicism in the usual light way!
cribbing and crying post will be hurled at you next week
. do u know i have become a poet as well 
and submitting a post on Monday morning was not working so changed it. thanx for the comment.
Ya read the POETRY!! not bad i must say..
what do u mean not bad? i m a serious competition for all those poets out there
We all turn nostalgic thinking about our childhood. When you ran away from the cricket field, I went back to my days of doing the same thing and getting banned for a week.When you rode the enfield as a pillion swaying with the breeze, I could see where my love for biking came from and then when you talked about friends turned strangers, I knew I was one for many of my friends. Sometimes when we are down on just another gloomy day, its nostalgia that brings out the sunny smile within the dark clouds of sadness.
yes it does bring out a sunny smile. beautifully said.
and i have turned a stranger for almost everyone and that’s why i said i don’t blame anyone, it’s me who stayed away.
thanx for this lovely comment Arnab coz i was not sure about the quality of this post and i feel it didn’t turn out the way i wanted it to.
A wonderful post D.
“Some of my friends are deceased, some moved away, and the rest just redefine the term ‘stranger’ ”
This struck a memory, hey even girls do the same!. My friends too have disappeared, behind TV, behind,Godmen, behind Grand kids, and behind artificial divides.
But I am making more friends than ever, It is in my mind, reaching out to people.
This staying away is a phase, and it will go away. The real cheerful person will have to come back soon.
thank u so much. yes we make new friends but we do remember the old ones as well even though we don’t talk to them anymore. may be we don’t miss them but we definitely miss the time we spent with them.
that was a lovely lovely comment. thanks again. and plz make as many friends as possible
Lovely nostalgic post! Brought back some of my own childhood memories.
BTW-came here from Cybernag’s blog.
thank u so much for reading my post and this lovely comment. childhood memories are special and we can go on and on about how great those days were
Hey Deb, children today look for packaged fun and parents vie with each other to provide the costliest package to their brats. As for us, I too like Pattu try to make new friends even as the older ones either have either disappeared or prefer to stay away. I am none the poorer for it, but yes, I do miss the old friends. Good one. Please read Where is the Magic which I had written when I had started blogging. It may strike a chord.
absolutely, i would love to go through that post. as a matter of fact, i was planning to go through as many posts as possible from ur blog and also know how u started blogging. that would be a supercool read. i m not going to write for sometime now coz IPL is going to start and i am going to read during that period as well
.
thank u for this lovely comment and plz continue to make new friends.
this post makes me nostalgic as i remember my past childhood days, the friends i had and the time we shared…
thanx a lot Rahul. Yes, we do remember them and the fun we had. thanx again, am glad that u liked my stupid attempt
Hmmm..I see someone took a ride down the Nostalgia Highway. And that too on a Roayal Enfield Bullet
oh yes, something for a change. moreover, i am planning to organize my posts under different categories, so i thought i ll add one more category called memoir
. still trying to figure out other options. might just write something on Indian History 
. thanx for the comment dude 
Deb, you cannot abandon your team half way thorugh a cricket match, lol.
We all love & cherish our childhood. Memories are so fresh. Thank you for this post.
Thank u so much for ur comment Mak. we love and cherish those memories. and yes we ain’t supposed to abandon our teams halfway through a match
For most of us, chilhood is the best part of our lives and I am no different. But because we moved so much (I studied in 8 schools over 12 school years), I have lost contact with most of my school friends. But yes, I do have friends from college, University, work and the latest entrants—blogger friends, some of whom I have met and some almost met and some to be met
Beauti ful memories are made everyday and get added to my happy memory bank. Ultimately that is what matters. For me, at least
absolutely, beautiful memories are made everyday and that’s the only thing we look forward to. currently it’s centered around the comment section
. and also let me assume that u liked my post coz that’s what i force everyone to say 
.
Friends, cricket, bikes, indelible images of childhood!
absolutely, thank u so much for this wonderful comment
You brought a lot of my childhood memories in front of my eyes. It felt so nostalgic and happy when I was reading about your cricket endeavors and Doordarshan days. Those were the days. And yeah.. I too would give anything to live that life this day.
yes, we all want to live that life again in spite of all the difficulties some of us faced during those days. and although we laugh at DD1 now but no television channel can produce the same magic.
thanx a lot for reading this post
third man’s view is just great
yes it is, indeed.