Cricket Match

Yesterday I observed a rare phenomenon. Many of my patients remained in the waiting room, watching the TV, even after their treatment was over. Usually people are eager to get out of the clinic as early as possible, forgetting to collect the prescription and more often, forgetting to pay me. I was intrigued. It was only this morning that I learnt (through the news paper) that it was raining runs over the cricket field yesterday and India won in a nail biting finish.

There was a time when we played cricket all evenings and sat with our ears glued to the borrowed transistor radio (our neighbour’s) to hear the running commentary of Ranaji trophy matches. We did not have a radio in our house.

Seeing the Australians in person during the Southzone V/S Australia match in Bangalore was literally (as it turned out)once in a life time chance for me. There used to be a huge rush for tickets and we had to reach the ground well before six in the morning to be sure of getting one. Since the buses did not start so early, we got up at 4 AM and walked all the way to the Central college grounds in Bangalore, got the ticket and after fighting our way to be as close to the boundary line as possible, had to remain seated on the ground and hold to our places. We remained seated on the hot ground throughout the day in the hot sun but immensely enjoyed the match. Since there was no possibility of beating the crowd and getting into the bus after the match, we walked back home, dusty, hungry, thirsty, sun tanned and happy. E A S Prasanna got four Wickets (if I remember right) in the post tea session and that thrill compensated everything.

Now, there are two TV sets in front of me, one international match almost everyday but I have lost the skill of getting thrilled. "ಹಲ್ಲಿದ್ದಾಗ ಕಡಲೆ ಇಲ್ಲ, ಕಡಲೆ ಇದ್ದಾಗ ಹಲ್ಲಿಲ್ಲ" (when the teeth are there, no nuts and when there are nuts, no teeth) as the saying goes.