From my college diary

It was in late 2005, and our college days were coming to an end. The final semester examinations were scheduled in the month of May, the following year. On one hand, we were preparing for the examination, on the other hand, we were spending quality time with our friends. Even the college authorities were interested in encouraging us to develop an everlasting friendships with our friends because it was not long before we would venture into a world more complex and daunting.

The managing committee of our college after much discussion and deliberation decided to conduct a Cricket tournament in our college to bring some fun and excitement for last semester students. In no time the flex was prepared and displayed at the college premises. The professors were given the responsibility of making a total of 8 teams that would play the initial group stages on the way to the finals.

I was a good bowler who could bat a bit and played regularly during my school days. Since I was a good student of Biotechnology, the authorities had huge expectations from me in the upcoming examination. Due to my illness, I couldn't perform as per my expectations in the first semester and it was a herculean effort on behalf of the principal Dr. Murthy to bring me back on track.

After all 8 teams were picked up there were still 8-11 students, all passionate about cricket dejected, demotivated at the thought of not featuring in the coveted teams. I used to stay in the college hostel and used to see their practice and quietly knew they had the potential to make a great team. And the combination was perfect with 5 batsmen, 3 fast bowlers,2 spinners and a wicket keeper.All they required was a motivational captain to lead them.

Now I was in dilemma, on one hand, the pressure of the examination, the huge expectation of professors, on the other hand I knew the relationship with my ex-girlfriend in college wouldn't go beyond the college days.

Those days we had heavy Nokia mobiles and still, we managed to communicate with our friends and love interest through SMS but my girlfriend had a very peculiar habit. She used to reply to an SMS very late but it would always bring a smile on my face to see her motivational messages ringing in my mobile phone.

I was surprised when one day instead of sending SMS, she directly called me and inspired me to take part in the tournament, while she promised to come to the venue to cheer us up.

History has it that women have been the greatest source of awakening, inspiration and victory.

Now I approached Dr. Murthy with a request that I wanted to field my own team for the tournament. He viewed my point of view objectively and came up with a very unique solution. He stated that before the start of the actual tournament, a friendly match would be played between the best team and my team and post-match we would talk further. The day was fixed on a Friday, after classes and I would lead my team.

When I gave this news to the boys, they were delighted as if they could see light at the end of the tunnel. They started practicing at the nets during the day and shadow practice during the night. Everyone was keen to leave their mark and wanted to outperform each other. I started adding my inputs and slowly but surely a strong bond developed and I could see the team taking shape.

On a penultimate day before the match my girlfriend reminded me that apart from participating in the Cricket tournament I should participate in the Inter-collegiate poetry competition and she would be delighted to see me win. She wished me well with a goodnight kiss.

On Friday, after holy namaz, the match started. We won the toss and elected to bat. Then the unexpected happened. We kept on losing wickets and before long we were 46/6 in 5 overs. We lost all the best people in business including our vice captain Sunil. Now it was my turn to face the music. The best team had a tall lanky fast bowler who could bowl at 140 kms/hr and the first ball I faced was a bouncer which on its way to the wicket keeper touched my gloves and all I could hear was a loud appeal. I was astonished to see the umpire did not respond to the call. I decided to walk away because I knew the ball had touched my gloves but I was called back because in an attempt to beat me in pace the young bowler had overstepped and it was a no ball. My girlfriend sighed in relief.

Now it was my turn to show him my capabilities with the bat. Before being run out I had scored 27 valuable runs for my team. After me our whole team were bowled out in 8 overs with a score of 80. I somehow knew that this target of 81 in 10 overs would be cakewalk for them as they had promising batsmen in their line up. But with the youth and determination we set a trap and captured one of their batsmen straight in front of the wicket and we celebrated the fall of one wicket like we have won the tournament. We lost the match for sure but the crowd was so delighted by our heroics on the field that they started calling us the Lagaan team. The principal also congratulated me for bringing out the best from a set of demotivated students.

Later when I won the Inter- collegiate poetry competition for my college, my girlfriend hugged me in joy and had tears in her eyes. I thanked her for believing me, having faith and staying by my side.

P.S. -Today after 20 years when I am reading my diary entry and presenting it to you in the form of a story I hope you will understand that we don't lose when the world wants us to lose,we lose when we don't want to fight!