Carpe Diem - Not Like This

When arun.s. walked upto me with two tickets in hand, i had just one reason to take them up. Rahul Sharad Dravid. The best there is, (one of the) the best there was and (one of the) the best there ever will be. I have never seen him bat in flesh and blood and he is one of those batsmen who would make you wake up early in the mornings, sleep late in the nights, skip food in the afternoons and drop deadlines at work even when hez batting on television. Now that he was playing in the real, and that too 500 metres from my place of work, it was too good to be true.

Morning, "Indrajith" gilchrist and "Mahiravanan" clarke ate some bheema pushti legium (thatz something on the lines of zandu pancharisht) and came in with maces instead of bats. Anything red that comes in front of them was delivered to the audience at twice the speed. When everyone was losing heart, ganguly suddenly got the wisdom to bring back bhajji and boy, did he strike. But by then, Oz had cruised to 470+ which in itself was staring ominously at us.

That was the right time for us to go in. Veeru was basically a Dhanda Soru (good for nothing in thamizh) and Akash Chopra was always waiting to go back to the pavilion soon. So RDx would be in any time and we ran into the stadium like crazy. This match was made in heaven. With "Ravanan" Mcgrath firing up from one side and "Kumbakarnan" Gillespie on the other, "The Wall" standing tall on one side. What a script for an otherwise boring thursday afternoon. As we walked in, we saw people walking out with a forlorn faces. Bad news. Veeru would've tried to whack the day lights out of piegeon and the ball would've did the stumps a favor. Bad news for them. Not for me.

As i walked in, i saw a familiar figure, crouching at the crease at anything that came at him, all bloated up wearing all kinds of protection devices that mankind could've ever thought of. Now what was Ganguly doing here so early ?? Dont tell me he got courageous and walked in to face ravanan and co. Even donna wouldnt be able to coax him into that. And then something struck me. Now, did we lose *two* wickets by any chance ?? I turned around, found a guy who looked like he would answer me.

"How Many" {anxiety, someone give me a towel }
"Two" { half dead }
"Dravid??" {higher levels of anxiety, can i get a glass of water ?? }
"Bowled" { non-chalant }
{throw the glass of water away, someone give me valium for chrissake}

Dravid, the bane of fast bowlers, despatcher of short-pitched stuff, the messiah for Indian Cricket, his bat as straight as a ruler, his footwork rivalling tap dancers, felled by this mcgrath brute, Bad.
Clean Bowled. Worse.
For Nought. Unthinkable.
In Bangalore. Can't get worse.
When I go to watch him. You know, Life is never so bad that it cant get worser.

But then, I guess it is okay one way atleast. To watch RDx walk upto the crease, take his guard, face that mcgrath monster, give lots of hope and then get bowled for a nought would've been like going to the nearest sivan kovil for an upanyasam, and find out that ozzy osbourne is the upanyasakar. Mind-freaking and depressing.

Next time RDx, there is always a next time.