The greatness of Newton’s Law is that, it
could be applied to human behaviour too. The essence of the first law keeps it
emphasis on an external force to stop or start a motion of a body. This could
be very well applied to humans, as the external influence has the power to
daunt or inspire an individual from executing something at his best.
Esthell Corporate Tournament 2012
Can the inimitable power of optimism give a
little nudge to get back on track? Yes, says my experience in life. It all
happened in 2012 when I was part of the DAE team which won the corporate
cricket tournament, which was participated by teams from Chennai and Bangalore.
It was our second tournament in Esthell and in the previous year we lost to the
team from Indev Groups, Bangalore in the very first match of the knock out
tournament. Indev Bangalore was the champions in 2010 and 2011 and they were
over confident to take the cup for the third time. We started the tournament in
2012 with a positive note, defeating all our opponents with a comfortable
margin. The quarter finals with Malar Hospital went neck and neck till the end,
where we snatched the chance from them at the last moment. Our semi-final was
against the same Indev from Bangalore and the organisers intimated us that we
should play Finals on the same day if we win. We didn’t have any to option to
deny as Esthell belongs to the Indev group and they were over-confident that
their team will take the trophy for the third time. As they have to travel from
Bangalore for every match, they decided to play both semi and finals in the
same day.
A couple of days before match….
Life always doesn’t take you in the path you
wish to travel and this proved true in my life. A couple of days before the
match, my spouse who was then my girlfriend went to her hometown after disclosing
our choice to be the life partners to her parents. As usual as expected it was
not in favour and the complete communication between us was lost all of a
sudden. I was clueless of what was happening and was even confused about her
whereabouts. I was communicated in between by her relative and in a decent
conversation with him; I was informed about their decision to deny our choice
due to societal pressure and asked us to move on in life separately. I was also
told that she understood the situation and pressure and asked them to talk to
me and make me understand the issues the same way as it was explained to her. I
still remember the words from her relative, “We don’t have any problem with
you, but the society is not wise enough to understand and respect inter-community,
inter-state, inter-cultural marriages”
I was totally crest-fallen and the earth
seemed to rotating very slowly for me. I was comfortable only when I was
fast-asleep and preferred the world to be completely dark from then.
Match day….
The Boxing Day was
schedule on 4th of March, 2012 and the same was informed to me. I neither
worried nor cared about it. I decided to move to my friend’s (named Rajaram)
house, the previous day and planned to switch off my mobile to avoid contacts
from my team mates. As planned I moved to his house where he was staying alone
on the previous day itself. His home was in the fourth floor totally isolated
from the worldly sounds and more connected to the nature. It is during this
period I understood the power of nature to cure our wounds. As it was a
Saturday, many of my other friends too stayed with us. I do know why our mind
asks for more friends and no relatives to stay with us when we are in trouble.
I switched off my phone and in fact totally switched my thoughts from the
cricket next day. The match was schedule to start at 10 AM in the morning and I
woke up at 8.30 AM and few of my other friends were still asleep. There is
always a guy who needs your phone to make an emergency call to his girlfriend,
due to the fact that is balance had gone or his battery has drained and the
same happened that day. One of my friends asked my mobile and switched on it
just for a minute to intimate his girlfriend that his phone is dead and will
call her back after charging. Just seconds after he switched on the mobile, a
call came from my team mate (Christopher) quizzing whether I have started for
the match. My friend, who switched on the mobile, attended the call by accident
and gave to me to talk. I came out with my own reasons for not coming to the
match and he in return came out with his reasons for forcing me to come to the
match. It was during this conversation, a call from an unknown landline number gave
a waiting alert in the background with a beep. I ignored it in the first
attempt and when the call came for the second time I preferred to attend it.
The one reason why I decided to attend the call is to cut the call from Christopher
showing the waiting call as reason, who was continuously forcing me to come to
the match.
Is it the little nudge?
The call came from the same unknown landline
number and STD code was not familiar to me. The moment I attended the call the
word “Hello” from the other side shook me a second. It was her who I thought
have preferred to move on in life in her own path. It was the same girl, who
forced me for the entire previous week to stay away from the world of well-known
faces. I asked her,” How are you? Are you Ok?” She said,” Yes, I am and will be
back in a month once the situations cool down. Just wait for me even though if I
am not able to contact you”. I talked with her for a maximum of one minute and
sudden optimism came into my life. All of a sudden I started to realise that
everything was fine and everything is in track. The optimism which rose
suddenly made me to give a call to my team mates and told them that I will be
at ground before 10 AM. I told Christopher to bring my shoes and Jersey from my
home and I took bath and went to the ground directly from Rajaram’s house where
I was staying.
The best day in my cricket career….
I gave my best as an opening batsman scoring
around 40 and took two incredible catches as wicket-keeper to pay way for our
team to enter Finals and to end the winning streak of Indev, Bangalore. The final
was against a team representing NISSAN cars. The tiredness of the first match
reflected in the initial overs of the Finals. It was a 20 overs match and in
the first 10 overs we just managed to get 39 runs and everything seemed to be
in favour of NISSAN who till then showed their extra-ordinary calibre. In the
break, I told my team-mates that I will go aggressively against the bowlers
every ball from then. This decision and the confidence within me proved to be a
magic. Post break I managed to score a six in every over and we scored a mighty
156 at the end of 20 overs. I was caught at 72 in the 19th over when
I went for the hat-trick six. NISSAN looked totally lost from the very beginning
and they managed to score a meagre 35 runs overall in chasing. Finally, we lifted
the trophy which included a cash prize of fifty thousand rupees. I was awarded
the man of the match in the finals. 
March 04, 2012 is
still the most memorable day in my life as it proved the power of optimism delivered
from the signal of being together.
So what about the love? I won the match that
day and won the love 8 months later.
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