Barsaat ki Ek Raat
It was raining, quite unusually, since it normally does not rain at this time of the year. Ramesh and his classmates had made all the preparation to see the match at Ramesh's place hoping there would be a match. Rain had already washed away one crucial match of the series and curtailed another. For once, the hard-core cricket fanatics were happy that they did not get a ticket to go to Calcutta and were contend seeing the match on television.
It was the first ball for Srinath, having come back from a knee injury. He strays down the leg side. Jayasuriya picks the line early and with a clean flick smacked the ball to square leg. Agarkar, at third man, sees the ball in the air and covers a lot of distance to close to it and takes a full-length dive. The ball was almost in his hand when the screen went blank. Alas, the rain must have uprooted a tree and disturbed the electric lines. Power failure was the last thing Ramesh was ready for at this time.
Ramesh and his friends had only one thing on top of their mind. Did Agarkar hold on to the catch or not? They knew the importance of getting Jayasuriya out early. Who could have forgotten his form during the '96 world cup? Ramesh frantically searched for a pair of pencil cells. His friends would trade anything for listening commentary on a radio transistor. But that was not to happen since they could not find 2 battery cells. Dinesh, the first among equals among cricket fanatics, volunteered to get new cells from a shop near by. Where could he find a shop open on a Cricket Weekend in a cricket crazy city? Still, he took his bike out and drove out into the darkness.
Not knowing anything about the match, Ramesh and Suresh started contemplating as to what should be Ganguly's ploy for the rest of match and rest of the tournament. They even passed judgment that Jadeja should be allowed to play for India as soon as possible if India is to win the next World Cup. Half an hour passed and there was no sign of Dinesh. Rain had intensified. Both of them had the same thoughts coming again and again in their mind. It is really strange that it is very difficult to bring happy thoughts into your mind when you are worried about a friend's safety. The more you like the person, the worse are the thoughts. Ramesh had now forgotten all about the cricket match and was only worried about Dinesh. What an insensitive fool they made of themselves to let Dinesh ride a bike in this heavy rain? All this only for a match, which in all probability would be washed out anyway. Suddenly, there air inside the room seemed heavy. They did not talk to each other with words. But both shared the same anxiety, same fear, the very same thoughts, more importantly the same hope that any time the phone would ring and Dinesh would tell them that he is fine and not to worry.
The candle was soon dying out. But Dinesh had not yet returned. Neither had he called. Ramesh thought he heard the phone ring and picked up the receiver. There was dead silence at the other end. The phone was actually dead. The fallen tree may have cut the telephone wire too. Ramesh now had a sigh of relief. May be Dinesh could not call home since the phone here was dead. "Nothing must have happened to him", Ramesh kept saying to himself.
There was a knock at the door. Short and crisp. Who could it be? Ramesh and Suresh jumped ahead to open the door. Dinesh was standing in front of them - full drenched and with greasy hands. Both, Ramesh and Suresh hugged him but said nothing. They were now free from their guilt. Dinesh was bewildered by their behavior. How could he get such a welcome, when he had not even got the cells? The bike had broken down just round the corner.
Prashanth Kota
prashanth_k_blr@yahoo.com