denouement

Childhood was a blur, we were too busy living it, to watch it go past. High school was over at 15, PUC at 17 and college at 21.We knew that the end was never a clear line but a hazy transition; but for those of us in the early to mid twenties, the line was this week. 

Through these 23 years, classmates changed,friends changed, girl friends changed, postal addresses changed, jobs changed; the only things that remained a constant were our heroes.

A large part of my childhood was spent obsessing over Michael Schumacher. I still remember the 1994/5 seasons better than anything I learnt in the 4 years of engineering. For more than a decade, I religiously took control of the TV every race weekend and my family had to tolerate the the sound of the engines screeching and a son who never agreed to turn the volume down. A lot of things changed in F1 over the years- teams changed, drivers changed- but the one thing that remained constant was Michael. Champions came and went, but they all had to beat Michael to be champion. It all ended on the 22nd of October 2006, with Schumacher retiring from the sport. A significant part of my life was suddenly over. 

Thankfully, I had a saviour. As the 96 cricket world cup neared, all my friends in school discussed was  this weird sport called cricket. I was the outcast in my school, who spoke of the weirder sport called Formula 1. All this changed the day I watched Sachin make the Kenyan bowlers look like a bunch of school boys in India's opening match of the world cup. I was hooked. Suddenly I had a plethora of heroes to choose from. There was Sachin's batting, Azhar's spectacular fielding and Kumble's relentless bowling. But the deluge was yet to come.

Lord's 1996- India found two of the greatest cricketers of our generation. For the ensuing half a decade, there were two kinds of cricket fans in the country- the ones who admired Dravid for his hard work and the ones who watched in awe as Ganguly stepped out of the crease to the left arm spinners. From Ganguly's divine shots on the off side to Dravid's unbreachable defense, we dissected and discussed everything, everyday.

We were spoilt. Our heroes blinded us with their brilliance(Taunton 99) , worked miracles(Kolkata 01) and conquered enemy fortresses(Perth 08).  Through all the tumultuous years of adolescence, we found refuge in these performances and for a moment, the quandaries of everyday life seemed irrelevant. They were our heroes- who we could always count on to bring us cheer.

After this week, we'll never see Jumbo terrorise batsmen or watch Dada cart spinners out of the ground.

I guess this means we've grown up.