It was India versus England. Natwest trophy finals. Kaif and Yuvaraj were guiding India to a historic victory. My father, brother, mother and even my grandmother were on tenterhooks and totally excited watching the action on TV. Every single was cheered and a boundary would just blast the noise levels of the household. And we could hear similar noises from every house in the neighbourhood.
Sitting in a room right next to the TV Room was my kid-cousin Akshay. He was sitting on the computer browsing the net or doing some complicated stuff. He was totally unruffled by the noise and excitement in the adjoining room. In fact from where he sat he could easily see us jumping. He was the youngest in the family (then) and was having such a composed look on his face while we were behaving like children at a zoo! Cricket didn’t matter to him. Everytime there was a roar from our end he would just shout, “what happened?”, to us. We would reply, “Yuvaraj just smashed Harmisson for a boundary! Only 30 runs to go and 4 overs remaning!”. He would reply, “Oh aste na. sari”.
But his best reaction was when we were all thrilled when India won the match. He casually walked out of his room and said, “Did India win?”. He said that, he didn’t ask because nobody answered!
We were all totally surprised by the total rejection of cricket! Our family is known to go bonkers about the game. Anyone you meet, even those whose name you don’t remember, and you don’t know how to start a conversation you can just say, “Don’t you think Simon Taufel should be sacked for his LBW decision against Sachin Tendulkar when he was on 91?”. That’s it – you have started a conversation! But be careful it can flare up emotions like nobody’s business.
Born into such a family, Akshay was an outlier. He almost hated cricket though he never said that. And we never realised which other sport excited him untill we saw him sitting in front of the TV every Sunday without fail. Schumacher it was, who captured this boy’s imagination with his consistent victories and stamp of supremacy on F-1. Formula-1 racing caught Akshay’s fancy like nothing else could. And Akshay was and is our one-stop shop for anything on Formula-1. Today he has decided to share his passion with the blogsphere at http://axf1page.blogspot.com/
Akshay writes well. To testify my appreciation, here’s what my good friend Anand Balaji has to say about him,
Amazed at the clarity of thought; highly impressed by the manner in which you pepper a topic such as F1 racing with your little exciting twists and turns; speechless at the way in which you have dealt with the subject in an engaging way.
It’s not often that one comes across a good writer. You are one. Having spent a considerable amount of time as a journalist in the print media, I am well-equipped to judge good copy from bad. Your effort is laudable.
So, this is the link you need to go to, to keep yourself updated about Formula-1 racing.
(Akshay Iyengar is pursuing BE in Computer Science from Mysore. He can be contacted at axman1000@gmail.com)
Hey! Very sweet of you to write about Akku this way. I don’t remember this incident…maybe I wasn’t there. Akku’s Formula 1 mania can take on different levels…I’ve actually see him weep after a ‘bad’ race. But touched by your warm piece. And your verbose friend Anand Balaji’s ‘testimonial’. More feedback on Akku’s blog could help improve his knowledge, objectivity and writing skills.
I thought I was being pithy, Swati:)
Hi adi, thanx a lot for sharing the link. I got a friend of mine who can match ur brother in terms of the passion for F1. He is succhha die hard of it da. I will make sure that he is made known abt this wonderful initiative by ur brother..
Swati:
Thanks.
Suresh S:
Thanks man! :)