FROM BRABOURNE STADIUM TO WANKHEDE STADIUM Cleopatra boasts of her days with Julius Caesar as “My salad days, when I was green in judgment” My ‘salad’ days were in Bombay. I had the privilege of listening to NANI PALKHIWALA on the eve of BUDGET in Brabourne Stadium sitting in the front row. (front row courtesy by Mr.Rohan Shah,Senior Counsel of reputation) Wave after wave the waters of of Arabian Sea struck me in the words and expressions of the EXPERT. Long after the words have receded I am getting the same feeling in Wankhede Stadium yesterday. Thomas Babington Macaulay did everything for creating “a class of persons, Indian in blood and colour, but English in taste, in opinions, in morals, and in intellect.” But much before him Sir Phillip Francis had created “a class of persons ENGLISH, in blood and colour, but INDIAN in taste, in opinions, in morals, and in intellect.” Sir Edmund Burke, Richard B.Sheridan, and James Fox. All the three brought the White Moghul, Warren Hstings to his knees. On Edmund Burke Macaulay pays rich encomiums: His knowledge of India was such as few, even of those Europeans who have passed many years in that country, have attained, and such as certainly was never attained by any public man who had not quitted Europe. ……………………………………………………………………………………. The burning sun, the strange vegetation of the palm and the cocoa-tree, the rice-field, the tank, the huge trees, older than the Mogul empire, under which the village crowds assemble, the thatched roof of the peasants hut, the rich tracery of the mosque where the imaum prays with his face to Mecca, the drums, and banners, and gaudy idols, the devotee swinging in the air, the graceful maiden, with the pitcher on her head, descending the steps to the riverside, the black faces, the long beards, the yellow streaks of sect, the turbans and the flowing robes, the spears and the silver maces, the elephants with their canopies of state, the gorgeous palanquin of the prince, and the close litter of the noble lady, all these things were to him as the objects amidst which his own life had been passed, as the objects which lay on the road between Beaconsfield and St. Jamess Street. Burke was at home in employing these words freely in the course of the proceedings. Macaulay finally sums up; He (Burke) was exuberant in thought and splendid in diction. None of the elements of diction were there in Sachin’s. But certainly all the exuberant factors were there in his last delivery. I was very much moved when he talks about his wife. “The most beautiful thing happened to me in 1990 when I met my wife, Anjali. Those were special years and it has continued and will always continue that way. I know Anjali, being a doctor; there was a wonderful career in front of her. When we decided to have a family, Anjali took the initiative to step back and say that you continue with your cricket and I will take the responsibility of the family. Without that, I dont think I would have been able to play cricket freely and without stress. Thanks for bearing with all my fuss and all my frustrations, and all sorts of rubbish that I have spoken. Thanks for bearing with me and always staying by my side through all the ups and downs. YOU ARE THE BEST PARTNERSHIP IVE HAD IN MY LIFE. “ Most men came out with only one answer. “My wife” In the programme Koffee with Anu, when asked “If you have to express your regret only to one person in the world to whom you will express regret?” Coming back to Warren Hastings once again. No doubt he had robbed our country and razed our privileges to the ground but he had paid the most extravagant tributes on his wife (when he was 85) in the most Indian way. “I am more pleased with Mrs.Hastings’ good looks than with the restoration of Louis the18th to his kingdom.” Justice Sikri said, “Ah, Daphtary, and to what do we owe the honour of your presence today?” I repeat it to my honour: “Ah, Sachin, and to what do we owe the honour of your delivery today?” One delivery can demand only one wicket at the maximum. But in one delivery Sachin had taken many thousand wickets(our hearts).
Posted on: Sun, 17 Nov 2013 11:09:33 +0000