Incidents Surrounding The Cricket Match, Worth Remembering!

Prologue:

We had a huge ground for ourselves during our middle school days. The ground was full of children playing various games, and we had a dedicated place for our cricket. Though it was chaotic, the players were focused on the game, and nothing bothered them except the ringing of the bell for the start of morning and afternoon sessions.

We used to bother the neighbouring houses whenever we hit the ball into their places and were oblivious to the shouting that followed.

The Story:

Circa 1971-72, and it happened during my 6^th standard. 

We had a classmate, Raja, who came from as far as Subramanyapura (presently this has become a suburb of Bengaluru as the city has grown at least 10 km to the South-West, beyond this point). He had been watching us play cricket at the school and proposed that our team from school play a match with his local team. He added that arrangements for transport and food would be made.

In those days, Subramanyapura was at the ‘back of beyond’ for us hailing from the Basavanagudi and Jayanagar areas, as our periphery was restricted to Banashankari Temple on one side and Chennamma Kere (Lake) on the other side and Bannerughatta Road on the South-East side.

We knew that the reputed Gopalakrishna Mills was a major industrial unit and had their own buses to transport their workmen from the city. Excited that we were, we readily agreed to this adventurous cricket match.

Come D-Day, we gathered at South-end Circle from where the GK Mills’ bus picked us up in the morning and took us to Subramanyapura. The playground was just behind the Mills. Our team (I am still trying to remember who all went – Murali, Badari, Sathyathirtha, TL Srinivasa Murthy, Babu Reddy, Prabhakar, Shivakumar, yours truly, etc.) was very eager as we met with the other team members and went for the toss.

I request my classmates (who came on that day) to fill in with the details that they remember, so that this article can be a complete one.

I don’t remember much of the game, except that our team won the match, while the losing team created a ruckus and tried their best to cheat and win the match. In those days, we played for Pencils as a princely bet, and if I remember it right, we won 11 pencils – one each for the opponent team member.

The game was done and dusted, and we were very hungry and tired. The losing team members went back on their word of providing food, and there we were, in an alien place with no food and dog tired after the match.

Someone suggested that we could have Prasada at the Subramanya Swamy temple, and we hurried to have our fill of the Mosaranna (Curd Rice). We breathed easy after this, and then it suddenly dawned on us that there was no transport to take us back to our part of the civilisation! The shift timing of the mills was to end at 5:00 pm, and till then, we had to wait in a hostile environment (remember we had won the match, much to the dislike of the local boys).

In those days, Subramanyapura and Kanakapura Road were connected by a single-lane road with no traffic at all. An occasional chugging lorry carrying bricks or sand was the only telltale sign of civilisation. Nevertheless, we enquired from a few roadside shops and dragged our feet towards Banashankari. Somewhere in between, we made our way through agricultural fields and even through a graveyard. BK (Sathyathirtha) was scared and almost started to cry as Murali coaxed him with his encouraging words and chanting some mantras to quell his fear. That BK went on to become a decorated Police Officer is a story for another day!

We must have walked quite a distance, and our legs were almost on resisting mode to any further torture of walking. With no sight of a single soul other than us, we dragged our feet, cursing Raja and his team for our plight under the harsh scorching sun.

Soon we came up to the asphalted single-lane road and as luck would have it, we managed to stop a lorry that had just disposed of its load of bricks (this I still remember as the residue of bricks was still in the lorry) and got on to its load-bin. Some small mercies in life!

Soon we reached Kanakapura Road, got down from the lorry, and thanked the driver and the cleaner profusely.

Our only way to reach Banashankari was to hitch-hike again, on a lorry, as the frequency of buses to Kanakapura and other places beyond Banashankari was far and few in between.

Thus fated, we waited for our next hike on a lorry again. We didn’t have to wait for long as a merciful lorry driver stopped and asked us to jump onto the load bin. We chugged along and soon our joy knew no bounds as we could see the familiar Banashankari Temple on the horizon.

With a huge sigh of relief, we got off the lorry, thanking the driver and the cleaner profusely, as we made our way to the bus stand, waiting for the buses to take us home.  

I noticed one thing here; despite all of us, not yet into our teens, being left high and dry at an unfamiliar place and having to go through an ordeal of trekking our way back, none complained about what happened back at Subramanyapura. Perhaps, the thrill of an outing and winning the match was quite overwhelming, and the bits of inconvenience were too trifle to bother our exuberant minds.

We had just come out of our houses on the pretext of playing a cricket match, but hid the details of the venue from our family members. This instance, at a place unfamiliar to the family members, was never discussed in the open, and we had kept it a secret for a long time.

Epilogue:

We never discussed the happenings of this event in the open. Raja continued to study, and he was never picked on. Probably, our young minds were not polluted as the later generations, since we rarely saw any movies and there was no TV to contaminate our behaviour with mindless and meaningless soapies. Also, if matters had precipitated, we would have been hauled up by our parents for daring to get into such a predicament.

This experience made us strengthen our bonds with our classmates. Our concerted efforts in dispelling fears of a few of our friends while exploring unknown areas and encountering obstacles hitherto not experienced boosted our confidence and perhaps laid a foundation for our character going forward.

I am really indebted to HIM for providing me with a chance to experience this outing!