They say the best days
of your life are your childhood days and rightly so. Those days are the best
days and you cherish them and envy them for rest of your life for a variety of
reasons. One significant reason amongst all, that keeps you longing for them
are the funny little imitating bits we all have done as kids and teenagers.
Everyone has had their favourites and role models be it actors, sportspersons,
artists or elder members of the family that we have always to some extent tried
enacting in an attempt to be like them, in whatever capacity possible. And now
when we think about it, it all seems so funny and hilarious but definitely
worth cherishing. My areas of interest have always been around sports and
movies so have been my favourites and my imitating attics during my teenage
years, much against my mom’s wishes though who wanted my interests to range in
the field of arts J. Here are few of the dramatic and over the top bits I
can recall –
I remember during my
school days we used to play cricket for around 6-7 hours a day, it used to
start in the early morning hours and continued till the time Sun got really
unbearable and then resumed again in the evening till it became pitch dark.
So those were the days when my hot favorite
happened to be Md Azharuddin. I was a big Azhar fan and he still remains one of
my all-time favorites for all his silken batting prowess, style and charisma.
Though, it was quite unthinkable to match his wrist work or batting master
class on the field, I remember doing a lot of things to be like him otherwise.
The batting stance was imbibed on his style, the collars were always up and standing like he used to keep,
the walking swagger was impeccably matched to his style and not to forget his stupendous
dives and back flip throws to the stumps. Funnily, hardly any back flip throws
were on target and those heroic dives on not so grassy grounds only contributed
in bruised knees and elbows J. So what, for me he was and will always be one of the
first style icons to done the Indian jersey.
Sachin Tendulkar was a
default favorite in those days(years/decades) and every kid wanted to be
Sachin. For that matter more often than not if you were batting and facing a
bowler you ought to think yourself as Sachin. Though, it was a different thing
to be tenth of as good as he was but he for sure was the perfect role model. So
batting style aside, his groin tucking funny habit also aside and so also lot
of his peculiar attics aside, one thing that I picked up from him and to an
extent still follow was his coming out and looking towards the sky and paying obeisance
to the almighty before embarking on a new innings. I remember I started doing
that before going in for any and every important exam by leaving home and
coming out and looking for the sun or the skies as a mark of remembering god
before getting started with something really serious and important. So apart from
100 other reasons that has made this man as every ones unanimous favorite,
this is one bit that I picked from him and continue to do so J.
Shane Warne is another
champion that I have always admired and have been a huge fan of, not only for his
cricketing genius but also for his larger than life image. He was in true sense
a genius, a juggler, a magician and as he calls himself a thorough entertainer.
Nobody ever spun it like him and nobody could ever kept us all enchanted and
bewitched like him. So yes, in my school days and also while playing with cousins
outside our house I also resorted to leg spin, it hardly spun for me to be
honest but the bowling action was a ditto. Five strolling walking steps to the
stumps, looking straight into batsman eyes, keeping him guessing and rolling
over that right arm with an intent to deliver the ball of the century J. Mr Warne you truly
rock and will always do.
Movies in India have always
been a rage and for kids my age Khans have been ruling the roost since early
90s. Salman and Shahrukh were the ones who invariably used to feature in
everybody’s favorite list. SRK wasn’t as much a laughing stock then as he is
now, in fact was a rage among the girls. And guys as well did use to copy his
mannerism in schools and colleges in wooing their girlfriends. He was my favorite
then but thankfully enough, I didn’t do anything as stupid to avoid blushes now
J. But I do remember buying his ‘COOL’ locket that he flashed in Kuch
Kuch Hota Hai, much to the embarrassment of my parents and above all myself J. Something similar
happened when Salman killed it by his skating stunts in ‘Patthar ke Phool’, it
so deeply impacted me that I took over to skating quite seriously and did reasonably
well in learning that too J.
Thinking about such old
time memories makes you smile, feel embarrassed and long for those moments so
very much. How we wish our lives could still be so simple, uncluttered and
driven by such innocuous things as they were then during our childhood and
teenage days. Long live such memories and wish we could once again do something
as stupid, all over again.
--
kin…
