The Cricketer's Jockey (#MyStoryIndia) (#MissionDesi)

Chapter 1.

© 2014 Love_u_lyf.  All rights reserved.

"Nuts! I am feeling that one of two teams will sure win." I shouted in Nut's ear as loud as possible.

Nuts, a.k.a Nityapriya, leaned away, giving me an eerie expression. First, I thought she didn't hear my voice because of the noise, so I went near her to repeat the words when Nuts stooped me in mid-way.

"I heard you at the first time. But you know what, your humor has got Raman Effect." She yelled at top of her lungs.

If you think by Raman Effect, she meant the Indian scientist Sir C V Raman, you are wrong. By Raman, she was referring to our much-loved boss Krishna Raman, whose humorous comments were never counted in 'humor' category. That was the second time in the day when someone had disdained of my joke. I thought that there were chances of having lost my touch.

The roaring crowd made me come back from the lands of thoughts. I looked around and saw Nuts jumping from one foot to another, her curly hair waving in every possible direction. Aditya beside her was shouting "India! India!" with franticness. Actually, the whole crowd was on a roller coaster ride of cricket; and Loudness, noise, shouts became overrated words here. People were dancing, waving flags and different props; playing bugle and whistling. Their spirits had reached on cloud nine!

It was India-Australia One Day match and India was batting to reach the target of 289. They were playing nice and if maintained the rate, would easily achieve the target. At least that was what, I was told. As for me, I didn't have a single bit of an interest in cricket. I won't say, I hated it but it never attracted me like any other Indian. I don't understand it, don't know any cricketer's name and my knowledge about the game is limited to four things- bold, all out, four and six. When people talked intimately about matches, I stared them like a nursery school student who has accidentally entered into 2nd standard's classroom.

So, what was I doing here? At cricket stadium, with no idea about what was going on.

My friends had dragged me here, thinking it would be fun experience for me. It wasn't. All I wanted was going home after my show was over and sleeping like a baby. I was exhausted physically and mentally. It had been only five days since my nine months old engagement had been broken. He blamed me and my busy schedule. As long as I could remember, I had tried my best to keep everyone happy. Attending his side of functions and running errands for her mother even though I was tired. For past nine months, I acted like my body contained the constant flow of energy busters and I never got fatigued. That mamma's boy!

So, he broke up with me saying I didn't meet his expectations. There wasn't guilt in his voice and his tone suggested that he didn't even give a thought about my hurt feelings. My obvious reaction was slapping him in the face and telling the near policewala that he was eve-teasing. That gave him some lesson, I guess. Later that night her mother called my home and had a little fight with my mother. Thank god, I had such supportive parents. But I hadn't got rid of the whole issue. I hadn't cried over it or even though I was sad, hadn't even talked about it with my parents. I was a radio jockey and my voice needed to sound happy even if I wasn't. Crying would make my voice hoarse. That's why, I was holding on till today- Saturday; so I wouldn't have any show the next day and finally could go home, cry a good amount of tears and take off the weight on my heart.

But Nuts and Aditya had different plans. They pulled all their connections and got us tickets to the match. Their deaf ears didn't hear any of my pleadings. And here, I was in the last row of the stadium, pretending to be having fun.

"I want to go home Nuts." I screamed.

"You can't. It's just last five overs." Nuts replied, her eyes glued to screen.