String the Player

India wins the T20 World Cup!

A new name is on everyone's lips: Arya Kondela--the twenty-two-year-old newcomer who hit the winning four. With not much to speak about his background, the media dubs him as cricket's new, mysterious hard-hitter.

They couldn't be more wrong. He's not mysterious. Far from it. He's simple, boring and easy-going. But the world doesn't need to know that. When he's not on the field, messing up all his catches, he's at home playing Gin Rummy with his grandfather, drinking whiskey with his father, and letting Stevie the lab sleep on his back. His life has a tune to it and he isn't about to allow some misplaced luck and unwanted fame disrupt all his normalcy. It didn't matter if he never forgave his mother for leaving or if he barely knows his siblings or if he's still stuck on his first love. Problems are made to exist under the rug.

But life has a way of throwing curveballs, and sometimes it comes in the form of violin-wielding maestros, rash decisions on roads, and impromptu trips to the Middle East.

Times are changing and all Arya can do is buckle up. Life is just getting started.