Remembering V. V. S. Laxman, Cricketer

Note: This article was published initially in CricTracker.

Life and time are rocketing with bundles of agonizing hours and pit falling with ecstasies. Aren’t they? Added to that is the slumberous stillness of this summer’s dreary heat.

Courtesy: archive.indianexpress.com

Back home, from the work at my lab, I grabbed the emptiness that engulfed me in my chair. Feeding myself with three fingers of banana, I slowly moved back into time, reminiscing my childhood, my parents and those never ending evenings of playing and talking and rejoicing the game we all love, Cricket.

One familiar sight during my childhood was completing those long lasting train journeys during summers that offered nothing but prickling heat. Those were days when I was in awe of sweet lullabies and tales coming from my grandparents.

I, like a neophyte, always lent a good ear. One such piece, which I reminisce even today, happened to be related to cricket. I kept travelling back in time and remembered and rejoiced the successes all the greats who have represented our country with immense pride and honour.

The modern-day kids may be addicted to the shortest format of the game for the hasty entertainment it gives. But, for us, it’s the effortless square cutting of a turning Share Warne leg spin and gracefully leaving an out swinging Waqar Younis’s delivery.

And, boy, what great times were those!

I hope you would have gotten by now who is referred to here. If not, he is a sempiternal erudition, a graceful doctor of the game, who mended those gaps in the midfield with an effortless ease: V V S Laxman.

So, then, what memories do you have about him and his presence in the game? Is it that eternal 281 against one of the finest test cricket teams ever in Kolkata? Is it that 167 down under, or that 73* with a sore back, that has for long kept giving him afflictions and spasms?

If you ask me my fond memories were his grace in defending the good delivery and respecting the bowler. It was his pushing that odd delivery to a clean corner in the fence. It was his being loyal to the team. And it was his being humble despite immortality.

We, the cricket fans, are forever grateful for all of his services to the game. It’s no wonder that he gets full credit for the popularity of the game in his era. He made the difference in the game and played a pivotal role in being there for the team, particularly when patience is thin and confidence is torn. As a player, he would never blot one’s copy book.

Courtesy: zeenews.india.com

As an eternal think tank in the game, Laxman buried many a hatchet of his insecurities and, then, rose to the occasion. As supreme pace bowlers of his generation kept asking questions with their pace and swing, he stood at the pitch, thought elegantly and replied with exquisite timing–if  only with unswerving confidence and an undeniable artistry.

Indeed, he is gifted to do so.

His individual personality, complete with likes and dislikes, shone through any weakness. However, as time kept passing by, it soon became clear that in spite of his insecurities and weaknesses, what laid at the crux of his problems was his righteous boldness.

There were many occasions when he would cut the cackle, guiding and helping his peers in their professional and personal lives, if only to succeed. As a generous man, this dignified student of the game would give the shirt off his  back when in dire need of assistance.

On a rich note of amiability, cricket will forever be a bee in his bonnet. He has a rich haul of experience in the most sought-after techniques in the game–to re-call the orthodox perfection of batting and to pass it on to many a budding batsman. His is a work that would produce an audible debauchery. His knack and dexterity in draping the game in black and white was second to none, keep alone his expertise on the field. The above said and done, he would never wool-gather in febricity. Laxman’s bat has an attractive voice in answering the bowler to distinction and putting him to shreds.

Courtesy: wallpaperest.com

Last, but not the least, his silent departure from the game taught us priceless lessons in humility and compassion–in leaving the game on an undeniable high. As Rahul Dravid says in his epic, Bradman Oration, down under in Canberra, 2011: “As individuals, we were asked to play to the absolute outer limits of our capabilities and we often extended them.”

Laxman leaves an indelible impression wherever he speaks. He is the epitome of professorship. And, above all, he would add even more magic to “The Laxman Effect,” which once prevailed on this planet, Earth.

I doff my bonnet off for you, dear Laxman (elder brother).

NOTE: To read about Laxman’s life and accomplishments go here.