Memoirs...

There are some moments in your school life which you would like to greatly over dramatize, add special effects to, maybe some ancient overused inspirational music as well. These are the moments that you think about a hundred times over, every time adding some new detail or the other till you see that you’re not emphasizing on what actually happened. And now as what usually happens in short inspirational, feel good school stories I shall describe an event which truly shook the base of my existence.

Anyone who has ever played cricket for his school knows that it is not any fun unless you are one of the important people. Unless you are one of the top five bowlers who is expected to bowl his full quota or one of the exceptional batsman who is expected to bat through the innings and change the game for your team.

Fortunately after years of trying I was finally one of the important people for the St. Xavier’s school cricket team. ‘A’ grade bowler I was!! …feels good to say that. The captain used to turn to me when he needed a wicket, yes me. That was very enjoyable. Before I head to the story there is one very important thing to note about the relationship shared between St. Xavier’s and the annual intra district Cricket tournament organized by the C. A. B. . St. Xavier’s school before 2008 had reached the semi-finals of this tournament once and that was way back in the 1960’s. So it was a near miracle that our school made it to the quarter finals this year. It was as if the information had been transferred through the Interpol, teachers started talking, and students started asking me to get them out of school in the name of school support. It was as if I was a V. I. P. or something.

So now we fast forward to the day. Sunny, humid near impossible for the unfit but we were sure that we would survive 35 out of the allotted 45 overs to be bowled, so after a decent batting performance, scoring 225, we needed to bowl nearly twice as well. The sun was quite unforgiving, especially on my hands, which was a shade darker than the rest of me.

Let’s fast forward again. 8 overs 62/0 Nagtala, the captain of the St. Xavier’s school cricket team turns to me and throws the ball. It’s not too difficult to identify our captain; he’s the only one wearing a Xavier’s cap on the field, for most of the match we looked like an amalgamation of the Nike, Adidas and CCFC XI.

Back to the match, “I had to take a wicket” me the hero. And so I did. The over after that, another and then another in three successive overs. This to put Xavier’s on the track to CAB semi-finals and school history. Yes the ‘X-uberance’ of ‘X’-aviers was in’X’plicable, the X-citement indescribable. This was one X-tremely, X-ceptional moment in my not so X-traordinary life.

Shaket Banerjee