The day I met "the god"

It was 27th November 2009. I called up my usual Taxiwale Anil bhaiya (whose contact number was taken from Amit Supe) in the morning, and asked him to come to Hostel 4 by 5 pm so that I could comfortably catch the Kingfisher Red flight at 7:30 pm. Kingfisher Red has undergone a Malya-transformation, as in it's no more a cheapo-airline-next-door. These days they provide a reasonably good service, unlimited quantities of drinking water and nice, tasty food :) without any extra charge. So, it was a day with 2 classes of DWO (Designing Work Organizations), which is an interesting subject, but not "my cup of tea". But I had to attend those two dreaded lectures. I had two options a) remain half-asleep b) sleep completely. I was very close to the indifference point as far as choosing between the two was concerned. After a complete night-out wherein I wasted half the time and watched movies rest of the time, I chose the option (b) [:D] . So, after making sure that I have pocketed attendance for two precious lectures, I was ready to move on for one of the most wonderful experiences of my life at the Amausi airport of Lucknow.

I reached the airport by 6 pm, on the way the taxi had to overcome a number of bad-patches of road ( some half-prepared, some un-prepared) in between the smooth patches of newly built highway, interspersed with a huge number of diversion boards with 'Maya didi' posters. I wondered about - who would like to pay for and what is the need of - the paintings of 'Maya didi' on the diversion-indication-boards. Anyway she is known for a number of self-centered and self-promoting gimmicks in the past, this might as well be one of them. As I reached the airport, I had to part with my hard(ly)-earned Rs.400 but it was a nice comfortable journey. Suddenly I noticed there was some unrest at the airport, with an unusually high number of security personnel. Still I had no idea what the reason was.

I completed the formality of showing my ticket and the identity card ( my 2-wheeler and LMV driving licence) and entered the airport building. Again another formality of getting in queue, the company of beautiful, well dressed, and artificially smiling air-hostesses. I can easily make out the artificiality of the smile as their smile just doesn't persist beyond a very small time limit. Anyway who cares about the smile, passengers in general tend to find a lot of other things to ogle at, right? I asked for a window seat as usual since it was impossible for me to guess whatever was going to happen that evening. The air-hostess who gave me the boarding pass, also told that the flight was delayed by 45 minutes. Now that news was not easy to digest but I decided to take it in my stride and went to one of the chairs nearby, dropped the bag on the seat on the right and was thinking about a samosa or chaay or both. Suddenly, I saw a tall gentleman walking past the scanning machine. "Ohh, is that Shaz?", I said to myself. Ohh yes, that was Ravi Shastri ( I prefer calling him Shaz since the "Shaz and Waz Show" by him and Wasim Akram was first aired on ESPN-Star a few years back). Within seconds I had my camera out and took a couple of pictures of Shaz. Now, my brain started working, it gave me hints that the whole Indian cricket team which won the 2nd Test match against SriLanka, played at Green Park - Kanpur might be coming here (I have heard that there's no commercial airport in Kanpur). I went up to Shaz and asked for an autograph. He gave it without a smile, thats when I realized the importance of a smile, any smile for that matter, even the artificial one [:D].

Again, back to the place where I was sitting. I was just remembering the moments when I had met some current or former player/celebrity:

1) Sreesanth @ Bangalore airport
2) Charu Sharma @ Bangalore Central (near MG Road, Bangalore)
3) Pulela Gopichand and Saina Nehwal @ Hyderabad Airport
4) Now, Ravi Shastri ..... I felt "Wow, I am so lucky!"

Now, suddenly there was a rush in one corner of the waiting area. There was an alternative entrance to the hall. When I got up and saw in that direction, I noticed a couple of men in blue [:)]. Wow !! One of them was lanky Ishant Sharma, I ran in that direction shot a couple of pictures. I was not able to get his autograph as he went away to the special lounge. Then there was a period of lull. Lull before the storm? No. It was a lull before the blue blitzkrieg. A few minutes later the place was filled with men in blue followed by security guards followed by the crowding fans. The next one was the biggest star of Indian Cricket, THE GOD !!

You can also find Mr. Consistent on the extreme left below. Then came the others ......................
Gambhir, Mishra, Rahul (again)

VVS Sreesanth

When I boarded the flight, I was aware that I was going to travel with some of these stars of Indian cricket. It was also the birthday of Mr. Suresh Raina which was celebrated with a standing ovation and a song on the flight a few thousand metres above the Mean Sea Level.

All and all it was an awesome experience.

Thanks to my uncle - who arrived at the Mumbai airport at the same time - I was able to get pictures of some of these moments which I will cherish for a long time to come.(I had managed not to charge my camera's battery, so whatever stored electrical energy was left in it got exhausted at the Lucknow airport itself).Here's his photo with Yuvraj who was not at all enthusiastic and looked really tired and also somewhat pissed-off. I realized that even greats like Sachin and Rahul Dravid are very much down to earth and try their best not to hurt the feelings of the fans. On the other hand, during the flight Yuvraj requested the air-hostess to make sure that nobody disturbed him and hence avoided the interaction with the fans completely. I was able to interact with the newcomer Murali Vijay who is another strokeful opening batsman from Tamilnadu. I also managed to get the autograph of the Team coach Gary Kirsten.

Anyway, all these mundane things and people do not matter once you have met The God. Right ?