I have lost count of the number of times I've repeated this story, I can still tell it once more.... :)
I dont even know if I can relate to or even come close to expressing what this experience actually meant to me or how it actually felt at that point of time, but I shall still make an attempt.
Background : Discussing sports or taking to any kind of sport does not fit into the "typical girl" thing, ofcourse you can't blame us can you -we have many other interests ( you got to read those girly teen books, spend time in front of the mirror to get ready , discuss chocolates and guys) Well then as things had to happen, I started to watch cricket, courtesy the 1996 world cup.. and since then I have been a regular..(the other incentive is you get to watch some good looking guys) .. I started to like the game, I like the passion the people in India have for this game, I like the atmosphere in the stadium during a live match (what a better place than Chennai's Chidambaram stadium to enjoy a live match), I like the fact that it is family time , when India plays Pakistan the whole family is around cheering and rooting for India, everything else takes a back seat... when there is a cricket match on and if India is playing.. It cant get bigger than this game..
The game has a following more than any religion, so it wont be hard to believe the players are larger than life and treated on par to a royal, ofcourse ridiculed if they dont perform to their expectations, utmost pressure and burden of the entire nation to perform and ofcourse paid for it.You play for India for a while, you can save to live the rest of your life in luxury. When it comes to personal favourites, to each their own, never debate with the good old timers about their personal favourites, dont tell them gavaskar was a selish player, they might hate you for the rest of their life.I had many favourites , Tendulkar for one, he is the darling of the nation, everybody loves Tendulkar in India( atleast once upon a time, if Tendulkar plays well India wins, else India loses).I loved the agression of Ganguly, I still think he is the best Captain for India. But my personal favourite is Rahul Dravid, the consistent, cool, stylish player, he is not flamboyant in his game or in life and he was ofcourse every teenage girls hearthrob, good looking, conservative, stylish ... and the countries most eligible bachelor at one point of time and he was definetely one at the time this article is set in.. girls swooned over him everywhere he went, comfortably won all the polls about who was the most eligible bachelor in India... and me was no exception, a hard core crazy dravid loyal and a fan. While in college, before life's foremost ambitions came into the picture, to meet Rahul Dravid was a dream, was a dream any girl of my age (fourth year in college and remember he still was single and eligible) would want to live...
Fourth year of college, Seventh semester examination, first exam- Mathematics - Date October 17th 2002(Thursday), the same day the test match between India and the touring West Indies was set to begin in Chennai's Chidambaram stadium. I was all set for my examinations, trying to remember some complex formulae, ready to leave home to take my first exam, just glanced thru The Hindu, my day just wudnt go thru, if I did not get a chance to atleast glance thru the news paper in the morning. I spotted something.. a PEPSI advertisement which said, Wanna meet Rahul and Zaheer?? Just call a number and complete a slogan about why you would want to share a Pepsi with Rahul and Zaheer. Well it just registered in my brain and I forgot all about it. Mathematics and checking out the last minute details about how to work different sums, was now my priority as I set out to take my first exam. The exam was over, I did quite ok (it doesnt matter how I did not exam now, does it??).. My next exam was Digital Electronics, had a four day break in between. It was scheduled for the following tuesday. And now what next, went with my friends to a coffee shop to take a break, relive some funny moments in the exam, play a game of ludo... and then as we set back home, I remembered this ad that I saw in the morning, the whole way back home( we travelled a little more than an hour to college), I had all the time in the world to think of how I needed to complete the slogan, so much so that even as I was talking to my friends, this was the only thing that was at the back of my mind and that I get home, did not answer my mom's routine question of how I did my exam, went straight picked up the newspaper and dialled that number and told my slogan. The deal about the meeting was that, about 10 people would be selected among all of the callers and they would get to meet Rahul and Zaheer over dinner. And you would get a call that Sunday morning if you were selected and the event was scheduled sunday night. Remember it was still thursday. I then set out studying for my next exam. Saturday night, a few friends from my neighbourhood came home, I was still with my digital electronics text book. They all dropped by to find out how I was doing, and I just turned to them and said, I was thinking about which dress I should wear if I were to meet Dravid the next day, my mom over heard this and said, stop dreaming and get back to studying. That night before I went to sleep I told myself, tomorrow night this time, I would have either met Rahul or I would not. The D day arrived, it was sunday.. I did not let anybody talk over the phone for more than 2 minutes. The phone did ring, I answered and it was a wrong number ( I did not write this to build any suspense, it actually happened) and then it rang again, this time I picked up the phone and the voice at the other end just ended up saying what I wanted to hear... "We are calling from Pepsi, Could we speak to Lakshmi Prabha"... I just knew at that moment... the moment I was waiting for had arrived :).. I was so elated that I could not believe if it was true. I was actually going to meet Rahul Dravid that evening alongside Zaheer Khan.
