Bowled over

This photograph of the under 14 cricket team of the St Joseph's Indian Middle School was taken sometime in 1977.

The photograph was taken for the annual magazine. I was in the seventh standard at that time.

A lot of importance was given to sports in our school. During the lunch interval or physical education classes, cricket, football and hockey were played simultaneously.

The roads were mostly empty those days and I would sometimes cycle down to school or take the HMT company bus. It would take us exactly 30 minutes from Jalahalli to Kanteerava Stadium.

The smell of beer from the neighbouring United Breweries factory mixed with the aroma of the sweet bread from the Tiffany's nearby.

The space between our school and Bowring Institute on St Mark's Road was almost vacant and we used to dash down during the short interval to pick up the delicious kulfis sold by Shreeraj, also known as Bowring Kulfis. The Nanking Hotel behind our school also used to be a landmark with a lot of Kannada movies being shot there.

All the principals of our school were very enthusiastic about sports. Our school was the winner in all sport tournaments.

Sports and studies went hand in hand. High school was the best part of our lives, when we were under the dynamic guidance of Rev Fr Sunith Prabhu. He once told us that it was a tradition in this school that every cricketer achieved a first class in all the examinations. I was proud to be one of them.

I was the captain of the U-14 middle school team and had a bunch of lively and talented cricketers with me. We won many matches. During the matches, we used to be supported by our fellow students from all classes.

Cricket meant everything to me in those days. Supporting me and sharing a common name on the other end was my classmate and also a teammate called R Shiv Kumar. We had a healthy competition between us.

He went on to play the state U-15, U-19 and the University teams while I used to miss out by a whisker the chance to be a part of the main team and would always land up being the first or second standby.
However, I did represent the Tumkur zone in the state level SA Srinivasan Memorial Tournament for three years. R Shiv Kumar and I did engineering. While he graduated as a chemical engineer from RVCE, I graduated as a mechanical engineer from SSIT in Tumkur. We used to meet regularly during inter-zonal matches or the Bangalore University inter-collegiate matches but on opposites sides.

We had inspiring coaches like Keki Tarapore, Salus Nazereth and P S Viswanath who coached us in all state level camps.

We both also had the opportunity to be trained under the great Col Hemu Adhikari in the U-19 nets in Bangalore.

About three years ago, R Shiv Kumar passed away in Mysore due to a cardiac arrest. It was very untimely and a big shock for me. I miss him a lot. He was a good cricketer and a friend.

There were other players like Ranga, Srinivas, Peter Harold, Shantilal, Dinesh and Mallikarjuna who were very good.

All of them are very successful in life and we do meet occasionally.
After working for almost 28 years for various MNCs, I am at present a consultant in the wood working industry.

Every time I pass by my school, my memory goes back to those years. Those were the best days of my life.

(The author can be contacted at [e-mail])