Chanakyaism

Disclaimer: All the Characters and incidents portrayed in this story are fictitious. Any resemblance of the characters to an actual person, living or dead, is purely coincidental.

The crowd was waiting for the last ball to be delivered with an absolute silence which then broke into a huge roar when the ball rolled on to the cover fence piercing the two men trying to cover it. It was a picture perfect authentic cricketing cover drive from the sweetest spot of the willow which belonged to Arvind. His team mates rolled around him in no time and the celebrations went wild as their college won their rivals after three long years. The wait was over. Arvind was one budding talent who had the potential to make it to the state team but still couldn’t get his luck through for the past 2 years. He neither was rich enough nor had any influence of politicians to take him to the lobby of the gentlemen’s game selection committee.

The next day news paper carried box news and a small black and white photo of Arvind in the penultimate page about the victory and Arvind’s sensational knock to steal the match just on the last ball. Arvind’s father was showing the column to his wife and was feeling proud about it. Little did they knew that Arvind desperately delayed the winning stroke to create a drama around it and then steal the victory in the last ball when he could have finished off the same with a couple of balls to spare. Arvind wearing his spunky t-shirt pinned with his sunshades was searching for his bike keys when his mom came in to help him find it. She advised him to take his breakfast but he denied and ran to his bike.

The helmet was having its ride along with him on top of the petrol tank and he was cruising through on the roads as if he has a flight to catch the next minute. A few narrow misses across the never break using metro buses made a slight heart stop for many who were witnessing from the road. Suddenly on a curve he bumps into a Mercedes S class vehicle which suddenly breaks in front of his bike. Thanks to the brake shoes which avoid a major collision but still the bumper on the car slightly had a mark left to remind the incident. Arvind just avoided falling down on the road and balanced his stance and had so much fury in him. Sweta just comes out of the car to get an estimate of the damage caused. When she came out an approached Arvind, his anger flew away miles apart and he couldn’t resist looking into those eyes. He just couldn’t hear whatever she said; blame it on the ever patient Indian drivers who believe horn is more necessary than fuel to drive on the roads.

Suddenly he picks up his wallet and pulls out a card and hands it over to Sweta and says, mam listen, and I’ll compensate the damage but let’s now part away from this place as it creates hindrance to the traffic. Give me call and let’s meet somewhere and I will bear the expenses. His statement made sense to her and she could appreciate the fact that not to create traffic on the road. As Sweta was heading for an important meeting she didn’t want to waste her time and energy on the road. Post noon when she was inquiring about the damage getting rectified she picked up Arvind’s card to give him a ring in which she finds that Arvind is a guitarist. She was in fact looking for someone who could teach her guitar and was inquiring about courses around. As she had developed a good impression on Arvind she thought of asking him if he would teach her.

2 years later

The crowd was waiting for the last ball to be delivered with an absolute silence which then broke into a huge roar when the ball rolled on to the cover fence piercing the two men trying to cover it. It was a picture perfect authentic cricketing cover drive from the sweetest spot of the willow which belonged to Arvind, but this time the boundary he had hit took his state team win. It was Sweta’s father, the selection committee chairman of the state team who accommodated him in the team. The next day articles carried the possibilities of Arvind getting selected for the nationals, however there was a column criticizing Arvind’s tactic of taking the match to a tensed state and winning it from there!.

A Chanakiyan stroke!