My Friend Bon

Life has many surprises, at point of times it throws something and something totally unexpected happens. The sudden unexpected event makes you astonished and you find yourself amazed and enthralled. There must be a difference between how you see life? And how does life see you?

I was in Lord’s cricket stadium, located in St John’s Wood, London and widely referred to as the home of cricket. The stadium was heaving with screaming of people, surrounded by a crowd of delirious cricket fans I felt like being tortured. Some were screaming, some were dancing and some were praying even with raised hands, believe me if you want to experience mad pleasure then pay a visit to cricket stadium once.

“What the hell am I doing here?” I asked myself in frustration.

I didn’t like the game of cricket, but I had come here by a special invitation, from my friend Bon, the craziest cricket fan who was sitting beside me. I had known Bon for past ten years, though he was my boss, he never showed any sign of patronization in his behaviors nor I had seen him talking boastfully, In fact he never acted to show his superiority to me and used to see a great friend in me, I had no idea why? But yes we understood each other very well. As I knew, he had no one in his life except me, that increases my importance isn’t it? Not really. He was a really good person. He had been accused of living frivolous life and often called as a narcissistic by many people, may be because he was different and used to live in a different world, his own world of cricket. Honestly speaking he possessed a very soft heart that was unknown to all; he was such a sweet person I had ever met in my life. I had an interesting entrance into Bon’s life. Though many years have passed in between, the day is still alive in my memory, when I reached his office for my interview. It was surprising to find him unavailable as I had an appointment. His secretary called him and passed the receiver.

Me: Hello…
Bon: Who the hell are you, disturbing me at this time?
Me: Sorry to disturb you…actually I have an appointment with you this time.
Bon: Is it so? Ok tell me you have only one second.
Me: I have come over here for the manager post.
Bon: Who will win India or Australia??
Me: What?? I didn’t get you??

He kept reiterating the same question. I couldn’t figure out what type of interview that was, first and foremost the boss was not punctual, he had no time sense and he was asking me to predict the result of a cricket match. Disgusting!!! It was unacceptable to my mind and I was out of patience.

Bon: Who will win?
Me: India

I don’t know why and how? But ‘India’ was the word my mouth released as the answer that time.

Bon: Ok come tomorrow if India wins otherwise don’t show your face to me.

Hearing this I got distressed, frustrated and sat aghast on the couch at reception. In a state of financial hardship, when you desperately need a job to meet your life needs and your boss asks some crap questions, surely you will not enjoy, right?
Next morrow I had to check the news, with a little hope I raised a copy of ‘The Guardian’. My heartbeat just stopped by seeing the headline ‘India’s unexpected win over Australia, with Sehwag’s unbeaten 143’. I started dancing like a kid; one cricket match decided the fate of my life. It sounds strange to be perceived by the ear but yes Bon welcomed me to the manager’s seat as I reached there, the person whom I had scolded last night for asking irrelevant questions, in a mo he appeared as God before me. Never ever evaluate a person before knowing him completely, it’s very easy to draw a conclusion for somebody in a blink, and we people love doing easier things isn’t it? Be cognizant of the fact that conversancy and acquaintance are necessary before entertaining a notion about someone. He looked at my face carefully.

Bon: You have a question in your mind? Let it come.
Me: No!!..., I don’t think so.

Actually I had an instance of question popping up in my mind, why did he select me? I was puzzled with his unaccustomed recruiting style, selecting the manager based on a prediction!

Bon: No, You have one, I can sense it.
Me: Actually yes.
Bon: Yeah ask me??
Me: Why did you select me? You don’t know me? You are unaware of my past academics, how come you offered me the manager’s post based on the result of a cricket match.

Bon: It’s your tongue; Business goes well with good predictions, we need to foresee things using observation, experience or scientific reason to run our business, your prediction worked that’s why you are here.

Again I got impressed by his reasonable answer. He had his own measuring tools for people; everybody has one, what a big deal? I was introduced to the sensibility of that person who sounded crazy last day. As days passed we got along well. Cricket stadium used to be Bon’s home, he was found rarely in the office. One evening we were in ‘THREE KINGS’ holding beer cups, after gulping two bottles he opened his heart that was in sealed state for a long time.

Bon: You know, I love cricket from my childhood.
Me: Then you should play rather watching it mutely.
Bon: I was told earlier in my life, not to stake our family’s reputation for a game.

Bon was fortunate to own large set of tangible and intangible possession as an heir of super rich family. He was the toast of the town, people wanted to be around him but he didn’t heed anyone except Cricket, when you are counted as a super rich guy then lots of people start putting interest on you and if you don’t listen to them then they don’t hesitate to make some barbarous comments on you. I used to hear new grapevine of Bon everyday, like he was planning to marry a cricketer; some even said he was a gay, and some said he was a black spot on his family’s name… the list was endless. That day I was exposed to the naked truth of life, some people are not happy because they don’t have anything and some people are unhappy because they have everything. The air of sorrow doesn’t discriminate rich and poor before touching anyone’s life, this is the fact. After some days I headed back to India, I used to hear from people Bon was not taking his life seriously, he was spending lots of money for his cricket mania. With every passing day his properties started going downward and all his possessions reduced to zero. Bon’s indigence came with no surprise; everybody knew it had to happen one day. Bon possessed descent self esteem being an heir of a reputed family, though he had nothing, It was beneath his dignity to ask somebody for help. Meeting daily needs was not a problem; the prime problem was to afford expensive cricket match tickets. He brought many ideas, but none of them worked. News papers produced his sad story as a comic tale. One news paper went one step ahead and advised him to play the cricket in a comic style. Bon took this seriously and approached England and wales Cricket Board (ECB) to let him play. Some board members couldn’t control their laugh in the board meeting, where as some argued strongly to give him a chance, as a rich businessman he had some sort of influence over majority board members and finally the board decided to give him a chance. There were no first class matches for Bon as the National England team seeking a good batsman, and he made his way straight to National team. The first match of his career was about to start, and I was invited there as he wanted to share his happiness with me. I got surprised when he came donning the national cricket team’s dress. England’s score was 58/3 and people had no confidence over Bon as the Cricket Board was already criticized for the inclusion of Bon by all news papers, they had produced this news with all spicy ingredients. Honestly speaking I had no confidence on Bon also, because the bowler he had to face was Brett lee, a boss hand at cricket and the team Australia was in a winning spree. The stadium fell silent when Bon took the crease, with a dominating smile lee started running from the other end and let the ball go with a speed of 180 kph. Bon pulled that one to a massive six, now lee’s face reddened with anger and he tried a yorker in the next delivery, again the ball reached out of the boundary beautifully. The frenzied attack of Bon left lee with no words. He showed no pity over Australian bowlers and mesmerized the audience with his flawless techniques and powerful strokes. The whole stadium had only one name ‘Bon’, I felt proud having him as my friend. It was completely Bon’s show. He slammed a mammoth 170 with just 98 deliveries and remained not out. Needless to say that decisively swung the match in England’s favor and Bon was adjudged as the man of the match. Bon became a hero overnight; honestly he deserved that stardom and fame. The debut match success was followed by many scintillating knocks; match after match he showed his talent and every match went in favor of England. His cricket carrier moved in a blistering space. It transpired that he had great talent of the game and people didn’t hesitate to tag him as a living legend. He awarded twice as ICC best player of the year and set some unthinkable, unreachable records like 4000 runs in one calendar year, fastest century and an unbelievable strike rate and average above 300. Bon was enjoying his life running on the pale strip, tormenting bowlers by sending balls to the boundary. No bowlers had answers for him; he appeared as most brilliant and explosive batsman of the world who could destruct any powerful attack in a blink. His opponents started admiring him without any hesitation. This is something people don’t experience generally. When you achieve something and your friends admire you, you start floating on cloud nine. They are your friends, it’s obvious for them to complement you, so don’t think you got everything hearing your admiration from your pals. It’s when your rivals or enemies start admiring you then think that you really achieved something notable.

Did the life of Bon become rosy for ever? No.

That chronic problem flared up when he reached ECB to renew his contract, he found that he was no longer playing cricket. The soil collapsed under his feet, the reason was his age. He was 38 years that time and by the ICC rule, players can’t play cricket after that specified age. England board didn’t want to loose the gem and approached ICC for reconsideration, but rules are rules, no body is above the law, whoever the person is, may be a legend or an ordinary player. The tragedy eclipsed Bon’s happiness, by that time he was completely lost in the world of cricket, it was hard for him to separate himself from the ground.

Did he blame god for the happening?

Whatever he said that night was housed in my mind forever. Bon admitted his fault and blamed himself for not realizing his talent before. Every body has a unique and distinct talent in his inside. It needs to come out, how? We have to realize what we have. We have to look into our inside. To be frank how many people think about them? We are arrant fools, we think about others always, we have a sharp eye on other’s doings, whenever they do something wrong we come to picture with a comment. Come on, don’t you have time for yourself? Think about yourself what you want? how you want ?and when you want? We don’t have sufficient time to think about ourselves, so if you employ yourself to think about you, you will be away from wasting your time thinking others. Bon did a great mistake by not realizing his talent, when he realized it was very late. So think about you before it’s late to know you. The question may sound philosophical but it’s no way far from practical.