IPL Fever

Vijay Bhai (in white cap) pontificating on IPL

Spot-fixing scandal notwithstanding, the IPL cricketing extravaganza has captured everybody's imagination in the Garden. With Chennai Super Kings (CSK) registering a 48-run victory over Mumbai Indians (MI) last night to reach the final, cricket madness has hit feverish pitch. Even non-followers of the game are being drawn into making profound statements and speculating on the outcome of matches.
At the centre of these animated discussions is the Garden’s cricketing guru, Vijay Bhai. Like Srichand Arora, Pratap Bhatt and some others, he is an ardent supporter of MI; but surprisingly, he was far from crestfallen on his team crashing out of the tournament. “CSK deserved to win,” he pronounced. “What shots (Michael) Hussey and (Suresh) Raina played, my God! Dhoni did not even have to come in. Kamaal hai!”

Bhaswati Bose

Emotions apart, Vijay Bhai understands cricket better than most of us. He knows its intricacies, remembers statistics, follows ball-by-ball scores, the changing fortunes of teams and is fairly accurate in predicting winners and losers. He is a man who would call friends late at night to let off steam, especially when a match is evenly poised.
The only other person who can match his passion for the game is Bhaswati Bose. She is a die-hard CSK fan and yesterday, as the match with MI progressed, Vijay Bhai was practically on hotline with her till close to midnight. And this morning, when she showed up at the Garden, he was the first to congratulate her (as though she was playing) – such is his sportsman spirit.
The one person being missed in all this is Bapu Rane – the other big cricket addict. Now home-bound and completely bed-ridden, he had sent word for Arora yesterday. The latter was with him for about an hour and was shocked to see how this once happy-go-lucky man had reduced by 26 kilos in a few days (see post of May 11). He is now reconciled to the inevitable. Before leaving, Arora was handed a bag containing mangoes wrapped in neat packages and a list of people they were to be given. “Take them,” Rane whispered. “I wish I could distribute mangoes to everyone in the Club, but this is all my family could pick from the village. Take it!”
For once Arora was at a loss of words. Silently, he took the bag -- the parting gift from a dear friend.
Jagmohan Papneja:
It is sad to know that Rane-ji is in a critical condition. It appears that his health is deteriorating by the day. Our thoughts and well wishes are with him and his family.
Renu Babani:
Our hearts go out to Mr Rane. All we can do is pray to the Almighty to reduce his suffering.
Harish Wadhwa:
Very touched by Rane-ji's gesture. May God grant him recovery and happy days. Rane-ji gave us mangoes but took our heart away. I pray to the Almighty to help our dear friend.