Marvel comics is a company that owns the rights to our friendly neighbourhood Spiderman comics. Superheroes like him are a source of inspiration in this world of circumambient amorality. Saturday was when another pukka superhero came into being. Now, pardon me if this note appears to be a little discursive in nature, but one dare not kvetch over this petty issue, as the accounts of this new superhero are riveting indeed. For beginners, here is a ukase that every attentive reader must follow - Never doubt a great writer's words. The morning was a pleasant one and I awoke in the usual pleasant frame of mind, full of brio, and ready to take on the world over a game of Cricket. Soon enough I was out of my dishabille and looking my usual handsome self in an attire that would have made Mr. James Bond very proud had he been a cricketer. Now would be a good time for me to asseverate that ever since I have come out of academic life I have taken a keen interest in some activities that I till not so long ago eschewed in all earnest. Bathing and washing clothes are a couple of them. Some nefarious elements in the society have indulged in agitprops against me focussing on my alleged unhygienic lifestyle, but as any astute reader's perspicacity would tell him, it is all a figment of one's imagination. Therefore, as I was saying, I was all geared up to take on the world and soon enough I found myself as target of a bowler who threw a ball with much celerity and who for some incomprehensible reason had taken a fancy to my head. I do not remember if it was the overcast sky or the speed of the projectile but I felt myself go purblind every time the ball left the bowler's palm. Indeed there wasn't a part of my body that wasn't tested for its strength in the first half hour of play. Blow after blow was followed by a loud appeal, importunate and insistent, only to be turned down by the umpire who too probably had gone purblind. My resolute stand soon wore the bowler off into diffidence and the seeds of self-doubt took root in his mind. It soon manifested itself out in a delivery which reluctantly came out his hand and travelled in a trajectory overwhelmed by gravity towards the centre of the pitch. I braced myself for a counter attack and with a rapid swing of the bat assailed the ball with all my might. The ball ventured heavenwards as a lovelorn would venture towards his inamorata, eyes of spectators and players alike following it minutely, and after what one might assume to be a considerable amount of time, the force of gravity took charge and the ball perforce started hurtling down the skyline, the cavalcade of eyeballs still in pursuit, until it came to rest on hedge a couple of meters away from where the boundary lay. It took a while for everyone as if they had witnessed a legerdemain and were too steeped in disbelief to react before the umpire raised his arms and the crowd erupted in what seemed to me a mellifluous roar of appreciation. Now it would be unreasonable for a polymath like me to sing paeans of my own accomplishments, but it would not be far from truth if one were to say it was probably a shot worth going a thousand miles to watch, yes even for a faineant like Shyamshankar , it would have been worth the effort.
ps: It was also the first time I scored a half century.
