At The Crease

I had this intriguing conversation with a friend a couple of nights ago. She was lamenting about how she threw away her last 10 years of existence and that her goal is basically redemption. Her state of mind was such that anything I would have said would not make any sense. I let her be.

Thinking about the last 10 years of my life, I finished my boards respectably, threw away two years of preparation to pursue a dream that did not materialise. I chose a field that was not approved of, was kicked out of my own house.I worked hard through college, managed reasonable grades, met some wonderful people, laughed, cried, loved, fought, made up, broke up,  revelled and regretted. I flew west and unavoidable  circumstances made  me make some choices that ended up being inevitable. I moved up north, was taken for a ride, by  eminent faculty, almost died, obtained security clearance from the US government and experienced being part of a great team. There have been days, all kinds of ones, but they were such learning experiences. 10 years from now, I can always look back and smile. 

Life throws different balls at you when you are at the crease. There is the googly  which turns in the other direction, There is the fast beamer, that makes you duck for cover, the outswinger that just misses the edge. There are the balls that can get you dismissed-the  impeccable ones that you really cannot do anything about and the crafty ones  that  get you to  play the wrong shot. You wait for the odd wrong ball to hit it out of the ground, and if you watch carefully, you drive that  perfect good length delivery right to the fence. We need to keep running to collect those singles in between.

All that matters is you staying in front of those wickets and facing the deliveries and look back at an innings well played.